Get out while you can.

So last night on RAW was apparently Eve Torres last night in the WWE.  She lost her Diva's title to Kaitlyn, which looked like it was bound to happen soon to anyone who's been watching for as long as I have.  Over the last few weeks she went from beating Kaitlyn and others clean to the cowardly lion running for the hills to save her title.  That the match was in the challenger's hometown was another tip.  And then word came down on the internet earlier yesterday that she'd be leaving and that title switch was a foregone conclusion.  You can count me among her fanbase, and it will kinda suck not having one of your favorite wrestlers on television anymore.  The Divas division is much maligned by the internet crowd, and not without merit, but it's nowhere as bad as the whiners say it is.  The biggest problems to me are that they don't give the ladies enough time to have a good match on television and don't do much in the way of character development beyond a few of them (AJ, Eve).  Their tv matches are often two and three minute affairs that end abruptly.  The match last night went about six minutes, which is an ironman match by diva standards, and was better than what we usually get out of them.

So now what happens with Eve?  I'm assuming she has some other projects or something lined up to pursue. And good for her and everyone else who took advantage of some other opportunity and decided to leave the business.  Despite the prearranged endings, wrestling is a grueling business to be in and it takes its toll on everyone that participates.  Travel, injuries, you name it.  So if you can leverage a few years in the ring into something less daunting on your body and personal life, go for it.   That goes the same for actors/actresses, models, and  other professional athletes. Yes, I count wrestlers as pro athletes.  They are professionals at what they do and it is athletic.  You go out there and try it if you think otherwise.  They get the same injuries as football players.  Concussions, torn ACLs, you name it.  But I digress.  Spending twenty years tearing your body up and then trying to live off of your rep when you're pushing 50 and can't do what you used to isn't a good look.  For a woman, who is unfairly judged on her appearance every time she steps in front of a camera, it's worse.  So if you can shut it down early and live well you do it.  They don't owe us anything beyond a good effort when they're performing in front of us, and the necessary work to ensure that they're capable of putting in said effort.  That's it.

People still love the Rock, and he straight bailed in 2002/2003 to do movies.  He didn't come back until 2011, and even that's been part time.  But he's made it work.  We like most of his movies, and we still enjoy him when he shows up on WWE television.  If Eve comes back we'll enjoy her return, and if she does well in whatever she does next we'll enjoy that, too.  So good luck to her, and everyone else in the future who chooses to make the most of what life offers them.  They're not our property so we wouldn't act like it.

In defense of....

OK folks, a little wrestling talk this time.  I'm here to defend......John Cena.  Yes, the man the internet wrestling community hates and a lot of fans who aren't children love to hate.  To be honest, I just don't get it, and I think you folks are akin to the indie music fans who hate everyone that's sold more than 10 copies of their CD out of the trunk of their car.  There several supposed arguments as to why John Cena is terrible, and in my opinion none of them hold water after careful investigation.  You folks really need to get over yourselves, and enjoy the show.  It's pro wrestling, people.  We watch it for entertainment and because we like it.  To get all Siskel and Ebert on every segment of every show is just stupid.  And so is focusing most, if not, all of your contempt on one guy who doesn't deserve it.  Are you convinced yet?  Of course not, so let me go through the arguments one by one:

• Tired of him winning the title all the time - Yes, he is a ten time champion, more than Triple H (8 times), the Rock (7 gong on 8), Stone Cold, Hulk Hogan, and Randy Orton (6 times each); Bret Hart (5), the Undertaker and Kurt Angle (4), and Shawn Michaels (3).  That looks excessive on face value but consider these facts.  One, several of those reigns were really short.  His fourth reign was less than a month, his sixth time as champ ended the same day it started, and his last two reigns were under a month.  He had a few more reigns were around two months (five, seven, and eight).  So that's three times out of ten where he held the title for any considerable amount of time.  And there some very long stretches between reigns.  Eight months between two and three, almost two years between three and four, almost a year between seven and eight.  And he's gone over a year since he last held the title.  The idea that's he been dominating the title is just crazy.  By contrast, Bruno Sammartino's first title reign was longer than the entire time Cena has been in the world title picture.  Bruno held the title uninterrupted for seven years and eights months.  That is dominating the title.  Cena's longest reign was just over a year.  The idea that he's some kind of title hog is just not correct.

• Too much exposure - Here's another one I don't get.  Cena gets about 15 to 20 minutes of combined television time on RAW every week, and his segments get replayed on the other shows.  He does little live work on any of the other shows.  How is that overexposure?  15 to 20 minutes combined on a three hour show....yeah, it's more than everyone else except maybe CM Punk but it's not like we're having three hours of nothing but Cena every Monday.  That's ridiculous. And the proof is in the ratings pudding; the last time he was off the show entirely, the rating sucked.

• Can't wrestle - As someone who watched Hulk Hogan main events in the eighties and early nineties, I can call b.s. on this in a major way.  I've watched five Cena Pay Per View main events, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that they were better than 99% of the Hulk Hogan main events I saw (the exception being the WrestleMania main event against the Ultimate Warrior).  The match Cena had against CM Punk and Ryback went 17 minutes; that's short for him but longer than damn near any Hulk Hogan match ever.  He led the Rock, who hadn't competed in almost a decade, through a pretty damn good Wrestlemania main event that went over 20 minutes.  Hulk Hogan couldn't have done that if his life depended on it.  And for those who want to play the 'limited movest' card, give me a break.  Most of the all time great main eventers, even technical wizards like Ric Flair and Bret Hart, had a set of moves that they pulled out for every match.  Hart had the 'Five Moves of Doom' a term given out by internet writers who actually liked him.

•  Wins too much -I both agree and disagree here.  There have been some definite instances over the past year when he's gotten some wins that made little sense from a booking standpoint, mainly beating Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules 2012 and his multiple TV wins over Dolph Ziggler.  But taking that and running with it means you have to ignore the multiple Pay Per View losses he's had over the past year and some other losses as well.  He lost pay per view matches to the Rock, John Lauranitus, CM Punk/Big Show, CM Punk/Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler. He fought to an effective draw with CM Punk and Kane at two other Pay Per View shows.  He also lost on RAW to Tensai of all people, and was the first Money in the Bank winner to fail on his cash-in attempt.  I can tell you that Hulk Hogan might have lost by pin three times, period during his entire eight years as top dog.  So please, spare me.

• He's stale - This is often used as a justification for the dueling chants for and against him.  Again, I call b.s. on this.  Why?  I watched a match of his from 2005 against Chris Jericho and heard......the dueling chants!  In 2005, before the title reigns, the main events, before 'Super Cena'.  So please, just stop it already.

You know what I really think?  You guys never did like him, and then he became the big man in the business.  Which just burns.  I get it; facing a possible decade of a wrestler you don't like becoming the big dog just sucks at the beginning and sucks while it's happening.  But just own it, will you?  Stop with the lame excuses already.  There's nothing they can do with him that will make you happy and be good for business right now.  Turn him heel?  Uhh.....no.  The guy does too much good guy stuff offstage, and turning him heel would make that too awkward.  You don't see CM Punk out there doing all that charitable stuff, even if he might want to.  It just doesn't work without the character to portray along with it.  And it hurt the house show business, because the people who go to house shows largely treat it like a blockbuster movie, and want good guys to cheer and win at the end.  Evil John Cena would hurt that dynamic and not add anything in the process.  And you internet fans would get tired of that soon and go back to hating on him.  You don't have to be fans of his, but please at least get a good reason to hate first.