Scott's Blog of Doom

These days, whenever a popular wrestler returns after a prolonged absence due to an injury or whatever, said wrestler tends to receive a sizable welcome-back pop. It doesn't usually even matter whether the wrestler in question was a heel when he left; absence makes the heart grow fonder, and fans appreciate these performers, and there's no clearer sign of that than the welcome-back pop. Triple-H received one of the most overwhelming welcome-back pops of all time when he returned after an injury a few years ago, for example. And though Jericho was a heel when he left a few years ago, he was greeted as a face upon his return.

But consider this: if Ravishing Rick Rude or Bad News Brown had been injured during their respective WWF peaks and returned a year later, there's no way in hell they'd have been cheered. Fans woulda been like, "Oh, right, this guy. I remember him. Total dick."

What caused this change? Does it have to do with the fall of kayfabe? Is it the simple fact that fans are "allowed" to recognize the talents of heels now?

Also, are you ever going to comment on Bret Hart's return? I'm not implying that you owe it to anyone, I'm just surprised that you haven't really said a word about it. For my part, I think they should have kept his return top-secret, and the entire program should have been Vince interfering in some match at Mania, Bret's music hits, he comes out and beats the crap outta Vince, leaves to disbelieving cheers, then visits Raw the next night to do the confrontation with Shawn pretty much exactly as it happened. Ah well, hindsight is twenty-twenty; I'm just sad for Bret that he waited so long to return that a majority of the fanbase had moved on. Worse still, what would theoretically be the most amazing program ever (Bret returns to confront Vince!) has been limp and uninspired, and overshadowed by (among other things) Shawn Michaels's latest program; that's gotta hurt.

 

I think that the “welcome back pop” became a thing in wrestling around the same time that storylines started going by the wayside in favor of characters being all obsessed about their legacies.  I think it also has to do with the mentality from the Monday Night Wars, where fans become conditioned to equate surprise with excitement and so someone coming back means that it’s time to cheer.  X-Pac got a monster reaction in 1998, for instance, despite clearly playing a heel character and in fact being one of the most universally despised wrestlers on either show.  And since we no longer have rival promotions to draw true heat from (oh, except for TNA….BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA, sorry, couldn’t write that with a straight face) and you’re not going to see UFC guys suddenly popping up and going “I went three rounds with Shogun Rua and now I’m here to make the WWE tap out, brother!”, the injury return is really all we’ve got.

As for the second point, I haven’t commented because I ceased giving a shit about following weekly TV outside of internet recaps many years back now.  I don’t mind watching the occasional PPV, but the product just doesn’t make me want to go out of my way to watch it now.  It’s too much material to follow anyway; I much prefer the UFC model of one show per month with countdown specials in between.  As for Bret, I don’t think he’ll get what he needs out of this, but if he wants to try then more power to him.