What's old is new again

While watching RAW the past few weeks I noticed that RAW has rehashed a couple of ideas from the past as of late. Any wrestling fan worth a lick knows what I'm talking about here and is probably just as excited as I am that it is happening.

The first being the return of the cast! According to Matt Hardy his hand is broken and now he has to wear an arm cast whenever he wrestles, usually in protest. When he cuts promos he'll whine and complain how painful it is to wrestle and how no one in management will listen to his complaints. Naturally the fans berate him because they don't believe his hand is really injured. Why would they? It seems to be just fine when he uses it to clobber his opponents over the head with it. This gimmick works on a lot of levels and it really makes the person perpetrating it look like a scumbag because he is feigning an injury, whining and then cheating. Boo that man! He is dishonest!

For those not in the know this idea was made famous by Cowboy Bob Orton and it worked very well for the now Hall of Famer. It's simple enough and it works like a charm with the right person, in this case Matt Hardy. Kudos to the creative department for bringing this idea back into fray.

The second rehash is in action every time The Miz hits the ring. The Miz has been coming out and calling out John Cena. Insulting his in ring talent, hometown and his not so successful movie career. Overall I think it's been hilarious as The Miz has been taking some pretty low blows at Cena. That type of attitude is something that has been missing since...well the Attitude Era! Anyways, The Miz will spew of all of his insults when John Cena is unable to come out and actually defend himself, conveniently enough. When Cena does not appear The Miz declares himself the winner and has been keeping a tally of his "victories" since. The crowd boos because The Miz is insulting a man while he isn't even around to defend himself, which of course The Miz knows. It's a cowardly move and of course the crowd eats it up. Eventually Cena will get his hands on him and leave him looking like he was on the ass end of an ass whuppin'. It's nature people, it makes sense.

Where have you seen this before? If you look back you will see an almost exact scenario between Chris Jericho and Goldberg back in WCW. Chris Jericho would run his mouth when Goldberg wasn't around racking up "victories" along the way. Eventually Goldberg caught up to him and speared the bejeezus out of him. It was a satisfying TV moment for all involved. It was the storyline that got me back into wrestling when I was younger as a matter of fact. I suggest reading Jericho's book if you want to read about the behind the scenes of that particular storyline.

What am I getting at here? You don't always need to do something new for every storyline. There are a plethora of gimmicks and stories from the past that can be told again by new talent. These two examples show how you can use past ideas to bring something fresh to the show. I'm all about moving forward and not focusing on the past constantly but why not take proven gimmicks and tweaking them to work for today? It makes sense to me.