Steve Cook makes sense of Cedric Alexander and The Hurt Business, and now he’s sharing it all with you! How does it involve Hulk Hogan and Ted Dibiase? Read on, and learn.

One thing I’ve noticed during this pandemic era is the fact that things make less sense than ever. People that I used to think were logical have gone a bit off the rails. The more I hear people say, the less makes sense.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe everything happening here in 2020 makes sense. I might just be behind the times when it comes to basic truths of life, and when it comes to pro wrestling. There was a time when I had my finger on the pulse, but now my finger is as far from the pulse as you can get.

Then again, maybe I should give myself some credit! After all, I was able to figure out why people joined RETRIBUTION while everybody else scratched their heads. If I think about something long enough, I can find an answer. Some of these old brain cells are still working, so let’s think about something that’s been bugging me lately.

Let’s think about Cedric Alexander’s status within WWE.

Cedric is somebody that I’ve always thought had a ton of potential. He needed work in the character department, but the in-ring has always been there. I’m not the only person who sees this, as fellow Internet fans have been complaining about Cedric’s placement in WWE for years now. He’s mostly been confined to 205 Live & Main Event.

The main feud of his that I can remember was with Noam Dar over Alicia Fox. Which tells you all you need to know. There was something else with Cedric & somebody else representing the heart & soul of 205 Live but for the life of me I can’t remember who else was involved. Rich Swann? Could have been.

Anyway, Cedric did get that big call up to Raw, and proceeded to do very little of note. He formed a team with Ricochet that Internet fans got excited about and WWE creative didn’t care at all about. Happens a lot to guys like Cedric.

This was actually leading to something.

Apollo Crews was having some issues with MVP, Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin. Ricochet & Cedric decided to help their buddy out against the Hurt Business. It didn’t go well for them. The bigger guys beat up the littler guys pretty often. Meanwhile, MVP was telling Cedric that he was a talented guy that deserved better, and the Hurt Business wouldn’t mind having him in their ranks. After a few more beatings, Cedric thought it was a fine idea to betray his friends and join the enemy.

Pretty good story, right?

I think so! It helps elevate Cedric to a new level, gives the Hurt Business more things to do, and maybe Ricochet & Apollo get more over in the process. This all makes sense to me.

The only problem: this is all taking place at the same time the Hurt Business are also feuding with Retribution. Individually, if these stories both exist in different vacuums, you might be able to accept the idea that the Hurt Business are bad people that turned a young man against his friends, while at the same time are the only people man enough to stand up for the Raw brand against the group known as Retribution that totally aren’t a bunch of NXT people in silly masks & with goofy new names.

(Speaking of things that I don’t understand: How do Raw’s announcers not recognize Mia Yim? Even with a mask on she has a distinctive look and two of Raw’s announcers were on NXT for years. The other is Jerry Lawler, and we know he’s always keeping an eye on wrestlers like Mia Yim. Come on now!)

For years I’ve been telling everyone what a wretched horrible deceptive evil spiteful disgusting and hateful person @MiaYim really is. Believe me now? pic.twitter.com/M2dPHIVQtd

— Shelton J. Benjamin (@Sheltyb803) September 22, 2020

Monday night serves as an example of how confused I am about this whole thing. Show starts with Retribution talking. Hurt Business comes down, gets an early advantage, more Retribution members come down and Hurt Business is left laying to set up a tag match later. Cool. Makes sense.

Around the middle of the show, Cedric comes out to wrestle Apollo and continue that whole thing. Cedric & MVP are obviously heels, when they were obviously faces earlier. Kinda weird.

Then we have the main event, Cedric’s second match of the evening, Hurt Business are faces again, and this time Drew McIntyre leads the entire Raw locker room down to save the Hurt Business. Huh?

It’s one thing to turn heel. It’s another thing to turn heel and join a group acting like good guys against a more evil group, while still beefing with your old friends. The whole thing makes no sense to me.

Unless…

Maybe I’ve read the whole situation wrong. Perhaps the way I interpret things between Cedric and his old friends is different than how Vince McMahon and his writers do, and how the audience sees it too.

Was Cedric Alexander right to leave his old friends behind in an attempt to make more money?

A-ha! Now I get it!

It’s all part of how values have changed during the course of my life. It’s all on perfect display in pro wrestling then and now. Remember when the Million Dollar Man debuted? After showing off his wealth for weeks, he offered to purchase the WWF Championship from Hulk Hogan. Hogan refused, as even though Ted DiBiase said that everybody had a price, being Champion for his Hulkamaniacs was priceless.

Had that same story taken place in 2020, Hulk Hogan would be the heel.

Announcers on television speculated that Hogan might take the money for his family. The difference between then and now: the fans didn’t want Hulk to compromise his integrity for the almighty dollar. Today’s fans…well I hate to say it, but I think a large chunk of today’s fans would want their guy to take the money.

This might fall in line with what Cedric Alexander’s fans are supposed to be thinking. Given the choice between sitting backstage with his friends not getting booked and working with the Hurt Business in featured matches, the latter option certainly sounds better financially. It also sounds better for fans of Cedric’s, as they get to see him on television more often.

So what if he turned his back on his friends? They were just holding him back anyway! Does it make him a bad guy if he values his financial future at the expense of his friends?

Once upon a time, the answer was “yes” in the eyes of most. Today? I think the answer is “no”. At least in the eyes of WWE, and the people that will defend these storylines co-existing.

People say that WWE doesn’t know their audience. I think they do. At least, a heck of a lot more than I do.