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The Specialists
KEY MOMENT OF WEEK: Rey Mysterio returns despite Kane implying he kidnapped and killed him Sep 7, 2008 - 7:50:52 PM
Today's WWE is a bizarre mix of the sublime and the ridiculous. The organisation's top storyline is a dramatic rivalry between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels, which has developed over the course of the past six months. Throughout the feud, the standard of the promos and acting has been consistently superb, the highlight being Jericho's reaction to accidentally hitting Michael's wife in the face. Whether the booking is the product of the WWE creative team or Jericho and Michaels themselves is irrelevant; this has been the best feud on WWE television for a number of years.
Another storyline that began around the same time as the Michaels-Jericho feud is Kane's heel turn. Initially the storyline seemed as though it may have potential, re-establishing Kane as a monster by destroying innocent bystanders, such as cameramen, whilst carrying around a burlap bag long enough for intrigue to be created. The logical conclusion seemed to be that the bag contained Kane's old mask, which he would start wearing again, if you can call that logical. However, when pressed to reveal the contents of the bag, Kane produced Rey Mysterio's mask and began laughing manically.
This was followed up with a major contender for worst promo of 2008, in which Kane described Mysterio as a "slithering little slime" and a "fungus that grows in the marshes of your psyche." It was as though the WWE creative team had randomly picked out words from a dictionary in a futile attempt to justify this nonsensical storyline. This lead to Batista coming out to avenge Rey's disappearance due to the fact that they were great friends from their time together on Smackdown, although it is strange that Batista had not tried to call Rey during his absence from WWE TV. The storyline culminated in Rey reappearing on Raw this Monday, seemingly unscathed from the disembowelling that Kane claimed to have perpetrated.
It may be easy to laugh off this ridiculous storyline, but it's presence on Raw undermines everything else on the show. Suspension of disbelief is an important part of enjoying a wrestling show, as illustrated by The Great American Bash in July. This event saw one of the key angles of the Michaels-Jericho feud, with Jericho leaving Michaels bleeding profusely from just above his eye. Both Jericho and Michaels worked hard to create the drama required for such an angle. However, three matches later, there was a street fight in which JBL had his head slammed in a car door and John Cena no-sold the effects of being inside a burning car. By having both of these incidents on one show indicates that the WWE think its ok for fans to believe in one thing but not the other. Ultimately, suspension of disbelief is lost and fans end up believing in nothing.
That is not to say that every rivalry should be approached with the same seriousness as the Michaels-Jericho feud; Raw benefits greatly from Santino Marella's segments, which have been consistently great since his reinvention as a comedy heel. Nevertheless, there needs to be boundaries in which WWE storylines operate. It's preposterous that Shawn Michaels has spent three months selling an eye injury when John Cena wrestled six days after JBL ran him over with a car.
For the second week in a row, a WWE headliner looked serious injury in the face. During an angle with Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels fell head-first out of the ring, causing a triceps tear threatening the important Michaels-Jericho at Unforgiven. As was the case with John Cena last week, the injury was not as bad as first feared. However, how can Shawn Michaels possibly look strong if he is out for any amount of time when Rey Mysterio can return to action weeks after being "physically eviscerated" by Kane?
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