WWE Elimination Chamber 2014

The WWE has one of their monthly Pay-Per-Views (PPV) on tonight.  Their biggest is Wrestlemania, which occurs next month.  This PPV should finalize the card for the next show.

There's actually a fascinating meta-plot element going into this card, if you'll allow me to get theorhetical for a minute:

Wrestling is a form of entertainment, but with elements of sports.  Unlike sports, the events are pre-determined.  And the bookers usually determine the winners by what they think the fans will pay to see.

So, even if the millions of Super Bowl viewers want the Broncos to win, if Seattle is the better team, they'll win the game- regardless of what the fans want.  

But in wrestling?  If the fans get behind a wrestler, the bookers will give that wrestler a push.  After all, the goal of the bookers is to have fans pay money to see the product.  If the fans are clearly behind a wrestler, it makes sense to elevate them.  

And in wrestling, unlike tv or music, there's real-time feedback.  If the fans of a tv show go nuts for an actor that the producers wasn't expecting, they won't know until weeks or months after the show has been filmed.  But wrestling occurs in front of a live audience every week.  If the fans get behind someone, they'll know in time to change who wins the matches for the next week.

That's the theory.  Here's the metaplot element:

The fans, over the past few months, have been going crazy over the wrestler Daniel Bryan.  Besides being a great workrate guy and clearly cheered for by the fans, his "YES!" chants have crossed over in the mainstream.  The fans clearly want Bryan to win the world title and main event Wrestlemania.

But the bookers have had other ideas.  Part of it is the storyline- by having people keep Bryan from winning the title, they are building heels for the crowd to boo against.

But another part is that the WWE has a formula for which wrestlers they like to push to the top of the promotion- look at John Cena, or Hulk Hogan.  Bryan is small by wrestling standards, a vegetarian, and looks more like a lumberjack than a muscleman.  

At the Royal Rumble, Randy Orton held on to the WWE Title, and Batista won the Royal Rumble.  Now, Batista is returning to the WWE after leaving some years ago.  He looks like he's carved out of granite, and he'll be in a major motion picture this summer.  By the WWE's formula, Batista-Orton makes perfect sense.

But at the Royal Rumble, the crowd completely booed Orton's match with John Cena, and booed when Batista (who the WWE has been trying to portray as a hero) won the Royal Rumble.  And there is a legitimate fear that the Wrestlemania main event might have 40,000 people crapping on the match and chanting for Daniel Bryan instead.

The Elimination Chamber is the last PPV before Wrestlemania.  It's the best- and possibly- only chance to change the main event in time.  

The crowd wants Bryan.  And the crowd might openly rebel if Bryan isn't in the Main Event.

Randy Orton defends the title against five other men in the main event of this PPV.  Daniel Bryan is one of these men.  If Bryan doesn't walk out with the title, the WWE is risking open rebellion.

And that, more than any writing, is the fascinating story to watch on tonight's PPV.

In Memoriam: Barbara Jo

One of my closest friends passed away suddenly.  Barbara Jo Erickson was... the best way I can describe her is to say that she embraced life like no other person I ever met.  She wanted to experience everything. 

Ride a motorcycle?   Sure! 
Ski?  Let's go!
Last-minute Trip to Western California for a License Plate show?  When's the flight?

Hanging around her, you needed an open mind to try anything.  She had about 10,000 hobbies, and she'd pick them up and drop them on a whim. 

She was fun, and brilliant, and opinionated, and in-your-face, and she made life much much better just by being in it.  And while we never worked out as a couple, I was so glad we could stay in touch, remain friends, and be a part of each others lives.

Barb was only 45, and while she had had health problems in the past, her death was so unexpected.  Her mother and two of her grandparents are still alive, and this is so horrible for them.

I wish all of you could have met her.

I miss you, Barbara Jo.

See you in the next life.