(Trying to Justify this) Shameless Saturday

Ya know, part of me kinda feels bad about posting these YouTube embeds on Saturdays, since it is a cheat on my part and it is most certainly shameless self promotion. But at the same time, I'm really happy with how this week's "Santino's Foreign Exchange" came out, and I think you guys might dig on it.

(And for those of you out of the loop, this is the YouTube show that I help write over at WWE.)

I'm really excited to be a part of the show, and besides, there's a rather large number of you Exfanders out there, so posting here gives the show a nice little bump in the numbers. Which is good for the old self esteem.

But besides all that, the show taps into geek culture, and so I think it has a place here.

In the few weeks I've been fortunate enough to be a part of the show, we've run an Indian Jones parody, a Ghost Hunters parody, and we have some cool comic book-y stuff on the way. We've also started an epic Beard War, and if you've ever seen Nathaniel, then you know that beards definitely will always have a place on this blog.

So here you go: Hot off the racks, here's today's episode!

Saturday Shamelessness

Hey there, Exfanders. Today I'd like to share with you the latest episode of the YouTube show that I'm helping to write. This one has a couple of bits that I've been dying to see, and I was really pleased with how they came out.

You don't know anything (at all) about wrestling, but if you're a fan of Indiana Jones (and/or beards), it might be worth a look. : )

Check it out, and hopefully you get a chuckle from this one!

Friday Insanity

I hate Fridays.

Somehow, my Fridays are BY FAR the craziest day of my week, and this week is certainly no different. So, in order to free up all available time to do work...I'm officially cheating with today's post.

Instead of something insightful, here's an episode of the YouTube show that I'm currently helping to write. Enjoy!

Friday Catch Up

Tonight's my late night at the office, so I won't be home until sometime tomorrow morning. Even so, I've (heroically) managed to get something up here on the blog this afternoon--and with time to spare before our posting deadline!

(That is, of course, if Blogger actually sets it live for the time I've scheduled...grumble grumble)

And, sure, I'm gonna cheat a little bit by embedding a YouTube video, but it's Friday and who wants to read a long, rambling post about who-knows-what when you can watch a WWE Superstar hunt for ghosts instead?

With that incredible transition, I present "Santino's Foreign Exchange," episode 14, the first episode of the YouTube show that I helped plot. I think it came out pretty well, and I think there are a couple of pretty funny spots.

If you're totally unfamiliar with WWE and the Santino character, that's okay--you should be able to catch on pretty quickly. Anyway, check it out, enjoy, and if you're so inclined, watch it 10,000 times or so.

: )

Weekend Writing

On Thursday I was tasked with a pretty cool job. Along with a couple of coworkers, I'll be writing an episode of a YouTube show for my company. It's a cool opportunity, and one I'm really, really excited about.

Of course, it's due first thing Monday morning, and we've all been slammed this week with other stuff, so the bulk of the writing will have to take place, with haste, this weekend.

It's not the fact that we'll need to do some work on the weekend that's got me worried, though.

I'm used to working through Saturday and Sunday, and honestly, I prefer working over the weekend to working in the office during the week, because of the lack of meetings and other distractions that just don't happen on weekends.

What's got me a bit worried is the fact that there's the distinct possibility that a hundred thousand people will be watching the show we're writing.

The script is due Monday morning, they film it Monday afternoon, and it'll be edited and released sometime early next week.

So right now, my usual, happily neurotic self is busy being a bit more happily neurotic than usual.

Like I said, I'm quite pumped up to have the chance to write this bad boy, and I just don't want to screw it up. The show is supposed to be funny, so we'll need to write funny stuff for it. Writing funny is incredibly difficult, as I prove almost daily on this blog.

But it's a beautiful Saturday here at Exfanding HQ, my computer is up and running, and my funny bone has been tickled. Also, I'm thirsty.

So I'm gonna go hunker down in my hole and churn out a script for Monday. Depending on how it goes, I'll even provide a link to the show next week. And, hey, if it turns into a complete disaster, at least it'll make for an interesting post. 

Monday 'Mania

Today kicks off what, I’m told, will be a very long eight day stretch of work for me. Anyone who’s into wrestling will likely know why that is, but for the uninitiated—this coming Sunday (April 1) is WrestleMania XXVIII.

WrestleMania is, of course, THE event of the year in professional wrestling, and now that I report on such things, I’m bracing for a very busy week.

So if you don’t hear much from me, please don’t take it personally.

After this week, I plan to return to a more “normal” posting schedule and I fully intend to finally finish my part of that pesky “Best of 2011” feature that should have been posted months ago. You know, back when 2011 was still kind of relevant.

Until then, though, I will mostly be in my hole, hunkering down for a long week of reporting.

Long, but, I think, fun, too. Despite the amount of work that has been forewarned, I’m looking forward to being in the middle of it.

Digital media is quite a bit different than the traditional print publishing that I was so accustomed to before taking this new gig. Digital is immediate, and once you’ve written something and posted it, it’s done.

On to the next.

Print publishing—with its seemingly endless string of page proofs and edits and copyedits—is very much a place for people with long memories. Digital publishing, on the other hand, is for people with short memories.

Meaning: research, write, copyedit, post, move on.

That was one of the toughest things for me to adjust to when I started, but I’ve really become a fan of it. Do the work, move on. It’s a good lesson for creative endeavors of any kind, even long form stuff.

Do the work, let the public see it, move on to the next thing.

Wrestling with the Facts

As you may have noticed if you've been following the blog these past few months, my blogging buddy Alex has been writing about wrestling a bit more that usual (read: at all). Traditionally, I'm the one to foist my fandoms on Alex (as was the case with Star Wars and Firefly), and traditionally, Alex is the one who misses the boat when it's his turn to make me watch Kevin Smith films (which I'm still waiting on, by the way). So, I figured I'd take it upon myself to exfand my horizons.

Between my grandfather and my middle school friends, I received enough of an exposure to know who some of the big names were in wrestling--Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Sgt. Slaughter, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Undertaker, Big Show, Triple H, etc.--but I was always on the sidelines of the fandom. I'd seen a few matches here and there, and had sat in on plenty of conversations, but there were still huge gaps in my education. Names like CM Punk and Mick Foley meant absolutely nothing to me when Alex brought them up in posts over the past year.

Poking around Netflix yielded exactly the kind of learning tools I'd been hoping for: WWE: Top 50 Superstars of All Time and OMG! The Top 50 Incidents in WWE History. Learn who the major players are, and then learn about the biggest events that have defined their universe--just like I've been doing with comics. So far this has proven to be an effective way of surveying fandoms, and my 4-1/2 hours of immersion in all things wrestling was no different.

Top 50 Superstars was interesting, celebrating fifty of the most popular, successful, controversial, and influential professional wrestlers from the past six decades, as chosen by the WWE's 2010 roster.

There was Killer Kowalski with his murderously large hands; The Fabulous Moolah, who, in addition to having a fantastic name, stayed involved in the business for decades; Ric Flair, who's exactly as flamboyant as his name suggests; Mr. Perfect, who did this incredibly impressive--and perfect--pencil twirl on live TV; "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, who perfectly embodied the excess of the 1980s; Bob Backlund, the guy who held the championship title forever; and Kane, who's just plain scary.

I was impressed by the grace, style, creativity, and skill of the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Rey Misterio, Randy Orton, John Cena, and Edge. I was fascinated by the parts that Gorilla Monsoon, Iron Sheik, and Gorgeous George played in the history and culture of wrestling. I was amused by the strong personalities of Rick Rude and Rowdy Roddy Piper, and charmed by Junkyard Dog, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, and, yes, Mick Foley. After a segment on Shawn Michaels, preceded by snippets of interviews with CM Punk (among others) about these superstars, I was finally able to return to this post and this post and get all of Alex's references.

Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself. I still had OMG! The Top 50 Incidents in WWE History to watch before that could happen. Superstars left me with that warm feeling of, "this is a cool fandom; I could get into this." OMG!, while informative, left me with that warm feeling in my stomach of being violently ill.

It started with the theme music: Some rapper shouting "OH MY GOD!" and nothing but "OH MY GOD!" for what felt like a whole sixty seconds (which, in reality, was probably closer to only a minute). I expected this grating introduction to be followed by a show similar to Superstars--a comprehensive look at the most outrageous, unexpected, and significant moments of the past six decades of wrestling history. Instead, I got everything Stone Cold Steve Austin ever did throughout his entire career, plus that one time in 1984 where Roddy Piper smashed a coconut on Jimmy Snuka's head.

To top it all off, each of the 50 incidents was introduced with "OH MY GOD!" and the same ten or twenty seconds of obnoxious vamping from the song. I was ready to pull a Tim White by the end of it, and the fact that I even know what I'm referencing somewhat disgusts me.

I get that these were supposed to be the most shocking moments in wrestling, and I freely acknowledge that I'm a little sensitive about certain matters and a little squeamish about others. I was on board with anything that was extra theatrical for the sake of looking cool--like Jeff Hardy getting caught in the explosion of his own pyrotechnics, or Brock Lesnar collapsing the entire ring with a superplex, which was awesome--but so many of these incidents were just disturbing to me.

Impaling Randy Orton on a floor full of thumbtacks? Humiliating the tiny Haiti Kid by hoisting him up and shaving his head? Destroying aisle after aisle of a grocery store just to beat somebody up? Kidnapping the chairman's daughter and forcing her into some kind of unholy marriage rite? Driving away from a funeral you've interrupted with the coffin dragging from your truck?

These things look innocuous and even slightly silly in writing, but they made my skin crawl when watching them. Whether or not they were staged is beside the point; I was floored by the number of children I saw in the crowds--small children, at that--and glorifying these ideas with that kind of audience is downright twisted.

After watching the Superstars show, I had a debate with my wife--she argued that wrestling was senselessly violent, and I argued that it's really no different than any other violence taken out of context. Each of these characters in the ring has their own motives and backstories that are driving them to hit Jimmy Snucka with a coconut; The Dark Knight looks pretty senseless, too, if you only see the part where that dude gets stabbed through the hand with a pencil. The violence itself might still be distasteful to you, but it's unfair to judge it as senseless without the proper context.

After watching OMG!, I wasn't sure where I stood in that argument anymore.

The wrestling I remember from what I caught on television was good old-fashioned beatings. Some theatrics, to be sure, but nothing more outrageous than swinging around a steel chair or slamming someone against the wall of a cage--it's all blunt force trauma anyhow, whether you're using your hands or falling on people from the rafters. Barbed wire on a baseball bat? Well, maybe that's just me being squeamish.

What makes this so difficult for me--and what makes wrestling the spectacle it is--is how tough it can be to determine exactly what's real and what's just for show. There's a visceral thrill in the uncertainty of it all. If somebody gets tackled on a football field, you know the kind of injuries to expect. If somebody gets tortured in a movie, you can be confident it's all just make-believe. If "Macho Man" Randy Savage gets bitten by a snake in a wrestling ring, your imagination runs wild with possibilities, foiling all attempts to properly rationalize what's just happened.

Even with all the stomach-churning moments I endured throughout OMG!, I'm glad to have had the exposure; this blog was founded on the principle of promoting an understanding between geeks, and this is one fandom where I've been out of the loop for some time, and to a bigger degree than I ever realized. Am I an expert yet? By no means. But I finally understand what it means to be the "Heartbreak Kid," and I think that counts for something.

It Was Shawn Michaels!

Remember my cryptic Waiting for this past Wednesday, where I hinted at (read: blatantly beat you all over the heads with) the fact that I had interviewed my favorite wrestler of all time?

Sure you do. It was exceedingly well written, witty, and blah blah blah. Right.

Anyway, since my article has now gone live on WWE.com, I can safely say that the interview is/was with Shawn Michaels--my all-time favorite WWE Superstar.

And you can check out the link to that article right here.

And you can also rest assured that this will be the last bit of ridiculous self-promotion that I'll indulge in. Promise. : )

However, since this is my last hurrah at pandering, I might as well play this one up for all it's worth. The article is about the lead up to the Royal Rumble, WWE's first pay-per-view event of 2012, and always a huge deal in wrestling as it's the first pay-pay-view to build towards WrestleMania in April.

The Rumble takes place tomorrow, and I'll (obviously) be watching.

The interview made its rounds all over the Internet, as Michaels is, arguably, the greatest wrestler of all time and people want to know what he thinks of the business today.

So, yeah. Got to talk to a guy I've been watching (with awe) on television since I was a little kid. That was cool, and something totally unexpected. Also, I didn't say anything too stupid or embarrassing. With me, that's always a plus.

Check it out if you're so inclined, and thanks for indulging me, Exfanders. Enjoy your Saturday!

Panel to Panel

Because I'm in a cliche-y kind of mood this morning, I'd like to start this post out with the following, staggeringly insightful statement: Life is funny sometimes.

Told you it'd be cliche-y.

But tired old cliches are both tired and old precisely because they're usually quite true. And, despite the validity and/or ridiculousness of that previous sentence, I do have a point I'd like to make today. Only, as with most things when it comes to my writing, it's taking me a little while to get there.

I just find it funny--not "haha funny," mind you--that just a couple weeks ago, I was stressed out to the max, worrying about every possible future event that might have been on my horizon. As I've talked about, just before Christmas, I left a job that I had spent the past two years doing, working with truly wonderful, smart people.

I'd carved out a nice little thing for myself, and I was content with it.

But, as life tends to do, an opportunity arose that I couldn't ignore. And then, when I wished that there might be some kind of sign to help me make a decision about what to do--take a new gig or stick with the one I had--a sign literally fell on my head and all but made the decision for me.

Still, I was hesitant and more than a little angry and sad at the way things went down.

But in the end I knew that I had to make a move. And now, two weeks into the new job, I'm glad I did. Don't get me wrong--I am by no means an optimist, and I fully understand that every job has its ups and downs and sometimes the downs can be crushing. And I still miss the people I used to work with, but I'm very fortunate that I've been able to stay in touch with a good number of them.

But the way things are now, I get to spend the majority of my day writing.

Like, for a living.

After being an editor for seven years and working on everything from high school textbooks to how-to guides on laying tile, from interviews with pet psychics (Note to Self: Must write a post about that, one day) to a book on built-in furniture, I've always had a...let's say, love/hate relationship with writers.

And I've always wanted to write my own stuff, obviously, but as an editor, that can be poison. So I all but knocked that thought out of my head.

Sure, Nathaniel and I write on this blog every day and quite a few people read what we lay down on the keys. But for me, at least, Exfanding has always been my only venue to get my work out there. Nathaniel, on the other hand, writes for GameCola and produces an insane number of YouTube videos--both of which garner an impressive number of readers and watchers.

Now, though, I have a new creative outlet (that's WWE.com, kiddies) and, like I said, I spend my days writing.

And that's just fine with me.

Toy Stories

Let's talk toys.

A strange (fragmented) sentence, coming from my keyboard? Perhaps. But just yesterday it dawned on me that, at my new job, I was actually encouraged to bring in toys--sorry, action figures--to make my desk look more "presentable."

It didn't sink in at the time how...awesome...that is.

See, working at a place where action figures are not only acceptable, but encouraged? Yeah, I never figured I'd get to a place like that.

But here I am, and I can honestly say it's pretty cool.

To every job I've held (which, at this point, that's several), I've brought a few constants--a copy of Shakespeare's Tragedies that i picked up at a library book sale, The Harvard Classics edition of Marlowe-Shakespeare and a beaten up copy of Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym--both from that same library sale.

There's also the two books on Abe Lincoln quotations and a cool little paperweight shaped like a pencil with the words, "Make Your Mark" engraved in it.

Those things come with me, always.

But the toys? Not so much. So now I'm gonna throw this out to all you Exfanders. I have a couple of toys displayed--wrestling figures from years ago, a new CM Punk figure that came out last month, and a mini-bust of Wolverine (oh, yeah, and many of my co-workers are way into comics, so that stuff is cool, too).

But I need more stuff. Any suggestions on what toys are cool, or what toys will look good?

Did Someone Say Comics?

Ya know, I’m just realizing that I haven’t written much about comics in a good long while.

I guess I’ve just been pretty wrapped up in the new job and as a result, I’ve been enmeshed in the world of professional wrestling. Which is okay, since Exfanding is a pop culture blog.

Also, Nathaniel once wrestled on the independent circuit back in the late '90s. Ring name? Grizzly Adams, Jr. Things started to spiral out of control for him, however, when he and his tag team partner (a bear, naturally) had a parting of ways.

Right. So.

Back in the Real World, I do feel remiss in not talking about my beloved funnybooks, but as I scramble to come up with a topic to talk about for today (that's not related to Nathaniel, bears, and indy wrestling in the 1990s), I'm realizing that I just haven't read that many comics in the past couple of weeks.

Which makes writing about them pretty difficult.

Now, I've certainly bought plenty of comics, sure, but they've all met the same, sad, floor-pile fate. And looking at that ever-growing, Lovecraftian pile of books on my floor gets on my nerves, let me tell you.

The whole stockpiling thing is a part of the comic fan buying cycle that has always confused--Why buy something if you're not going to read it, right? Call it obsessive dorkyness, call it insanity, call it whatever you want.

I do it, and it needs to stop.

So I've come to a conclusion--I need to start dialing back on the amount of books I'm buying, Big Time. Let's call this an official addendum to my New Year's resolutions.

I'll let you know how I make out.

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 1

Welcome to the very first Waiting for Wednesday of 2012! To celebrate this column’s fourth (!!!) year of existence, I have something special.

And, by special, I mean, self-promoting. Disgustingly, unabashedly self-promoting.

I mentioned last week that I started a new job at World Wrestling Entertainment, working for their website. My first day at the gig was Monday and since then I’ve had two articles published on the site--both of them dealing with the CM Punk/Dolph Ziggler feud heading into the Royal Rumble.

If you know what the heck all that means, and if you’re so inclined, you can check the pieces out here and here.

I know, I know.

But I did warn you about the self promotion, so you can't be that mad at me. Also, as long as I'm a self-aware self-promoter, I think it's okay. Hang on...lemme check in with Nathaniel on that, though.

Whoops. Actually, he's busy writing an article for GameCola, so he can't answer me right now.

[Editor's Note: Now that's how you burn your blogging buddy! And don't worry, kids. I don' mean nuthin' by it.]

Okay. Let's get this thing back on (some sort of) track. It's Wednesday, as you know, and like I've done (nearly) every Wednesday for the past (nearly) four years, I'd like to talk comics. Specifically, I'd like to talk comics that I'm looking forward to buying when I head to the LCS today (or at some point this week).

There are a number of books that are lighting up the old Exfanding radar today, but because I have quite a bit going on this morning, I'll only cover one of them. it's okay, though, because that one book is a good one.

Let's talk The Goon. Mostly because I like talking about The Goon, but also because, since the title has gone to a bi-monthly shipping schedule, lots of time has to pass before I can get my Eric Powell fix.

But, happily, today is that...um...bi-week...because issue 37 is sitting in your local comics shop right now.
What can we expect from Powell this time around? Madcap adventure? Gangsters fighting zombies? A pie-eating contest with a skunk ape?

Actually...none of those things. Nope, in today's issue, Powell tackles unions rights. No, really. Check out the description of the issue, below.

When several workers die in a girdle-factory fire due to poor safety conditions and an out-of-control taco cart, the union is in an uproar. But when the fat cats bring in a supernatural union buster, there's only one man for the workers to turn to: The Goon.

"The Goon is the product of a contentedly demented mind."-Comic Book Resources

"A great gurgling gumbo of EC Comics horror, Monty Python wit, and 1930s pulp."-EW.com

As always, I'll be first in line to pick up this latest issue of Powell's brilliant and irreverent series. With the new bi-monthly shipping schedule, there's plenty of time for new readers to catch up between issues, so you should go do that. Now.

Speaking of going...

Before I head out, I'll ask it for the first time in 2012. What are you Waiting for?

Big Life Stuff Redux

Bittersweet.

That's a good word to describe my feelings today.

It's my last day at a job filled with people I've come to respect and love. Publishing is a uniquely tough business, and one that has become increasingly so in recent years. Production schedules and turnaround time has shrunk on a level parallel to the diminishing salaries and the increasing hours spent at the office, or with pages taken home on nights and weekends.

You do this job because you love it. I've heard that a lot over the past several years. And, while that may be true, you really do this job because of the people you get to work with.

They keep you going. They make it fun to come into whatever deadline mess you're currently embroiled in. You manage to laugh at the Thing That Will Keep You Here All Night.

That's something pretty special, and I can honestly say that I'll miss it dearly.

Yes, I'm on to other things. Yes, I'm happy and honored by the chance to branch out into a new field with exciting possibilities.

But I'm sad to leave my job here. I'm sad to leave this desk that has become my life for the past 20 months. I'm sad to leave the people I've become friends with. I'm sad to leave traditional publishing.

I'm sad to leave books.

But it's time for the next chapter. The New Thing. I'm taking a week off, and then I'm diving right in.

I'm going to work for the WWE. Hang on. Let me type those words again. I'm going to work for the WWE.

Somewhere along the time stream...

The 8-year-old Alex has just dropped his Hulk Hogan action figure.

The 12-year-old Alex has just stopped trying to Super Kick his little brother on the trampoline.

The 16-year-old Alex is still buying that Stone Cold t-shirt at the mall, even though he's already spent most of his money on CDs (remember those?) at Tower Records (remember those?).

The two-weeks-ago Alex is amazed at how quickly things can change.

This is a Big Deal for me. It's new and exciting and a little scary. But I'm at a point in my life where I think I need a little scary.

So.

To the next thing.

I'll let you know how it goes.

The Best Thing in Wrestling

There's something you should know about me. I'm a wrestling fan.

Sure, I don't follow it as closely as I used to, and I don't follow it nearly as closely as I (crazily) follow comics, but I am, without a doubt, a wrestling fan.

I've always been a WWE guy, starting with Hulk Hogan when I was a little kid and then coming back for Steve Austin.

But, as I've said in the past, my favorite wrestler is, was, and always will be Shawn Michaels. (See what I did there? If you're a wrestling fan, you probably see how clever I am.)

Now, I've written about wrestling a few times in the past, including the heartwarming tale of my "meeting" Mick Foley, but I've been meaning to write about it more often.

Because, like baseball and comics, wrestling has pretty much always been there with me. I watched it weekly through the late 1990s and the "Attitude Era" in WWE, where superstars sometimes said quasi-curse words, and there were exceedingly violent matches.

The characters during that era, though, were what kept me interested. They were, after all, pretty amazing. Stone Cold and The Rock, Triple H and The Undertaker. Jericho, the Hardys, Trish Stratus.

It was a classic time in wrestling, for sure.

I was really into it when Shawn Michaels made his return in the 2000s, but I drifted for several years and didn't follow things again until The Heartbreak Kid had his last match at Wrestlemania 26.

When I came back (again), I found that I wasn't taken by the characters. Lots of guys seemed to be derivative. Lots of knock-offs of old heroes. Steve Austin's character was so special because he tip-toed the line of good guy and bad guy, baby face and heel.

He played it down the middle, and dangerous, and people liked that. They related to that. It's why not a one of us can relate to Superman, but we can all relate to Batman.

The world is full of grey areas, and Austin's character lived in that grey area. And he made more money for the company than anyone else, ever.

Recently, WWE has leaned towards the cookie-cutter good guys and the typical bad guy wrestlers, with story angles reminiscent of the 1980s. Good for the kiddies; not so much for the adults.

And, of course, it's the adults who shell out the $40 bucks (!) on the once-a-month Pay-Per-View events, wherein all the major angles are resolved. (Personally, I order Wrestlemania, and that's it. I think last year, that show, in HD, cost nearly $70.)

While that very PG attitude is admirable, I guess, it's also kinda boring for longtime fans.

Just like in comics, the wrestling fanbase is getting older, and they've seen it all before. And if you've seen it before, you don't need to see it again. The wrestling fan wants new, and different, and, frankly, shocking.

Enter CM Punk.

Criminally underused by WWE decision makers, Punk is new, and different, and exciting. And shocking. His in-ring talent is unquestioned, and his ability on the microphone is up there with the greatest of all time.

An Indy legend, Punk has had the respect of the hardest of the hardcore fans for years.

He should be wearing the Championship belt. He should be on TV a whole lot more than he is. But that's not what I want to talk about, because I could go on forever. Recently, it's been announced that Punk is leaving WWE at the end of his current contract.

A couple of weeks ago on WWE's Monday Night Raw TV show, Punk cut a promo telling fans exactly why he's leaving.

The best wrestling promos integrate elements of both the character's fictional story line and the wrestler's real feelings. Punk's promo did that, possibly better than any other promo I've ever seen.

Below you'll find that promo in its entirety.

Real or fake, or somewhere in between, it's the thing that's made WWE must-see television again. More importantly, though, it's made wrestling relevant again.

Enjoy.