Le Dinner Debonair

Man, some people really hated this. Me personally? I laughed and I laughed and I laughed and had so much fun. Then again, I’ve never been one to think that wrestling has to always be one thing. Giving a mostly serious presentation doesn’t prevent you from using comedy and vice versa. If the mix is presented well more often than it’s not, it works great and keeps people coming back. The WWF made a bazillion dollars doing that for years back when Vince and company knew what they were doing, and they’re still coasting on that reputation to this day. Even the territories that people like to hold up as being “serious wrestling” have had their moments. Were they as over the top as this? Generally no. But who out cringed who isn’t the point. We shit on the phrase “sports entertainment” a lot, and deservedly so. But there is some accuracy to it. At its heart, wrestling is an entertaining sport. It was that way long before my lifetime and will be that way long after I’m gone. Whether we’re talking about outlandish gimmicks, weird storylines or segments that feel more like a movie or an old school variety show, wrestling is in a unique position that allows them all to coexist with the sports aspects as long as, like I said before, it knows when to be what and how to stitch all of those elements together. The mini musical that broke out in the middle of AEW took nothing away from the first round of the world title tournament, the number one contender match for the tag titles or Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston’s extremely personal promos leading to a match where two old friends are going to beat the life out of each other, perhaps literally. The silliness was contained to one story and involved two extremely talented guys whose characters probably would end up in a douchey song and dance. It was a good example of the something for everyone part of wrestling that I find serious fans tend to forget.