Credit: WWE.com
I watched the Hall of Fame speech from Titus O'Neil and it floored me. I never respected that man as much as after he was done preaching. I couldn't help thinking that this dude is up there on the same stage that Hulk Hogan was on, going into the Hall of Fame for the second time, first as a legendary individual then as part of a legendary faction. Titus O'Neil was never a legendarily great wrestler. But. That man is legendary as a man. I called my momma. I told her what I am now telling you. I thought to myself... the kind of person I am, I would rather be Hulk Hogan. Have a legendary career that is unmatched. Be on the Mount Rushmore of wrasslers. Make all the money. Maybe not be the best person. BUT. If I had a son, I want my son to be Titus O'Neil from the standpoint that he is clearly a great MAN. Which one are you? Which one would you want your kids to be?
I often think about how, the modern wrestling fan does not understand the great damage that was done during the Monday Night Wars where they hotshot every kind of angle, gimmick match and storyline they could until now it is nigh impossible to get anything over. Wrestling fans enjoy NXT TakeOver more than WWE main roster shows because they don't understand structure. There is a differentiation and delineation between the preliminary matches and the main events. Fans want the first match to be almost indistinguishable from the last match. They're getting color, fighting on the floor, doing every move that can be done. In the first match. By the time you get to the main event, how do you follow that? In WCW, the cruiserweight division was special because back then, almost no one was doing moonsaults and dives and lucha moves. John Cena was doing hurricanranas bro. That is why the current day cruiserweight division doesn't rate. You have guys who are over 6 feet tall and 250 lbs doing the same moves that were considered exciting for the smaller wrestlers. Wrestling fans also don't understand that visually, when the average person who has not been keeping up with wrestling would look at someone like a Rey Mysterio or Daniel Bryan and then you put them next to Roman Reigns or Kevin Nash and tell them "yeah that little dude is gonna fold that big dude up" or "the little dude is the world heavyweight champion" and why that is ESPECIALLY fake to the non wrestling fan. I didn't just say that to say that smaller wrestlers should never be main eventers and can never get over as such. I'm saying all this to say that there are levels to this.
I often watch wrestling and remember back in the day, not every one had a gimmick or an entrance, or got to shoot angles. Now WWE presents every wrestler on their roster the same and they very rarely even have squash matches with local jobbers. I understand that back in the days when WWF and WCW were competing for every minute of the ratings, you had to put PPV main events like Rock vs Mankind or Hogan vs Goldberg on free TV. What that did, was give us this era where now they do every match they can do on tv and for months on end on PPV and no matches feel fresh and there are no "dream matches" after a guy has been on the roster for like one year. Shinsuke Nakamura jumps out at me in my mind. That dude is a legend. A lot of fans do not see him at the level WWE SHOULD be presenting him at which is upper midcard and occasional main event and eventual world champion. He is literally at the same level as Cesaro who is an enhancement talent that occasionally wins tag titles and gets a short singles push before sliding back down the card. IN FACT, they not too long ago were tag team champions together. They were like flunkies for Sami Zayn, who is also a lower middle card talent. I don't think most fans realize that Shinsuke Nakamura has already done everything in WWE BUT win the world championship and Money in the Bank and the second he wins the world title he joins the Grand Slam club. With Kofi Kingston who is currently a tag team champion. No disrespect to tag team championships.
I think that WWE needs to do a much better job with their tag team division. To bring back up Titus O'Neil, the best thing to ever happen to that dude in his career is when they put him with Darren Young forming the Primetime Players.They broke them up because they always break up every tag team, but the best thing to happen to him was when they put the team back together and they won the belts again. And then after the team broke up again, there went Titus O'Neil's career as a wrestler. Sometimes a guy is just someone who looks good standing next to someone else. Nothing wrong with that! WHEN WWE finally kills New Day for good, unless Xavier Woods instantly transitions to being a manager or commentator, that is it for him. He is a great worker and promo but the best thing to ever happen to him was Kofi and Big E and that applies to all of them. All of them would have been cut by now otherwise. They were just there. It is totes ok to NOT break up tag teams. I never want to see The Usos fight for who is the greatest twin and then they both slide off the roster after a while of no one caring about them as individuals. Jey Uso has been doing a great job in his current role as Roman Reigns' henchman but I can't wait for Jimmy to come back and see them win some more tag championships. And I hope they never break up again. I want to see great tag teams main eventing. I want to see the tag team division treated like it matters on the level of a world championship because great teamwork matters on that level. I thought some years ago, when The Usos and New Day were jerking curtains on PPVs and having the best matches with the best build, those matches deserved to be the main events of those shows.
I think a lot of fans don't respect jabronies because they don't understand what the professional wrestling business is. No one gets to be a big star without someone making them look good. The jobbers are there to make everyone look good. I often watch wrestlers have their debut match. Like for example, WWE cut Emma after Asuka debuted against her and she took most of that match. That is a logic black hole. She needed to take all Asuka's best moves and get no effectual offense and then Asuka gets over better. Most fans didn't watch NXT. I remember at the time, Edge and Christian had a podcast where they said they hadn't watched NXT but heard how great Asuka was then watched her literally struggle to win her first match. They said they didn't get the hype around Asuka. They wouldn't have said that if Asuka came out and kicked her a couple of times, hit a couple of suplexes or something then applied her submission hold and got the win. Likewise, Shinsuke Nakamura debuted against Dolph Ziggler who wasn't being pushed at the time and Dolph took most of that match. No one saw Shinsuke as a star after that because it didn't matter that Dolph Ziggler has literally been a world champion twice. Like The Miz, he is not presented with that level of cachet. He is presented as enhancement talent who might win an odd midcard belt and occasionally a disputed world title but mostly do jobs. He needed to take a few kicks and suplexes and one Kinshasa.
All of that said. I still can't look at Titus O'Neil and think he is the same Hall of Famer that Hulk Hogan is. I look at him and think that he is greater as a man. His speech stole the show for me. I think fans have to stop wanting every match to be the main event, or every wrestler to be the main event. Someone has to go on first or in the death spot. Someone has to be the bathroom break match. We all have our parts to play. How well will you play yours?