Time for a Lesson: Why Whining is No Good.

As a teacher of youngsters (yes, friends, I am trusted with the future leaders of the world - be very, very afraid), I have to deal with a lot of childish behavior.  An inability to share, peeking at neighbor’s papers, trying to fool me with seven-year-old stealth, all of it.

Yet there is no single behavior that boils my (and honestly, most people’s) blood than whining.

Every year, right around mid-September, I spend part of each and every work day discussing whining behaviors, and how people hardly ever get what they want from it.  “You need to express your opinions like grown-ups do,” I say, “because when you whine, people immediately stop listening to you.”

And they get it. . . Well, most of them do.  Over the school year, most of my students (who, I remind you, are 6 and 7 years old) will slowly begin expressing themselves in a more adult manner.  The tone of their voice changes, they use better descriptions to express their current emotional state, and best of all, they come up with (in some cases) compelling pieces of evidence to argue their case.

“I don’t want to do this” becomes “Can I please have a bit of a break before I finish my work?”  “This is sooo harddd” becomes “I’m not sure what to do here.  Can you help me?”

I mention this simply because these students of mine. . . Once more, 6 and 7 year old children. . . Seem to have a better grip on this fairly simple life lesson than the vast majority of wrestling fans I’ve seen on Twitter these last few weeks.

Substitute Contender: Try Some Positivity for a Change!

From time to time, The Teacher is absent, Doc Manson's lab is empty, and a substitute takes center stage.  Today, Shannon Scott (@Love2HulkSmash) discusses the Twitter-verse reaction to the Roman Reigns injury.

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I have been a wrestling fan as long as I can remember. Literally at least two-thirds of my life. It's the only thing I'm truly passionate about. Some of my earliest memories of life involve wrestling, watching it on Saturday nights on TBS with my mom. Yep, I started off as a WCW fan sometime in 1990. It took a few years before I finally found World Wrestling Entertainment, but I knew from the moment I saw Undertaker in 1994 where my heart was destined to stay. Now, 20-plus years later, I am a firm and unashamed WWE loyalist and WWE apologist. At the end of the day, I stand by this company, come what may happen. They have given me memories to last literally a lifetime. I’ve been to lots of house shows, Wrestlemania X-8 in Toronto, a couple Smackdown shows, and just this past summer, I went to my very first RAW broadcast. I’m kind of addicted to them.

NXT Top Ten: Edition 4

Welcome to the NXT Top Ten, edition 4.  It’s been a little while since our last rankings, and a whole lot has happened.  We had arguably the event of the year, Takeover: Fatal 4 Way.  We’ve had some debuts, both of new NXT talents and of some top tier developmental guys on RAW.  Actually, that has required some tweaking, since at the onset of this rankings, I said I wouldn’t include any NXT guys with WWE experience.  Since that would mean getting rid of three rankings stalwarts, we’ll now adjust that to say I won’t include any NXT talent who has had a significant WWE run.

Which brings us to Tyson Kidd.  I haven’t been including him in my rankings as of yet, and I haven’t had a big problem with that up until now.  He wasn’t getting anything resembling a decent push, I thought, so why bother?  Well, now he had arguably the strongest showing of the men involved in the Fatal 4 Way, and this whole “fact” thing seems like it is taking off.  Should I start ranking him?  Help me, #WWEFamily, you’re my only hope!  If you want him ranked, then rank him I shall.  

(Note: If you’re curious, he’d likely be in the top 5 somewhere this week.)

OK, let’s do some rankings.

Number 10: Hid. . . Nope, I won’t do it.   His name is Kenta!

NXT Takeover: Fatal 4 Way - Event of the Year!

I’ve always hated how wrestling announcers always seem to say “We are witnessing history in the making!”  Tony Schiavone was famous for this kind of thing.  Every WCW Monday Nitro (Now available on the WWE Network!) was the biggest one of all, or we just witnessed the most amazing match of our entire lives, and even as a 15-16 year old kid, I knew that was horse manure.

Plus (and this is me just being a pain), EVERYTHING is history.  I went out this morning to pick up breakfast for my family, which was, technically, history in the making.  It’s just not a history anyone would want to read.

So I usually get my Teacher’s knickers in a twist about that kind of thing. . .

However. . .

On Thursday night, we saw history in the making.

NXT Takeover: Fatal 4 Way was, in my opinion, the best WWE event of 2014, and I dare say we could go back even further.  On Thursday night, we saw a group of relatively unknown talents show Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, and yes, even Mr. #KidsAndTroops himself, John Cena, exactly how a wrestling card should be done.

From top to bottom, there wasn’t a weak link.  I know this because even the part I liked the least held my interest.  As evidenced by the bruising on my remote’s “fast forward” button, the same can not be said for the last few months’ of Monday Night RAW.

What does this mean, exactly, for the future of NXT and WWE? I’m not really sure.  All I know is I’m as excited to be a wrestling fan as I’ve been since WCW and ECW were actually on television.

As I sat and watched the event in the wee hours of Friday morning, I jotted down some notes.  As I sit here and re-watch it today (a phrase I have not uttered in quite some time), I’ll jot down some more.  I submit to you, dear students, some idle musings and comments on “history in the making”, NXT Takeover: Fatal 4 Way.

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The Teacher's Book: NXT Takeover and Thoughts on Improving WWE's Best Product

What began as a simple fantasy booking session turned into a rant about the best product WWE has to offer.

It all started so simply. . .

The Scene: NXT Takeover 2 - The Main Event

After 20-30 minutes of some of the most amazing wrestling you’ve ever seen (seriously folks, this match is going to be tremendous), each wrestler has hit their finisher and kicked out of someone else’s.  All four men stagger to their feet, facing each other, exhausted, the crowd going crazy.

And the lights go out.

They come back on, and Tyler Breeze is on the mat, unconscious.  The three remaining competitors look around and at each other.

Lights go out again.

Kidd is also out cold.  Zayn and Neville point at each other, obviously blaming their opponent for some sort of chicanery.

Darkness once more.

When the lights come on, Neville is out.  Zayn is standing in the ring all alone, looking very, very confused.

For a final time, we are unable to see.

Lessons from the Network: RAW and PPV's from early 1993

It’s hard to be a wrestling fan.  

It’s even harder to be a wrestling fan who then has to produce original content about said wrestling.

On behalf of Doc Manson, I apologize to our fans for being absent these last weeks.  I wish I had a hell of an excuse, but I think it just comes down to fatigue.  Tired of writing, tired of editing, tired of having to watch RAW week after week and think of a new angle to blog about.

WWE just isn’t that exciting these days.

Sure, when Brock beat the snot out of Cena, we were jazzed.  This was the beginning of a new era, we thought.  This was going to be special.

What’s happened since?  The Bellas spend each week yelling at each other and crying. . . Dean Ambrose is running around the countryside like Mick Foley after one too many Vaderbombs. . . What’s the main event for Night of Champions?  Cena and Lesnar. . .Again.

So I’ve soured a bit on the current product.  Thankfully, the WWE Network has saved me.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been watching the first year of Monday Night RAW, and the PPV’s to go with it.  Here are, in no particular order, some musings and thoughts on that crazy time in pro wrestling, and if we can take anything from it today.

Substitute Contender: Is It a New Day?

From time to time, The Teacher is absent, the lab is empty, and a substitute takes center stage.  Today, Kyle (@RasslinWithLife) discusses the main event scene.

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"The more things change, the more they stay the same." 

Thats how the old cliche goes and within WWE, it couldn't be more apparent. My hope is to shed light on what is vital to success going forward. One hot-button issue in the company is their inability or flat-out ignorance to build around their top star, John Cena. 

It wasn't that long ago at one of their biggest pay per-views, SummerSlam, we saw resident conqueror and the Cenation patriarch go 1-on-1. Or at least that is what it was advertised as. What we all got at the biggest "Blockbuster of the Summer" was anything but a battle. I think to some degree we all expected a back and forth battle. Instead we witnessed an absolute mauling from the former UFC champ to the walking, talking merchandise king. Now, please don't mistake my playful banter for disrespect. John Cena is a 15-time world champion and has earned his stripes. Sadly for the champion his credentials meant zilch when the bell rang at 'Slam.