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Submitted by Degenerate on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 4:44 PM EST
Welcome once again, to the column that never sleeps or stops being produced at all. I'm your never-weary host Degenerate, here typing one more time for all you people to enjoy. Although I wish I could write for you all every single week, or even every single day of the week, I wasn't planning on writing anything this week and take it easy. But you never know when inspiration will smack you in the face. You gotta take these little moments and run with them whenever you can. So, this is sort of a landmark-ish column, as it's #60. Well, it's really not a landmark, but to those who have actually tried writing one single column, you know that it's not easy to write 60 of these babies. I know a lot of people who have tenures twice as long as I have with less than half the columns. Hell, I've even had people bash my columns for the hell of it before, and when I challenge them to come up with a column that puts mine to shame, they never do it. So even if some people don't think numbers mean something, I do, and I'm proud I have actually given some people a little bit of joy about 60 times already. I thank you all for reading and continuing to support my writing. You all rock. Okay, enough sappy stuff, I don't want people out there crying over their keyboards. Let's get to the wrestling. * In another milestone, the WWE has finally reached edition #20 of Summerslam last night. This was the third annual installment of the "Big Four" WWE shows (yes, I know the first Royal Rumble was held before the first Summerslam, but that the Royal Rumble wasn't a Pay-Per-View until a year later), so having twenty should be a milestone Vince McMahon is proud of. Anyway, the show itself was all right. Unfortunately nothing spectacular happened, which I maybe expected, and all the fan-favorites (including Randy Orton) lost. I saw the show at a local convention center, with about 50 people, half of them kids under 13. When John Cena won, all the kids jumped up off their seats, while all the adults just sat there and groaned. That pretty much summed up the ending for me. Oh, and remind me to never buy body paint used by Rey Mysterio. As if the world needed to see my Samoa Joe-esque body painted in silvery goodness. * I don't want to mean or rude at this time, but come on, who didn't see Nick Hogan having a car accident sooner or later? I think it's a proven fact that teens plus speed almost always adds up in misery and pain for the family. For those who haven't seen the pics of the car, that was some nasty, Princess Di-type of car accident. I am glad he didn't kill himself, but his friend... That's something that will haunt him for a very long time. When I'm behind the wheel by myself, I usually drive as fast as possible, but when people are tagging along, there's a certain responsibility you need to take with those lives in your car. Bye bye, drifting dream. * What the fuck is Booker T doing wanting to stipulate in his contract the permission to attend the production meetings? Didn't Triple H take a lot of shit from his fellow wrestlers when he started to do this? Now it may seem justifiable for Triple H, as it seems that he will start run certain things once his active wrestling career is over. But if you let one non-McMahon in the circle, more wrestlers will want to jump in as well. Now, I don't know what Booker T will be doing in these meetings. He'll probably just sit down, grab some donuts and coffee, and just listen to what the producers say and learn, which is plausible as he has his own wrestling promotion. But what's funny is that the news sites are reporting that he wants this clause just to make sure Triple H won't bury him. While I find that reason completely ludicrous, let's be reasonable here: If Triple H wants to bury you, he will find the way behind your back. Just imagine Triple H at the McMahon mansion, chillin' in the pool with Vince McMahon, and he whispers "You know Booker T? He said you took steroids and your grapefruits have shriveled down to plum-size". That's all it takes, and he's in ECW. * So Batista is planning a "tell-all" book to be released - while he's still an active wrestler? I wonder how well this will go. According to the news reports, the book will talk about those who "don't have Batista's respect", or something like that. I wonder what Batista's requirements are for getting his respect? If someone buys him a drink, does that earn his respect? What if someone marvels at his freakish physique? Or compliments his tattoos? In any case, I think that a current active wrestler talking bad about current wrestlers is a bad career move. I've read someplace that he's alienated himself from most of the locker room for some reason. If that's true, then he should weather the storm quite well. Most likely this is just sensationalism in the news, and the supposed smack talk about fellow wrestlers is just a bluff to get people to read his book. Hey, it worked for Ric Flair. His smack talking about Mick Foley and Bret Hart was just about what his book commercials were all about. * As many of you know, I watch TNA every week, and I enjoy it. It's a nice alternative to WWE programming, which I think most people should try to do sometime. I like a lot of the wrestlers and their different styles, and some of the angles right now are rather interesting. However, I may drop this show from my Thursday night list of things to watch, simply because of one thing. I absolutely hate Kurt Angle's wife. She has to be the most whiny, annoying chick this side of Stephanie McMahon (circa 2000 - 2002). Seriously, when she talks, I just want to slap her. And I'm totally against hitting or physically harming women, so that's saying a whole lot. If you're watching TNA for the very first time and you see Mrs. Angle talking and decide you're never going to watch again, reconsider for at least a couple of months, until her character (or is she really like that in real life?) disappears. I can just imagine how a wrestler feels when he or she is featured on television. And I don't mean an environment like the hugely exaggerated WWE television shows. I mean just being on TV for the first time. Even if it's on a local television network that only 100 people watch on a daily basis, and the show they wrestled on aired at 2:30 AM in between lame infomercials, I'm sure it's a rush seeing that they're doing what they've worked so hard for in a bigger platform, instead of just wrestling anonymously in front of 50 people in a gym. If those wrestlers are at the top of their game and they keep on working hard, they'll eventually get to a point where they are in one of the largest companies in the entire world. Whether it be WWE, TNA, or any Mexican or Japanese organization, just being part of the company is having great power. Mind you, any large wrestling company has a lot of employees, from sales people to writers to backstage agents. But the wrestler is the most integral part of any wrestling company. Without their talents, the company has nothing. Simply put, the wrestler makes or breaks the company. He or she is what makes the company distinguish itself from the rest. If the company hired a particular wrestler, it's because they thought that they had enough talent to help bolster the team. There are a lot of other wrestlers out there to choose from, yet they chose that particular wrestler from the bunch. So from the very beginning, even without wrestling a single match for the company, that wrestler has a certain responsibility to that company, whether they like it or not. And it's not just being just another name in the company. Any shmuck can be contracted somewhere, in any career, and not do anything. Being there gives you power to make a difference. It may sound weird that I say a wrestler has actual power in a wrestling organization, but I think they actually do. Like I said before, the wrestlers are a very important part of the success a company can achieve. You may have the best promoters out there, but without a product to showcase, people won't care at all. So there is some power to be held with the wrestlers. And as always, with power comes responsibility. They're responsible for getting the fans in the building. Whether it's by having killer matches, by constantly improving your skills and innovating yourself doing new things, or simply by being a professional outside the company, the wrestlers need to be responsible for the well-being of not only themselves, but to the company that's paying them. Of course, not everyone thinks the same way. A lot of people don't realize the amount of responsibility these positions warrant. For whatever reason, they forget about the job they need to do, and what it takes to actually do that job. Sometimes, it's out of their hands, and totally justified, like the sickness or death of a family member. Other times, there are situations that could easily be avoided, yet handled the wrong way. Finally, there are the times that are just plain wrong. It's happened many times over in the wrestling business in the past. Let's review a couple of these situations. August 1991 - Some months after a 10 month long run as World Champion and at the top of the company, The Ultimate Warrior was scheduled to be in a tag match with former WWF Champion, Hulk Hogan, against Sgt. Slaughter and his cronies, the Main Event for Summer Slam '91. However, the day of the event, Warrior took the liberty of walking up to Vince McMahon, and threaten to not go out to the ring and wrestle in the scheduled Main Event of the card if he wasn't paid more money. McMahon, having promoted this match for weeks and certainly facing a negative backlash had the match been changed or scrapped, had no choice but to agree to the deal. If anyone reading has previously held a job for more than a year, most likely you have wanted a raise or some other incentive to show for your hard work during that time. There's no problem with that. Of course, you don't go up to your employer and demand a raise or else you'll walk. In a regular job, you'd be fired on the spot. But not in wrestling. In this case, the Warrior took the power he had as a Main Event wrestler and abused it to get what he wanted. He figuratively had McMahon by the balls. McMahon had to oblige, because he did something the Warrior didn't: McMahon didn't forget the responsibility he had with the crowd, who paid their hard-earned cash (except for the drug lords and celebutantes in the audience that night) to see a good Main Event. The Warrior did forget, and that promptly got him fired. June 2002 - After a historic run as WWE's top face, Stone Cold Steve Austin was starting to feel a small decline in his drawing power at the beginning of 2002, as guys like Triple H and The Rock were getting pushes and drawing lots of fans in. However, in June of that same year, Stone Cold suddenly received a call with plans for the following Raw: rising newcomer Brock Lesnar would get a sudden victory over Stone Cold Steve Austin that week on Raw. Austin, citing that a quick victory would do no favors to either the company or Lesnar, along with other creative and personal problems stemming from previous months, took the first plane available and went home, not returning for nine months. Taking another page from personal experience, we've all felt so damn frustrated at our jobs at one point or another. If you're working in a job like mine, you'll should be frustrated at least once or twice a week. I've seen people get pissed off so much at my current boss, that they just jump in their cars and leave, returning the next day to either quit or find a pink slip on their desks. Austin, citing creative issues, left out of the blue, leaving a show and most likely long-term plans in total chaos. But eventually the truth revealed itself, and it was proven that Austin was actually breaking down physically and emotionally. He avoided any responsibility of letting his bosses know about these issues and work something out. In these cases, I have empathy for these types of cases. Unfortunately, the wrestling business doesn't care about these cases. As a professional, Austin could've handled this differently. April 1998 - The "Nature Boy", Ric Flair, is a proud father. His son Reid was going to participate in an amateur wrestling tournament. The elder Flair, being the NWA Champion back in an age where holding the belt meant traveling and wrestling more than 350 days a year, didn't want to miss yet another special moment with his child, and requested some time off to go to the tournament. However, that same day, Flair was booked to appear in WCW Thunder. After not appearing, Bischoff sued Flair for breaching his contract by not appearing, while Flair counter-sued those claims. Having a time-consuming job is tough on relationships. Right now I'm working more than 50 hours a week for the past month, and I'm finding it extremely difficult to do the things I want to enjoy, like going out with friends and spending some time with my family. Just imagine being a professional wrestler. I think there comes a time when they get used to missing birthdays, anniversaries, and other special family moments. It's part of the territory. Still, Flair did the responsible thing in this case. He did tell his employers that he was heading off for a few days. Whether Flair missed or ignored the booking changes, or Bischoff was just looking for a way to screw Naitch is irrelevant. Both men had responsibilities to uphold, and both did in their own way. Lack of communication is a bitch. However, this case is much different as the rest, as Flair showed a different, more important type of responsibility: real-life responsibility. While wrestlers usually sacrifice their entire lives to get to the top of the wrestling business, it doesn't mean that it should all revolve around that. I fully understand that real life matters get in the way of job-related issues. However, it's the way the issues are handled that separates the real professionals to those only who only hold the title of professional and nothing else. It's easy to just avoid your current responsibility, which is the job at hand, because you had some real-life issues. That's the easy way out of doing things, and it just sucks. What would I do in Warrior's place? If I had an issue with my paycheck, I would head up to the main honcho and talk about it. Or easier yet, I would have to live with it, because it was a signed contract. I'm sure the Warrior was happy when he signed the contract initially, and the legalese written in those contracts make sure nothing like this happens. Being in Austin's place, I would've spoken with McMahon about the health and marriage problems and work out a deal where I didn't have to wrestle much while still be one of the top guys, maybe try to work with what the creative team gave me. And in Flair's situation? I wouldn't have had a kid in the first place who wrestled in greco-roman wrestling tournaments, thus avoiding all conflict. In all seriousness, Flair did the right thing, as he asked for the time off and was given it. If you had a job that required you to entertain thousands of people, you wouldn't half-ass your responsibility, would you? As the great Spider-Man was told, with great power comes great responsibility. I want to thank a fellow columnist for providing the inspiration for me to write about this subject. You know who you are. As usual, before I head out, here's some more reading from my favorite place to hang out on the 'Net, the Columns Forum. You should read more, because that makes you smart. And chicks dig smart guys, right ladies? Ladies??? They must've gone to get something to drink, they'll be back soon... When in Rome XVIII - Bow Down By romans_3:23 I'm really glad that I'm not the only person who really enjoys King Booker's royal character since its debut last year. As the two-time reigning COTM winner romans writes, there's a pretty good reason why you should bow down to the King, sucka! The 16th Stop on the Road: Vol. 10 - Be Yourself By The Letter P All great characters are said to be taken from the wrestler's personality with the volume turned on way up. But that's not always the case, as my Aussie pal P (and that's LETTER P, to you) states here. There has been one character who hasn't always been true to himself. I'm sure you won't know who it is, so make sure to check it out. Oh, and I collaborated on it, so I'm whoring my own writing! The Supreme Xperience (Vol. #12) - Feeling Deprived is a Good Thing? By X-FV1 In a world of wanting everything all the time and getting it most of the times, holding back a little sometimes isn't a bad thing. The writer formerly known as X-Factor, X-FV1, gives a good argument about how wrestling organizations can actually hurt their product by catering to the needs of each and every fan. That wraps up another column from my brain. If there's some more inspiration out there, I'll be back sooner than you all think. I hope that's a good thing. As usual, hit me with your comments at dennmart@gmail.com. Keep tuning in, and thanks for reading. See y'all around, Degenerate ***DIRECT LINK*** Very Rare and Hot Photos of TORRIE WILSON PARTYING!
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