Happy 3:16 Day. Now for your week one speculation post:

In my usual routine, I spend a ton of time on the various wrestling sites across the internet.  One resounding sentiment I found in the wake of Raw was a distaste for this newly acquired weapon fetish that Dean Ambrose seems to have.  So then I really gave it some thought and here’s what I’ve come to: the Hardcore Championship is on its way back.  Let’s really think about it here.

Several months ago, WWE.com ran a poll (that they promoted like crazy through Twitter as they do everything) asking which WWE Championship the fans would most like to see brought back.  Why you ask?  It’s a logical response, as they don’t give ample time to 3 of the 5 titles they currently have even though they have 5 hours of television time to fill each week on “The USA Network”, with the exceptions of their overexposure of Roman Reigns in the WHC picture and The New Day because, let’s face it, merch sales are the almighty to WWE and nobody sells more of it than The New Day right now.  I don’t even like The New Day but I drank a little too much at a recent Smackdown taping and bought my buddy a Unicorn horn just so I could laugh at him in it/get a good Instagram photo.  With John Cena on the shelf, these guys are carrying merch sales.  Ambrose may be good, and that has a lot to do with his excess exposure of late, but The New Day are killing it (this post is not brought to you by Booty-Os, though you can now buy the box on wweshop.com).

While the general response was to retweet the poll with the question, “where is the women’s championship on this list?”, the Hardcore Title resoundingly beat out its competitors, most of which I can’t remember but I know the European Title was on there.

Right around the time this post got published, I noticed something.  Tables.  Then Chairs.  Then Tommy Dreamer and his kendo sticks.  Now Dean Ambrose picks a street fight with The Beast and you get crowbars and more kendo sticks, then a Mick Foley appearance to pass the barbed wire wrapped bat because that’s a more fitting torch than an actual torch.  Blood has been plentiful lately in the efforts to get RR over with audiences.  Videos on wwe.com from Monday Night show Triple H having a wound on his head cleaned and stapled shut because it was bleeding so profusely.

And then it all came together when the internet community was bitching about the weapons this morning.  The Hardcore Title is coming back.  Ratings are in the toilet, and it’s still going to be a PG show, but you’re going to see bits and pieces to see how it goes over, its going to soften the shareholders up, then the belt itself will come back and we’ll get our few minutes of toned down Attitude Era on each broadcast.

I’m completely on board.  You’re going to have some people offput because it’s going to take away from some of the kid friendly nature of the show.  But in all honesty, you’re letting your kid watch 5 hours of dudes beating the shit out of each other (they don’t truly get that it isn’t real) a week and you’re going to question a cookie sheet and a little bit of blood here and there?  And if anyone is going to carry the torch into this new generation of WWE superstars, the guy that runs the asylum is probably your best bet to get the ball rolling.  I think Rusev would be a bad ass Hardcore Champion too.  That guy is ruthless.

That’s my 3:16 Day Speculation for you.  What do you think?