Now before I start this rant, I feel the need to point out the obvious since I'm sure some intellectually challenged moron will read this and mutter to themselves, "Wrasslin  aint real dur hur hur." Well no shit Sherlock. Anyone with half a brain knows that wrestling is obviously fake. Now I've watched wrestling since about 1990. I've watched it grow and evolve over the years. But the current state of wrestling is one of sheer horror. I can no longer tolerate the product that I'm seeing every Monday and Thursday. I remember back several years ago, Monday night wrestling was the one thing I always looked forward to every Monday. Sadly that is far from the case today.

It all started back in early 2001. Vince McMahon had finally put the nail in the coffin of World Championship Wrestling by purchasing it. I remember everyone I knew was excited by it as it marked the beginning of a new era in wrestling. Unfortunately it was the beginning of an era of crappiness. The WWF began its decline in 2001 first by losing announcer Jerry "The King" Lawler. And his replacement Paul Heyman! Now Paul did a lot of things for the industry with ECW, but Paul isn't a great announcer. And most certainly not one fit to fill the void created with Lawler's departure. And one of the other big downfalls was the heel turn of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin's character back in the Attitude era was one that was a beer drinking, hell raising, foul mouthed, bird flipping, authority defying son of a bitch. And his popularity during that time was unbelievable. But when Austin turned heel and sided with Vince McMahon, the mystique of his character immediately vanished. But that was the beginning; the truly bad part of 2001 was the Alliance. The combined rosters of the majority of WCW and ECW wrestlers attempting to take over the WWF, with of course all the McMahons involved in the center of it all. If this was done like a New World Order angle, then it might have been successful. But it wasn't. And with heel Austin leading the Alliance, then things got really bad. Fortunately the Alliance finally ended after almost a year at Survivor Series, and afterwards Austin started to become his old Attitude era character again. But it didn't get better. But fortunately Jerry Lawler made his long awaited return and at least the announcers table got better. The bad storylines continued to ruin wrestling for the rest of that year and the first part of 2002. And I shall now address the biggest missed opportunity for the WWF ever!

In February 2002, the New World Order had arrived. Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hollywood Hulk Hogan had returned to the WWF. And of course the New World Order with those three in WCW was the biggest success WCW ever had, and the WWF now had it in the palm of their hands. But they blew it! They made the New World Order a joke! Scott Hall more or less became Austin's bitch in the next two months, while the WWF focused on The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan for their big Wrestlemania event. Austin defeated Hall at Wrestlemania, and of course the Rock defeated Hogan and Hogan became a face again right afterwards. Then Hall and Nash kick Hogan out of the New World Order and thus promptly kills what could have possibly been one of the best storylines ever, before it could even begin. And then two weeks later, Scott Hall is fired from the WWF and that puts the nail in the coffin for a successful New World Order. But the WWF continued to try with their weak attempts by adding X-Pac, Big Show, and even Shawn Michaels himself to the New World Order. But not even all of them could make it work. And when Kevin Nash tore his quadriceps, that truly ended it right there.

Another huge setback occurred in 2002. The draft! Yes, the horrible thing known as the draft where Raw and Smackdown had to select wrestlers exclusive to those shows. Now that is an awful idea. The idea was to get some younger talent more exposure. But nobody cares about them if the scriptwriters coming up for their promos and gimmicks are complete idiots sitting around with their thumbs up their collective asses. So the draft occurs and it sucks horribly. But there's more. Due to certain circumstances, Stone Cold Steve Austin, the company's biggest draw in the past five years, decides to walk out! Thanks to the WWF's incompetent idea to have their biggest superstar lose to up and comer Brock Lesnar on RAW after Brock had only been in the company for about two or three months. There's more to Austin's walk than that, but that right there would be enough to get me to tell them to take their shitty idea and cram it up their sorry ass and walk out as well. I dont blame Stone Cold one bit for walking out because I would've done the same thing in his situation. Austin realized the company was on a big downward spiral and it seemed that Vince McMahon and all the rest of the higher up's didnt seem to care. Now their biggest wrestler was gone and as luck would have it, another big setback would occur. The World Wrestling Federation lost a court case in a dispute to the World Wildlife Fund about who had the rights to the WWF name. So the World Wrestling Federation became World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE.

2002 would continue on and be horrible as expected. Vince gets desperate and brings in Eric Bischoff to be the general manager of Raw and has Stephanie McMahon be the general manager of Smackdown. It was yet another failed idea that sadly is still continuing. The rest of 2002 was horrible like when the year started out. Now enter 2003. Austin comes back in February; the Rock comes back as a heel for a few months. And here is the big sign that the WWE sucks badly now. Their biggest blockbuster event Wrestlemania was awful. Now their patheticness can't be denied or ignored. Bringing in former huge WCW star Bill Goldberg hasn't even improved anything. The recent April pay per view Backlash was a big flop as well. But Vince McMahon just doesnt know when to quit. He's now going to have brand only pay per views. Raw and Smackdown separate pay per views. Vince what the fuck are you thinking? Both shows combined on one event cant even generate enough interest to get the big buy rates now, and now this! What in the bluest of blue hells makes you think this is going to work? Haven't you learned anything from all your mistakes in the past two years? Obviously not. With the WWE spiraling down even further, things certainly show no signs of improving at all! With Triple H holding everyone back just because he's screwing the voluptuous Stephanie McMahon (I certainly would be as well!), it appears that Triple H will continue to be the World Champion and not job a match for a long time to come sadly. The only margin of hope for wrestling is that one day hopefully NWA-TNA can get a weekly TV deal. But I certainly miss the classic early 90's era with Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Mr. Perfect, Jake Roberts, and The Ultimate Warrior etc. And it's especially sad the Attitude era is gone. Gone are the old crotch chopping antics of Degeneration X. Gone are the old days of Stone Cold Steve Austin humiliating Vince McMahon week in and week out. Gone are the days of the Ministry of Darkness wreaking havoc upon everyone. I must say it's a shame to see the glory days of wrestling gone and replaced by this current crap. But in addition to a NWA-TNA TV deal, there would be even more hope if the following happened: Fire the incompetent writers, end the draft, reduce Triple H's influence, and put more creative control back in the wrestlers hands. Let the wrestlers make up their own promos. But sadly it doesn't seem like any of that is going to happen anytime soon.