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Submitted by Pt2 on Monday, December 27, 2004 at 8:08 AM EST
The death of the sellIf you look at most of the wrestlers lauded as great these days, there is a significant difference in the way they wrestle to the way that the greats wrestled twenty, or even ten years ago. This topic came to me when I was watching NWA-TNA on the the wrestling channel, and Low Ki and Christopher Daniels were in the ring squaring off against the Naturals. Low Ki isn’t exactly a slouch in the ring, and most people rate Daniels even more highly, often putting him at the very highest level. So I’m watching this match, and it takes two minutes for anyone to sell a move. Every single move that happens, these guys just pop back up and hit another move straight away. Even Daniels, who looked amazing on offence, sold about as much as the Undertaker sells a right hand from Jim Cornette. Call me old fashioned, out of touch, but this irritated me. Selling is one of the most important things you can do in a wrestling match, and these guys just throw it out of the window? It’s not pro wrestling then, it’s dancing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not singling out Christopher Daniels and Low Ki here because they aren’t the only ones doing this. In fact, I’ve seen Daniels sell brilliantly in some matches, and put on great contests. Another gentleman who seems to have the selling abilities of Giant Gonzales would be Kurt Angle. Now that I’ve earned the hatred of the couple of hundred people who actually read this, I’ll carry on. As good as Kurt Angle is on the offensive due to his intensity and smooth in ring technique, his ability to carry and wrestle all styles.... he doesn’t sell a move to save his life. It’s the biggest weak point in his very solid wrestling armour, and for me it’s the one thing that keeps him behind the likes of Chris Benoit when it comes to wrestling talent. If you’d have said in the 1980’s to a pro wrestler, that a man who doesn’t sell properly would have gone on to be a 4 time WWE champion, he wouldn’t know who you meant by WWE, but he’d assume that they couldn’t be as good as the WWF or the NWA if a man who didn’t sell was their world champion. And this isn’t no selling in the way that the Undertaker or Zeus does/did it, remember, because that was their gimmick. There is no point in moaning at the guys who no sell when it’s their job to go in there and look invincible. But if its your job to sell and your not doing it, then you are doing something wrong. It isn’t a cruiserweight specific problem, as Rey Mysterio and Kidman can sell, but it is rife within Cruiserweight wrestling. If they can fix the selling aspect to make the matches look a little more real, then combined with that high flying break-neck speed offence, we are talking great wrestling. As things stand though, a lot of wrestlers may as well be dancing. elevationHow many times have you heard someone say that the WWE should elevate more stars? Get these mid-carders up to the main event level. While wrestlers rising through the card is a new phenomena, the idea of forcing the issue, going out of your way to try and raise these guys, is. Look at Edge. How many times has the WWE tried to make this guy a star, really gone out of their way to make this guy look great? OK, you can stop counting, in the words of Rowdy Roddy Piper, I didn’t wanna know that bad. The harsh truth is, that Edge wouldn’t have gotten over ten years ago, and wouldn’t have been given the chance. If you look at all the guys who have gotten themselves over before the attitude era really kicked off, they weren’t elevated: They got themselves over in the mid-card, and it was a natural progression to have them main event. Bret Hart? Over enough to win the world title before he held the Intercontinental. Shawn Michaels? Maybe not as over at first, but by his 3rd IC title run, the man was a megastar. Steve Austin? Got himself over within weeks of the WWE writers giving up on a gimmick and saying “Be yourself”. We all know what happens next. He goes on a massive lucrative run. This is just the most obvious examples. Kevin Nash, The Rock, Triple H, Razor Ramon all came in, and moved up the card on the merits of their own popularity. They made themselves stars. The difference between them and the current crop? Regardless of their position on the card, they knew how to make you cheer for them, whereas the WWE are actively having to force you into reacting for more people, because the knowledge of how to do it themselves, just isn’t there. While Curt Hennig dragged himself up from a curtain jerking heel to one of the greatest IC Champions of all time, you get the feeling that as technically proficient as Doug Basham is, he’s never had the chance to learn how to make thousands of people all care about his match at once. That’s a fundamental flaw, in the way these newer wrestlers are being trained. It’s all well and good for them all to be able to hit the worlds most impressive spine buster, but if no one cares when they do it, then whats the point? And if no-one sees a point, then they won’t get themselves over. They’ll be forced over. Not that this is going to be all bleak. When these guys get some experience they start to become good entertainers.... but there is always that brief period of blandness at the beginning. A generation ago, young wrestlers were taught how to lose that. It’s important that the WWE teaches them too. Last time out, an embittered Random Guy left his thoughts in this column: And got a great response from a lot of you guys. While not everyone (in fact, very few) supported him, many people were curious and wanted to hear more, if for no other reason than to try and understand where Random is coming from. So with the support of the masses behind him, I couldn’t keep him out of the column. So without an further ado.... This advertisement has been paid for by the supporters of the real YBTB Champion A Random Promo What do you do? No, really. What do you do? Do you work? Do you raise kids? Do you spend your days smoking anything that will light on fire while porking your cat? This isn’t going where I expected….perhaps I should rephrase. What do you create? At any point do you regularly start with a blank slate and some tools, and create something from nothing? A painting? Perhaps a Fantasy sports team? Music? Poetry? As children, we all created at some point. In grade school, we would make finger paintings of Santa Claus, or construction paper cutouts of turkey’s that looked suspiciously like our hands. We would glue cheerios on paper that read “I Love You Mommy” or some other beautiful incarnations of our creative minds. We’d go home, and mommy and daddy would pin these up on the fridge, or we’d hang them in our rooms or in the hallways of school, celebrating our accomplishments. So much time we spent…such hard work. I too create. Much like your dabblings in music, or your child’s finger paintings, I spend hours everyday perfecting columns and reviews and other various manifestations. I do it to entertain, to bring enjoyment into the lives of others. I do it because I love it. What I do not love, is watching my mother laugh at my finger painting, just before tearing it apart. “Oh, poor little Random dear! You tried so hard, but you simply weren’t as good as Xanman! Oh no, don’t bother trying again honey…it’s not worth your effort. Don’t worry, we still love you, you’re just not as talented as big brother Xan and you never will be, so don’t try.” Fucking crap I say. I go back to my school and have all my friends tell me that my mom is a raging alcoholic and that my pictures were every bit as good as big brother Xan. My teacher tells me to paint another picture, maybe my mom will like this one better. I cry. I cry because now I am forced to read this, awaiting the winner of the losers bracket. Xan and Billy would have put on a brilliant match I’m sure. But not on the same level as it could have been. Pt2 chose not to create the best match possible, he chose instead to enforce a trivial rule and allow his ‘judge’ to make a questionable decision. People cry out “Is this guy serious?” Read this matchup for the “championship”. Read what they’ve produced. Then read my work both in these interviews, my past performances in these booking challenges, or check out my own columns. After that, .you tell mewhat you’d rather read. Lets be honest kids. Am I serious? Tear up your child’s paintings and see how they react. Wow, talk about disturbed. I know the effort and time Random puts into these things, but even I, the creator, think it’s getting out of hand now. That being said, how am I to judge? Naturally, it only seems right to give the REAL YBTB champion, Xanman, the chance to reply, and address all his potential challengers who are entering the YBTB Rumble next month. So, expect words from the champion and maybe some of the other major names in the Rumble in the next column. Until then, have a good new year. Feel free to leave feedback at takeupthywrestlingboots@gmail.com I’ll naturally answer all mail received. Take care Pt2 *NEW GALLERY* Very HOT and Revealing Gail Kim Photos! WOW!!!
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