This is definitely an update that's been a long time coming. Even though I haven't posted anything here in about two weeks, it's actually been significantly longer for me, as my last couple posts had be written well in advance. I stopped writing after the first couple days of the month, and haven't felt a ton of desire to come back since. A big part of that was the murder of George Floyd, as well as the murders of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and the subsquent protests and riots that followed. It was very, very difficult to maintain interest in posting about a silly fictional wrestling universe when I mostly just wanted to read the news. Then after that started to slow down a bit, the pro wrestling world got torn apart by the #SpeakingOut movement, and it felt extremely insensitive to post about wrestling while reading through stories of sexual abuse and rape, some of which were about the people portraying characters in my world.
So yeah, under all these circumstances, June ended up being a quiet month for me, though I haven't regretted it much since this blog felt very unimportant. While I still intend to go back to finish up Season 5 of Henry's Universe Mode, since it was the project I was working on during this time, it's got a bit of a dark cloud hanging over it for me, so I need to work on something else. That's not to even mention that the series is so focused on modern WWE, who are in the midst of completely botching their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, just more baggage on top of everything else. I just need to do something different right now, and so I've decided to get back into reviewing pay-per-views. It's just a bit easier for me, requiring much less creativity, but still very fun and with an established audience on here. And when I made that decision, that's when I came up with my craziest idea yet.
I'm planning on reviewing every WWF/WWE pay-per-view ever. Now, let me just be clear, in no way are these posts intended to support the company, aside from the monthly fee I'll pay for the Network. I know a lot of people right now hate the company and refuse to have anything to do with them, for very understandable reasons. This is not intended to glorify the past or the present of Vince McMahon's promotion, but exists purely for entertainment value both for me and for anyone that chooses to read these posts. Anyone who has read my blog knows that I have no problem calling WWE out on their misdeeds, and that isn't going to change at any time. With that out of the way, what exactly does this idea entail?
Well, I won't be reviewing literally everything, since I've already done plenty of WWE pay-per-view reviews. Part of 2015, everything from 2016 and 2017 and part of 2018 has been covered already, as well as my one-off reviews during January, February and March. I've created an Excel spreadsheet with 368 shows listed as well as their review score. Those I've already scored should be clear enough to me, so they'll be skipped on this series. I didn't add most of the company's international shows, like the UK ones in the late 90s and early 2000s, which just didn't seem important enough to cover. Nothing from Saudi Arabia will be included because f*** that, and I was interested in reviewing the first Super Show-Down from Australia in 2018, but didn't include it as it was mostly just set up for a Saudi show. There will also be no Saturday Night's Main Event reviews here, as they were TV specials and not pay-per-views, though I may review them in the future. Finally, no NXT, which sucks because it's the best thing about WWE in the last 6-7 years, but I've already done plenty of NXT reviews on this blog, so it would seem unnecessary to include them.
Every with everything I'm skipping, this is still a massive project, and I could totally understand anyone being skeptical of my ability to follow through and actually review all of these shows, given my track record of dropped projects and failed ideas. I won't promise that I can actually make this work, and it may take me years, but I can promise that I will try. I plan on beginning this momentous project soon, with professional wrestling's first foray into pay-per-view, WrestleMania I. I hope you're ready, it's about to get wild.
- Henry
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