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But, I do have one last BIG column left in me... And for my loyal readers, many of which span back 10 years or caught my fire in 2011, I have promised a FULL BLOWN Wrestlemania 28 review. I'm actually planning on writing this column as the show is going on and then hopefully posting it 5 minutes after the show, just as I did with my Royal Rumble 2012 when I posted that bastard at 10:50pm mere moments after the Rumble finished. And I will be posting it here on LordsofPain.net, my home as a wrestling writer. Now, I do have to test my new posting URL to see if it works... After all, I wouldn't want to write a FULL BLOWN Wrestlemania 28 review and get stiffed when I attempt to post it. Thus, we have to test it... I will thus put down the Walker and the Crossword Puzzles to reclaim the "Best Columnist of LordsofPain.net" away from Pen15 as well as showing him how to properly portray a real "raging egomaniac troll". That's right, the Tito is Mightier today! Unlike my apprentice Pen15, I've embraced Twitter and I've been getting my "Tito Fix" there on the handle @titowrestling. Just "Follow" me and I'll try my best to chat wrestling with everyone whenever inquired. I'll have to admit... I've had the "itch" to write for a while and as noted, "thank you" to Twitter for allowing me to write mini-rants whenever I've felt like it... Many have Tweeting with me on Mondays for a good RAW chat and for the past few weeks, I've been bombarded with Tweets. Great stuff... Thus, I probably have a few "stuff left in my basement" as Rocky Balboa suggests in the movie Rocky Balboa (why not name it Rocky VI??!?). I'm jumping out of my skin to talk about Wrestlemania 28 news, notes, storylines, and build-up... Great time to "retire", eh? But what I'm mostly excited for is the Wrestlemania 28 CARD. Just look at this show so far, according to WWE.com: - John Cena vs. the Rock - Triple H vs. Undertaker (19-0), Hell in a Cell with special guest referee Shawn Michaels - CM Punk (c) vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Title - Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Title - Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Big Show for the Intercontinental Title - Randy Orton vs. Kane - Team Teddy Long vs. Team John Laurinaitis - Maria Menounos/Kelly Kelly vs. Eve Torres/Beth Phoenix On this day, I officially declare this card OVER. That's right, the card is finished and the WWE bookers can seriously go on a vacation for the next 2 weeks so that they don't shatter what I'd consider a Top 10 or even Top 5 Wrestlemania line-up. On paper, this show looks GREAT and I'm amped to watch it in High Definition (HD). Adding more matches would disallow for great undercard matches like Punk/Jericho, Bryan/Sheamus, Orton/Kane, or even Rhodes/Big Show to be cut short. After all, one has to figure at least 1 hour's worth of WWE Video Packages to hype the matches are going to be put in, thank you Kevin Dunn, EVP of Television Production, Television. "LESS IS MORE", especially when it comes to Wrestlemania. Starting with Wrestlemania 15 when the WWE became wildly popular, they had more wealth to spread to the wrestlers and thus shoved more and more wrestlers onto the shows. Thus, the many 3 way matches, 4 way matches, Hardcore matches, and just unnecessary filler matches on what SHOULD be the Superbowl of Professional Wrestling. Reviewing THIS Wrestlemania card, the 5 on 5 crapshoot to determine the General Manager of RAW/Smackdown and the wasteful Divas tag team match between Maria Nenounos of EXTRA tagging up with Kelly Telly to take on Eve Torres and Beth Phoenix are examples of unnecessary filler matches. Which brings me to my main topic of today's "Excellence in Column Writing" as the Retirement Home Nurse comes in to advise me that staring at a computer screen is bad for my elderly eyes... Why are you, the drive-by "Internet Wrestling Community" (IWC) crying that many of your favorite MIDCARDERS are being left off of Wrestlemania 28. WWE Creative Team should normally deserve the criticism for its poor use of midcarders, but this is Wrestlemania 28... Give us the BEST of the BEST. By example, let's look at the National Football League (NFL). Does their NFL Playoff system feature the ENTIRE LEAGUE or only the BEST teams? 32 NFL Teams and only 12 teams make their playoff system while the other 20 watch from home. And guess what, those other 20 teams are NOT missed as more eyeballs watch the games. National Basketball Association (NBA) has 30 teams but yet 16 make it into the Playoffs. National Hockey League (NHL) also has 30 teams but yet 16 make it into the Playoffs. Great argument here, as their playoff ratings aren't as strong as the NFL provided that more than half of their teams get into their playoff systems with their best-of-7 series. Still, interest in their leagues INCREASE when their BEST teams are playing. Major League Baseball has 30 teams but just 8 teams getting in... They are trying to increase the amount of teams that get in, just as they did with the Wildcard expansion a few years ago. Only the "BEST" get in. Watch today's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It's a 64 team tournament, as adding 4 additional teams have done NOTHING to help the tournament. There are former coaches, such as Bob Knight, who actually want to expand the tournament further to 128 teams, if not more. It would do nothing but water it down, as teams with losing records can now get into a legitimate playoff system. There are approximately 350 Division I schools... Why would we award a trophy to all of them and not just the BEST? NCAA Football is a good example of how reckless the WWE could be with their Wrestlemania show. With the many, many Bowls that are out there (35 from what I could find) and it provides an "everybody's a winner system" in College Football. Meanwhile, there might actually be 3-4 BCS Games that fans MIGHT care about, as the BCS Championship is where the real attention is truly at. In Golf, the Majors (Masters, US Open, British Open, PGA Championship) are by invite only or are very selective on who plays. What if they invited every marginal golfer to the tournament and put it ALL on television? No, the TV crews focus on the top players. Do you see where I'm going here? For those who are griping about the WWE relying too much on older stars to carry the show, you need to understand that the WWE must MAXIMIZE its Pay Per View revenues. Take Wrestlemania 27 last year with the Rock, Steve Austin, Undertaker, and Triple H all returning to be on the same show together since 2004, the "Fab 4" as I've called them. Do the math... Wrestlemania 26 drew 885,000 buys while 1 year later, Wrestlemania 27 drew 1,059,000 buys, a net difference of 174,000... Multiply 174,000 * $54.95, the Pay Per View price for Wrestlemania... Holy shit, we have $9,561,300 in ADDED revenues. What many of you diehard WWE fans need to understand is the fact that Wrestlemania is the ONLY Pay Per View that most wrestling fans actually buy. For one, this economy sucks and paying $44.95 per monthly Pay Per View is not always affordable to the WWE's thickest demographic between 12 to 25 years old, or their parents. WWE wonders why piracy is a problem... But many fans just buy Wrestlemania only. Many casual fans will just buy Wrestlemania only. We've had 27 of them and it's probably a long standing tradition of many friends to buy the shows together. Thus, Wrestlemania is booked to MAXIMIZE Pay Per View buys. If that means that many Midcarders will get shoved into the Laurinaitis/Long crapshoot of a match, so be it. If it means that the wrestlers will have to endure an actual Wrestlemania DARK MATCH, then so be it. Did you know that Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan was a dark match last year at Wrestlemania 27? When the WWE is drawing 200,000 buys for other Pay Per Views but around 1,000,000 for Wrestlemania, you're catering to a different audience. Thus, having a rematch for Undertaker vs. Triple H with HBK as the referee makes total sense. Having the Rock return and then challenging the current superstar makes complete sense. Ditto for Chris Jericho returning and getting a top Wrestlemania spot. Sorry current WWE fans, but Wrestlemania shows are supposed to be the wrestling shows for all wrestling fans: young, old, current, casual, etc. Furthermore, the WWE will try to add celebrities to boost interest further with non-wrestling fans. Why do you think that Mike Tyson, Mr. T, Lawrence Taylor, Floyd Mayweather, and even Snooki were added to the shows? The WWE knows that they have you, the hardcore wrestling fan, to consistently watch RAW, Smackdown, and all of the monthly Pay Per Views. However, they want more than just dedicated fans watching Wrestlemania. After all, Wrestlemania 27 with its 1,059,000 buys with a $54.95 price made $58,192,050. Compare that to the previous Pay Per View, Elimination Chamber 2011 which had 199,000 buys for the $44.95 price made just $8,954,050... Oh, and did I mention that Wrestlemania plays to bigger venues with higher ticket prices, thus more revenue there, too? Just saying, give the "Wrestlemania is screwing the Midcarders" argument a rest. If many of those midcarders were actually OVER, they'd earn a legitimate spot. Since John Laurinaitis took over as EVP of Talent Relations, the developmental talent pool isn't as strong as it was 10 years ago. Because of the thinner talent pool, the WWE has to rely on many John Cena and Randy Orton, the chief graduates from the developmental system 10 years ago while being too dependent on the Attitude Era guys to still bring it. WWE has to come to a realization soon that they cannot rely on Triple H, Rock, and Undertaker forever, as well as constantly teasing the returns of Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin. BUT - Here in 2012 for Wrestlemania 28, Triple H, Undertaker, and the Rock are still capable of wrestling, so why not feature them at the top if they can still perform? Are you telling me that the current roster can produce a better match than John Cena vs. Rock, Undertaker vs. Triple H/Hell in a Cell, or with another returning veteran match-up, Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk. Those 3 match-ups have serious 5-star implications to them, each. WWE also went to the veteran well with Kane vs. Randy Orton, which could be good itself. We'll see on Cody Rhodes vs. Big Show. Where the newer stars could prove everybody wrong is Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus. That match HAS to deliver to convince WWE Officials that they have something with their younger crop of stars who have debuted with the WWE after 2005. Daniel Bryan, as champion, has actually seen higher ratings and to get many casual wrestling fans to WANT to follow Bryan or Sheamus further is what the WWE should want. I'd argue that today's WWE roster is very talented... However, guys like Miz, Alberto Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Sheamus, etc. just aren't getting over. Part of that is due the poor job of the WWE Creative Staff (Stephanie) combined with the deteriorating developmental system (Laurinaitis), along with obsolete leadership by Vince McMahon and anyone who he might trust (Triple H). But wrestling, itself, is losing popularity by the rise of something much more real in Mixed Martial Arts. But until the WWE can get the younger performers over, the past needs to be relied on to boom Wrestlemania buyrates. The WWE has RAW, Smackdowns, and monthly Pay Per Views to show off the rest of the roster and to figure out how to stop the pro wrestling industry from eroding or how to get the younger wrestlers over to earn Wrestlemania spots. Just chill... Till the next episode. Retirement is GOOD! @titowrestling
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