I'm done with it. I've had enough, and knowing now what I didn't accept then, I don't know how I can keep up an interest in what I once held in such revere; granted not in the same vane as I held other sacred institutions such as church, or Hooters, but close. I can't just turn my face the other way and pretend nothing ever happened. Three weeks ago, the sporting world was rocked with one of the most startling news announcements since Magic Johnson announced his johnson caused him to test positive for HIV; Chris Benoit, professional wrestler for World Wrestling Entertainment, was found dead; along with his wife and son. A couple days later we learned it was a double-murder suicide. Sadness, wonderment, and disbelief were some of the emotions running rampant, but most importantly, the truth was finally out: pro wrestling, they way I remembered it as a kid, was no longer my pro wrestling, it had become a violent, twisted world represented as an illusion of diabolical villains, scantily-clad females, and charismatic heroes. But, at the end of the day, we all knew one thing: wrestling was fake, that is until what happened three weeks ago, suddenly, the world realized pro wrestling is just as, if not more so, real than other professional sports. What happened to my pro wrestling?
When I was a little kid, I was fascinated by pro wrestling, I didn't know if it was fake, real, scripted, or impulsive. All I knew was that, in my mind, the good guys could do no wrong, they represented everything I wanted to be, hell, Hulk Hogan even had a kick-ass theme song telling how much he was a real American, in the midst of the war with the Middle East no less…which 20 years later we are still feuding with, is there a correlation between Hulk Hogan and the war in Iraq? Who knows, but all I do know is wrestling was my life, not in the way baseball was as a kid, but it was close. I have all sorts of memories growing up, watching all the Wrestlemanias, Summer Slams, and Survivor Series'…the list is way to much for me to list my favorite moments as a spectator for pro wrestling, but one thing I can list are my Top 5 Favorite Wrestlers of all-time:
5. Sting- I loved his face paint and the Scorpion Deathlock…I used that move on my brothers all the time.
4. Hulk Hogan: Saying you don't love the Hulkster is like saying you don't love
3. "The Heart Break Kid" Shawn Michaels: Not because he was Texan, not because he found D-Generation X, but because I wanted the name "Heart Break Kid"
2. Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Texas Rattlesnake; the best white-trash wrestler of all-time, you will never have any idea how many Stunners I tried to give out in college.
1. The Rock: Who didn't see this coming? The most charismatic wrestler of all-time, he was my hero before Vince Young. Seriously (on both accounts).
Sure, I left other wrestling icons, like The Ultimate Warrior, Legion of Doom Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, "The Macho Man" Randy Savage, and of course, Bret "The Hitman" Hart as wrestlers who shaped me into the wrestling fan I once was, but the Top 5 will never change.
And that list doesn't even begin to include Gorilla Monsoon, Andre The Giant, Jesse "The Body"
I have said over and over (and over) wrestling is the greatest male soap opera of all-time. It makes no difference if you are rich, poor, smart, dumb, white, black, Mexican, anything: the one thing that unites males is violence, sports, and sex. As fate would have it, wrestling encompasses these things as one. Housewives, stay-at-home moms, and the unemployed have Days of Our Lives,
The biggest times I was a fanatic was in middle school, which was understandable because I was 12, 13 years old. I was impressionable to a fault; I am the same kid who wanted to wear his clothes backwards to school because Kris Kross was the hottest thing since sunburn. As I grew older (note: "not matured", per se), I moved on from wrestling, probably because I started to have other interests which consumed a lot of time: girls, baseball, parties, and if there was time on the side, school. But, I never ceased to have a passing interest in wrestling; in other words, I knew who the Intercontinental Champ was at that time. Things change when I got to college.
Less impressionable, but still as green as a finely manicured Yankee Stadium infield, I got to college with no friends, no relatives, and a horrible wardrobe. The only thing I thought unified me with my soon-to-be best friends was my ability to field a groundball and, sometimes execute a hit-and-run. Well, as it turned out, those weren't the only things that brought us together: wrestling was the catalyst supplying the much needed bridge to join different people from different backgrounds.
My undergraduate years were spent playing baseball, partying, studying when time was allotted, and watching wrestling. It wasn't out of the question to see 10 guys in a dorm room watching Monday Night Raw. Or me and roommate practicing wrestling moves in the weight room while we were supposed to be lifting. Or some of us dressing up like the New Age Outlaws for Halloween; what can I say, college was a great time. Speaking of great times…
The Rock was, well, The Rock. I would be lying to you if I didn't say I wasn't the least bit infatuated with him…not in a homosexual type way (not that there's anything wrong with that). I wanted to be The Rock, I wanted to talk like The Rock, I would practice for hours upon hours the People's Eyebrow in the mirror ( I shit you not). I would shave my sideburns the same way he had his, and sometimes, if I was drunk enough, or not, I would refer to myself in the 3rd-person. This doesn't even consider the fact I had a license plate that read: GR8 1, or me wearing a t-shirt that read "Laying the Smack Down" under my baseball jersey, or me having a life-size cut-out of The Rock in my dorm room…and not thinking anything wrong of it. As I said, The Rock was Vince Young before VY became VY. Throw in the fact I was in my early 20's, it's a wonder how I had a girlfriend. College buddies who read this will know exactly what I mean.
See, I could get wrapped up in wrestling and not think anything of it because it was my show, I could be a little kid again with my friends, yelling at the TV, staying up all night practicing wrestling moves on friends, and every once in a while attending a wrestling event.
One of the most surreal events with wrestling involved me and 7 of my friends going to
Some people, not just wrestlers, will do anything for fame, whether they cheat, steal, lie, take steroids, sell-out, etc; you name it, chances are people will have done it to help them further their careers. Athletes from Barry Bond to Floyd Landis, just on Wednesday, Gary Player mentioned steroids were prevalent in golf. Golf!? Of all sports. What's next, contestants using Human Growth Hormones for The World Series of Pop Culture?
The event which spawned this blog was the Chris Benoit ordeal. People wonder how someone can do something like killing their wife and son. Others wonder how a wrestler held in such regard as Benoit could do something like this; it was incomprehensible for this to occur. Why would someone do this? This question will never be answered because the figures are, tragically, gone. But one question which may be answered is "what caused someone to do this?"
And this is what I mean about people doing anything to help them get further with their careers. Look, there is no denying steroids have played a large role in the boom of pro wrestling, dating back to 20 years, steroids have always been prevalent in the, then, WWF. Hell, Vince McMahon was brought before court on charges of supplying wrestlers, and imploring them, to use steroids; Hulk Hogan was even a key witness to these charges. As with just about everything else in the world, there are loopholes and ways to get around certain things, McMahon found a way to do this and even though he may have not demanded wrestlers to use steroids, you can't say he didn't urge them to use steroids. Look at these wrestlers today, you can obviously tell who the ones using steroids are, and those who aren't…someone like Bautista, probably 'roiding, someone like Rikishi, probably not 'roiding.
And herein lies the problem, McMahon treats his wrestlers as a meat-market. He uses them while they have a shelf-life and once that is over, so are they. This goes back to the original Ultimate Warrior to The British Bulldog, from the Von Erich's to Eddie Guerrero…and now you can add Chris Benoit to that list. These guys aren't bad guys, far from it, sure they have made mistakes in the past (who hasn't?), but you can almost make a case for them as tragic heroes. Some people will do anything to get ahead, or use others to help their yearly gross, or profit margins, at the cost of others. Is Vince McMahon guilty of providing, and urging steroids to Chris Benoit? Are we even sure steroids were the sole reason for Benoit's senseless actions? Is this the last episode involving steroids in pro wrestling? Will pro wrestling ever recover? We won't know, but one thing is for sure, as long as there is a market for the product being promoted, there will be others. This a sad fact, it didn't stop when "Ravishing" Rick Rude died, and sadly, it wont be now that Benoit has passed.
Make no mistake; I am not blaming steroids on why the most recent tragedy occurred; it would be too narrow-minded to think that, however, you cannot say they didn't play a role in what happened. Steroids helped Benoit get to where he was at in the fantasy realm known as pro wrestling, but sadly, they also played a role in this senseless act. Will it ever stop, will wrestling move past these dark clouds? Who knows, all I know for sure is I'm saying goodbye to pro wrestling.
To answer The Rock's question: Yeah, Rock, I smell what you're cooking. It smells like shit, and I'm done with it. I'm glad The Rock didn't get caught up in this, because Lord knows how I would get by without my hero, so if you excuse me, I'm going to go to YouTube and watch highlights of Mankind and The Undertaker's Hell in a Cell match…because even though, there is still pro wrestling, it's not my pro wrestling. Until next week…
No comments:
Post a Comment