Way back on episode 53 from August 13th, 2013, Sean
Spurge’s ‘Buy or Sell’ featured a release list with an over/under 4.5 –
to be released within a year.

The list was: Aksana, Camacho, Curt Hawkins, Epico, Ezekial Jackson,
Hunico, JTG, Rosa Mendez, Yoshi Tatsu, Santino, Sin Cara, and Zack
Ryder.

Since then Aksana, Camacho, Curt Hawkins, Ezekial Jackson, JTG, and
Yoshi Tatsu have been released – five of those six just today (6/12/14)!

Perhaps the most soul–crushing sight ever.

I felt sick to my stomach after my body regained feeling from becoming numb from shock. When Seth Rollins swung that chair into the back of Roman Reigns and then repeatedly to a stunned Dean Ambrose, guys that were practically his brothers, it felt as if by some strange voodoo that those chair shots were striking me down as well.

This couldn’t be real life, could it? No you idiot, of course not; it’s professional wrestling: a scripted show where good guys decide to throw morality out the window at the drop of a dime just as often as baddies see the light when you least expect it. But this one…this one hurt me down to my very soul.

Out of all the people I know, no one loved The Shield more than I did. Sure, I definitely knew some people that were even more excited about Rollins’ work as Tyler Black on the independent scene. Same goes for Ambrose as Jon Moxley. And…alright, I don’t think anyone really saw Roman Reigns coming. But the moment these guys burst onto the main roster as a trio, I became as big a mark for the group as it gets. I found that in this day and age of being an adult wrestling fan in the internet era, where we all know way too much, they became the first entity in the industry that I truly cared for on a kayfabe level in well over a decade. Sure, I love(d) CM Punk so much that he ultimately cracked my Mount Rushmore of all-time favorite performers, but even with him, my adulation was seemingly as much about how he was changing the company from a real life standpoint as it was for his role on air.

But The Shield made me feel like a kid again. They made me root for them to win every match, whether it made booking sense or not, because that’s the way you’re supposed to blindly support something that you love. You cheer for the guys you like, not for the writing team to get it right. As adults, we lose sight of that fact, and I so very much loved that The Shield made me remember what that feeling was all about.

The “Hounds of Justice” made a lot of noise and turned a lot of heads in the year and a half that they were around (which is an eternity in modern wrestling years), but just like everything else the business, at some point, it all had to come to an end.

Of the three members of the team, they were all great in their own way, but Seth Rollins was my guy from the beginning. And over the course of time, while The Shield was going from good, to great, to amazing, to arguably the greatest faction in the history of the business, Rollins surpassed everyone on the roster from a personal level and eventually became my pick for favorite overall, even ahead of Daniel Bryan during his historic rise to claim the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

So it would seem only fitting that when it came time for The Chair Shot Heard Around The World, of course Rollins was the one to deliver it and break the group up. This all, naturally, in the face of the fact that Ambrose or Reigns would have been much more obvious and rightful choices to be turncoats for their own reasons, and that Rollins was not only the least likely of the three, but damn near a non-factor in the discussion.

I actually did not get to see it until the next day, as I turned off Raw with an hour left to go and attempted to avoid spoilers all throughout the next day, although plenty of hints were out there that I knew something was up. (To hear the story of my day trying to piece together what exactly happened on Raw for the hours before I was able to watch, knowing full well something huge did go down, and most likely with The Shield, skip to the 7:30 mark of this past week’s episode of Doing the Job.) What my eyes saw when I finally got to witness that moment was something I was not ready for or willing to accept.

I couldn’t grasp it. I can’t grasp it. Despite Jim Ross no longer being in the company, I still can’t help but hear his voice in my head screaming, “Why Rollins?! For the love of God, tell me why!!” I felt so sick and betrayed by this act of fiction that I could not even stomach a real dinner that night, resorting to sadly eating brownies in order to merely comfort myself. It was bad enough that the group had to break up, but again, that was going to happen at some point anyway. But if that was going to happen, Rollins was the most obvious choice to remain good so as to get revenge, acting vengeance with exciting offense that the crowd could totally get behind. He was supposed to thwart off the evil, not be the one to embrace it. I’m not going to go all Star Wars, “You were the chosen one!!” here, but he would have been a main ingredient in the revenge being so sweet.

And now? I’m still wearing those childlike goggles in all of this, trying to figure out how I should proceed with my fandom. Seth Rollins is my favorite guy, but can I really back him after he broke up my favorite group and tore my heart out of my chest? Those are questions you ask yourself as a kid, not an all-knowing adult. To be honest, that’s what is sort of great about this. I’m someone that naturally enjoys heels over faces; when CM Punk switches alignment I not only had no issue with the move, I reveled in it.

But if you love something in pro wrestling as much as I loved The Shield, and you don’t feel this way anymore, emotionally torn and pained over a heinous action that your favorite good guy committed, then quite honestly, you shouldn’t be watching; the magic is gone.

As I reflect and go through the 12 steps of recovery from that tragic Monday Night, I feel like that is the light that shines through from this whole thing. After all these years and so many (non-intentionally) dreadful moments that have been endured, The Shield and a Seth Rollins betrayal has found a way, even in the face of disaster, to illustrate that there is a magic to all of this that is still possible no matter how old you get.

That is why I always have and always will believe in The Shield, and will never hesitate to display the Symbol of Excellence with someone that feels the same. Thank you Shield, for providing some of the fondest times I’ve ever had as a fan of this business, and for putting a smile on my face a mile wide every time you were featured. Extreme Rules 2014 will forever be on my short list of favorite moments, captured on camera by Denny Lugz as proof of the children’s butterflies we all are supposed to get every so often. Believe that.

(P.S. from author: But seriously, Rollins, how could you?!?!)

Daniel Bryan has had a tough go of it since winning the title at Wrestlemania 30.

For nearly eight months, we watched one of the biggest underdog stories, perhaps both on screen and off, play out in front of our eyes. As time passed, we anxiously anticipated the seemingly inevitable, grew quizzical when the screwy finishes kept mounting up, spewed fire-like vitriol when it seemed the powers that be were going in another direction, and whipped ourselves into a gleeful frenzy when things got back on track in the final weeks.

Suffice it to say, the build to Daniel Bryan’s WWE World Heavyweight Championship win at Wrestlemania XXX was legendary. As was the moment he won it. Finally, our guy had reached the mountain top, and it was glorious. Sure, often times in life the chase is most thrilling than the catch, but the rewards of the title reign itself was something that was going to be epic as well.

To this point, tragedy and errors have befallen nearly every moment of this run since Wrestlemania. In fairness, most of what has transpired cannot be blamed on Bryan himself, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.

Right off the bat, Daniel Bryan gets married to Brie Bella and misses the second Raw after the big title win to go on his honeymoon. This is the one aspect out of all of these problems that could have been avoided. I am not trying to sound heartless; I understand how important the honeymoon is right after the wedding. And to ordinary people with ordinary jobs, by all means, go enjoy yourself. But Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella are not ordinary people with ordinary jobs. When it became known to them that he was going to have the most important moment of his career and become the face of the company, a company in which any time off could bury a star’s momentum, their plans for the honeymoon should have been postponed. And Brie, working in the same business, surely could have understood that.

When you become the most important person in the business, missing even a single Raw is a huge detriment and sets plans back more than just the one week; who knows what they could have done if he were there to build a story. Maybe we would have even avoided the feud he ended up having, but let’s not jump ahead. The fact of the matter is, aside from a birth or a death, that was the last possible time to take time off.

And of course, when he comes back for the following week, that’s when the tragic news hits that Bryan’s father suddenly passed away. How could you not feel absolutely horrible for him? You have to give him all of the respect in the world for even showing up to the building that night. But speaking strictly in terms pertaining to work here, the timing couldn’t have been worse, since it used up another Raw essentially without him. Yes, he came out for the opening segment and was brutally assaulted by Kane, which made perfect sense for why he didn’t appear the rest of the night, but had this real life tragedy not happened, he likely would have played a much bigger factor on this show, especially having already missed an entire episode prior to this.

If you’re counting, this is basically two of the first three Raws that Bryan missed right out of the gate from winning the title at Wrestlemania. As we all know, wrestling fans are as fickle as they come. When coming down from a high such as that night in New Orleans provided, something like this is like a freefall for people to hop off the bandwagon.

Then there is the storyline with Kane itself. If it would have been a one-off for Extreme Rules, this would have been absolutely fine. But that wasn’t the case, and not only has the story been cheesy, and Brie’s acting even worse, but most importantly, Bryan has looked super weak throughout this whole process. With all of that momentum from ‘Mania, this was the time to ramp up Bryan’s toughness from a ten to an 11. He proved his fighting spirit going for the gold, now we needed to see his ferocity with the belt(s) on him. In general, considering how over he was, this is when we needed to see his credibility be built in the badass, take no prisoners department. This is not to say he needed to be Steve Austin, but surely he needed to be someone we could believe that could put down all comers…someone who was truly the best.

As M2J stated on episode 90 of our Doing the Job podcast leading up to Extreme Rules, Daniel Bryan should have eviscerated Kane to really make a statement. Sure, he ultimately defeated him in the main event, but the show closed completely opposite of how Bryan needed to be booked: with Kane taking every shot Bryan had, plus going through a flaming table…and sitting up to close the show as his music played to an arena filled with red lighting. I completely get what WWE was doing, but they got it backwards. Instead of building up Daniel Bryan, they built up Kane. Can I get a Stone Cold “What?!” please?

Then, to double down on backwards storytelling, they continue the feud, and for God only knows what reason, make Bryan look even weaker by having him COWARDLY RUN AWAY from Kane. Of course, the story they are trying to convey is that his wife is in harm’s way because of the Devil’s favorite demon and he needs to get her out of there. But that makes him look bad in the process. The way this should have been booked was to have Bryan’s actions tell of the story of: “You want to assault my wife and I? I am the mother effing WWE World Heavyweight Champion so in order to defend both of those things, the two most important things to me, I am not going to run, but I am going to stand here, fight, and kick your big red ass straight back to hell.” Can you imagine the crowd reaction to this? And the shot of credibility that you give to your champion?! I am old enough now to not armchair book every little thing, but this one seemed painfully obvious to go with, and even if it didn’t, what played out was just as obvious to avoid. And again, Kane’s character is there to build Daniel Bryan, not make him look like a wimp who is lucky to scrape by.

That takes us to this past week’s Raw where Bryan came out to the ring and awkwardly told the fans that he needed neck surgery and had no idea when he would be back. Was this kayfabe or real? It seemed like no one knew until it was later confirmed online because of how out of completely left field it was. Yet another unfortunate break in this saga. As of this writing, the news was just released that he underwent successful surgery and that typical recovery time for this is 2-3 months, which would place his return right around Summerslam.

WWE released a statement that they will make an announcement on this upcoming Raw for the future of the title, but we would have to imagine that it will be stripped and likely vacated, and in all honesty, rightfully so if the champ has to miss that much time.

The concern here is that first impressions are everything. Not counting the few moments from Summerslam (nor his World Heavyweight Championship run from 2011-12 in which the title played second fiddle to the WWE Championship), this was Daniel Bryan’s first title run as “the man”. We can only hope that the sour taste that this left doesn’t stay in the mouths of the WWE higher ups, causing them to lose faith for another go ‘round sometime after he comes back healthy. We’ve all seen how the company can act in that regard.

But for now, if Daniel Bryan is to be stripped of the title, it seems only fitting considering how unfortunate the run with the gold was for the brief time that he had it.

This is how the WWE World Heavyweight Championship reign ends
Not with a bang, but with a whimper

Sheamus has been heavily featured in the sheets over the past week.

The dreaded dirt sheets. Sources say this. Rumor has it about that. It’s like those cheesy gossip magazines for women that we just can’t get enough of, even if we know half of this crap is probably just something that some guy said somewhere, was passed along as “news”, and then spread like wild fire. But what the hell, we all read them, so let’s break down the recent dirt that is in these sheets.

I will attempt to post in this space every week or so about the current goings on in the world of internet wrestling gossip with my own thoughts and opinions on matters I deem important enough to discuss. Check back frequently for updates!

(Normally, in an attempt to be a reputable writer, I would post links or cite other websites with the research for this article, but these are dirt sheets we’re talking about here. You can find the same info on dozens of sites, and when it comes to them, I’m quite certain that credibility isn’t really a factor.)

THE DIRT: Despite recent reports that WWE’s higher-ups felt that the “Yes!” chant was over more than Daniel Bryan, they still plan to forge forward with him ranked as their number two star, behind John Cena.

MY TAKE: Considering that they just spent the better part of a year building and pushing this guy, culminating in him completely owning their biggest show in history, yeah, I’d hope they wouldn’t decide to just take the ball out of his hands. Besides, even if the chant is more over than him, who the hell is the one that got the damn thing over in the first place and continues to do so?? They’re like a tag team at this point, so what difference does it make as long as something is massively over? Don’t get cute, WWE.

(Editor’s Note: This article was written before Daniel Bryan’s announced neck surgery, which will keep him out for a month or so. When he comes back, I’d bet that both the “Yes!” chant and the superstar will be over enough to continue to push him as that number two.)

THE DIRT: Supposedly, Sheamus and Sin Cara (2: Electric Boogaloo) got into a backstage fight, in which it was reported that the former Hunico was victorious. Sheamus then took to Twitter to respond, “Don’t remember being beaten up by Sin Cara backstage… It’s just how Mexicans & we Irishmen hug it out fella.”

MY TAKE: Big deal. When you’re on a team, which is basically what WWE is, stuff like this is going to happen; you handle your business and move on. As far as Sin Cara getting the upper hand, however, if it is true…ouch.

THE DIRT: When Sheamus delivered the Brogue Kick to Dean Ambrose in the battle royal for the United States Championship, that was intended to be his heel turn, but fans didn’t catch on.

MY TAKE: I can’t fathom this is true. Kayfabe-wise, regardless of heel or face, the man is in a position to win a title, hit his finisher, didn’t cheat, won the title, and then celebrated all face-like up the ramp on both Raw and Smackdown. How can that possibly be interpreted as a heel turn??? I’m going to give WWE a little more credit than that, even if the plan is likely for Sheamus to turn sooner rather than later. Speaking of…

THE DIRT: There is talk of putting Sheamus in Evolution, possibly once Batista leaves to promote his movies.

MY TAKE: Props to your Doing the Job hosts for calling this one on last week’s episode of the pod diddly before this was publicly reported if this one comes to fruition. I can see that being a good fit.

THE DIRT: There has been renewed talks of unifying the IC and US titles with Sheamus and Bad News Barrett, which is a hot topic considering the upcoming tour of the United Kingdom.

MY TAKE: And props to M2J for calling this one (again, if it comes to light), on that same episode of your favorite weekly pro wrestling podcast.

THE DIRT: David Benoit, son of former World Champion, Chris, was scheduled to make his in-ring debut for a promotion being run by Smith Hart, brother of former WWE Champion, Bret. This came to an end when Chris Jericho intervened, pointing out that Benoit had not received proper training and was not ready for a match, protecting the kid.

MY TAKE: I hope I am wrong, but my gut tells me Smith was trying to make a buck on the Benoit name, and Jericho diplomatically called him out on it. Good for Y2J.

THE DIRT: WWE has been brainstorming ideas for new shows to air on the Network. Amongst those listed on the sheets, I read this verbatim: “Unscripted reality shows that explore the daily lives of Superstars, like seen on Total Divas…”

MY TAKE: Unscripted…LOL.

THE DIRT: It had already been reported that Batista is not in a program with Daniel Bryan for Payback because he did not want to look bad jobbing to the champ on his way out to promote his movie. Newer reports from a “source close to the situation” disagreed, basically saying that Vince is twisting the story and wants to public to believe that is real. This source claims that Batista has been screwed out of money, booking, and has had promises broken regarding his schedule and movie promotion, and that he would have no problem jobbing to Bryan otherwise.

MY TAKE: Honestly, I really want the story to be that Batista is a jerk. Maybe he is. But it’s not like Vince is any less of a shady character himself when it comes to this stuff. Who the hell knows who to believe, and who cares, as long as Batista is gone as soon as possible.

THE DIRT: Reports claim that John Cena wants to work with Big E at some point, perhaps after Summerslam.

MY TAKE: Ugh. Please, don’t make me sit through that.

THE DIRT: I will rarely give TNA the respect of even talking about their horrible company, but I found it humorous that, according to the sheets, there was nearly a walk out by their production crew in the middle of last week’s tapings, because they supposedly have been owed money. After the threats, checks were promptly issued.

MY TAKE: Good. Too bad they didn’t go through with it, though, for all of us. In my eyes, the crew sold out for the money, because now their show gets to run on television for another week.

THE DIRT: Apparently WWE has changed their minds on plans to break up The Shield and will not be going through with it any time soon.

MY TAKE: Yes! Yes! Yes!

If you listened to this past week’s episode of Doing the Job (episode 89), then you’ll have heard M2J, Denny and I discuss WWE’s Signature Sounds DVD, which breaks down the top 25 entrance themes in the company’s history. Considering I am a guy who has always loved comprising lists on just about anything (I actually have a list of my top 500 songs ever…like a five, with two zeroes in front of it), I felt it would be a fun little exorcise to do a top 25 of my own here.

There’s no mathematical equation to how I broke this down, but clearly the main factor was the piece of music itself. The wrestler’s character and overall entrance was kept in mind as well in most cases, as was the emotion it elicited upon hearing it. I did not, however, limit it to just Jim Johnston tracks (the guy who writes/composes most of the tracks for the superstars) and included songs from outside/mainstream bands as well. Where it is not obvious what the entrance theme in question is, I will parenthetically specify.

Hopefully you decided to read up until now instead of jumping straight into the list to allow me to give you the disclaimer that this is simply a list of personal favorites, and is a living, breathing thing where, like all music, any track can jump or fall a couple of spots on any given day. Lastly, something like this is clearly subjective, so to quote Rita before our show begins each week, if you have a problem with anything, please write it an email and go f*#% yourself. Enjoy the list.

25. Kane (Slow Chemical)
I really dug Kane’s original music he used during the Attitude Era, but with the evolution of his character, I felt like Finger Eleven’s version really nailed home the unmasked version that came to be.

24. Mr. McMahon
As M2J pointed out on the podcast, this was originally the theme for the Royal Rumble PPV in 1999 (as in, “Austin, you have no chance in hell of winning the Rumble). But No Chance in Hell truly became the backbone of what the Mr. McMahon gimmick was, and could not have been a better choice for him and, at the time, the Corporation.

23. Curtis Axel
Whoa! What the hell is Curtis Axel doing anywhere near ANY top 25 list of, well, anything?? The truth is, Mr. Perfect’s theme is excellent, and, in my opinion, when they remixed and updated the track for his son, it became that much better. Simple as that.

22. CM Punk (This Fire Burns)
I’ve personally never been a fan of Killswitch Engage, but that has nothing to do with this list. Talk about a song that fit a character so perfectly for what CM “my only addiction is competition” Punk was when he came up at the time. Even more so, when you go back and watch Money in the Bank from 2011, I couldn’t think of anything to get that crowd even more riled up than it already was. Rumor has had it that Randy Orton was originally the one who wanted this song before they gave it to Punk, but who knows.

21. Hollywood Hulk Hogan
I mean, it’s Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix, come on. The opening to that song is gold, and once it kicks in after a few seconds, you’re totally jamming. Of course, considering the list this falls on, if any Tom, Dick, or Harry came out to this, the song wouldn’t sniff it. But Hogan played it up so well with the boas and all that it became something else.

20. D’Lo Brown
Come on man, you lookin’ at the real deal now. Here’s your receipt! I was just down with this one; sue me.

19. Goldberg
I really don’t know if there’s a more powerful, imposing theme in wrestling. I was never a Goldberg guy, but for real, if you were going to lead an army into war and had to pick one theme, I don’t know how you don’t pick this. Like, if I were in the ring awaiting competition, having no clue who is on the other side of that curtain when I heard this go off, I’d already be crapping bricks. Taking into context the Goldberg character and the fans doing the slow chanting of his name with it, and that totally embodied who he was.

18. Evolution
Not much to say here. It’s just a good song that feels right for the group. It’s nice to be able to hear it again regularly now that the faction has reunited.

17. Randy Orton (Burn in My Light)
Yes, this one, from when he was a younger Orton without all of the ugly tattoos and still had the whole world in front of him. Not the crappy Voices song that embodies everything boring about that later version. To speak further on reading random Orton rumors pertaining to his music, I’ve read that he never actually liked his original song, but that’s too bad, because I did.

16. Christian (Just Close Your Eyes – both Waterproof Blonde and Story of the Year versions)
I was a huge fan of Christian’s theme before he left to waste time in TNA. Not only did he seem to be the only guy who could pull off a female vocalizing his entrance, but it actually fit really well, also. When he came back (to somehow no fanfare whatsoever on WWECW, but that’s a whole other thing) with a more upbeat version by Story of the Year, I was super with it, and still am to this day. Very catchy.

15. Eddie Guerrero (Lie, Cheat, Steal)
Such a smooth track, this is. As mentioned already, there are some themes that embody wrestler’s persona. This one, however, flat out tells you the entire gimmick – he lies, he cheats, he steals. You have to respect that.

14. Triple H (The Game)
Years ago, this would have ranked much higher, and perhaps I’m too low in this because quite frankly, this is a kickass song. But first, I feel like the song is only one part of an overall package of the entrance, and second, I feel like I’ve just seen that entrance way too many times over the years. Still, I don’t know how you put this on before something major you’re about to do and not get pumped.

13. Goldust
Alright, here’s where I have the strange task of acknowledging how great this song is, yet somewhat sort of going against it. I agree, it’s an all-time great. But I feel like over the years the love for this song by fans has taken on a life of its own. It is very, very good. But it’s not top five like so many people feel, I’m sorry.,

12. Shane McMahon
Yes, M2J, Here Comes the Money is up here. Straight up, this song is fun, and like many others on the list, it fit him so well once be broke away from his dad. One of the biggest reasons I’m upset Shane hasn’t been involved with WWE in a while is because I don’t get to regularly hear this song. Smell my cologne, it’s called brand new money…brilliant.

11. John Cena (Basic Thuganomics)
Let’s double up on the hip-hop. This is one of those things that some people think is corny, and others are totally with; there’s generally not much in between. I felt like the lyrics that Cena laid down here were fantastic for what he was trying to accomplish with this theme.

10. Rob Van Dam
Even considering that I rank his theme in the top ten, it’s still a shame that WWE never had the rights to “Walk” by Pantera when RVD came over from ECW, since, aside from it being an awesome song, the crowd interaction was excellent. Still, once they had Breaking Point revamp and add lyrics to his original lifeless WWE theme, I felt like they had a winner on their hands.

9. Hulk Hogan (Real American)
I can picture the “Yeah! Hulk Hogan!” now. Despite my feelings on Hogan, I mean, come on. It’s the most well-known and iconic theme in the history of the business, and rightfully so. You just can’t be in a bad mood when this song is on. It makes me want to no-sell and finger-point all over the place. YOU!!

8. Mr. Ass
There is a lot of people going hell mother-effing-yes right now, and a lot of other people who completely don’t get it. This song had so many levels of amazing that it is indescribable. Plus, it makes me laugh every time. Billy Gunn sure does love butts.

7. Triple H (My Time)
I believe Trips got this song only a month or so after Billy Gunn got that Ass-Man theme. Anyway, I really, really miss this one. I can’t imagine the Triple H that he became having this song, but for the post-DX, hungry Hunter, the ample aggression displayed here really hit the mark. Lots of replayability if you haven’t heard it in a while.

6. The Brood
This theme, much like the entrance that accompanied it, is a total spectacle. I genuinely feel bad for any fans that came along after 1999 that didn’t get to hear this on a regular basis. I also never realized how many other people loved this as much as I did and recognized it as an all-time great until recently. That makes me happy.

5. D-Generation X
This is what got the top spot on WWE’s list. While I don’t put it there, it’s absolutely in the discussion. Denny seemed to have some beef with that on the show but don’t let it fool you; back in the day we were all about that DX life. Say what you will, but the green and black never leaves the bloodstream. Going back to the song itself, one of the greatest moments in any theme is where we get the “Break it down!” You know it’s just on from that point. To me, if you were to give the Attitude Era a theme song, this is it, and it’s not close. That has to mean something.

(I felt it important enough to give the Run DMC version during the McMahon-Helmsley era in 2000 a shout out because that version is super underrated and seems to have been almost forgotten about over the course of time.)

(Bonus footnote: Normally I’d shake my head and say, “typical,” when noticing that Triple H appears in some fashion four times on a top 25 list. But, like…I’m the one making the list. Can I get a Ron Simmons “damn!” please?)

4. Edge
Directly from the get-go, this theme is a complete shot of adrenaline every time, and is the main ingredient in what makes up one the greatest entrances of all-time. It is an absolute energy burst of a track, and it’s about as damn near perfect of a theme for Edge to have had. For whatever it’s worth, my biggest back-and-forth on this list was choosing between this one and…

3. Shawn Michaels
But after all was said and done, this had to be in the top three; it’s just too iconic. It is awesome that he has had this for over two decades now, and the theme has almost become synonymous with great matches. Plus, I’m also partial to the name that the girls are clamoring for before it kicks in.

2. Chris Jericho
Speaking of guys who have had the same music forever, aside from a minor tweak from the first few appearances way back in ’99, Jericho has had the same music throughout his entire tenure with the company. There is no other music I would rather enter a room to, and the opening countdown serves basically as a signal of awesomeness to come. It is my belief that no other theme completes their wrestler’s entire entrance like Break the Walls Down does for Y2J.

1. CM Punk (Cult of Personality)
Honestly, it’s almost unfair. Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” was already one of my favorite songs ever. Then in 2004, Rockstar put it in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (my third favorite video game of all-time – you can view my list for that here), which only increased my love for the song as it became one of my favorites to catch in the in-game radio. And finally, CM Punk returned from his walking out with the WWE Title in 2011 with this as his theme. I understand that this list is supposed to specifically take wrestling into account, but that’s too many things not to factor in.

Sure, he was gone for way too short when he left with the belt, but I’ll never forget hearing the opening chords and jumping off of my bed, knowing it was going to be Punk coming back on Raw before he came out, remembering that he used it at the end of his Ring of Honor run. The simple sound effect at the beginning is such a great addition, too. Simply put, the theme just fits.

Honorable mentions: The Nexus, Cryme Time, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Lita, Dolph Ziggler, Mankind, and the most difficult cut of all, Muhammad Hassan.

When Hulk Hogan first announced the concept of the Andre the Giant Memorial battle royal for this year’s Wrestlemania on Monday Night Raw a few weeks back, I was intrigued by the likelihood of what, at first glance, was probably going to be a mix of current and former stars fighting it out in honor of the Eighth Wonder of the World. When the names of midcarder after midcarder kept pouring in, I felt a bit dejected that this could be anything more than a simple reason to get these guys on the show and a “throw you a bone” payday for working the biggest event of the year. But as they’ve put energy into building this and the participants in the match (well, at least some of them), I’ve begun to think that this could be something much more important to those involved, and perhaps should garner a little more of our attention.

We will get to the superstars in a moment, but first, let’s talk about the match itself. Unless he misspoke, or Vince made him say it and decides to do an about-face, Michael Cole referred to the match on commentary as a new “tradition”, leading us to believe that this isn’t a one-off event. If it’s not, that could mean that winning it could have some real bearing going forward, and not just act as an excuse to carry around a trophy or earn a big paycheck.

Personally, and I said so on Doing the Job a couple weeks back, I feel like this should sort of serve a similar purpose as the King of the Ring once did; winning the battle royal could deliver a nice push in status for someone on the rise or perhaps even allow for a future title shot. Andre meant a great deal to the business, so winning something in his memory should carry some significance. I do, however, think that having thirty entrants is a bit much every year, but if they cut it to say about ten, made people have to qualify for it, thus tightening up to match itself, we could really have something here. Although it doesn’t replace having a Money in the Bank match at Wrestlemania in terms of the wildness that that match brings, it does however get superstars of the same ilk vying for a similar goal on the card each year. You can’t tell me this is a bad idea. Seriously, who says no to this?

Anyway, let’s bring it back to this year and break down how the participants can affect this match, or more importantly, how this match can affect them. If you look at certain casinos or online sportsbooks, you can find gambling odds for this match, plus the rest of the Wrestlemania card. For the purpose of this article, I am using Bovada’s online odds to analyze the standouts in this match. (You will find these odds in parentheses and they are current at the time of this writing. For those not savvy to how betting odds work, if something is, for example, “2/1”, this means that you win two dollars for every one dollar you bet, “11/4” would net you 11 for every four dollars wagered, and so on and so forth.) There’s a bunch of participants, but I will only list who I think it notable, in order from longest odds to the favorites.

Titus O’Neil  (50/1)
How do you spell darkhorse? T-I-T-U-S! (I swear, that wasn’t meant to be racist). Obviously, he likely won’t win, but I feel the need to point out that he has kinda, sorta been involved when the favorites of the match come out. Out of all the longshots, Titus has the best chance, and definitely the one of this lot that I can see WWE rolling with should they decide to be unpredictable just for the sake of doing so.

Damien Sandow (25/1)
He won Money in the Bank and then they basically did nothing with him after he unsuccessfully cashed in. Maybe a random shot in the dark here, but stranger things have happened. (Editor’s note: Damien Sandow’s odds have fell all the way to 75/1 as of April 3rd.)

Big E (18/1)
Speaking of guys that have been inexplicably buried, they give him the Intercontinental title, made him look unstoppable for a short while…and within a few months, he’s at the point where he can’t beat a ham sandwich (not a Boar’s Head one, at least). Having Big E win at this point would be a little contradictory to their recent booking, but I can’t think of a better way to instantly reverse those decisions than by having him win. In fact, I feel like a good concept for this match, if they were to want to push him again, would have been to make this for his IC title and have him successfully defend it against 29 other guys, gaining massive credibility. But that point is moot now and chances are, he won’t win so it doesn’t really matter.

The Miz (14/1)
Here is where things get interesting. I think that 16/1 odds for The Miz is way too low and if I were betting, I’d throw a few dollars down here. Chances are, a babyface wins this match for the feel good moment, as M2J has pointed out, but if a heel were to win, it almost has to be The Miz, right? He’s been the most outspoken of the heels (hell, probably the most outspoken of anyone in the match, period), so it would make sense to boost him back out of obscurity with a big victory, also allowing him to boast that he would still be undefeated, albeit only 4-0, at Wrestlemania.

Dolph Ziggler (6/1)
See most of what I just wrote for The Miz, but a face version. If you’ve been paying close attention to Michael Cole’s commentary (I never thought that would ever be recommended by anyone, let alone myself), It seems as if Ziggler may finally be getting out of the doghouse and receiving another push, and, like I just said, this is an instant credibility maker.

The Big Show (2/1)
The good: Firstly, the obvious is that it is a tip of the cap to Andre himself, having the memorial in his honor won by the modern day version of him. Also, it’s no secret that Show’s record, and more importantly, his legacy, is downright pitiful at Wrestlemania, so this would finally be a big win for him on the big stage. Finally, and this is the major one in my opinion, a victory here would almost be like a really nice lifetime achievement award for all of the hard work he has put in as a big man over the years; it would be a really cool moment.

The bad: The Big Show wins, none of the younger guys get a push from it, and it goes against everything that I have said this battle royal should represent.

Alexander Rusev (11/4)
Leaving the odds out for a second, I don’t get this at all. First, he hasn’t been announced to even be in this match (and if Daniel Bryan at this year’s Royal Rumble is any indication, just because there is speculation, don’t count on it). Additionally, even if he was in the battle royal, he shouldn’t be in it unless he is winning it, and even so, it doesn’t make sense to waste his debut here; just have him debut the night after Raw in a singles match. Bringing the odds back into play, though, he is the favorite simply because if they put him in the match, you have to believe it’s so they can showcase him winning it, which would be terrible. As Denny and M2J pointed out this past week on the podcast, it will look horrible if/when he becomes a major flop and people look back at Wrestlemania 30 and say, “wait, who the hell was that guy again winning the Andre memorial??”

The pick: Sheamus (6/1)
Here is where my money is going. He is the biggest star on the roster that isn’t in a main match at Wrestlemania. Since returning at the Royal Rumble, he really hasn’t done anything since, aside from defeat Christian 87 weeks in a row (give or take a few weeks), and that’s likely because they already had everything fleshed out going into Mania. You know Sheamus is a guy they want to have towards the top, and as I said earlier, winning this match would be a great shot of credibility for the guys that can really use it. I feel like they want to use that on Sheamus.

The Irishman wins.

Ugh, here comes John Cena again, hogging all the spotlight. There he is, not putting over another up-and-comer. Gee, the guy won another big pay-per-view match, shocking. Oh, five moves of doom time. Same old stuff. Cena, you su-. Hey, wait a minute. It’s 2014. None of these things are particularly true anymore, nor have they been for quite some time. So why is every adult male still booing the man?

Well, the short answer is that by now, it is flat out engrained in people’s minds that when Cena’s music hits and he comes to the ring, it’s time to boo. At this point, the crowd has manipulated itself to acting like nothing more than Pavlov’s Dogs. I also feel it is interesting to note that somewhere along the line in the mid-2000’s, it became fashionable to jeer him as a way to tell Vince McMahon and the WWE that the fans are not mindless drones that will cheer him just because you shove him down our throats and want us to. However, those same people, in fact, have become mindless drones in spite of themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum by getting caught up in their own cause of booing Cena…just because. Face it: booing John Cena has lost all of its meaning.

Granted, it is fair to say that a main frustration the fans have with Cena is that he is the same character that he was nine years ago. Look, I am a huge believer that characters need to evolve in pro wrestling to maintain intrigue, and that staying the same is a death knell to entertainment. I would love to see a heel turn for Cena or perhaps a more edgy babyface character. But people need to realize that by this point, it just isn’t going to happen. I was as big of a Cena hater as any up until a couple of years ago, but you have to learn to get over it and move on. Open your eyes and see the entire body of work he has put together, especially in recent years, and you will realize that the landscape is different, and for the better.

To that point, booing John Cena was used as a signal for wanting change, and regardless of how we got here, that almighty cause has seen its successful end game. In the process, he has torn the house down with wrestlers the caliber of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, while putting them over in order to get them to the top of the WWE hierarchy. Some other recent instant classics with the likes of future stars of the company such as Seth Rollins and Cesaro also come to mind. Add that with a major Wrestlemania match with Bray Wyatt around the corner, and the notion that he is hogging the spotlight while keeping young guys down has certainly become passé.

Hey, even after all is said and done, I still don’t fancy myself a Cena guy. But as a true fan of the WWE and the business as a whole, I feel like you have to respect the performer, at least enough to stop foolishly booing him for what has become no reason at this point. If nothing else, it is clear that he totally “gets it”, apparent by self-deprecating barbs randomly sprinkled throughout his promos. While the dueling “Let’s go Cena!/Cena sucks!” chants have been entertaining over the years , I feel like it has run its course. Besides, wouldn’t it just be more fun to just cheer Cena at this point and see what he could do with a full audience in his favor all of these years later? I think he has earned that right for us to give back, and who knows, maybe he will be better off for it.

At the end of the day, the fact remains that we’ve been giving someone the business that has put on incredible matches, while putting over the guys that we’ve fought so hard in supporting in hopes that one day they would get to the top. It appears to me that at this stage of the game, John Cena is no longer a part of the problem, but part of the solution. Someone that cares just as much about both the present and future of the company as we do. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like someone that I can get behind.