The Hydden View: Lets be Kids Again...

Well to say my last column was met with some displeasure would be an understatement. When I write I sometimes know my view will not be liked, which is why the column is named what it is. I remember one of my first columns was about John Cena, I knew that would get some negative response and it did, but the kind I am ok with. After thinking about my last column and reading others opinions, it got me thinking to a simpler time.

Do you remember life before the internet? Do you remember when we watched wrestling and had no clue what may be in the works? The internet has changed things greatly. We now know who’s leaving the company before they leave, who is going to drop the title because they need time off to do a movie. We now debate who should get a title run, who is being misused, or who is getting a push and shouldn’t. The wrestling world has changed for all of us. For the good and the bad, but one thing that I miss the most is being a true fan, and the excitement I felt when a real big moment happen, one I truly had no clue was going to happen. Yes we still have some of those moments just not as many.

I was watching Lucha Underground last week and Matt Stryker lost complete control when one of the competitors jumped from close to 25 feet up, and it made me think of the old days where not just high spots made me feel that way.

In the last 10 years the internet has change wrestling, so I ask you the reader’s two questions. One, before 2000 what was the biggest surprise or moment for you, that you didn’t see coming? Second, what’s the same moment in the past 14 years? I will share mine.

For me before 2000 the biggest moment was and I can only imagine was for many others was Hulk Hogan turning heel at Bash at the beach 1996. I truly never saw that coming, as a kid growing up he was always the wrestler that saved the day, the one that got your heart racing every time he came out to make the save. When he turned heel I truly felt like a part of wrestling had been lost, and had a huge pit in my stomach. I would imagine many youngsters today would feel the same way if Cena did the same thing.

My answer to the second question happen very recently. It would have to be Brock Lesnar beating the Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX. I never saw that coming, and if you remember the picture of the gentlemen in the crowd with his hands on his head I was not the only one. The Undertaker’s streak was one I thought would stand forever and I guess the streak will but the fact there is a blemish leaves an empty feeling inside me.

But unlike the Hogan moment, the Undertaker decision was torn apart, dissected and debated on the internet just moments after it happen. When in reality what we all needed was time to just sit back, smile and say “WOW I never saw that coming”.

These moments are too few and far in between now. I can think back to the 1990’s and name fifty or more times I had this feeling. I want to be able to feel like that again, like a kid again.

So to you the readers those are my questions, what moments have brought out your inner child?