Column Posted by A Fan on 7:24:29 PM May 24, 2009
Hello sports fans and welcome to wide world of sports. I'm Howard Cosell and I will be your host tonite. Today we try to figure out whats missing from the once exciting world of professional wrestling. What was at one time truly compelling television that had the power to grab onto the wants and needs of the common man has become a limp version of the original art form. Where we once had clearly defined versions of good and evil we could all relate to we now have a meaningless clump of performers who flip flop between the roles and change faces like a hospital nurse changes dirty linen. Most of our current wrestlers look alike and there are few versions of the diverse characters we once had to choose from. Where are the Hillbilly Jims? The Vaders? The Adorable Adrians from Hells Kitchen? Granted we still have Undertaker and Abyss and sometimes Boogyman but I want more diversity and better rivalries. We are so desperate for the heros of the past we still cheered for Hulk Hogan when he made his brief return to the ring even though we all knew exactly what moves he was gonna do and when he was gonna do them. Poor Hulkster has given his body for us and all those years we got to see him in his prime were spectacular. An entire nation was shocked and appalled when Hogan turned heel and it was a move of sheer brilliance for the wrestling world. Who now could get the reaction Hogan got with his heel turn? Nobody,thats who, not one wretched soul sadly. Even the great Stone Cold Steve Austin tried to do it and they even had him beat the holy hell out of poor old J.R. And Steve did a number on his old friend with blood and everything...Did we believe it? No we didn't. Austin was such a beloved character and role model for every pissed off common man we still cheered him. Eventually WWE gave up on the whole heel Austin thing and to this day his entry into the arena will bring every fan in the house to their feet. There are wrestlers currently in the business who have potential to be big stars but I am skeptical as to whether they will ever be as big as the stars of the past. Christian is still good but is not used to his potential. Jack Swagger has a chance to be big and is a natural born wrestler. HHH is fading away and Flair is still on television. Ric Flair!!! still in the business selling to the new guys. Thats great for the company and too bad more don't do the same. Kane has been de balled and Big Show is just sad to watch anymore. Batista has no charisma and Randy Orton is never going to be able to live up to the role of mega heel. The Viper??? is that really what they want us to call him? Well this reporter refuses to give such a flaccid player the name Viper. Viper indeed! The Rhoades and Debiase family are still providing us with quality wrestlers and why not? The Million Dollar Man was a genius and Dusty Rhoades was and still is a larger than life superstar who you can still watch tapes of and be amazed. Mick Foley is still giving us great television moments and all the old guys like Kevin Nash and Sting or Scott Steiner are still trying to convince us they can still wrestle and we are so desperate for good wrestling we still watch them. But guess what folks??? they aren't any good any more and there is nobody there to take over for them in the superstar role. Maybe in a few years the people we have now will have escalated into superstar status but never will these new people ever be able to hold a candle to the stars of the past. Need I mention a few more? Razor Ramon yo...The Rock...Brett Hart...well you get it and I'm not gonna fill space with names just to make my point. And while I'm venting what happened to blood? There used to be a lot of blood on Raw after ten o clock but now there is none...NONE. Is it the FCC or is it WWE or is it a sad commentary on America and our mind numbing trend toward not offending anybody. We cant have Arabs as evil wrestlers anymore and we are short on evil Asians too. Koslov is a semi evil foreigner but cant wrestle for shit-ake mushrooms. Remember when The Rock used to bleed every week for HHH and Stephanie? Now that was good teevee. Or when Mankind bled every week for HHH and Stephanie? Or Angle or HBK or even Vince? Now its no blood, lame stupid heels, crappy feuds ,no colorful characters and no evil foreigners. Oh wait...Santina is a colorful character. To wrap up this rant let me just say that I still love to watch wrestling and will always watch it. I have been a fan for 43 long years and am proud to say that even through the bad times I still support my favorite sport but what is happening now is really starting to make me think about the future of wrestling and for all our sakes lets hope that the people in charge of the business all take a long hard look at whats going on and fix this mess before all is lost. Bye Bye
Still A Fan
|
