The Friday Night Write - Losing The Passion
    Submitted by Al Boo Boo on Sunday, June 22, 2008 at 2:55 PM EST


    Dear Reader,

    I’m such a fucking liar. So many times I’ve come on this, or any other wrestling site, and claimed “Wrestling is my passion”. That’s not true. That is actually an outright lie. I mean, at the time, I might have believed it. I might have believed that this ridiculous fucking “business” had become anything more to me than a TV show I watch. I can’t even say I “Might” have believed this. I did. I really did. I really thought that the art of professional wrestling was something more than just entertainment to me. I thought that it was something more than just a way to “pass the time” (via watching or discussing). But fuck that…

    It’s not.

    Wrestling, being WWE, TNA, RoH, any Japanese promotion, or any shithole promotion that lives in the cockroach infested boys and girls clubs around this god forsaken country – is nothing more to me than just sweaty men rolling around on a canvas. Nope, I won’t paint an image on it anymore. The facade is coming down now. The mirage will be shaken off. No more “psychology”, no more storytelling, no more of that bullshit. I don’t know how many more ways I have to put it for you (or myself for that matter) – this shit ain’t real.

    In my one of my other columns I stated that wrestling wasn’t a sport. I wrote that it didn’t deserve to be covered on page S4 of the sports page. Looking back, I realize how much it affected me, nay – pained me – to say. For the past five years I’ve defended wrestling to friends, family members, and even strangers, that Pro-Wrestling was just as much as a sport as football, basketball, baseball, or fucking table tennis. Then, when I sat down to write that column (which in reality was an essay for a writing class) that’s what came out. My true feelings. My true opinion. My honest opinion, Unfiltered by the blind “passion” – or maybe loyalty - to the business. Since then, I’ve watched a lot of wrestling. And with every match I watched, my hate for this business grew.

    I now, outright, hate Pro-Wrestling. I hate it.

    How can any of you morons watch it? What makes it entertaining? The acting is horrible. The wrestling is a sham. Honestly, there are better things on TV at this time. To think, at times, I skipped Monday Night Football to watch this crap.

    Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m just really really confused. For years I’ve idolized these guys. Maybe not their morals or their personalities, but just what they did. Their job as a pro-wrestler. They inspired me to write; to share my opinions on their performances. But thinking about his now – how fucking selfish is that? I don’t go on WWW.Janitors4Ever.Com and blog about how good my schools janitor Felipe is, do I? (Although I should because the job of Janitor is a thankless job. As a matter of fact, tip your Janitor everyone. Seriously.)

    But like I said, maybe I’m incorrect. Maybe wrestling truly is the “Sport of Kings”. But if it is, how can I come on here and proclaim to all of you people that it isn’t even a sport? How can I claim that these men are strictly actors – on the same level as stunt doubles?
    As I said a previous column, though wrestling isn’t exactly a sport – I do believe these performers are athletes. I also believe that they devout their entire life to their career. They put their work before their family; they put their work before their own health for damn self. And if I know this… and if I truly believe this (which I do)… then why is it that I just even be bothered to watch them perform on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday nights?

    And that’s where this minor problem becomes a dilemma. I want to watch wrestling. I truly do. I want to have the same enthusiasm that I did years ago. I want to laugh at the shows. I want to sit in awe at the crazy spots. I want to anticipate the huge surprise comeback at the Royal Rumble. I DON’T want to sit in a cynical heap and downplay every single promo. I don’t want to analyze a spot and break down how exactly it couldn’t have possibly hurt the performer. And I no longer want to know what will happen at the PPV.

    I know what many will say “If you want this, then do it”. But no – I can’t just do that. I’ve tried. I refuse to read spoilers, I watch the show with childlike hope, and I allow the emotion of the moment take over my body. But really – it doesn’t matter if I read the spoilers. I’m going to know what will happen next because it’s just so god damn predictable.

    So what to do? Stop watching WWE? Find a substitute that will fill my wants? Maybe. But who… TNA?

    …
    …
    …
    ……………….



    Moving on from that ridiculous notion – I can strictly watch RoH. Which, by all means necessary, doesn’t sound like a horrible option. But when you take into account what you actually have to do to get your hands on this product – it’s not that easy. One – RoH isn’t broadcasted on TV, so if you actually want to see the matches, you have to purchase the DVDs. It’s expensive, it’s time consuming, it’s (at times) quite confusing, and just not worth it really.

    The scary thing is… I truly don’t think its as easy as “just stop watching”. Because I know myself. I’ll NEVER stop watching. No matter how bad it gets. No matter how many times I’m left disappointed. And no matter how many times it seems like I’m watching the same episode of Raw or Smackdown week after week after week – I’ll still tune in.

    And herein lies the question that I wanted to ask myself when I first decided to write this column - How could anyone who says they have a “passion” for this business just stop watching? I honestly do not understand it. A passion is forever. A passion doesn’t fade away with time. And it especially doesn’t just disappear one day because of one bad episode.

    I don’t know – it’s truly a mystery to me. But what I can say… is if it IS possible for this feeling to fade – it might just be for me. I love watching the shows, even if I don’t keep an eye on the TV the whole time. And i’m sure, in the end, that I do have a passion for this business when at the end of a show… no matter how shitty it was… I’m never left thinking to myself:

    “I should have watched something else”

    ----------------------------------------------

    Alright. So that’s it. I know this column wasn’t exactly quality, and I’m sure you know that too and just can’t wait to tell me in your feedback. But damnit, this was the hardest column I’ve ever wrote. I don’t know why. But these two and a half pages were the most difficult two and a half pages of anything I’ve ever written. You can see I changed my mind from the beginning to the end and that's exactly what I meant to do. Writing out the words that you see in the intro pained me and I decided that wasn't really how I felt, but how I feel I should feel.

    So yeah – that’s it. That’s all I got this week. Maybe you’ll see me next week – but at this point – I might just call it quits.

    So yeah… E-Mail me some feedback on whatever you think. Do you feel this “passion” or is this just a show you watch because “the mole” is a shitty show (even though its totally not).

    Email: Fridaynightwrite@yahoo.com
    AIM: Albooboolop

    And in my free time you can catch me on Call of Duty 4 mostly. If you wanna get raped in some Hardcore Search and Destroy hit me up with a friend request. My gamertag is: Uncle Russel

    Until the next time, people. This is Al Boo Boo signing out… .Peace.




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