This summer’s Global Cruiserweight Series marks the first time in almost twenty years that WWE has held a tournament focussing on the high flyers. In the midst of a ratings war with WCW, WWE attempted to do a copy-and-paste job from WCW’s successful cruiserweight group, but with the expected results from a company that was long considered to be the “Land of the Giants”.
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It was the division that brought eyes to WCW, even during the company’s dying days. It was the division that WWE never really attempted to recreate, and a division that TNA managed to turn from a potential diamond, into dust. Now, WWE’s looking once again to the smaller guys.
Since debuting in NXT in May 2013, Baron Corbin has had a rather tumultuous run in developmental. After around a year stuck in a spot as enhancement talent, Corbin was rebooted in May 2014, and has been a focus of developmental, to the point where a main roster call-up is on the horizon.
In the week since Bryan Danielson announced his retirement, I’ve experienced a wide range of emotions, as have quite a few wrestling fans. From the initial shock of the announcement, came the denial – the internet rumour mill had been saying for weeks that the only thing holding back his return was the WWE’s own doctors. Even without an official statement from Danielson, WWE or anyone connected to either party, the rumour was so prevalent that fans were taking it as the gospel truth.
On Monday, February 8, 2016, almost nine months after his last match, Bryan Danielson announced his retirement. With twenty-one words, including a hashtag, the much speculated future of the former WWE champion was revealed: it’s all over.
Up until recently, being a fan of wrestling could be a very expensive and space-filling hobby. If you were interested in having copies of events to watch on-demand, then a home video library would be the order of the day, especially if you were a fan of multiple promotions. Whether they were obtained legally or otherwise, wrestling fans around the world would have had to keep piles of VHS tapes and later DVDs in order to keep up to speed on their favourite groups.
On Friday, WWE released five talents from their NXT roster, including someone who was something of a comedy figure, and a former tag team that had really been forgotten about. These releases were a reminder of just how hard it is to make it, particularly in the current NXT climate.
This past Monday’s news that Bret “Hitman” Hart is in the midst of a fight with prostate cancer came as a blow to his millions of fans. The news of Bret’s diagnosis comes weeks after his elder brother Smith received a similar diagnosis, and follows a spell where cancer has robbed us of the likes of David Bowie, Lemmy and Alan Rickman. We at BackBodyDrop of course wish Bret all the best in his battle.