Human flesh hanging from barbed wire. Bodies crashing through flaming tables. Bones breaking on a hard, unforgiving concrete floor. While these may seem like horrific images to conjure up, to a wrestling fan these acts are nothing all that uncommon to watch. Sure, they don’t happen every week, but on the not too rare occasion we as wrestling fans can see these types of acts performed inside or around the squared circle. For us, it is all something that merely makes us cringe a little bit and leave us with our jaws dropped to the floor. But to the performers who actually go through with these types of hardcore acts, it is a way of life for them. Through all the blood and gore, waiting for them at the end of the day is a hard earned pay check. What’s that you ask? What exactly is it that makes these certain performers embody everything that is “hardcore” inside a wrestling ring, while the large majority of professional wrestlers do not participate in these barbaric acts?
What is it that really drove Tommy Dreamer to take death defying bump after death defying bump during his days in ECW? What is it that made Mick Foley suffer such horrendous beatings throughout the large majority of his career? Why is it that Sabu willingly chooses to have the gimmick (and I want NO side arguments about my use of the word “gimmick” in this sentence) of being homicidal, suicidal, genocidal, and death defying, despite the fact that it has taken such an enormous toll on his anatomy over the years? I understand that in order to be hardcore, you don’t necessarily have to be taking chair shots and landing on thumb tacks every other match, as fellow LOP columnist Jules has pointed out with his “Hardcore Homage” column. But in this edition of Hardtime, I am talking specifically about the violence that fits into the stereotypes we have regarding hardcore wrestling. (And in this instance, I don’t feel it’s wrong to be using stereotypes).
I am not talking about what makes a wrestler do the once in a blue moon thumb tack bump like Edge and Randy Orton have done, but rather the stereotypical hardcore wrestlers who have made careers exposing their bodies to this type of physical danger. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the majority of these wrestlers simply can’t get their in ring wrestling over with the crowd in any other way. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that these wrestlers know they need to put on good matches, and they know full well that they are not exactly a Chris Benoit or a Kurt Angle when it comes to their athleticism or their technical prowess inside the squared circle. Could this really be the reason why the majority of hardcore wrestlers choose to be “hardcore”? Let’s take a closer look at the matter.
In order to explain this theory, let me first compare hardcore wrestling to another multi million dollar industry that is synonymous for using the word “hardcore”: the pornography industry. I’m not exactly an expert on the pornography industry, but I am a casual fan of Playboy magazine. However, that’s not to say that I have not seen the occasional Penthouse magazine as well. As far as I know (and correct me if I’m wrong), these are the two biggest forms of adult magazines oriented towards straight men. When thinking about what I was to write for this column, this seemed like the perfect analogy to draw towards why certain performers will try to wrestle the hardcore style so often through out their careers.
When someone compares a Playboy magazine to a Penthouse magazine, there is one very noticeable difference that clearly stands out: the women (or Pets) of Penthouse magazine are shown in more explicit, hardcore acts, while the women (or Playmates) of Playboy magazine are simply shown in the nude, not performing any kind of hardcore sex acts. The Playboy Playmates simply have to remove their clothes and show off their bodies, while the Penthouse Pets have to go through with having their pictures taken with males’ penises in their vaginas, performing oral sex on men, and other hardcore activities. Why is it that the Playboy Playmates do not have to go through with these certain types of hardcore acts during their photo shoots for their pictorial?
It’s because they don’t need to. If there’s only one other difference that clearly stands out between Playboy’s pictorials and Penthouse’s pictorials, it’s that the women who pose in the Playboy photo shoots are most times better looking and more attractive than the women who pose in Penthouse. That’s not to say EVERY woman in Playboy is more attractive than the women who pose in Penthouse, but when you compare the females of each magazine, most of the Playboy Playmates will often times be more attractive. The hardcore acts that take place on a Penthouse photo shoot are done to compensate for the lack of looks that the Penhouse Pets have when compared with Playboy Playmates. That’s not to say that the Pets are ugly, but in a business where you have to compete with other pornographic magazines, and you don’t have the most attractive women available, you have to make up for it in some other way.
This may be exactly what goes on with hardcore wrestlers in the wrestling industry. In this analogy, as you’ve probably already realized, the Playboy Playmates are symbolizing the wrestlers who choose not to wrestle the hardcore style, and the Penthouse Pets obviously are symbolizing those wrestlers who choose to wrestle the hardcore style on a somewhat regular basis. Wrestlers like Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman, and Mick Foley are not exactly as gifted as wrestlers like Rey Mysterio, the late Eddie Guerrero, or the retired Bret Hart. In fact, the in ring work for most hardcore wrestlers outside of a hardcore environment is usually mediocre to average. I’m probably LOP’s biggest Tommy Dreamer fan, but I’ll be the first to admit that he’s nothing special without weapons or concrete floors involved.
How do these wresters make up for their lack of technical wrestling prowess? It’s simple. They willingly put their bodies through unimaginable pain. Instead of grabbing a headlock, they will get hit in the head with a steel chair. Instead of applying a wrist lock, they will get thrown back first onto a big pile of thumb tacks. In the place of magnificent mat wrestling, hardcore wrestlers will entertain the fans by diving out of balconies, going through flaming tables, and taking excruciating bump after excruciating bump. For them, they probably have the same amount of talent as Orlando Jordan. But doing these hardcore acts inside the ring can separate them from the rest of the pack and get their matches over with the fans. A wrestler like Chris Benoit is good enough without the hardcore environment around him to have great matches on a regular basis. Some one like The Sandman is flat out terrible without a hardcore environment around him, so he chooses to thrive inside of a hardcore environment.
Perhaps this is the reason that hardcore wrestlers are driven to take such brutal physical punishment on a semi regular basis. Or perhaps this is not the reason. Maybe the reason is due to something else entirely. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they simply do this in order to gain respect from the wrestling business. When I say the “wrestling business”, I am referring to everyone that makes the wrestling industry go round. This includes the wrestlers, the bookers, the road agents, the owners, the fans, and everyone else directly involved with the business. (I consider wrestling fans to be directly involved with the business).
In order to fully explain this theory, let me first tell a story about myself from back in high school. During my sophomore year of high school, I joined my school’s wrestling team. This might not sound like a big deal to you, but it might be considering that I was a terrible athlete, and had virtually no talent at all for sports. It was only after I started wrestling that I realized that it was a ridiculously hard sport. (It’s widely considered the second hardest sport as far as conditioning goes, with swimming being first). At first my team mates laughed at me because they all basically mopped the mat with me in practice, I was JV, and I wasn’t winning any matches.
However, I still wanted to earn their respect. If I wasn’t going to earn their respect through being a good wrestler, I was at least going to earn their respect by being one of the hardest working wrestlers on the team. When it came time to run our daily mile, I busted my ass to run those laps, and while I was never finishing first, I was nearly out of breath when I was done, giving everything I had to give. When it came time to do push ups, I pushed myself until my triceps could no long function. My teammates started to take notice of this, and they realized that even though I wasn’t successful, I still had a good, solid work ethic. This was something they greatly respected, maybe even more so than winning matches ever could. I was relieved after this, and considered the first year of my high school wrestling career to be successful, even though my JV record was 0-8 that year.
This may be exactly what goes on with professional wrestlers who try to wrestle the hardcore style. This analogy may be deceiving to some, because you may be equating most wrestlers who choose to wrestle the hardcore style with being bad technical wrestlers. However, this is not the point I’m trying to get across. The point I’m trying to get across is that having the respect of your peers, management, and the fans is worth more to them than winning matches and being successful in a general sense. How is it they can get the most respect possible? Some wrestlers probably think that the best way to get respect is to put your body through as much abuse as possible.
Maybe this is the reason that hardcore wrestlers usually wrestle the way that they do. Maybe it is all due to seven letters that mean more than anything else to some people. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. One simple word that means so much to some people. Or perhaps this is not the reason that hardcore wrestlers choose to wrestle the way that they do. Maybe it is due to something else all together. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that hardcore wrestling is considered to be “cool”, and thus they simply choose to wrestle this way, to in order to entertain themselves and entertain the fans. Could this possibly be the real reason that we are looking for? Let’s take a closer look.
Back in high school, there was another form of wrestling that I usually participated in: backyard wrestling. (Before anyone criticizes me for being a backyard wrestler, let me just say that I was only 15 at the time, and didn’t have a good head on my shoulders.) Everyone besides myself and one other person in the back yard federation that I wrestled in wanted to be traditional wrestlers. They wanted to use hammer locks, wrist locks, head locks, figure fours, and all sorts of other traditional wrestling moves. Myself and that one other person, on the other hand, looked down on this type of wrestling. We both idolized hardcore wrestling, and wanted to emulate the likes of Mick Foley and Terry Funk.
We both thought that you were a legitimate tough guy if you could put on a 5 star match while using weapons instead of wrestling holds. So that’s how we wrestled. Ladders, chairs, thumb tacks, cooking sheets, wooden doors, and what not were all used by us. In return for doing this, our friends in the back yard fed all thought we were cool as well. In the long run it may have been a stupid decision, considering that we could have been seriously hurt or even killed by doing such barbaric activities. But alas, to us, being cool meant more than being seriously hurt.
This may be exactly why hardcore wrestlers try to wrestle the hardcore style so often. They want to be considered cool, both my themselves and by other people who watch and participate in professional wrestling. I mean, most people think there is something pretty awesome about the spot Tommy Dreamer took when he was choke slammed out of a balcony through multiple tables. You would be lying if you did not say that Mick Foley getting speared through a flaming table was one awesome sight to see. For some reason, performing an excellent clothesline and a perfect standing elbow drop just isn’t as cool as taking a chair shot from Balls Mahoney.
The wrestling industry sure has seen it’s fair share of hardcore wrestlers who wrestle such a gruesome style. But one has to wonder, what exactly drives hardcore wrestlers to wrestle in such bloody and gory matches. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that these particular wrestlers can’t get their matches over with the crowd any other way. Perhaps it is because hardcore wrestlers are hungry for some respect, and that is what forces them to wrestle such a dangerous style. Or maybe it is due to the fact that hardcore wrestling is just considered to be “cool” and that these wrestlers just want to be thought of by themselves and by others as being cool. Whatever the reason, there’s no denying that there is some unseen powerful force that drives some professional wrestlers to put their lives in danger each on a regular basis by using the style of hardcore.
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