Professional
wrestling is the sport that never sleeps. Always in season, always
moving forward, and always evolving. Unfortunately in life, most people
have the mind-set that if 1 is good, 100 is better. The pro-wrestling
scene is no exception to this thinking.
Every sport has
the pros and the minor leagues, and the minors of pro-wrestling are
everywhere. In any given state, you can locate 10 promotions without
even trying. Every weekend, you can find any one of these promotions and
their weekend-warriors performing in front of small crowds in bingo
halls, high school gyms and parking-lots. Although the scene seems to
define the word “minor,” it's actually a large part of the world of
pro-wrestling. It's where the up and comers learn their craft and, most
importantly, pay their dues. In some cases, a promotion can be a farm
system for WWE or TNA. The minor leagues are integral to the survival of
pro-wrestling, and in my opinion just as important as the majors.
As I stated
earlier, wrestling is always evolving. While it's always good to
continue to grow, there are aspects of the sport that don't always need
the spotlight. In the late 90s, hardcore wrestling became a focal point.
Every week on WWF and WCW programming, you'd find guys crashing through
tables and beating each other with chairs. What was once a niche'
aspect of the business now had it's own national championship.
That soon gave
birth to idiots doing back-flips off their roofs and crashing on to
their prone friend who was laying on a piece of wood held up by two
saw-horses. Eventually, we had federations like CZW [Combat Zone
Wrestling], where people would crash through thousands of light-tubes
after being smashed over the head with plates of glass, while the ring
was littered with tacks and barbwire. It's absolutely pointless. The
audience is being desensitized, and the performers are constantly forced
to try and one-up what went on. People no longer work on their craft,
because all they do is jump off a ladder and wonder why the bigger
companies don't come calling.
Recently John Cena and CM Punk had a match on Raw that was instantly recognized as a MOTYC. One of the moments that had people buzzing was when CM Punk delivered a piledriver to Cena. A simple piledriver. It's something we no longer see, and when it happened, you knew Punk meant business. It honestly had far more impact than if Punk had thrown Cena through three tables, simply because we don't see it every week.
Recently John Cena and CM Punk had a match on Raw that was instantly recognized as a MOTYC. One of the moments that had people buzzing was when CM Punk delivered a piledriver to Cena. A simple piledriver. It's something we no longer see, and when it happened, you knew Punk meant business. It honestly had far more impact than if Punk had thrown Cena through three tables, simply because we don't see it every week.
Hardcore-style
matches used to be reserved for blow-offs to a feud. It's when the rules
went out the window and each wrestler was going to risk life and limb
to put the other down. Matches like the steel cage, scaffold, and I Quit
were huge draws for the NWA in the late 80s because they just weren't
done that often. You think Starrcade 1986 would have been called Night
of the Skywalkers if the Road Warriors and Midnight Express were doing
those types of matches every week on NWA TV? No. Absolutely not.
Thankfully, TNA
and WWE have scaled back their hardcore aspects significantly, saving
them for special occasions. I hope one day that the minor leagues will
pick up on this, because it's a win-win situation. Careers will last
longer, stipulations will mean more, and people will be more likely to
spend their money to see such things that only happen once in a while.
The other thing I
see as a major problem is how almost every wrestler today wants to be
all style and no substance. You see guys doing moonsaults, 450 splashes,
massive dives to the outside, back-flips off the middle rope and a wide
variety of other things they saw the likes of Eddie Guerrero and Rey
Mysterio do. However, they don't take the time to realize that those
types of wrestlers used these sort of things as tools, they didn't use
them as a work-bench. What's the point of doing your stupid moonsault
when you can't even throw a punch? Or call a match on the fly? So many
of them are incapable of getting out there and just having a wrestling
match.
It also bothers
me how often these guys are hurting themselves and others for something
so completely pointless. I've never seen a match and thought “Wow, I'd
have liked that a lot more if it had 20 moonsaults, back-flips, dives to
the outside and plenty of other pointless, flashy moves.”
I was watching a Botchamania the other day and some guy went for a ridiculous move and landed on his face. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, but he could have been. Now, do you think if he'd landed that move that it would have made any difference? No. It wasn't going to make the match any greater. It's a completely pointless endeavor that has absolutely no pay-off and comes with 100 percent risk.
I was watching a Botchamania the other day and some guy went for a ridiculous move and landed on his face. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, but he could have been. Now, do you think if he'd landed that move that it would have made any difference? No. It wasn't going to make the match any greater. It's a completely pointless endeavor that has absolutely no pay-off and comes with 100 percent risk.
I don't want to
see Cirque du Soleil choreography in the ring. I want to see wrestling.
That's it. I want to see guys who can work. Sin Cara is the king of this
kinda BS, and is he over at all? Does anyone older than 10 dig this
schtick? Has the guy ever been in a match that was over ***? No. He's an
absolute flop who focuses on the most ridiculous crap I've ever seen,
and would cause any person flipping through the channels to laugh. Of
course, he'll be around forever because someone backed him, and he's
never wrong. WHHHo that is, I don't know.
Alright, let's get into a countdown. The three biggest pops I've ever heard.
3 – DDP debuts on RAW
June 18th, 2001
From
what I heard, DDP was interested in doing a feud with The Rock. Sort of
a People's Champion vs. People's Champion feud. However, a lot of
people felt DDP wasn't on The Rock's level. Listen to that pop, The Rock
hadn't received one like that in years. So instead, DDP gets stuck with
The Undertaker. And not just The Undertaker, but Bikertaker, one of the
absolute worst wrestlers of all time, with this feud being a classic
example of why. 'Taker never sold anything, and completely crushed DDP
from beginning to end. It was pathetic. They could have done something
great with Page, who's loved by the crowd, is extremely passionate about
the business, and busts his ass with anything he's given.
Of course, I must mention the fact that one of the reasons this was so surprising is because the gargled voice of the stalker was revealed to be Vince after some audio work, so I and many others were set to be bummed the hell out when he was revealed. Also, the person who released the clip showing it was Vince was originally slated to be Sara's stalker, and also demanded to be part of the nWo reboot; Mr. Scott Keith.
Of course, I must mention the fact that one of the reasons this was so surprising is because the gargled voice of the stalker was revealed to be Vince after some audio work, so I and many others were set to be bummed the hell out when he was revealed. Also, the person who released the clip showing it was Vince was originally slated to be Sara's stalker, and also demanded to be part of the nWo reboot; Mr. Scott Keith.
2 – Sandman returns to ECW
October 23rd, 1999
After
wearing rubber-tipped barbwire in WCW, Sandman decided it was time to
return where he could be a big fish in a small pond: ECW. This pop is
not only nuclear, but it's sustained. The crowd goes beyond 12 inch
voices for the entire time Sandman was out there rescuing Dreamer and
Raven from The Network. Another big surprise was just how in shape
Sandman was. After looking like a meth-head who owned stock in Zubaz for
most of his career, he actually looked like a threat when he returned.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3f8jp_mick-foley-wins-world-title_sport
1 – Stone Cold helps Mick
January 4th, 1999
One
of the biggest dates in wrestling's history, as both Foley winning his
first WWF title, and the Finger Poke of Doom went down in the same
night. On the WWF side of things, it looked like The Rock might win
again, when all of a sudden Stone Cold Steve Austin showed up. He'd been
gone for a few weeks, and once the glass broke, the entire place lost
their fucking minds. I can't do the response justice in text, you just
have to see it to believe it. Unreal. Oddly enough, this moment isn't on youtube, and trying to encode DM vids here isn't working.
This Week In VS:
Mickie just released a new music video that happens to co-star the former object of her obsession, Trish Stratus. Trish is often considered to be the Holy Grail of women's wrestlers, and to be honest, I wouldn't disagree. However, when we boil it down to just looks, I feel Mickie is the hottest of all time. I'm more partial to thick brunettes, so it's no surprise. Anyway, I thought I'd open up the discussion here.
This Week's Video:
In the World of comic book fan films, Batman and his surrounding canon are the leader in quality. There's one production company known as Bat In The Sun that has made quite a few films that are studio quality. This week, I thought I'd show the one that brought my attention to the world of fan films as a whole, the trailer for Grayson. It really has to be seen to be believed. Plus, it features Kimberly Page as Catwoman, before she became unrecognizable in The 40 Year Old Virgin.
Payback [1999]
Payback is Mel Gibson's last great action movie. Although to be fair, one should just call it Mel Gibson's last great movie. He stars as Porter, a super-burly dude who has two emotions: Pissed off, and really pissed off. He's a crook that's been double-crossed for $70,000, and now he's going to beat the shit out of or kill whoever he needs to in order to get it back. He's a man of principal. It's a throwback to the gritty crime noir films of the 70's, while at the same time implementing a contemporary style. If you heed my advice on this, make sure you get the studio's version. There's a Director's Cut out there, and it seems odd to say this, but it sucks. In what has to be the only time this has ever happened, a movie studio had far better judgment with the picture. So, avoid what's known as the 'Payback Edition', and get the one that has ultra-bad-assed Kris Kristofferson as the crime boss.
No mailbag this week. I had a few emails, but they seemed like more direct questions than ones that would be entertaining here. Anyone else wanting to see their name in the bright-lights of my column, send any question, and I'm serious, ANY question; could be about relationships, working-out, wrestling, TV, movies, drug abuse, hell, you name it, I bet I can help. My dream is to one day be the Adam Carolla to someone's Dr. Drew on a Loveline type show, so why not help peeps here, no? I'm serious, send'em in. CaliberW@hotmail.com
As always, props to my editor, a Mr. Steven Ferrari. I met him while I was at this institution for troubled teens. Anyway, he came in as a special counselor, and said he knew about bad-dreams, and that even he had faced the man from my nightmares before. Well, from that point we became Dream Warriors. And baby tonight, baby tonight you'll be gooonneeee...
Str8 Gangster, No Chaser - I've started a new article series known as Man Etiquette, so you'll know how to act in certain situations, I pay tribute to the burliest of the burly from the 8-bit era, talk about people who shouldn't use the internet [all of them], Saved By The Bell Archives, Comic Book Films You Didn't Know Were Comic Book Films, plenty of other goods.
WCW In 2000 - Recently updated with the infamous Bash at the Beach 2000. You know what's shocking? The PPV is GOOD. No joke, it's seriously good, and features the best match of WCW's 2000 year so far.
Man Movie Encyclopedia Vol.1 - My book about action films. Endorsed by Scott Keith & Maddox, as well as some fellow BOD'ers. Constant 5 star reviews on amazon. I mean, CONSTANT. Non-stop. Around the clock, baby.
Board for the BoD'ers - We average about 50 people a day stopping by, a constant cast of people posting, and you can talk about anything you want.
Any requests, questions, comments, send'em to CaliberW@hotmail.com
Coming up next, WrestleMania 29.
- Caliber Winfield