I’ve been reading a lot of the stuff on the site, and one thing I’ve noticed is there’s still a lot of hardcore old-school ECW fans out there. I was never particularly a fan of ECW. I liked Eddie and Benoit and the Mexicans when they were there, because they were doing a lot of shit I had never seen before. I never liked the violence the way ECW portrayed it. I thought it was stupid (this coming from a guy that disco danced in the middle of his matches.) Seriously, what is the purpose of taking a chair shot to the head without putting your hands up to protect yourself, like any normal person reacting on reflex would do? The chair shots are real, but the way people took them was fake. I think that defeated the purpose. Also, why dive onto someone through a table in a real fight if common sense would dictate you’ve got as much of a chance to get hurt as the other guy? I guess it worked for them, and the 1500 people that piled into bingo halls to watch them do it. Everyone would say Paul E. is a genius. The genius was getting those guys to nearly kill themselves and then bounce checks to them and have them come back and do it again. I’ve never worked with Paul E., but it seems like a majority of your IWF’s consider him one of the best bookers ever. That was a hard sell to me, because if you look at ECW’s ratings when they got a t.v. deal, it would say otherwise. They gradually declined. When he was in charge of Smackdown, the ratings actually plummeted, but then everyone blamed that on Stephanie. Maybe he does know alot, but to me the best critic is the Neilsen rating, and the Neilsen rating didn’t think he was as good as everyone says.
I was watching some old ’97 and ’98 Nitro on YouTube. This was back when wrestling was hot. Super hot. The main thing I noticed is how much different the mid card talent was back then compared to your midcarders today. Bottom line, we were just way better than the guys today. Seriously, you had Booker, Benoit, Eddie, Jericho, Raven, Alex Wright, Jarrett, Konnan, Mysterio, Juvi,and myself and others. The difference back then was that we were just way more charismatic than the guys today. The midcarders have basically become highspot artists. That’s basically all a lot of the guys today bring to the table. Our guys back then had gimmicks, could cut good promos, and just knew how to connect with the fans a lot better than the guys today. Some of the guys that think they’re being held back in the business these days would learn some pretty good stuff by watching Nitro’s from around that time. Look at how many future world champions we had. There’s so many little things we did right, from finding the hard camera, to the things we did in between the spots. Those were some good times, and some good shows.
A lot of IWF’s are too concerned with who wins a match sometimes. They think that a good worker shouldn’t lose to a bad worker. I recall one time when they were upset that Rey Mysterio had to put over Mark Henry. Think about that. The strongest man in the world versus a guy that weighs 150 lbs. and people are worried about who should go over? If the suspension of disbelief were working, they should be more concerned that Rey Mysterio doesn’t get killed, which should happen if Mark Henry fights any 150 lb. human being. Note to fans: WINS DON’T MEAN SHIT IN THE WORLD OF PRO WRESTLING! If you think they do, then give me the professional W/L record of one professional wrestler. In a match the idea usually is for one guy to go over and the other to get over. The wins and losses don’t mean squat because hey, news flash, the matches ain’t real.
I think it’s funny how Congress wants to investigate the steroid issue in wrestling. How a “performance enhancing drug” could affect scripted entertainment is beyond me. I guess they think that the message being sent to the youth of America is a bad one. That looking like your in excellent physical condition is not in line with our french fry, pizza, donut, and cookie society. You can blame the wrestlers, but why don’t you just blame the fans? They’re the ones cheering for these guys, which causes the promoter to push them. It’s a no win situation. We live in a cosmetic business where people want to see freaks sometimes. I guess those days are going to be past us. If congress really was concerned about the message that steroids send, then the next guy in front of the committee should be the producer of the movie “300.”
I think smart fans kill live shows sometimes for the other fans. What is the purpose of chanting “Welcome Back” to Ricky Banderas whenever he does a heel run-in at TNA. Don’t they realize that the promotion is trying to put the guy over as a heel? If they’re fans they should boo like the rest of the crowd. Give the guy some heat. Help him out instead of burying him, because that’s what they’re doing- BURYING him. When you’re giving a guy a push as a heel and smart fans are ruining it, guess what the promotion does? Stops pushing him, or takes him off t.v. Smart fans should be giving the proper reaction to guys based on the storylines. If you don’t, you’re working counterproductive to the guys you like. It’s like going to a movie theater each week and there’s a group that always screams out the next spot because they know what’s going to happen. Every week they show up and keep doing the same thing. Well, pretty soon, the regular fan is going to stop going because they’re ruining the movie for them, and pretty soon, all you’ve got is a small collection of fans that recite the lines like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. They’re like, “We’re keeping this place in business.” No. You’re actually putting the place out of business. But you don’t have enough common sense to know it.
These are just my opinions. I could be wrong.
Merry Xmas.
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