I’ve always hated the WWE.
Never liked it. Never will.
The dialogue is cringe-worthy, the acting is terrible, the costumes are ridiculous and the wrestlers look like they’re straight out of a “Lord of the Rings” movie.
Sorry WWE fans, that’s just how it is.
However, my biggest and most important gripe with professional wrestling has nothing to do with any of that.
No, the thing I hate most about the WWE is the fact that its matches are scripted.
What’s the fun in that?
How could anyone watch an event with serious interest knowing that the outcome has already been decided?
That’s boring to me.
The most fascinating thing about sports, the thing that makes sports great, is the fact that no one knows what’s going to happen next. Not the fans. Not the athletes. Not the coaches. Not the commentators. No one.
It’s unscripted entertainment at its finest, and it brings me back wanting more every single day.
Unfortunately, the pre-determined nature of the WWE is beginning to linger over to another sports league, one that I used to follow avidly: the National Basketball Association.
While the NBA has never been very competitively balanced, its lack of parity this season has reached a new extreme.
The league’s top two franchises, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, have stacked their rosters with so much talent there’s no longer a mystery over which teams will be competing in June.
The Warriors, after adding superstar small forward Kevin Durant to their lineup this offseason, have a quartet of future hall of famers in Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
The Cavaliers, on the other hand, continue to be led by LeBron James, a man who might eclipse Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player ever by the time his career is said and done.
Combine those two factors together, and you have a duo in Cleveland and Golden State that’s gone 17-0 in this year’s postseason, defeating teams by an average of 12 points per game.
When the season began in October there were very few people who questioned whether the Warriors and the Cavaliers would be meeting again in the NBA Finals for a third consecutive time.
But now, you might as well not watch another basketball game until June 1.
The fun that is the unpredictability of the NBA postseason has been completely nonexistent this year, with Golden State and Cleveland making the other 14 teams in the tournament irrelevant.
“Thank god for the NHL playoffs,” Charles Barkley said on May 8 during an NBA on TNT halftime show. “That’s what I be watching in the back during these blowouts.”
While this season wasn’t scripted by a bunch of writers, it might as well have been. The Warriors and Cavaliers were destined to get to this point, no question about it.
So although the postseason has peaked my interest a little bit more than any WWE event that occurred over the past month, it hasn't been by much.
RIP to the days when basketball wasn't so predictable.
Dylan Dixon is sports editor of the Alligator. His column will appear regularly on either Mondays or Wednesdays. Contact him at ddixon@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @dylanrdixon.
Warriors forward Kevin Durant (35) and guard Stephen Curry celebrate during Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on May 14, 2017, at Oracle Arena.
