Thursday Threesome: Three Things the WWE is Getting Right

When we did our month of wrestling posts for Marchmania in March of 2012, I was at a bit of a loss. I hadn't really kept up with it at all, having completely missed the Attitude Era and only knowing a few things secondhand through friends and such.

Shortly after we did Marchmania, however, a semi-personal connection got me hooked back in: Damien Sandow. I graduated from high school in the same class as Sandow, and while we were never really friendly (never saw each other out of school, only had a handful of classes together), I realized how serious he was about it when he showed me a picture of himself and Killer Kowalski, who was training him at the time. I always kept my eyes peeled for him as he went through the independent ranks, and while he had a quick run in 2007, it's only now that he's getting the push he's worked for since the late 1990s when he would organize independent events in Worcester.

So what started as YouTubing his matches has resulted in my setting the DVR for Raw and Smackdown, and what started as being a fan of some guy I once knew has resulted in my being a fan of wrestling again. Having watched somewhat regularly for about 6 months now, I have opinions! So that's what we do here, right? Here, for Thursday Threesome, are three things I think the WWE is really getting right:



I know it's borderline cheating to say Sandow first, but this character is ultimately the reason I came back on board with pro wrestling. If he was just another guy who's out there, I probably would have cared less. Instead, Sandow harkens back to the classic heels of when I was growing up - highly annoying, pompous, someone you truly love to hate. The character is pitch perfect as is, but the way he's grown into it over the last year in particular has been great. What started as a gimmick like you see in the video became intellectual bullying, goofy stunts, and some solid ring work to boot.

I'm hoping we see him push forward a little bit and get some higher-level matches, but it seems like there's a heel backlog right now in the way. They had him in a tag team with Cody Rhodes for a while, and that kind of fizzled for whatever reason (including a Wrestlemania bump that may have happened for an E! show), so it feels like he's floundering. Alas...


I love Wade Barrett. I can't really explain it to you in a concise manner, because there's nothing especially special about him, and the whole "Barrett Barrage" thing is a little silly and simple, but I find his matches to be much more interesting than most, and while you have a lot of predictable wrestlers on both sides of the aisle (Cena, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Ryback, etc), every match with Barrett feels different.

They did a match on Main Event where he faced one of the younger developmental guys following a battle royale, and not only did he make the new guy look good, but he both made himself look vulnerable and look like he earned the win at the same time. It's really fun to watch.


The Shield are a three man tag team who basically came out of nowhere to start attacking Ryback, Sheamus, whoever, mostly to provide cover for a John Cena injury. It turns out that they're far and above the best tag group out there, with three members who could be solo wrestling stars in their own right. What started as a tiring "attack the good guy who's opposed to CM Punk" angle has morphed into a heel stable that seems to be on their own ground, going after good and bad alike for the sake of dispensing "justice."

What's most impressive, though, is that the gimmick carries over into the ring. They have a ton of speed, they do things I can't remember seeing ever, they do a lot of dangerous stuff to go along with the traditional. The TLC match embedded above was their WWE debut, and you get an idea right there that they're on a whole different level. I look forward to anything they're involved in.

With yet another Pay-Per-View coming up, the storylines and such are in a bit of a lull, but I'm hoping to see things continue to be enjoyable in the near future. I'm really enjoying what I'm seeing, and I'll be keeping up with it for a while.