You may have noticed by now that one of the links on the right is for Ring Posts, a Baltimore Sun based wrestling blog. This was my way of very sneakily admitting my love for professional wrestling. The thing is, I'm a 30-year old man with a daughter and a wife. While I don't consider myself to be a typical wrestling bloke, I'm still always a little embarrassed that I still watch Monday Night Raw.
Well, today ends my ban on blogging about wrestling. For the past few years it has felt that the WWE has skated along with a lot of uninteresting storylines. We continued to see the same old names main-eventing Wrestlemania and SummerSlam: I'm talking John Cena, HHH, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, Edge, Undertaker. Not saying they aren't great at what they do, but seeing them wrestle each other every week gets boring after a while. Luckily, every once in a while we get some new characters - CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, John Morrison, Jack Swagger that I get up for. These guys are always the highlights of the show for me.
I sit here today, totally excited by the newest 'big' name wrestler - The Miz. Now, The Miz isn't exactly new - he has been in the WWE for 3 years now, but over the past year he has gone from undercard to WWE Champion. His story is an amazing. In 2001 he was on the Real World New Orleans where he was an outcast. I vaguely remember not liking him in the least. Then he went on to Real World/Road Rules Challenge and I still didn't like him. However, it was then that we found out that he was a WWE-freak. I never thought he would stand a chance in the ring, but thought he definitely had the knowledge and charisma to be successful. A few years later, he was given that chance as a contestant on the reality show Tough Enough. He didn't win, but was given a WWE contract. The Miz went from 19-year old college student to reality star to wrestler in less than a decade.
NO ONE and I mean NO ONE could have predicted The Miz as WWE Champion. He was terrible at first. I mean terrible. But he worked his butt off and has improved so much that WWE decided to make him the current champion. While his ring work is above average, it's on the mic where he excels. He is just one of those guys people hate. Not "I'm going to turn the channel" hate, but "I can't wait to see him get his ass kicked" hate, which is exactly what makes him great (Here is a line from his victory celebration: "The next time someone tells you that you can't live your dreams....know that you can't. It takes an extraordinary man to live his dreams and that man is The Miz"). He is one of the few true heels that I can remember being behind in a long while.
The Miz's feud with Randy Orton is really really exciting to me. It's refreshing not to have to see John Cena and his 14- year old girl legion in the title hunt. Cena is a great performer but I get so tired of his cheery attitude. Orton and Miz bring some definite edge to the title picture. Miz is so overbearing as a heel and Orton is so good in his current role of villain-good guy that for the first time in a long while, their matches actually feel real. They are not throwing around the humor; not making me feel like WWE is meant for 12 year olds. I thank them for that.
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