Posted in: The Northern Star The Northern Star--Connecting The Dots
By XanMan
May 27, 2009 - 6:16:36 PM
"No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety."--Publilius Syrus
So, then, here I sit by myself in this kind of limbo. Somewhere between what I'd like to be--which is a wrestling fan, and what I am--which is both a wrestling and a WWE fan. Actually, I'm not sure that like is the correct word, because I honestly think if I could I would give it up all together. I love professional wrestling, but I'm not sure that it always loves me back. Hell, I don't know, so let's leave that aside, at least for the moment. What do you think of this little limbo we're in? Yes, I said we. I may be by myself in here, but that doesn't mean I'm alone. You're there, too, or you are if you call yourself a wrestling fan. Or, perhaps you aren't here anymore, but used to be. I wonder which exit you took, and why. Though there are only three exits, that doesn't mean there are only three stories. We all have our own lives, and those lives can generate their own reasons. The doors, of course, are the ones for those that become exclusively wrestling fans, the ones who become exclusively WWE fans, and the ones who stop being a fan altogether. I have to say that there have been times when I've belonged to each one of those groups, which I suppose makes this limbo something more; perhaps it's a way station.
If you've been with me from the beginning of my time here on the main page, you know that I got into professional wrestling by watching the WWF. It wasn't until over a year later that I knew other organizations(excluding Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) existed, and it was just shortly after that discovery(made by paying attention at the news stand and seeing some issues of Pro Wrestling Illustrated and The Wrestler) that my brothers and I saw the NWA for the first time. It was my first experience seeing Ric Flair, Lex Luger, and Sting, though I don't remember who else was on the show. They were advertising some kind of pyramid cage match to the best of my recollection, and shortly after that was when my father banned us from watching wrestling, so it was about 2 years later that I saw that organization again. The WWF, though? Well, that we snuck every chance we got, because that's what you got to do when you're an addict, right? You lie, cheat, and steal no matter who you have to hurt to get your fix, and make no mistake about it, being a fan of professional wrestling isn't the same as being a fan of anything else; this shit's a narcotic.
I don't know, maybe that's stretching it, since I've never been on one, unless you count Tylenol 3, which is very, very capable of knocking me for a loop. I come from a family of addictive personalities. My dad self-medicates himself with alcohol every night, though he calls it enjoying a brandy. My deceased brother was a hardcore smoker, and my living brother still is, and has taken basically every drug under the sun. My grandfather and uncle were both alcoholics, as well, as was my mom before being guilted out of it. Now she hasn't touched a drop in years. So, how did I escape this influence? Well, maybe I didn't? Sure, I have been able several times to start smoking a little to relieve stress and then just stop without even a craving. I've also been able to smoke marijuana from time to time without craving it, and find it fairly easy to stop drinking before I get out of hand, except maybe once or twice a year. And yet...I just can't go that long without watching wrestling. If I do, I don't feel right. I haven't seen Monday Night RAW yet because my boy had a choir concert, and both of us seem a bit depressed about it. This even though I just watched most of an ROH show last night.
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me? I mean I'm not even sure I like the fucking WWE anymore, but I am upset at myself at missing it--for a good reason--and for not yet watching it--for more good reasons? Now, to be fair, I'd probably be upset at missing another favorite show, as well--especially serialized dramas like 24 and Lost, but that's no longer a big deal in today's day and age, because I can just log onto fox.com or abc.com and watch the episode(s) I missed, as long as it isn't more than a month or so old. The WWE actually even lets you do that with ECW, but RAW or Smackdown, their "A" and "B" shows? Never in life, but doesn't one have to wonder why to both questions. After all, every episode of either one that you catch not only has "moments ago" segments in case you left the room to make a sandwich or weren't paying attention to what you were watching, but they also replay what happened the previous week--at least--of not only their show, but also the other one. So unless you're a big fan of the midcard, you can pretty much follow what's been going on by catching a replay. I mean, it's not like you're going to be missing a lot of excellent matches week to week in the current WWE.
"Everything you want in life has a price connected to it. There's a price to pay if you want to make things better, a price to pay for leaving things as they are, a price for everything."--Harry Browne
But, that wasn't always the case. There was a time when I couldn't miss the WWF for anything(obviously even parental dissent didn't stop me.) That was back in the days when there was no Monday Night RAW, Saturday Night's Main Event was still a big deal, and you could watch wrestling on free tv every weekend with Superstars of Wrestling and Wrestling Challenge. I think I'd have to define that period of time as the first time I left limbo. After all, I fortuitively discovered the NWA and AWA through magazines, and had seen an episode of Worldwide or something, so I was, however briefly, a fan of both wrestling and the WWF, though at the time I probably wouldn't have seen any differences between the two, though it's plainly obvious that the WWF differed from the NWA in many key ways, not the least of which that the NWA had wrestlers, while the WWF had characters who happened to wrestle; a subtlety that was lost on me at that age, but that has grown more and more prominent during my years becoming a more--though not completely--nuanced fan of the sport of kings. The WWF used wrestling as a springboard to entertainment; the NWA was wrestling.
The first time I turned away from the WWF was because I was pissed off. While right now I consider Shawn Michaels the best wrestler in the world and really enjoy watching him perform, in the spring of 1996 I had the opposite opinion. A year before that I was enjoying the hell out of him as a heel who was giving hell to then-WWF Champion, Diesel, but after he turned on Psycho Sid to rejoin Big Daddy Cool, I soured on him. I didn't want to cheer The Heartbreak Kid as a babyface, I mean just look at the fucking (now should be put to pasture)nickname. It has heel implied all in it. I wanted Shawn Michaels to rule as a monster heel, but Vince just wasn't ready to have a popular heel, so he turned Michaels prematurely and built him as a hero over the next year and pitted him against fellow babyface, Bret "Hitman" Hart, who had defeated Michaels' bestest buddy at Survivor Series 2005. As you know, they faced(heh!) off in an Ironman match that went the full hour and should have resulted in a time limit draw. However, Gorilla Monsoon changed the rules literally after the last second and ordered the match to continue, robbing Bret of the title, and us of his presence for about 7 torturous months.
I can't say I didn't watch the WWF at all during this time, but I can say that I didn't care if I saw it or not, and often didn't. I became a regular watcher of WCW, though, which I had been catching off and on for about 3 years at that point, my Dad having long since given up on trying to regulate our watching of "that fakey junk," and I was in college by this point anyway, so it's not like he had much say in the matter. See, the NWA became WCW somewhere around the time that Ric Flair jumped to the WWF, which was, I guess, late 1991, and the AWA folded at around the same time so really there was two organizations to watch; WCW and the WWF. Unfortunately, WCW was becoming something different from what the NWA used to be, and even had Hulk Hogan dominating things against such awesome gimmicks as the Dungeon of Doom. I finally got tired of all the Hogan and his buddies dominated bullshit and wrote up a list of 5 things that I wanted to see change, or I was going to stop watching for 6 months. This self-imposed ultimatum was enforced, and because of my disinterest in both organizations, I basically stopped being a wrestling fan during this point in time.
When you look at those doors in this limbo that we both own exclusively and share with each other, know that if you go through one of those doors, I've felt at least a little of the something that you're feeling, and when you wander your way back, I'll have experienced that, too, and will be waiting with a welcoming smile, a warm cookie, and a cold glass of milk for you...virtually, of course. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if we could find a way to stop those doors from having to be traversed so often? Maybe the problem with people such as us is that we've forgotten how to be fans. I was listening to the Around The Horn podcast earlier today, and they mentioned on there that my favorite football team, the 49ers, was a likely possible destination for Michael Vick if and when he's reinstated into the NFL, and you know what? I died a little inside. There's no way that I will be able to applaud this move, or cheer my team if they do sign him. I'll stop being the little bit of a football fan I am right then and there, because Vick may have paid his debt to society, but he hasn't to football fans, and I don't see that he should be able to maintain his privilege of playing a kids game for millions of dollars.
"Technology is so much fun, but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge."--Daniel J. Boorstin
So what's my point, right? I swear to God that I do have one. This really is going somewhere; the only tangent I've gone on is this one. ESPN is fucking awesome. If you're a sports fan, you really couldn't ask for anything more. They've got top-notch sports reporters, a terrific sports-news program in SportsCenter, great debating shows like Around The Horn, Pardon The Interruption, and The Sports Reporters, a pretty cool radio station that features such programs as Mike & Mike in the Morning and The Doug Gottlieb Show, a very informative website, and, of course, they have sports and now feature every major one(no, the NHL does [i]not[/i] count.) They have grown quite a bit from a modest start, and I honestly don't see how they could give a sports fan any more. However, one has to ask oneself if that is such a good thing, because when there's nothing more that an organization can offer you, isn't it at least within the realm of possibility that what they are offering you goes above and beyond anything you could ever need or want? Sports reporting has become a big business--even bigger than regular news in some ways--and my contention is that it isn't always a good thing.
Too many times over the last four or five years, the talking heads on these programs that I love so much have spent a large portion of their time debating things that have nothing to do with the games themselves, and that bugs me. Not all of it; there is merit in calling out the Bowl Championship Series that the NCAA and college presidents keep insisting on, because it's a piece of shit system that doesn't do anything to actually determine a national champion. Everybody knows this, because it's beyond debate. There are teams arguing their resume as the real champion every year, and yet the powers that be won't even consider a "plus one" system that would at least have four teams involved in the decision instead of just two. Also, when every year coaches that don't make it into the best and most exciting annual sporting event in the United States--the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament--say that the field should be expanded, it drives me fucking crazy, because you don't mess with success! Still, they have the debate every year, and I'm glad for it, because if people weren't arguing against it, it would show a lack of passion and that people were just willing to go along with the complainers.
This has, after all, become a litigious society where the whiny loser finds any excuse they can to explain away why they didn't lose, after all, and how any loss that can be attributed to them is someone else's fault. And it is also, of course, the one where legendary(and not so legendary) sports figures declare denial for everything and then hope for the best. Such is the case with the aforementioned Michael Vick and his legal woes that come from such brutal and disgusting crimes as dogfighting, and mistreating the animals that provided him with such "fun" activities and "sport." Now, I've never been a fan of Michael Vick, even though a guy I am a huge fan of--Max Kellerman--who was probably his biggest nationally televised proponent when he was the host of Around the Horn and later Fox's short-lived I, Max; but I have to wonder how I would feel if I were. I don't know about you, but it doesn't take me long to figure it out. I'd be angry and hurt, but I'd also be disgusted--as I am already--at the way he treated those poor animals and how he lied about it afterwards. I think the guy deserved a longer time in prison, and I think he should move on out of the public eye and do something useful with his life.
I also get tired of listening to all the stupid steroid stuff. When I say that, I mostly mean the discussion about major league baseball players using steroids, because they really don't seem to care much about it in any other major sport. By "they," I mean both the fans and the media. In the NFL, players are now banned 4 games for a first offense, so obviously the league itself takes it seriously, but nobody else cares, as long as the games keep being played and their teams keep winning, they don't give a shit. But in baseball, everything is sacred because of the numbers, which is why everybody seems to care. I say "seems," because I don't and I believe a lot of the fans don't, either. It's a media driven story given more legs by such superstars(and guys that should be sure-fire Hall of Famers) as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds denying they ever used any "performance enhancing drugs." Clemens probably used the stuff because he started to slip and wanted to get back to being as good as he was, while Bonds supposedly used it because he saw other guys with less talent doing it and got pissed off. The bottom line here is that it's a non-story that's none of our business, except that the media has made it so.
"Getting information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant."--Mitchell Kapor
Because the media, and mostly, ESPN has made it so, I can't really say that I'm still a sports fan. Part of that is really through no fault of their own; a lot has to do with my responsibilities as an adult, husband, and father. Because I have so many other things going on in my life, I don't get a chance to watch sports like I used to. It's a fair trade; I'm not complaining, merely stating a fact. Because of these developments, the way I follow sports isn't to watch them; it's to listen to podcasts of sports talk shows, which means that in a way this network that once started as a little station that carried only lesser known sports has now, in a way, created a new type of culture. We're not just sports fans anymore, we're also people who like to listen to more well-known sports fans. I like to hear the opinions of people on things I care about, and I'm interested in listening to arguments about the same subject. Newsflash: [b]You do the same thing.[/b] And now we've come full circle to those of us who live, and from time to time escape, this limbo. You see, I've got a very simple theory: It's impossible to be a full member of the IWC and remain a fan of the WWE. It's nearly as hard to do so and remain a fan of professional wrestling.
My twelve-year old boy found that out recently when he signed up to receive tweets from another wrestling news site and he started receiving news he didn't want to hear. Now he only turns it on when there's a PPV going on that we're not watching so that he gets immediate results. I believe there was a time when the internet helped professional wrestling, but I believe that time has passed, and now it's not killing it, but it's definitely hurting it. How? Many ways, but one of the most insidious I wrote an entire column against nearly 4 years ago: spoilers. There are people out there--and you know who you are--that read the results of taped shows and decide whether there's anything on there they want to see. Does this make any fucking sense at all? It gets rid of the thrills you have while watching and the surprises. That doesn't make you an insider or a fan; hell, it doesn't even make you a critic. If you know what's going to happen going in, it doesn't really make you much of anything except an informed observer. I can understand reading results of shows you've missed, or a lapsed fan using the results to follow a promotion and see if it's doing anything that he might be excited enough to start watching again for.
Anything beyond that, however, needs to stop, and if I'm really, really honest with myself; if I look into my "heart of hearts," as people are so wont to say nowadays, I have to admit that as much as I love my position here and interacting with fellow wrestling fans on the forums, if it wasn't for the internet I probably never would have given up on professional wrestling except for during the time immediately following the death of Eddie Guerrero. That time I lost interest because one of my favorite performers was dead, and wrestling just wasn't the same for a time. The other times, though? I peeked behind the curtain and let myself become a smark, and thus knew that Vince was making Shawn into a babyface, not that Shawn was doing that himself. Instead of withdrawing from WCW for 6 months partly because they weren't putting the light-heavyweight title on Chris Benoit, I could have just kept cheering him on. The internet has given the wrestling fan, who's interest in it is usually shunned by other people as being "too fakey" a chance to interact with their peers, and that's a great thing!
Unfortunately, though, this interactive tool has been misused for such a long time that it's usefulness appears to have run out. Does that mean I'm going to quit writing? It certainly doesn't. I'm still a wrestling fan and I've still got opinions that a fair number of people seem to care about, but I like to think that since I don't usually dwell on such things as "Triple H shouldn't keep holding people back!" that I'm not a part of the problem. I can't tell you what to do; what I can tell you is that some of this shit has gone too far. Part of the fun of being a wrestling fan is surprise, and while the WWE has managed to pull off some nice ones in the last twelve months, sometimes they're swerving just to swerve; just to show they still can. Part of the fun is also hoping that your favorite wrestler finally wins the big one, and not knowing deep in your mind he never will because he doesn't have the favor of management. This 24/7 information world we live in has had a hand in destroying my fanhood, but I'm not of the belief that it can't be built back up. As far as I'm concerned, the news portion of this site is dead. I may owe my position to it, but that doesn't mean I have to be forever grateful and heart-sick. That's one trade-off I can't abide.
Be well, God bless
From here on out I plan on posting a poll about a week before each column (which should mean every other wednesday in the Columns Central subforum of the LoP Forums. I'm going to give you three choices of guys that have said things that were arrogant, baseless, assinine, or just plain annoying. You get to vote on which one you want to keep quite the most. This week the choices were:
Vince McMahon, who said that Denver Nuggets owner, Stan Kroenke, should be arrested for impersonating a good businessman; Ric Flair, who returned to the squared circle, claiming poverty; and Randy Orton, who blamed lack of time and the Undertaker/Shawn Michaels match for the poor performance of the Wrestlemania XXV main event. The voters have spoken:
Vince McMahon 6.67%
Randy Orton 40%
Ric Flair 53.33%
You, the voters, have spoken. You have let the world know that you think Dick Flair sucks, and you have certainly said,
Ric Flair,
JUST SHUT UP!
You can send any comments by email to me at XanManX@hotmail.com with the words "Northern Star" or "feedback" in the subject line; or, if you're a member of the LoP Forums you can click here to leave feedback, as well.
