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Submitted by Phantom Lord on Thursday, February 3, 2005 at 4:08 AM EST
You head over to LOP to check on the latest wrestling news, when you see that the January Column Of The Month has been posted. You decide to see what all the fuss is about, so you click on the link, and just as you do, the computer screen goes blank for a moment, after which the image of a skeletal hand holding an hourglass appears. You try turning off the monitor to avoid your fate, but it is to no avail, and you watch helplessly as the hand turns the hourglass over and the first sands begin to fall to the bottom, stealing you from consciousness and forcing you to once again begin to…  Volume Twenty-Three – Spring Dawning 02/02/2005 Welcome, Dreamers, to the Twenty-Third Edition of Enter The Dream Realm. I am Morpheus, Master of the Dreaming, and I will be your guide through this land of Nightmares and Dreamscapes. It wasn’t long ago that we were doing this very thing in this very place, and I hope that life has treated all of you well during that time. As you probably figured out by the title of the link you just clicked, and by Phantom’s introduction above, this column was voted Column of the Month in the LOP Columns Forum for the month of January, making this its unprecedented third trip to the Main Page in a row, and tying it with YourAyatollah’s All About The Game for the most COTM wins ever. I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t exciting for me, and I can only thank the people who voted to put me here again. The last two times I was up here on the Main Page, I got several emails asking about myself, and it dawned on me that I never did the typical Main Page introduction. I know that’s not everyone’s thing, so I won’t take up much time with it here, but I have written a couple of columns in the past that have discussed the man behind the Dreaming, so if you would like to read those, you can feel free to do so by clicking the following links: ETDR Vol. 10, ETDR Vol. 15, and ETDR Vol. 22. Needless to say, it is a huge honor for me to know that people think so highly of this little column, and words cannot accurately express my appreciation for those sentiments. So, again, for voting ETDR your LOP Column of the Month for the third time in a row, I will simply extend my humble gratitude to those who made it happen. My sincerest thanks go out to Brochio66, 1,000,000BC, Malicious Biggs, Austin, Alex-SD, Zuma420, Leviathan, Crazy Brit, Winter, Pt2, Skip Rogers, Morgenstern, Starling313, RandomGuy#5, Blackman, TheRagingWrestlingFan, kjm, Al Laiman, XanMan, Kid Silver, BloodOfTheInnocent, YourAyatollah, Jules, The First Dragon, and Spark for their votes of confidence. As some small measure of repayment, I have once again included a link to the latest columns by each of the above people that write columns here at LOP, or at The Movie Bar. Again, many thanks, and I hope I can once again do you and the rest of the Columns Forum proud! Now, for those of you who haven’t read my column before, allow me to give you a brief rundown of what you’ll see here. The Daydreams section is all about random happenings in the wrestling world over the past week. In the Counting Sheep section, I give the lowdown on some of the promising new writers in the LOP Columns Forum. The Dreamscapes section is the heart and soul of ETDR, and this week focuses on the long winter the WWE is possibly about to come out of. The Nightmares section is much like the Daydreams section, except focuses on the crap that happened over the last week in our beloved world of wrestling. In Technicolor Dreaming this week, I will take a look at a very appropriate film for both the date and the subject of this column. Finally, Vanishing Vagaries sums up the main points of each section and closes out the column on a (hopefully) high note. That about does it, so enough banter. Now that you know what you are in for, hopefully you will find this sojourn through the Dream Realm both enlightening and entertaining. So, without any further ado, let the Dreams begin!  - Line Of The Week: JBL (To Kurt Angle) – “Clinton lied to his wife, he lied to Congress, he lied about Monica Lewinsky, because she looked like him (points at Luther Reigns), and I don’t blame him!” - It was great seeing Paul London and Shannon Moore on SmackDown! this past week. I still mark out like a whore every time I see London hit that 450 Splash. I keep my fingers permanently crossed that someday, somehow, Shannon Moore will actually win a match, but I am not holding my breath anymore. I learned my lesson from last time with The Hurricane when I passed out from lack of oxygen and ended up with some mild brain damage to boot. Tell me about the rabbits, George. - You know, it’s always nice to see some old school Chris Candido on my television. He has managed to pack on a few pounds, along with his honey Sunny, and I think it would be booking genius to bring her into TNA with him and revive the old BodyDonnas thing, but this time they should call themselves the BodyHondas. It could work… - The Royal Rumble kicked all kinds of ass and was the best WWE PPV I have had the pleasure of seeing in quite some time. For my in-depth review of the PPV, click Here. - From top to bottom, this past episode of RAW kicked much ass, and really carried over the momentum from the Royal Rumble very well. The interplay between the two WWE Brands has been absolute gold, with Teddy and Eric at each others’ throats, HBK and Kurt getting under each others’ skin, and the question of where Batista will decide to challenge for the title. Things are really looking good for the Road to WrestleMania! - Larry “Lex Luger” Pfohl was arrested on Monday and charged with DUI, possessing an open container of alcohol, driving with no proof of insurance, altering his license and driving with an expired license. Now, faithful Dreamers know I usually put things like this in my Nightmares section, but not in this case, because the more time Luger spends behind bars, the less time he can spend anywhere near a wrestling ring. See? We all win!  Top Five “New Blood” Columnists In my first Main Page column, I did a list of The Top Five Columns You Aren’t Reading, and gave you the low down on my favorite five columns in the LOP Columns Forum. The Columns Forum constantly has new writers trying their hand at writing a wrestling column, and some of them stay longer than others. Over the last couple of months, there have been quite a few new writers joining our little family who have very promising futures as Columnists, and below is my “Who To Watch In 2005” list of the newer crop of writers in the LOP Columns Forum. 5. RIPBossman: Hardtime – RIP has a good thing going with this column that he calls Hardtime, in honor of the late, great Ray Traylor. Always very informative, and sometimes laced with some controversy to boot, this is always a good read, and worth taking a few minutes out of your day to check out. 4. Canadian Kid: The Kid’s Playground – This 16 Year Old Toronto Native brings us his unique perspective on wrestling every week in the LOP Columns Forum. He manages to find new ways to look at some pertinent topics that sometimes “older folk” like me tend to miss. More often than not, this is a very good read, and definitely warrants a quick stop to The Playground. 3. That Darn Frog: The Fabrication – This guy has had a load of potential since he first arrived, and each week he continues to explore more and more of that potential for us to see. He combines good insight with solid opinion and witty humor for a total package that is a must read. 2. 1,000,000BC: Tuesday Night Tension – BC, or Body Count as I like to call him, puts out one of the more unique columns I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It is hard to explain in a brief few words like this, but it is centered around Top 10 lists, and is interactive with his readers. He always has great topics, and his writing is top notch, so be sure to check it out! 1. Zuma420: The New Joint – From the name of the author and the column title, it’s pretty obvious what this guy’s favorite pastime is. Luckily for us, this XXXican’s skills with the English language haven’t suffered any from the purple haze. Zuma always has great topics that are timely and interesting, and always manages to keep his readers enthralled from start to finish with a good blend of intellect and humor. Zuma single-handedly proves that Chronic Stoners can be productive human beings too, and his work is most definitely worth checking out.  Spring Dawning Over the last couple of years, the WWE has experienced a dramatic downturn in many of the economic and financial aspects of the business. Merchandise sales are down much lower than they were a few short years ago, and have steadily declined in that time. Tickets sales for PPV events have been on a steady decline, and this trend has been even more pronounced in regular television show appearances. This is to say nothing of House Shows, where ticket sales have been absolutely abysmal, some even so bad that entire shows have been cancelled due to lack of sales. PPV buyrates have gone down significantly over the last few years, reaching record lows in the latter half of 2004. Along with PPV viewership, television ratings have also experienced a major drop in the last couple of years, reaching some near-alarming lows in 2004. For a company that was once a juggernaut of commercial success, these things were all quite anomalous, and came as major blows to the financial infrastructure of the WWE. Many columnists and industry insiders have tried their hand at trying to decipher the causes for this decline in the wrestling industry over the last few years, and many reasons have been cited as the cause. In my opinion, it has to do with several factors all coming together that have dealt a blow to the WWE. First and foremost, many people feel that the overall quality of the product has significantly diminished since the wane of the Attitude Era. People are less interested in the characters and storylines that they find on the shows and are thus no longer compelled to spend their time or money watching that product. Many reasons have been cited for this decline in product quality, but one of the most common is complacency due to the lack of any appreciable competition since WCW was bought out leading to blasé storylines because there is not an urgent need to be at the top of their game. This may in fact be part of the problem, but the departure of some of the big names from the last boom period has hurt business as well. People like Mick Foley, Steve Austin and The Rock, who were all top draws during the Attitude Era, are no longer found on WWE programming with any sort of regularity, if at all. Personally, I have always felt that the WWE has put forth enjoyable programming that for the most part was pretty high in quality, with few minor exceptions. I think the main reason for the decline in business is the Attitude Era itself, in that it set people’s expectations so high, that once those compelling characters and envelope-pushing storylines were no longer as fresh and edgy, many people became disappointed and left. If that is the case, as I truly believe that it is, it’s not that the product is of poor quality now; so much as it is the fact that it is not at the same level as it was during the Attitude Era. Regardless of the reasons for the decline in business, however, the fact that it exists is difficult to dispute, as the numbers do not lie. The numbers also don’t lie when they show that things may be starting to look up for the WWE over the last couple of months. Since just before the Survivor Series, RAW’s television ratings have been consistently higher than they were during the majority of 2004, and this past Monday had a rating of 4.1, which is very good news for the WWE. Single-brand PPV buyrates have started to climb slightly from the record lows they experienced in October of 2004. Ticket sales have seemed to reach a steady state, rather than dropping further, as have most merchandise sales, though there has been an increase in DVD sales. On top of all this, the shows have just been more enjoyable overall from a fan’s perspective, which I think plays a large role in the small turnaround that may be starting to happen in the business side of things. Now the WWE finds itself in a precarious position, but one that could potentially be very beneficial to the future of the company if they play their cards right. The quality of the product from a fan’s perspective has been steadily improving, and some of the steady declines in business, ratings, sales, etc. have begun to level off, and in some cases have started to turn back around. These things all suggest that perhaps some of the metaphorical bleeding has stopped, and the WWE may be beginning to heal its wounds and turn back around for the better. However, I feel that this turnaround is still in the fetal stages, and thus relies heavily on how well the WWE nourishes it in the coming months. Now, that’s not to say that the place the WWE is in right now is a bad place to be. From a purely business standpoint, the WWE is still better off now than it was ten years ago, and could still fall lower than it is now before the serious warning lights start to go off. The big thing that people have to keep in mind is that wrestling just came off of the biggest high point in its history. So, just because things aren’t as good as they were five years ago doesn’t mean in any way that things are bad in an absolute sense, just when compared to the high point of a huge Golden Age. Still, from a business standpoint, any possible upturn is something the WWE should certainly put their best efforts into nurturing. That’s also not to say that this upturn will automatically lead to the dawn of a new Golden Age in wrestling either. These sorts of things take time, and the chances of creating a boom like the one that just occurred this quickly are quite slim. However, the small turnaround in success that the WWE has begun to experience can continue, if they play their cards right, and lead to a new plateau for business. While this plateau will not be another Golden Age per se, it will be higher on the economic ladder than the WWE finds itself currently, which is never a bad thing. If the WWE can continue to crank out feuds, matches, and storylines that are as high quality as the ones they have had over the past couple of months, I think it will do wonders in helping along this burgeoning upturn in business. The fact is that good storylines and matches are more able to keep the fans’ interest than mediocre ones, and if they keep these things high quality, they will be able to keep their current fans more interested and perhaps even bring in new fans, or draw back old fans who stopped watching due to a more lackluster product. However, if the WWE goes and gets cocky with their first hints of success, or if they miss a couple of steps along the way, they could find themselves losing their grasp on this small turnaround and once again declining in popularity and losing ground in the business realm once again. The situation that the WWE now finds itself in is not unlike that of the Groundhog, whose special day we are in the midst of celebrating as I type this. It has been a long, cold winter, and the groundhog has been forced to stay underground to keep warm. However, things have finally started to warm up, and some of the frosty cover has begun to disappear, allowing the groundhog to venture its way out of its underground lair to the surface for a quick look around. If the groundhog finds things to be amicable, he comes out of his hole and signals the beginning of spring, but if he sees his own shadow and becomes frightened, he will retreat back into his subterranean abode, and another six weeks of winter will be in store. The WWE is now reaching a point where its long winter has started to warm up slightly, and things have started to come back to life. The higher quality of their shows has led to a slight increase in ratings and buyrates, so they are a little freer to explore what is just above the surface. If they continue down the path they are on with high quality matches and storylines week after week, then when they poke their head up to the surface, they will find it to be quite hospitable, and the long winter may finally give way to a new spring dawning. However, if they start to again grow complacent with their success, or start slipping in the quality of their shows, they will find that the outside world is once again not so nice a place to be, and they will find themselves back underground with an extended stay in the winter season. The WWE is on the border of entering into a new spring season, and is just coming up to stick its head out of its underground lair after a cold winter. Will it find the surface to be agreeable and enjoy the dawning of the spring, or will it see its shadow and retreat back into the earth for another six weeks of winter? The ball is entirely in their court, and the next few months will be very critical in answering that question. I for one think that these changes in the quality of the product are definitely a sign of even better things to come and I believe they will continue down the path they are on right now. I have a strong feeling that it won’t be long before the snow melts away and we’ll be seeing the first buds on the trees, signaling the beginning of the new spring for WWE fans.  - Does anyone else remember back when Last Man Standing Matches used to actually have a winner at the end of them? I mean, I know that if either Angle or JBL had won it fair and square, they would have had the upper hand going into the Rumble, but there are only so many times we can see the same ending to this type of match before they become totally pointless. Unfortunately, that was 2 Last Man Standing Matches ago… - I have tried to get excited about the NWA World Heavyweight Title scene, but I am just not being given anything to work with. Out of all the world class contenders TNA has available to challenge JJJ, the one guy they pick to be Number One Contender is a guy that hasn’t had a non-embarrassing match since 1999, Kevin Nash. Hell, even Jarrett said “Go put your knee braces on, Old Man!” When Ric Flair can look at you and say “Damn, that guy should have hung it up a few years ago,” you know it’s time to go home. - Jeff Jarrett was taken to a hospital last Tuesday after he got a splinter in his eye while delivering a guitar shot on Blue Collar TV. What makes this bit of news even worse is the fact that the injury wasn’t serious, and he was still able to attend the Impact tapings. Perhaps this may be a blessing in disguise though, as he may now realize the danger of those stale guitar shots and finally get himself a new gimmick. - With each week that passes, I like Snitsky more and more. The segment on RAW with him and the girls backstage where he got all up in their face and said, “Nice Shoes,” while breathing heavier than an obscene phone caller was priceless. Why is this a Nightmare, you ask? Because someone needs to give those chicks some acting lessons. Here’s a hint for Candice and Maria: If you are supposed to be acting like you are afraid of someone, try not to make it so obvious that you’re trying rally hard not to laugh. - It turns out that the nasty knee bump Vince McMahon took when he slid into the ring at the Royal Rumble actually tore his quad tendons, and he underwent successful surgery to repair them on Tuesday. Since Vince is currently recovering from surgery, this leaves Stephanie and Triple H in charge of the Japanese tour this coming week. Needless to say, we here at Enter The Dream Realm wish Vince the speediest of recoveries. Please?  Groundhog Day Weatherman Phil Connors is sent to a little town called Punxsutawney to cover the town’s annual Groundhog Day celebration, where the citizens of the town gather to watch the resident groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, come up out of the ground and take his first look around. This is Phil the Weatherman’s fourth year being begrudgingly forced to cover this annual story on Phil the Groundhog, and he makes no effort to hide his frustration about being there again. He and his team end up snowed in, and are unable to leave, so he falls asleep in the little town, and awakes the next morning to find that it is Groundhog Day all over again. He first thinks this is some kind of joke, but then he realizes that it is in fact real, and that he is reliving the same day over and over again. At first, he uses this fact to his advantage to do all sorts of things he wouldn’t otherwise do, but then comes to the realization that if he doesn’t figure out how to change things, he will be doomed to live out the same day for the rest of eternity, so he sets out to find the reason for all of this and how to go about fixing it. All around, this was a great comedy, and one that I have enjoyed watching numerous times over the last decade. Bill Murray was in prime form in this film, and his supporting cast of Andie MacDowell and Chris Elliott really round out the movie. Brian Doyle-Murray also adds a few great lines to this flick, and really proves why he is always one of Bill’s Best Supporting Actors. The major focus of this flick is definitely the comedy that would come out of such a situation, but the underlying theme of love and salvation are also very well-developed and lead to an all around excellent story. If you have seen this movie before, there’s no time like the present, and if you have seen it, check it out again and relive the comedy gold found herein. It comes with very high recommendations from The Dream Master, so how can you go wrong?  As you slowly return to consciousness, the last whisperings uttered from the lips of the Dream Master encourage you to check out four particularly outstanding columns in the forums: Spark – The Multiplex #5: The Rocky Horror Picture Show Kid Silver – Shades Of Silver #8: One Life To Live The Revolution Presents: The Road To WriterMania – Takedown, Week Two The Revolution Presents: The Road To WriterMania – Medium Rare, Week Two This brings to a close this third special LOP Main Page Edition of Enter The Dream Realm. Major props go out to TimBoski, pt2, Body Count for helping me work through some of my ideas for this one. Any feedback you have, as always, would certainly be greatly appreciated and can be sent to me via email at morpheusreturns@optonline.net. Thanks again to everyone who has been supportive of ETDR these past few months, and to all of the people who are checking this out on the LOP Main Page for the first (or second, or third) time. It’s been an honor and a privilege to be able to post this here once again, and I hope that those of you that haven’t yet will take the time to check out some of the great writers we have in the LOP Columns Forum. Thank you all again, and until next time, sleep well, and I’ll see you in your Dreams! Oh, and Viva La Movie Bar! *NEW GALLERY* Over 14 Total HIGH QUALITY Maria 2008 PB Photos! MUST SEE!
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