On Monday night Raw, Edge – Sunday’s 47-year-old winner Royal Rumble– came to the stake to discuss his future. His victory guaranteed him a championship match WrestleMania on March 28, against WWE Champion Drew McIntyre or Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Here he found himself opposite the Raw title holder, McIntyre, and in lieu of the usual champion-potential challenger interaction – roar and punch in a combination – Drew praised him. Edge exclaimed to him, “I appreciate the compliments, I really do. And Drew, I really like you and I’ve been a mentor to you, so I have to be blunt with you. What’s wrong with you? … Instead of kicking my head off when I got through these ropes, shower me with compliments. ”
Edge had a point, but you can excuse Drew for falling back on his fandom. He was 13 when Edge made his WWE debut in 1998. And he was in a nostalgic mood, having just retained his title the night before against none other than Goldberg, the icon of the Monday Night Wars, which somehow still looks like this. Goldberg has struggled a handful of times since he never retired in 2016, and if his in-ring ability has deteriorated it’s hard to tell; he was always more of a phenomenon than a technician.
If Drew goes through the gamut WrestleMania, he will have defeated 54-year-old Goldberg, 48-year-old Edge (who, after nearly ten years of retirement due to a degenerative neck condition, returned to the ring a year ago), and his former buddy Sheamus, who is 43 is and a 12-year WWE veteran. And Goldberg and Edge weren’t the only mummies unearthed on Sunday. The men Royal Rumble match included appearances from Carlito (who debuted in WWE in 2004 and departed in 2010), Christian (who is 47, debuted in 1998 and retired in 2014), Kane (53, debuted in 1995) and Hurricane Helms (46, released in 2010). The women Rumbling showed Jillian Hall (left WWE in 2010), Alicia Fox (2019), Torrie Wilson (2008), Victoria (2009) and Mickie James. James debuted way back in 2005, left in 2010, returned in 2016, and was on the active WWE roster since last fall; it has seamlessly changed into living-legend-dom. James isn’t alone in that division: Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio are all icons from bygone eras that are still disappearing. (Mysterio’s son Dominik, who first appeared on screen as a child in 2003, is now a full-time wrestler.)
Wrestling fans are trained to believe in immortality: If Hulk Hogan’s nickname didn’t convince you that superstar is eternal, maybe his 40-year in-ring career did. But even with that in mind, powerlifting Ponce de Leóns’ parade on Sunday exudes gullibility. It was a huge win for sentimentality – and for HGH and testosterone injections – but you have to wonder if there is a limit to the charms of nostalgia. Edge, Kane, Goldberg, Victoria … I’d be crazy to find that group of action figures at a garage sale. But if my WrestleMania headliners in 2021?
To be fair, struggling legends that populate the top card are nothing new this time of year. Complaints about theft of part-timers WrestleMania spots from the main grid are a chorus every spring. The Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, Goldberg – they all cashed in WrestleMania paychecks while wrestlers sat in the locker room in their prime. WWE took training to a new level with Brock Lesnar’s six-year championship run, who returned from his UFC career in 2012 and only occasionally attended WWE events. The part-time legend is the new archetype.
This has a kind of business logic. The ratings have fallen and the sea of fans who have pushed the Attitude Era to new levels of pop culture relevance have left for greener pastures. Those who want their fix of the Rock of Stone Cold Steve Austin in 2021 can turn to movies, podcasts or YouTube highlights. WWE’s own streaming service, the WWE Network, has been a modest success so far, but it hasn’t brought back so many lapsed fans back into the fold. And if you needed even more proof that this was the goal, look no further than last week’s news that WWE is closing the network following sale to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service.
As a result, any wrestling fan who spends $ 10 monthly on PPVs and the WWE library now gets the full catalog of The office thrown in. More importantly, regular viewers who pay to stream The office, Yellowstone, and the Saved by the bell reboot has WWE at your fingertips. NBCU is betting heavily on its forward-looking channel by capitalizing on viewers’ nostalgia with old shows, old actors, and rebooted versions of old shows. At the time of writing, the Peacock homepage includes a “Best of WWE” series in between Charmed and Frasier—Which, not coincidentally, is on track for a reboot at competing Paramount +. No wonder WWE is going back to the 90s in earnest. Looking back is apparently the way to the future.
And no wonder current stars like McIntyre are so urgent to pay their respects to their ancestors in the ring. There was a time not long ago when the returning legend, who was dragged into the ring for one last time, was heralded as the underdog. Now – after the Undertaker’s decade Mania moments and the post-career title reigns from Goldberg, Triple H and the Rock – the real underdog is the full-timer. Whatever form New Age stars are, they can never surpass the star power of someone who peaked in an age of higher viewing audiences.
This is the luxury and bane of a fake sport. If the NBA could have time The last dance To come out as a 57-year-old Michael Jordan retiring and winning another championship, the league would have done it – or at least the PR department and network partners would have favored the idea. In the WWE, that kind of nonsense is normal for the course. And for a world that (at best) thinks of the early 2000s when they think of pro wrestling, the old guard is the institution, the money, and the Q ratings gods. If Drew McIntyre – or, hell, even Roman Reigns – will ever rise to the level of his predecessors, it will be by literally overcoming them. There’s a reason Reigns versus the Rock is on Vince McMahon’s dream wall, and why John Cena’s WrestleMania availability is a constant source of speculation.
Just a few weeks ago, WWE changed Raw at a “Legends Night” to try and goose reviews. It didn’t bring back the millions of fans who watched the 90s, but it was a taste of things to come. WWE debuts in time for Peacock WrestleMania this year, and anyone streaming reruns of their favorite old sitcoms suddenly gets the chance to see some of their favorite old wrestlers try to revive WWE’s product. That’s a lot to ask of a bunch of wrestlers working their way out of highlights packs and ‘Best of’ box sets, but anything is possible within the squared circle, in the land of baby-oiled and tattooed demigods. In the heyday of WWE, when Steve Austin chased Mr. McMahon through the arena in a beer truck to the delight of millions, it was common to say that he appealed to all the people who would ever want to pop their boss. McMahon turned the figurative into the literal for the enjoyment of fans. Never forget that WWE likes to call WrestleMania the “showcase of the immortals.” “Too literal” is not in McMahon’s vocabulary.