Happy Groundhog Day!
Today, the groundhogs will tell us if we are going to have a long or short winter.
I have no idea why or how they know this—or why or how human beings listen to them in such matters—but today is the big day, and the world awaits their read on the rest of winter.
At least this year, we won’t have former New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio dropping one of the groundhogs to his death as happened a few years ago.
He destroyed both New York City and a poor groundhog, all in one fell swoop!
But today, I am gong to talk about even more surreal things, like what goes on in the WWE.
Yes, today is Pro Wrestling Day at the Ranting and Raving Blog, so if that doesn’t float your boat, now is the time to turn away and hope that tomorrow’s Rant will suit your fancy a little bit better.
Anyway, the reason I want to talk about the WWE is that if you are interested in television, or entertainment in general, you must pay attention to one of the storylines on the shows that they put on each week—
A storyline that is the best thing going on weekly, episodic TV right now, and that includes every sitcom and every dramatic series now on the air.
Leati Joseph "Joe" AnoaʻI, better known as Roman Reigns, is a WWE wrestler who has risen to heights not seen in many, many years.
As Universal Champion, he has enacted a “reign” over the WWE shows not seen for decades, and it all has to do with a storyline that has made him what he calls himself, “The Head of the Table.”
When Reigns had to leave the WWE a few years back with a real-life reoccurrence of leukemia—something that he has battled his entire life—pro wrestling lost one of its most popular stars.
But when he finally came back after months of therapy, rather than come back as a sympathetic character, being a cancer survivor and all, it was decided by both he and the WWE writers that he would come back as a wanton assassin, allowing no other wrestler to stand in his way, and for the past 500 some-odd days, he has been the WWE's Universal Champion.
His championship “reign” has put him in the same category with the likes of only a few other wrestlers, including the greatest of them all, Bruno Sammartino, a group of only three or four wrestlers who have held their championship belts for more than 500 days (Sammartino was the WWWF champion for an astonishing nine years!).
Anyway, the “Head of the Table” storyline has been a stroke of genius by both Reigns and the writers of the WWE shows, and it harkens back to the legacy of Samoan wrestlers in the history of professional wrestling.
Reigns is part of the bloodline that has spawned about five generations of professional wrestlers, with his actual, real-life family including such grapplers as Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka and yes, The Rock, Dwayne Johnson.
And there have been probably two dozen other Samoan wrestlers from the same family who have wrestled professionally for the WWE in all of its incarnations since the 1950s and 1960s.
So the “Head of the Table” storyline was really right there for the taking.
Reigns is the top wrestler in the WWE, and he leads a stable of other wrestling members of his family—including the tag-team Usos, his real-life twin cousins—that currently populates and terrorizes the WWE.
The storyline portrays him as the breadwinner of the clan, the one who sits at “The Head of the Table.”
His character has been shaped as an egotistical machine who simply runs over whoever is in his way, and he is bolstered by Jimmy and Jay Uso--one of the most successful tag teams in wrestling history--in his options for annihilation of everything in his path.
Also part of Reigns entourage is Paul Heyman, who is his on-again, off-again “Special Counsel” and actually, one of the writers who created Reigns’ current character.
Every week, Reigns smirks, laughs, and then assaults his way through the WWE roster, with the Usos on the sidelines as his backup.
And each week, Reigns and the writers come up with a new take on the same storyline to make it as fresh as a daisy, and the thing really works, and has for well over a year.
WWE has a habit of stretching storylines beyond the breaking point, but here, there seems to be no breaking point at all.
It is that good a storyline, Reigns is that good a performer and character, and he is the bad guy you just love to hate but also love to watch in action doing his thing.
And with Wrestlemania coming up in just a few weeks in early April, who knows where this storyline is going to go … there are literally endless possibilities, but the storyline appears without an end in sight.
Say what you want about the WWE and professional wrestling in general, but this time, they got it right.
Reigns might be the best character they have had since the early days of Hulk Hogan, and they are going to go with this character until who knows when—
And for once, they have something that they can stretch whichever way they want to go.
The whole character and storyline are both that good, so why stop it before its time?
Today, the groundhogs will tell us if we are going to have a long or short winter.
I have no idea why or how they know this—or why or how human beings listen to them in such matters—but today is the big day, and the world awaits their read on the rest of winter.
At least this year, we won’t have former New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio dropping one of the groundhogs to his death as happened a few years ago.
He destroyed both New York City and a poor groundhog, all in one fell swoop!
But today, I am gong to talk about even more surreal things, like what goes on in the WWE.
Yes, today is Pro Wrestling Day at the Ranting and Raving Blog, so if that doesn’t float your boat, now is the time to turn away and hope that tomorrow’s Rant will suit your fancy a little bit better.
Anyway, the reason I want to talk about the WWE is that if you are interested in television, or entertainment in general, you must pay attention to one of the storylines on the shows that they put on each week—
A storyline that is the best thing going on weekly, episodic TV right now, and that includes every sitcom and every dramatic series now on the air.
Leati Joseph "Joe" AnoaʻI, better known as Roman Reigns, is a WWE wrestler who has risen to heights not seen in many, many years.
As Universal Champion, he has enacted a “reign” over the WWE shows not seen for decades, and it all has to do with a storyline that has made him what he calls himself, “The Head of the Table.”
When Reigns had to leave the WWE a few years back with a real-life reoccurrence of leukemia—something that he has battled his entire life—pro wrestling lost one of its most popular stars.
But when he finally came back after months of therapy, rather than come back as a sympathetic character, being a cancer survivor and all, it was decided by both he and the WWE writers that he would come back as a wanton assassin, allowing no other wrestler to stand in his way, and for the past 500 some-odd days, he has been the WWE's Universal Champion.
His championship “reign” has put him in the same category with the likes of only a few other wrestlers, including the greatest of them all, Bruno Sammartino, a group of only three or four wrestlers who have held their championship belts for more than 500 days (Sammartino was the WWWF champion for an astonishing nine years!).
Anyway, the “Head of the Table” storyline has been a stroke of genius by both Reigns and the writers of the WWE shows, and it harkens back to the legacy of Samoan wrestlers in the history of professional wrestling.
Reigns is part of the bloodline that has spawned about five generations of professional wrestlers, with his actual, real-life family including such grapplers as Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka and yes, The Rock, Dwayne Johnson.
And there have been probably two dozen other Samoan wrestlers from the same family who have wrestled professionally for the WWE in all of its incarnations since the 1950s and 1960s.
So the “Head of the Table” storyline was really right there for the taking.
Reigns is the top wrestler in the WWE, and he leads a stable of other wrestling members of his family—including the tag-team Usos, his real-life twin cousins—that currently populates and terrorizes the WWE.
The storyline portrays him as the breadwinner of the clan, the one who sits at “The Head of the Table.”
His character has been shaped as an egotistical machine who simply runs over whoever is in his way, and he is bolstered by Jimmy and Jay Uso--one of the most successful tag teams in wrestling history--in his options for annihilation of everything in his path.
Also part of Reigns entourage is Paul Heyman, who is his on-again, off-again “Special Counsel” and actually, one of the writers who created Reigns’ current character.
Every week, Reigns smirks, laughs, and then assaults his way through the WWE roster, with the Usos on the sidelines as his backup.
And each week, Reigns and the writers come up with a new take on the same storyline to make it as fresh as a daisy, and the thing really works, and has for well over a year.
WWE has a habit of stretching storylines beyond the breaking point, but here, there seems to be no breaking point at all.
It is that good a storyline, Reigns is that good a performer and character, and he is the bad guy you just love to hate but also love to watch in action doing his thing.
And with Wrestlemania coming up in just a few weeks in early April, who knows where this storyline is going to go … there are literally endless possibilities, but the storyline appears without an end in sight.
Say what you want about the WWE and professional wrestling in general, but this time, they got it right.
Reigns might be the best character they have had since the early days of Hulk Hogan, and they are going to go with this character until who knows when—
And for once, they have something that they can stretch whichever way they want to go.
The whole character and storyline are both that good, so why stop it before its time?
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