…and I’m back for more!
First off I'd like to apologize for giving a bit of a "too passionate" column last month (Yes, a full month or more and I’m sorry for that.) I myself don't feel that I went too out of line with what I said about today's wrestling product, but some fans of my column may have found it to be a little overly harsh toward today's wrestling society. But aside from that I hope that what I said came as truth for most of you out in Internet land.
Anyway's, as you saw from one of my columns (Volume X: Any Given Sunday) I stressed the similarities between football and the WWE. I want to continue with that formula for today’s topic. I want to tell you how I think wrestling fans like to jump the gun and characterize young wrestlers with having similarities to veteran wrestlers. The same goes with football. Once in a high blue moon there is nothing else to talk about and the media struggles for a story to catch readers attention. That’s what's going on now with wrestling. It's been years now since TNA popped on television sets and we saw the fascinating art of "good" wrestling. Then of course we had Goldberg and Steve Austin pop in and out of our TV sets in a very short span. Now that all of those attention-grabbing stories turn into old new we as columnists have nothing else to write to you about. We can only talk about how pitiful RAW and Smack Down are these day's for so much before "you guy's" lose interest in what we write. So we have to start making news for ourselves. If you're not following by now let me give you one simple name, Paul London. Ever since the WWE picked this wrestler up from TNA I have heard topic after topic stating that this man can raise the Cruiserweight division from the grave. All of a sudden you'd hear topics started in almost every wrestling forum stating that London is THE MAN and that the WWE top officials should be hung for not pushing him in his 3 month span in the WWE. It was very humorous to see that people that have never even seen him wrestle thought that he could be the savoir of the Cruiserweight division just because of hearsay from a fellow avid wrestling fan.
I myself think that we put too much hype on young wrestlers who hasn’t had a career in the spotlight of the WWE before. Look at 3-Minute Warning with Jamal and Rosie. There were many in the ICW that felt that these two were going to be major players in coming months. Sadly they didn't exactly work out like we thought they would. Hell, they bombed as a tag team and the one thats still with the WWE, Rosie, is a sad and sick joke. But we were mesmerized at their two-second flashy bashings of other opponents, old ladies, and crack whores. That’s another example of how word gets around very soundly in the Internet these day's. We see so many pathetic wrestlers that the WWE gives a chance and we want each one of them to be good. We knew that Morticia would bomb because of his risky character and his bulky size, but we wanted him to be successful.
If you're a football fan like I am then you know that media franchises such as ESPN or FOX Sports love to make stories comparing young athletes with Hall of Fame veterans each and every year. The young football player likely doesn't even finish five successful games before being called the next Joe Montana or Barry Sanders. If you've been watching ESPN lately then you should have heard the name Ben Rothlesburger. Though that’s a strange name it's a very common one for football fans today. What does this name have to do with my point that wrestling fans put too much on young wrestlers these days? Because the 22-year-old Rothlesburger is being compared to the great Dan Marino and that makes me sick and appauled. I think it's disrespectful to compare such a brash blue chipper like Rothlesburger to such a great athlete like Dan Marino. Rothlesburber is nowhere near Marino as a quarterback and likely never will be near him. It's such a crock to have the media do this stuff just to have a story to talk about for a month or two.
There are differences about a sports athlete being compared to a veteran and a sports entertainment athlete being compared to a veteran. Carito Caribbean Cool being compared to Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) does not make me sick because Carlito is being compared to Ramon because of his character and not his wrestling ability. I enjoy that the WWE respects the background of their own organization and decide to renew a character that was successful in the past. Now on the other hand I do have a problem with people saying that young wrestlers like Randy Orton should be mentioned in the same breathe as Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels because that’s blatantly disrespectful to the history of wrestling. I don't think that Orton has or will every have the same impact that Hart or HBK had on wrestling. I truly believe that Chris Benoit shouldn't even be mentioned as high as Hulk Hogan. Yes, Hogan was said to not even know the difference between a wrist lock and a wrist watch, but he made wrestling "cool" and mainstream back in the day. Sure he sucked in the ring, but you can't take away the fact that he was the first wrestler to appear on late night talk shows or hit movies like Rocky. Speaking of Rocky, the Rock should even be higher than Benoit on the wrestling totem pole because he too pushed the barriers of wrestling and pop culture. Name one male wrestler in the WWE locker room you think could do what the Rock did? Even though he left the WWE for bigger and better things he will never be forgotten as a wrestler.
I'm not writing about how meager in ring wrestlers like Hogan or Rock should get more praise/respect by the IWC because of their accomplishments outside of the ring...oh wait, I am. In fact that’s why I think WWE likes to breed more actors than wrestlers because they feel that in the long run it will help them. You have literally hundreds of amazingly talented wrestlers who are in the wrestling pool just waiting to get gobbled up by a big fish like the WWE, but WWE these day's are more interested in people who can act first and can learn how to wrestle later.
Sorry by getting off topic, but the main point of this column is respect and how we give too much to some (Benoit) and far less to others (Triple H). We need to understand that the WWE is more advanced than TNA. TNA is getting nowhere because it doesn't have anybody popular enough with the company to push the product to new people. Instead of getting more talented wrestlers they should have spent more time getting Hogan on their side so he could push TNA to talk shows when Hogan was with his daughter and her singing career. Now Hogan’s daughter is old news and he won't get much airtime with Jay Leno or Conan O’Brien with just him alone. Sadly TNA may think they are smart, but they are sadly mistaken. Sure getting Scott Hall and Nash for a couple episodes is good, but that’s not going to help them anymore. I'm a major Hall fan and I haven't seen him wrestle in years, but I'm not going to order the PPV's to watch him. Call me lazy, but I just don't "feel" like ordering a PPV a month.
On a final note I'd like to discuss the new Arab wrestler that the WWE is promoting. I feel that it's a good idea to make up this type of character, but the WWE can't push it's boundaries. They did a honorable job by making this character three years after 9/11, but the U.S is still in the affect of the attack and you really shouldn't push the fans to something they don't want to hear. It takes balls, as it is to have La Resistance ramble on about how poor condition America is now, but it's another to have an Arab heel make fun of America. It would have been a wiser decision to have the Arab wrestler be a face instead of heel because then if the crowd booed him for no reason that would just show America's stupidity. All I'm saying is that the WWE needs to watch themselves a little.
"You play with matches, you’re going to get burned"
~Vega from "Pulp Fiction"
So there ya go- another hopefully successful column is put in the books. I hope you enjoyed this one. Again, it's taking me awhile to think up topics and even when I do get a good idea in my head I have no time to write something due to school. I'll be back sooner than later with another rambunctious column that I know you'll love. Until then thanks for reading and...And Thats What I Think!
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