The Reality of Wrestling: Should D-X Return?

The Reality of Wrestling: Should D-X Return?
By Phil Clark & J.D. Speich

A quick story before we begin: J.D. & I did attend Mid-American Wrestling’s 13th anniversary show this past Friday along with my brother Matt and our friend Matt. While the wrestling wasn’t thrill-a-minute stuff, it was still an entertaining show. One notable event was viewing what is likely to be one of midget wrestler Shortstack’s final Indy shows as he has been signed to become Fit Finlay’s leprechaun sidekick (insert your own joke). The main-event was especially good as we both got to see Samoa Joe and Abyss live for the first time as the two battled. Sadly, no Father James Mitchell, but the match was still a good power match with Joe choking another bitch out. The fun parts of the evening were going into the gift shop area where we got to talk wrestling with Ian Rotten and NWA Midwest Ladies Champion Mickey Knuckles. Very fun stuff, Ian didn’t rule out ECW either. After that we stayed after the show to get autographs from Joe and Abyss and like his PPH interview indicated, Joe seems to be a pretty mellow guy outside of the ring. Best line of the night came during an Ian Rotten promo hyping his title match later that night; we were chanting, “Where’s Axl?” just for fun. Ian’s answer: “probably at home shooting heroin.”

Thanks to a couple of PPV outlets putting out a summary for The E’s now-regular June PPV Vengeance, we now know that DeGeneration-X will be reuniting June 25th. The reunion has been teased since Wrestlemania when both Shawn Michaels & HHH did the infamous D-X crotch chop in their respective matches. Since then, there have been more crotch chops and more innuendo relating towards a possible D-X reunion. Well, all the rumors and possible scenarios can be thrown out the window; it’s gonna happen. And frankly only one question can be asked at a time like this: are you ready?

P.C. Says: D-X shouldn’t get back together

First off, when I think D-X, I don’t think of a forty year-old born again Christian. I know that that part of Michaels’ comeback has been written off and forgotten by The E, but most of the fans that were around for Michaels’ comeback haven’t forgotten that. Also, does Michaels really need this? It’s not like he’s being written off in his storylines; if anything, he’s being set up for another world title shot this summer without the D-X reunion.

Next, does HHH need this? The fans have been cheering him since his comeback. When he faced Flair, when he faced Cena, when he faced Big Show, they were all the de facto heels in terms of who the crowd wanted to see win (minus Flair, who’s now a lifetime face no matter what he does). What few people are pointing out is that HHH’s involvement in the original D-X was not only a way for him to be on T.V. with his bestest buddy week after week, but was also a way to attempt to elevate him to the main-event scene once Shawn was gone. How does this help HHH now?

Another reason The E shouldn’t bring D-X back is that there’s no purpose for the group. All the long-term or legendary stables of all-time in wrestling have had a purpose for being a stable. In the case of D-X they were another addition to The E’s “gang warz” fad the dominated the Attitude Era; they were used as a hip spinoff of the nWo to not only spice up the mid-card, but to create new stars with the fans. But this D-X—with only Michaels & HHH as of now—is a group of established stars with no real reason for getting back together aside from two separate crowd pops from a smart mark city at the biggest show of the year. Was it a great Wrestlemania moment? Yes. However, I don’t think it justifies re-hashing a dead stable.

That brings me to the legacy of D-X. With this reunion, the legacy of D-X in history will be put in jeopardy. As of now, the legacy of D-X was a group of young men making themselves stars by being what the fans wanted, putting on killer promos and interviews week after week and generally doing more and more outrageous stuff (who can forget the WCW takeover angle?). Even with the lame late-1999 rehashing of the group, they still have a decent legacy unlike The Horsemen (my all-time favorite stable) and the nWo, who died a slow and terrible death in TWO different promotions. People remember, which is why so many stables have tarnished legacies and judging by The E’s current creative team, D-X may be next in line.

Finally, I don’t want to see D-X reunite because it would be The E admitting to something I’ve feared they would: creative bankruptcy. Scott Keith—in his book “One Ring Circus”—related the term creative bankruptcy to the endless parade of shitty angles that ended 2002. While I agree that those angles suck, they were just a product of what The E assumed the fans would enjoy based on the Russo Era of booking in pro wrestling (Crash TV, Nancy Bagwell on a pole, David Arquette). True creative bankruptcy comes when you have something and can’t figure out anything to do with it. It’s been four years since Rock and Austin left for the first time. In that time, The E has f*cked up easy chances to make new stars with Guerrero, Angle, Benoit, Orton, Jericho, and Lesnar. So what do they do now? Do they keep valiantly trying to make the next batch of stars with the likes of Van Dam, Carlito, Edge, and Cena? No, they admit defeat and go back to what has already made money. The reunion of D-X and ECW becoming a separate brand is proof that The E has gotten lazy beyond recognition and has no plans to really make any new stars. Will D-X be fun? Yes, for the short time it stays around (like ECW), but in the long term this will not help the company one bit.

J.D. Says: The D-X reunion will serve a purpose and should happen

As a smark it’s very rare for me to be so biased on such a topic, but if the rumors are true and D-X does reunite at Vengeance I will go full out mark for it. D-X was one of the best things I ever got to see growing up watching wrestling. Shawn Michaels and HHH made such a good gimmick out of a storyline that was meant for them to get kicked out of WWE so that they could join the nWo in WCW. Who wouldn’t want to see D-X reunite one more time? There have been a lot of articles going up on this topic in the last week saying that a D-X reunion is a bad idea, but why?

First off, D-X reuniting doesn’t automatically guarantee that Vince is going to use it as a gimmick to make money off of merchandise. I think Vince is too smart to run this reunion into the ground like he did the nWo reunion for one reason, D-X was a WWE created stable. The nWo was created by WCW, meaning when Vince brought the stable into the WWE you knew he was going to make a mockery of it because he has no respect for WCW or what has ever come out of WCW. So lets put those fears of McMahonism to rest until we see what unfolds with this storyline.

Secondly, when we think D-X we think of a group of guys who were mid-carders, minus Michaels, that got pushes in the WWE because of the stable. Who says that has to change? Just because D-X is reuniting doesn’t mean that the stable is only going to be Shawn and Hunter, the WWE can still throw another guy into the mix to spice it up and give the stable back its old form. A good choice, in my opinion, would be Carlito. Right now Carlito is coming off of a feud with Chris Masters and really doesn’t have another storyline coming up that I’ve heard of so brining Carlito into D-X would be awesome. Carlito being put into D-X would work on so many levels, for one, Carlito has most of the qualities a D-X member does and if he gets put into D-X he will be able to get pushed like so many have before him. Another possible candidate that would fit the D-X description is, dare I say, John Cena. John Cena joining D-X would be very profitable for him because since D-X is going to be a face stable, Cena would be able to maintain his face persona. On top of that, Michaels, HHH, and Cena would be a dream stable because you’re putting the three top guys on Raw together. The only way this possibility would happen is if D-X is going to feud with Vince as so many believe they will. However, if Cena continues to get booed while being in D-X and they are feuding with Vince then the WWE could still turn Cena heel with him turning on D-X and joining forces with Vince, which would create months of storylines.

The third reason I have for D-X reuniting being a plus is that I want to put a possible idea into the minds of people, including my partner, that think that this reunion is only going to bring HHH and Michaels down because we don’t know who will go after the WWE Title and who will go after the I.C. Title. What if HHH and/or Michaels wins the WWE Title? Well, if and when either one of them wins the title it doesn’t necessarily means that the other one will have to be brought down and go after the I.C. Title. Since D-X is a stable and not just one person there is the possibility of having D-X defend the title as a stable. Just like the Spirit Squad defends the WWE Tag Team Title with different members in every match, have HHH and Michaels rotate defending the WWE Title against numerous opponents. This would be exciting to say the least and would be something the WWE has never done before. Hey, it could happen.

My last reason for D-X reuniting being a good situation is very simple, it’s not a Rockers reunion. Since Marty Janetty can’t seem to get his legal troubles settled it seems we will never see a Rockers reunion, which, in my opinion, is a good thing. If the Rockers would have reunited it would have been very bad for Michaels because he would have been knocked down to the tag team ranks and wouldn’t have been able to get a push out of it. With a D-X reunion however, Michaels will able to get put into better storylines than the ones he has been in as of late, i.e. Michaels and GOD vs. the McMahons. Also, a D-X reunion gives Michaels and HHH an almost certainty that one of them will have the WWE Title around their waist.

All in all, no one has any idea what is going to happen with this D-X reunion and I’m just trying to point out that there could be some good to come out of this situation. Only time will tell on what Vince plans to do with this reunion and how it will affect Shawn and Hunter in the upcoming months.

The Reality is…it’s gonna happen. For better or worse, D-X will be reuniting this June. This will more than likely mean a rise in The E’s merchandise sales, as a new generation of wrestling fans will be able to buy D-X shirts. Whether or not this will have an impact on the ratings is up in the air, even though I’m thinking more no than yes. The reason being that The E’s thinking is that D-X may bring back a good amount of the fad audience that got into wrestling during the Attitude Era and left with Rock the second time. The reason these people tuned in back in 98 was because this was so different, so out there, so hip and cool; this time around D-X won’t touch that level of coolness and I think deep down even Michaels & Mr. Stephanie McMahon know it.

PLUGS
Props again to my man Dave Ditch and his site Ditch Wrestling. Despite Ian’s opinions on downloading, keep up the good work.

And of course, thanks to Mid American Wrestling for putting on an entertaining 13th Anniversary show.

This week’s “FUCK YOU!” goes to:

CANADA
I’ve always been a fan of your country, but your pay-per-view companies f*cked up big time and this article resulted. Are you happy? Yes, we were going to get to D-X, but you kept pushing the issue. Seriously, this was a simple f*ck-up as the local media for any house show or PPV have the right to attract viewers by advertising to their affiliates. In this case, insider info was involved and the IWC’s power was once again asserted as no story can be written too soon.