Corner to Corner - What Makes us Who We Are?
Submitted by Stan Grubb on Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 9:08 PM EST



In pro wrestling, we're treated to a wide variety of assaults, no selling, verbal attacks, and written gossip. We are the ones who takewhat we're shown and twist and turn them into what we feel is real. After all, we're who they do it for.

Hello again everyone and WELCOME BACK TO CORNER TO CORNER! I am Stan Grubb, back again with a bit of a rant yet again. I had last week off so I could recharge my batteries and do some site maintenance. This week, I'm firing on all cylinders. Or however that cliche goes!

It seems that WWE superstar, Chris Jericho, was so angry about the smark, or smart mark, reviews of his recent King of the Ring matchup that he felt it was necessary to lash out. By doing so, he put a very valuable point that after I took the time to think about his comments, I agreed with. Just what is it that is GOOD enough for us fans? Does a wrestler have to die for us to believe his work was good? Does blood have to be shed for us to believe that a match was hard hitting? Does a star have to lash out with profanity to make his promo enjoyable?

Mr. Jericho certainly has room to gripe! His match at King of the Ring was damn sure the BEST match of the night and I will go one better saying it may be one of his finest outings as a WWE superstar. Rob Van Dam also had a very huge part in that, might I add. The whole deal here is that Y2J was feeling some insomnia after King of the Ring and decided to go online. When he did he got a first hand look at what some very ignorant fans thought of his match. He read it, got furious, and then proceded to tell the internet to go to hell. No offense Chris, but thats like killing a mosquito with a nuclear missile. This goes right up there with the 'Open Letter from WWE to the Internet Websites.'

Does anyone really think that the smarks' opinions mean anything? No! Of course not. That is exactly why they have the name SMARKS. Nobody gives two pieces of 'monkey crap'(thanks Rock!) about some moron mark who thinks that ONLY HIS OPINION is correct. These guys make us all realize that nobody is perfect, and we should be thankful that we are able to have such a great forum for public debate about the state of our favorite genre.

I can agree that marks make this sport a lot harder to enjoy, but they have the right to say what they want and Chris Jericho cannot ever take that away. By telling them off, all he does is give them more reason to gripe! And what good does that do? Does the internet need Chris Jericho? Nah, because there's always someone who wants their name in the news, so its no big loss. Does Chris Jericho need the internet? No again, because he knows he doesn't have to put himself out there like before. His matches are nationwide, worldwide, and all that without the net. It's a luxury if anything that we are givent he time to get a commentary from these guys anyways. The bottom line here is this: Shutting out the entire world wide web because of one small groups of morons will not help your case at all. You were better off ignoring them like always. Why? Thats how WE cope, so perhaps you should follow our lead.

And then we look to Steve Austin. A tragic story indeed, Mr. Austin has dissappeared and will more than likely never return. Another classic example of killing a mosquito with a nuclear missile. Picture this! You're working and you're told that tomorrow night, you will let your co-worker go and advance past you. In your mind, the only thing you can think of is how much this sucks, but it's your job right? I mean, you gotta work! So, you go ahead and do what you're told and your co-worker advances. That's what happens everyday in the REAL world. People watch co-workers advance beyond them and life continues. Sometimes, they advance as well, other times they stay where they are or fall downward. Either way, that's just the way LIFE is. So, what does Austin do? He not only ignores his boss, but he hops on a plane and flies home! Not only does he cost himself a chance to move forward, but he costs himself his job! He decides that rather than handling a bad situation with intelligent behavior, that he'd rather make a 'statement' and then go home. Well Steve, I hope you enjoy life in Texas. I hope your statement gets through to someone, because if it doesn't you're unemployed and you have only you to blame. Let's be honest though, the man won't starve. I mean, my god, he has made so much money, maybe he just wanted to cash out.

Now we get to Monday Night Raw! After a half-decent pay per view, we get a very half-assed RAW. Still stuck with segments we don't need. I'm sorry, I will continue beating this point into my machine until finally it changes. A fifteen minute talkfest by Vince McMahon will never EVER be a good part of any show. Vince knows that even if he changed it to ten minutes I would still be annoyed but at least it was only ten minutes! The longer he talked, the less I wanted to watch. And why? The man spent that whole time building up Brock Lesnar and we had the choice of watching him yack on or watching some other channel. And from there it got better.

I am not sure anymore about Raw in general. Writers aren't taking the product seriously. The performers are working their asses off only to see a half-assed ending. The pushes come off flat. Things just ooze forward. Shows now have the plotlines of a bad porn movie.

"Hey there, whatcha doin?"

"Nothing, wanna fight?"

"Uh, ok!"

Enter big fight sequence, with a couple quick turns, and you have got yourself the latest RAW segment.

With the return of Vince Russo, maybe we will get something that helps us get over this seemingly bottomless pit of despair on Monday Nights. Now don't get me wrong, Smackdown is probably the thing that is keeping WWE on its feet as they continuously provide quality matches and good level entertaiment. Maybe the writing of RAW needs a whole new promotion to base around it. With the roster split, we were left wondering just how much more we could get it shoved in our faces that the business is falling apart.

The business is suffering and we're suffering right there with it. I only hope that what Vince McMahon aluded to in his recent interview on 'WWE Byte This!' comes about soon because right now, we're really struggling here. I will say this, I can see they are trying to get us the stars we ask for. Sean O'Haire is back on WWE tv, RVD and Booker T now have main event angles. Lance Storm seems to be getting Team Canada. We're just being given these things in the best way they can. Its sad, because the way it is right now, we will continue to beg for something new until it improves. And it won't improve until we are given a little patience.

I for one, want just one reason to be more patient than I am already being, because this whole bottomless pit deal is starting to really darken my outlook.

Till next week!

--Stan Grubb--
Looking for an EFED worth getting involved in? Check out NEW WAVE WRESTLING!!!
http://www.naentertainment.com/NWW

Corner to Corner Archives with NA Entertainment Exclusives, the very first three columns!
http://www.naentertainment.com/c2c

ImpactXtreme@msn.com email your thoughts to me!








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