One of the most common complaints heard about wrestling is that it is often too predictable at times. Many fans seemingly have the ability to look into the future and give their predictions for pay-per-views and other shows months in advance. While this is a quite impressive talent, and one more and more fans are acquiring with the growing influence of the internet, the ones that wield this ability eventually get tired of it, and for good reason.
Once the shock value dwindles, wrestling doesn’t become as fun. Seeing everything coming can get tiring, and make things really boring. Yet, is this really the case? Do the ‘smark’ fans really want to be shocked constantly? They say they do, but if you look at the current build up towards Wrestlemania 22, I would have to say they don’t!
Now before you click the back button on your browser, bare with me for one minute as I explain what I mean. To many wrestling fans, January through early April is their favorite time of the year, and for good reason. It is the time of the year that many refer to as the “Road to Wrestlemania.” These few months feature two of the “big four” pay-per-views, and are usually laced with things like dramatic angles, stellar matches, and returns of our favorite superstars.
Every year, the situations are different, but are usually equally as exciting. One problem however, is that as a wrestling fan starts to grow in his knowledge of wrestling, so does his foresight, and typically, this time of the year is very predictable. Usually we know who is going to win the Royal Rumble by using simple logical thinking. After the Rumble happens, we predict what matches we will see at Wrestlemania based off of angles that get started there. So, while this is usually a great time of the year, it is often easy to predict.
Yet this year, something seems to have changed: we can’t predict what is going to happen anymore! At the Royal Rumble, no one had any idea who would win it. Sure a few names were thrown around in rumors like Triple H and Randy Orton, but no one saw Rey Rey picking up the win. This is as compared to the last few Rumbles, where it was easy to pick Triple H in 2002, Brock Lesnar in 2003, Chris Benoit in 2004, and Batista in 2005.
Tonight is No Way Out, and for the most part, we have no idea what’s going down at Wrestlemania. Both title matches aren’t confirmed yet, in fact, no match is confirmed yet. Now I understand that we usually don’t see confirmed matches until after No Way Out, buy my point is that we can usually predict or have a pretty good idea as to what will happen.
Now, to many fans, they are outraged by this! Many fellow fans that I have talked with feel that the build up to this years’ Wrestlemania has been sub-par as compared to year’s past. Why is this? Because they haven’t predicted every single angle as in years’ past! Last year we all predicted Angle-Michaels and we got it. The year before, we all predicted Undertaker-Kane, and we got it. Yet this year, we are all stumped, and because these few months aren’t as predictable as usual, fans are getting angry. They are complaining about something they usually claim to hate, and that is being able to predict.
So, this brings us back to the original question: Is being able to predict a good thing? Well, if you look at it in the terms just laid out, then yes it is. While predicting can be a real pain sometimes, it does give fans something to look forward to. After the Royal Rumble last year, we were all looking forward to seeing if Batista would finally turn on Evolution. We all predicted it would happen, and it finally did. Think about it this way: what would have happened if there was no build up to Batista’s turn, and it came out of nowhere? Fans would be in outrage, and say it was poorly booked. If you have trouble believing that just think about what happened after Randy Orton was shockingly turned. He went no where, because no one saw it coming, and so the fans had nothing to look forward to.
Now of course, we all like plot swerves. In the past there were things like Vince McMahon turning on the Rock and joining Triple H, or Stone Cold joining up with Vince. When these shocking events happen, we become hooked. However, how much can we take? By human nature, we all feel at one point or another that we need to be in control of a situation. When we are able to peer into the future, we begin to feel more confident. We feel better about being a wrestling fan because we are smarter than others, and at the same time, we have things to look forward to.
All in all, wrestling being predictable isn’t the worst thing in the world. Surprises are great, but if everything in wrestling was a surprise, none of it would make sense and we would be lost. When we have the knowledge and logic to see what’s coming before it happens, we subconsciously enjoy it that much more.
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Until next time, this has been From the Eye of the Dragon…
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