Frog Splash Monday (#531)

After tricking many people into caring about the launch of this particular new feature, now I'll get to see how little any of my readers really care...Of course, the point of blogging isn't to cater to an audience, but kindle one.  I've been blogging too long to think that's really possible, but I just don't see the point in faking something that's completely under my control.  So here we go:

• I've written about wrestling here at Scouring Monk countless times in the past, on whatever topic was relevant at the time.  I also dedicated a previous incarnation of the Fan Companion blog to wrestling, which is archived here.  Because it's now officially and forever the Star Trek Companion, anything I've since done there about wrestling (or any other topic, including film, which was pretty popular for a while, although the actual Film Fan blog hasn't been so far) has been given a separate page.  I have a rundown of WWE champions, the year 2003, and a history of WrestleMania.
• Speaking of WWE's biggest card, WrestleMania 29 is coming up in a few weeks, April 7th.  One of the things I've traditionally done here at Scouring Monk is provide a preview of the card.  The match everyone knows is The Rock vs. John Cena, the second consecutive year, this time over the WWE championship.  Dwayne Johnson came back on a fairly limited basis, but has wrestled at the 2011 Survivor Series, last year's WrestleMania (in which he beat Cena), this year's Royal Rumble (in which he beat CM Punk for the title), and last month's Elimination Chamber (in which he beat Punk again to retain).  Everyone expects Cena to win the rematch, although it doesn't matter either way.  Rock's comeback has been unique, and I'm sure it'll be debated for years (wrestling fans have a hard time letting anything go, and they're incredibly passionate about everything).  Punk, meanwhile, is scheduled to wrestle The Undertaker, famously holding a winning streak at WrestleMania sitting at 20-0.  Undertaker is a warhorse, but he only competes these days at WrestleMania.  Every single time he competes on the card, the question is always whether or not this will be the year he finally loses.  Triple H, who was the last guy to lose in consecutive years to Undertaker (following "Mr. WrestleMania" Shawn Michaels), is putting his career on the line against Brock Lesnar, whose WWE comeback is very similar to Rock's.  In all likelihood Lesnar will win this one.  The media is gobbling up Jack Swagger's bid to defeat world champion Alberto Del Rio, thanks to an angle that sees the challenger presenting his entire strategy as a screed about the immigration issue.  It's very similar to Sgt. Slaughter becoming an Iraqi sympathizer in the buildup to WrestleMania VII, which took place in 1991, just after the conclusion of the Gulf War.  That was the last time Hulk Hogan got to play a traditional face, by the way.  Heel faction The Shield, meanwhile, is getting ready to battle Sheamus, Randy Orton, and Big Show.  The Shield is composed of new stars like Dean Ambrose, whom fans were clamoring to see make his WWE debut throughout last year.  He's expected to be a big star.  Ryback, meanwhile, spent a good amount of time in the company's developmental system before becoming an overnight sensation, WWE's own Goldberg, and will be facing Mark Henry, who also went through a torturous developmental process that took years.  He was at his most successful in 2011, when he dominated the last half of the year as world champion, before injuries kept him out of action for much of 2012.  Team Hell No, composed of Daniel Bryan and company mainstay Kane, will be defending the tag team championship against Big E. Langston and Dolph Ziggler, who may also cash in his Money in the Bank contract won last summer guaranteeing him a title shot at either the world or WWE title. Ziggler is basically the new Mr. Perfect.  The card may still have a few matches added in the coming weeks.
• TNA, currently WWE's only real competition for fans of American wrestling, is on the road for the first time, having finally vacated its spot at Universal Studios in Orlando, the second such home the company's had after the Asylum in Tennessee in its earliest years.  TNA is hoping to build momentum with the help of Aces & Eights, a gang that has been terrorizing the company for the past nine months, recently revealed to be headed by new champion Bully Ray, whom fans might know from his days in the Dudley Boys.  For most of its existence TNA has been compared to WCW, but it's always been more of an ECW, and a more successful version at that.  I'd assume most fans don't make that connection because they remain fanatically devoted to ECW, which has been out of business for more than a decade.  
• I've begun a new serialized story over at Sigild V, the first regular instance of deviating from the strictly genre (mostly sci-fi) material that's been featured there since I began the writing blog in 2011.  It's called Monkey Flip, and the reason I'm talking about it today is because it follows the career of a professional wrestler.  For those interested in the blog but not this story, rest assured that there will still be material more inline with what I've traditionally presented there.