The Teacher's Lounge: If all Summer Slams had Twitter

As almost every single pair of eyes who reads this knows, I, The Teacher, have been pretty addicted to Twitter since the birth of #2Contenders.  One thing I’ve been fascinated with is how the social media age allows everyone to share their feeling right as things happen.  This gives us a primal sense of how people are feeling, since from the looks of it, most people don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about their tweets before sending them into the Inter-ether.

Which got me thinking. . . With Summer Slam around the corner, what would the history of this huge WWE event look like if Twitter had existed since its inception. . . Quite the thought experiment. . . I humbly submit some of what I believe we’d have seen in the last 20 years.

8/29/88

MegaPowersRule:  Can’t believe we’re getting a 4th #WWF PPV!  Can’t wait to see MegaPowers SLAM MegaBucks!  #Hulkamania  #OhYeah

MillionDollarBaby:  @MegaPowersRule - No way! Everybody has a price, and Dibiase and Andre can’t be stopped!  #MoneyMoneyMoney

Lessons from the Network: No Way Out 2003

Historical Context

When WWE acquired both ECW and WCW in the early 2000’s, they were flush with talent from all 3 of the major companies, though in some cases, “talent” is a word I use relatively loosely.  As time went on, the invasion angle faded away and only a handful of stars from Atlanta or Philadelphia remained, having been fully incorporated into WWE storylines.
No Way Out 2003 was the table-setter leading up to Wrestlemania XIX, famous for McMahon vs. Hogan and infamous for the botched shooting star press from Brock Lesnar.

Rather than give you the traditional 5 lessons today, we will instead focus on a single one from this era, using No Way Out 2003 as an example.

Lesson: The Post-Invasion WWE had the greatest collection of wrestling talent ever.

Class is in Session: Ambrose's Roadblock to Superstardom

Over the last twenty years, no single archetype has been more beloved in wrestling than the anti-hero.  Whether it be an individual (CM Punk or Stone Cold) or a group (the early nWo or DX), anti-heroes are the living embodiment of what the vast majority of wrestling fans would like to be, if it wasn’t for those pesky laws, rules and regulations keeping us in line.  While we desperately want to give our boss the finger, crotch-chop the rude barista at Starbucks or knee the idiot yelling into his cell phone right in the head, we know we can’t, so we live vicariously through the anti-hero.

Dean Ambrose is poised to be the next great anti-hero in wrestling; in fact, one could argue that he’s already there.  Over the last few weeks, Ambrose has gone to whatever lengths necessary to exact his revenge on Seth Rollins for betraying The Shield and joining The Authority.  He’s attacked him before a match, during a match and after a match. No amount of security is seemingly enough to stop Ambrose; kick him out of the building and he’ll find his way back in.  If not, he’ll lie in wait for you in the trunk of your car, a moment that will likely been one of the more memorable of 2014.

When you listen to Dean Ambrose speak, you are drawn in by his charisma.  You can feel the vitriolic hate emanating from his every pore.  You can see, as my partner Doc Manson so eloquently calls it, the Portrait of Malice.  But you don’t always understand or remember exactly what he said, which is a problem, one that can be solved with today's lesson.

Lesson:  The biggest superstars always have a catch-phrase fans can latch onto.

Lessons from the Network: Degeneration X - In Your House

                                       Historical Context

When I began watching wrestling in the early 1990’s, there were four WWF Pay-Per-Views a year; Wrestlemania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series and Royal Rumble.  That’s it.  Now to some new wrestling fans that might seem insane.  To some, it might border on sacrilege.  To others, it might seem like a very good idea, considering the Battleground hate I’ve read on Twitter this last week, but I’ll save that for a separate column.

In 1993, Vince McMahon expanded by adding King of the Ring, the 5th “major”, as it were.  In the years that followed, whether it was in response to the growing popularity of the competition in WCW or just as an experiment to try to earn more money, Vince added “In Your House”.  Originally designed as a shorter, cheaper PPV, the In Your House series would be the ‘minor’ spectacles to fill the monthly gaps                                                             between larger events.

For our next Lessons from the Network, we take a trip to the IYH event from December of 1997.  WCW has taken over the lead in the Monday Night Wars, and at this point, WWE is on the ropes.  This is also the first PPV after Survivor Series ‘97, also known as the Montreal Screwjob.  On the cusp of the Attitude Era, we now sit under the learning tree known as Degeneration X: In Your House.

Lesson 1:  Proper planning prevents poor performance.