It Begins 2012 Promo

I’ve decided, as fantasy booker for thinkwrestling.blogspot.com, that it is my duty to scrutinise and over analyse the ItBegins2012 video that WWE so sneakily slipped into Monday Night Raw this week. After doing some research, I will now go through some possible answers as to who the video might be referring to…

The first, and most likely candidate, is The Undertaker. We saw similar last year in the build up to Undertakers return with the 2/21/11 promos on Raw. The link to the It Begins video aired on 11/21/11 episode of Raw. The video itself states that someone will be arriving on 1/2/12. All of these dates are just 1’s and 2’s. I know this is a weak theory, but I had to start somewhere. The video is very dark and eerie, and it involves a child. Undertakers past promos often used a scary little girl, this time it’s a boy, but it’s still quite similar. The video also includes images of supernatural power, the swings move without being touched, and a ball suddenly disappears. The voice in the promo says “a familiar force shall arrive to claim what it is his”. Undertaker is definitely a familiar force, and could be returning to take back his yard. Also, if WWE wanted to pick up on an old storyline, claiming back what is his could refer to his other-worldly powers, which I believe Kane took from him after he buried him alive. After Taker fought HHH at Mania he had to be carried from the ring for the first time in his career, which would give him a valid reason to want to get back his supernatural powers. The fact a promo for Kane aired 20 minutes later on Raw makes this seem more likely. The voice in the promo also says “For power should come to punish the weak for their inequity.” This could refer to Paul Bearer, who will be punished by Taker for helping Kane.

The second option, and equally as likely as Undertaker in my opinion, is the return of Chris Jericho. The way the youtube link was first presented on raw, with the screen looking almost like it was being hacked, is similar to previous Jericho return promos in the past, particularly the Save Us ones. Jericho has always been technologically savvy, and therefore a viral promo rather than one airing on raw seems fitting with him, more so than other wrestlers. Y2J has recently been having a war of words with WWE champion CM Punk, on twitter and other media platforms. CM Punk is currently using the tagline “best in the world”, Chris Jericho used to refer to himself as “best in the world at what I do”. In the promo the boy states “And it will be the end of the world as you know it." This could be Jericho claiming to put an end to the person who considers himself the best in the world. A globe is also one of the few items to appear prominently in the video, adding to this idea. Jericho has stated on twitter that on January 2^nd 2012 he is working in Hawaii, this is exactly what CM Punk stated the night he returned to WWE. There are also clues within the return date. (Y)ear 2012, (2)nd of (J)anuary. Chris Jericho’s nickname is Y2J. The end of the world angle could also tie in to Jericho’s original debut in WWE, which was centred around the whole millennium end of the world Y2K phenomenon. The promo may seem a little dark or eerie for Jericho, but he has said he’d like to return to WWE with a new character.

Another candidate for the subject of the video, as with last years 2/21/11 videos, is Sting. Again, this is probably more out of hope than anything else, but I’ll throw some possibilities out there. The 2-21-11 thing was supposedly originally meant to be Sting. The New York Daily News even reported he was hired. They just ended up having to postpone things so he could fulfil his obligations in TNA. Maybe now the time is right for him to have his one big Wrestlemania send off. The title, ItBegins, is an anagram of ‘I Be Sting’. I know it’s clutching at straws to think WWE could be that creative, but this is fantasy booking. The line in the promo, “for on the second day of 2012, a familiar force shall arrive to claim what it is his”, could also relate to Sting. He is a familiar force, as he has been in wrestling for many years, yet it is an arrival because he has never wrestled in WWE before. Also, Sting once said "the world would end" before he joined the WWE, so the line in the promo that says “And it will be the end of the world as you know it" would fit nicely.

Here’s where we start getting a bit more far-fetched. The next option is… Batista, and here’s why. The scripture the boy is reading is from Isaiah 26:20 through the end of the chapter. In chapter 27, the "force" that God sends is named Leviathan. That was Batista's name in developmental. Also, it would be the "end of the world as you know it." That was the recurring theme for the Armageddon ppv in which Batista debuted. Batista might be coming back to claim the WWE title, something he always claimed was his during his final run with John Cena. I’m not sure exactly who Batista would be returning to face, but he can definitely be described as “power” and also a “familiar force”.

The next idea is a return of Vince McMahon, but not only that, Vince accompanied by the nWo. The promo is in black and white, something always synonymous with the nWo, and with Kevin Nash already in WWE to lay the groundwork could this be too far-fetched? "Come my people and shut thy doors about thee” could be a reference to No Way Out, the ppv were the nWo originally debuted in WWE, and they could certainly be described as a power that punishes the weak, particularly Vince. “For on the second day of 2012, a familiar force shall arrive to claim what it is his” could be Vince wanting to reclaim control of the WWE, which was taken from him by Triple H and the board of directors, and using the nWo to do this would be reminiscent of how he used them previously when half the WWE was taken from him by Ric Flair. The promo has similarities with the famous nWo poison promo cut by Vince in 2002, and “it will be the end of the world as you know it" could be similar to the way he tried to use the nWo to destroy the WWE injecting it with a lethal dose of poison.

Finally, I will just throw out some general and some more fantasies about who the promo could be referring to. Firstly, it could be Goldberg. He is definitely a “power” who could “punish the weak for their inequity”, and “a familiar force shall arrive to claim what it is his” could be Goldberg returning to reclaim his winning streak, that was taken from him by Kevin Nash, who is currently in WWE. The promo could refer to Brock Lesnar, the words used could be adapted to suit him when necessary. A very long shot would be Goldust, the video doesn’t really have any of his characteristics, but he is angling for a return so he can face Cody Rhodes at Wrestlemania. I like the idea that the promo is about the anonymous Raw GM. Someone who would be returning to claim what is his after WWE seem to have completely forgot he’s in charge of the show. A crazy shout is for the promo to be about Raven, and him being used to bring back the hardcore title. The words in the promo are quite Raven-esque, and a return of the hardcore title has been suggested recently. The hardcore title could definitely bring about the end of the world as we know it, and it definitely punishes the weak.

I’m going to end this now before it gets too stupid, but I’ll leave you with a final thought. The promo is for the return of the old WWE winged eagle title, returning to punish the weak for their inequity in producing such a terrible belt that we have now. It is a familiar force that shall arrive to claim what is his, its place around the waste of the WWE champion. It will be the end of the world as you know it, when the spinner belt is gone marking the end of the PG era…


@adamheath