A new era has begun in the WWE

A night full of wrestling and authentic matches, the word “WWF” said via the mouth of Vince McMahon himself, a TNA and Hulk Hogan reference made by none other than John Cena, and the shifting of power from the mammoth that is Vince McMahon to the newer, younger titan of the business, Triple H! Last night’s Raw was surreal for so many reasons but the biggest one of them all was that it marked the birth of a new era in professional wrestling and sports-entertainment. I don’t care if this is an angle, a short-term plan, or a stint by Vince and crew. All I know is a new era is dawning and we’re watching history unravel before us.

I hate to say I told you so, but I definitely told you so. Last night’s Raw was surreal for so many reasons it’s just unfathomable! CM Punk’s shoot promo a few weeks back seems to have lit a fuse beneath the company, and since then everyone’s been speaking their mind on the show. Heels are calling out other heels, babyfaces are saying things they’re not supposed to, and TNA / Impact Wrestling finally found proof that they exist when John Cena said he’d go to “someone else’s TV show and do what he loves to do…Brother!”. For the first time in a long time, the guys behind WWE’s curtains are admitting their mistakes, realizing their faults, and publicly announcing that their company is in dire need of something new. They’re saying, via the superstars, that the company is failing. The government of old has no power in today’s society and is losing grip on what’s relevant and what’s not. The big-dogs don’t know what makes a superstar anymore, and that wrestling is no longer the pop-culture phenomenon it used to be.

They’re allowing fans to chant things they wouldn’t otherwise allow. They’re letting audiences cheer for CM Punk and the guys backstage are doing nothing whatsoever to force CM Punk as a heel down our throats. John Cena publicly congratulates Punk on the match at Money In The Bank despite the fact that Raw is without its REAL championship…because that championship is sitting on a couch with ‘The Voice Of The Voiceless’, CM Punk.

WWE / World Wrestling Entertainment or whatever you wanna’ call it has willingly surrendered to the pressure surrounding it, and has admitted defeat in the last few weeks. And that, folks, is where the story gets interesting. In the midst of this so-called defeat, WWE has started a new angle (or is this real?) that sees Triple H as the new force behind the global juggernaut that is WWE. At least on screen and for the time-being, Vince McMahon is no longer the overlord of the business. This is not a transition you see everyday. Vince has been running the show for close to 30years now. He was there when The Undertaker was still in college, look at it that way. And for him to bow down and shift his power into the hands of one of WWE’s elite superstars and his son-in-law, Triple H, is something monumental.

I’m not sure if this is purely an angle or a real deal that happened to work its way onto TV. Vince looked genuinely heartbroken. I think he has wanted to take a back-seat for a while now and thought this is the perfect time to do so. Whatever the reason, this is history in the making for WWE. The company you saw last week no longer exists. THIS is a new company headed by a new power. Even if it’s only on TV, this is definitely a new era.

Will Triple H rehire CM Punk? Will he force the WWE Champion back into the company? Will he merge both brands? Will he push new superstars? Is this the end of the John Cena era? Will The Game wrestle again? Will he fire the Anonymous Raw GM? Will he start a war with TNA? Did Vince allow a TNA reference because he’s working with the company and Hulk Hogan? And the million dollar question…”Will Triple H end the PG Era?”

I don’t know. I think it’s safe to say nobody does. This is both a turbulent and highly-optimistic time for the WWE. This era could either propel WWE back into mainstream pop-culture, making it bigger and better than even the Attitude Era, or it could backfire and cause the WWE to sink further down and closer to the abyss. Only time will tell.

What I do know is, we have CM Punk to thank for all of this. If Vince really is stepping down from being the on-screen mogul, then I feel sad for the man. WWE truly is his heart and soul, and even though he’ll always have a control over things backstage, no longer seeing the Mr.McMahon we’ve grown to love to hate will be weird, and in time we’ll realize how different the era before last night really was. Punk was true all along. In the right hands, that microphone is a pipebomb.

As for now, I’m very excited. This is surreal stuff, and it’s not everyday that you get to see things like this play out. I have absolutely NO idea where all this is heading, and I love to keep it that way. All I have to say is “All Hail The King!” A new titan has come to govern WWE, and his name is Triple H!