If you grew up Catholic (or any other God fearing religion for that matter) like I did, you would know that The Ascension refers to Jesus Christ's rise to the heavens before his disciples. To the person with any common sense, one would think that an ascension of any form is a good thing, right?
Well... In the warm bosom of WWE. Not so much.
Enter Viktor and Konnor. WWE's version of The Ascension. During their time in NXT, it seemed as if they were on a rise to the proverbial "heavens" of the main roster; steamrolling through competition and defining themselves as not only the longest reigning NXT tag team champions (364 days), but a tag team that would be dominant for years to come. Fast forward to present day; however, and we see a team that is rapidly being regarded as a blatant "rip off" of arguably the most dominant tag team in wrestling history, The Road Warriors. Not to mention a week to week burial from the WWE announce team; specifically JBL. So the question remains..... What happened?
There's a lot of rumors floating around the Pro Wrestling multi-verse. Some say that Vince can't get over a botched televised promo, which causes them to be buried on a weekly basis by #1 McMahon henchmen, JBL. Others say that the way they are being booked; seemingly made to poke fun of and discredit legendary tag teams to get themselves cheap heat, are not perceived well by the WWE fanbase and as a result, there is a loss of faith from behind the curtain. Whatever the case may be, the once imposing tandem of Viktor and Konner are now a stale, stagnant shell of something that could have been special. So, I ask again.... What happened?
Here is it in a nutshell people. Triple H is pre-occupied with the meteoric rise of the NXT brand. Vince McMahon is seemingly out of touch and the WWE writing staff is hit or miss. Also, let's not forget that Vince has always been anti-tag team wrestling. That, coupled with mishandling of character development, is the reason there is no "ascension" for The Ascension. Ever heard of the phrase, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"? This applies here, because had they not changed the original Modus Operandi of The Ascension, we would not be having this conversation.
Anyone remember the original gimmick? The Ascension was a band of fallen angels who would stop at nothing to rise back to the heavens and would lay waste to anything that stood in their way. Their entrance was awe inspiring, ominous, and just cool! Don't take my word for it, go back and look! When original members were removed and Rick Victor (Viktor) was paired with Conor O'Brien (Konner) as the new Ascension, the potential for that gimmick was far from a peaking point. So much more could have evolved.... the possibilities were endless.
Can anyone say dream match? A crazed religious zealot and his brain washed followers engaged in spiritual warfare with a lord of darkness and his fallen? The Wyatts vs. The Undertaker with "the fallen angel" version of The Ascension is Wrestlmania money if you asked me..... but, I digress.
It's all a hearsay people. Unless you work at WWE, you may never know why there is no "ascension" for The Ascension. Fact remains though.. Somebody there better get it together before the clock stops on what could be a tag team that has far more potential than the WWE is pushing them to be. WWE needs to "write" this wrong, because to put it in religious perspective... we're reaching the "fortieth" day folks. It's almost time for The Ascension....
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Until next time people! My name is Papo Esco and this is The Skinny..... As told by The Fat Boy!
