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Rockin' In The Ring (Column #32) - Tribute to an old friend |
» Reported by Eric Lewis of WrestleView.com
» On Tuesday, June 28, 2005 at 6:51 PM EST
My brother said something very interesting last Monday night.
It was just as we were watching the replay of a beautiful and talented but useless-in-the-ring woman get her head smashed by the crazy and tough-turned- dancing queen-turned-crazy and tough woman wrestler.
To furthur set the scene for you, keep in mind that this is all right after we saw real-life a$$hole Adam 'Edge' Copeland "marry" his real-life former friend's ex-girlfriend-turned-proud sl*t Amy 'Lita' Dumas in a long, boring (complete with "Boring!" chants from the crowd) segment that was mercifully ended in a destructive way by the stalker-rapist Kane.
Back to my point: while Christy lay bleeding on the floor looking stunned, my younger brother remarked, "This is why we switched to WCW."
I thought that was a funny statement, but very quickly it hit me that it's true. I thought back a few years and remembered being upset in the mid-nineties by all that I knew of as "wrestling", the WWF. I'd watched it all my life, but was finding it harder and harder to watch as characters like Goldust chased Razor Ramon around, threatening to kiss him and displaying tattoos expressing his love of the man who oozed "machismo".
Then we had Mankind, the man who lived in each and every cellar in each and every arena in the country, growling at rats and screaming for his mom. (Before anyone pulls out their weapons, I like Mick Foley, I think he's an amazing talent on the mic and a madman in the ring, I just never got into his ridiculous characters much).
Slowly but surely, I turned to the "other" guys - WCW. And renewed my interest in wrestling.
It took me a while to catch up to what they were doing storyline wise, but it didn't take long for me to realize I liked it a lot more than the crap the WWF was producing.
In the best WCW days I was able to see watch never before seen luche libre wrestling from Juventud Guerrera, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Psychosis. I saw exciting matches from Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Billy Kidman, Dean Malenko, Fit Finlay and Raven.
I saw the Chris Benoit VS Booker best of 7 series.
I saw guys like Saturn and Chris Kanyon making up moves and trying new spins on moves I'd never seen before. I saw two guys who'd floundered in singles and tag teams for years who looked like they might finally make it as Kronik (yeah, I know how that turned out) and bring a level of destruction to the tag team scene not seen since the heyday of the Legion of Doom and Demolition. And I even saw a wrestler debut that was based on my favorite band, KISS. (OK, bad example...)
I saw the glory days of the nWo before it became a parody of itself. Raven's Flock was an interesting faction. The Four Horsemen were more or less a joke by this point, but there was some history there.
Booker T grew on his own and slowly but surely got the fans behind his awesome delivery in every match, and he along with some great competition made the TV title division a great one to watch. DDP was rushed toward the heavyweight scene a bit, but his US title reigns were phenomenal. And the Cruiserweight division changed American wrestling forever.
And of course, you have Goldberg. Yeah, he was pushed too far, too fast. But it was great when it was fresh.
And yes, you had the old guard booking for themselves. The Hogans, Savages, Nashs, and Halls. But for a while it worked, and I don't know about you, but Nash was hilarious to me. Sooo charismatic. What about the "dark" Sting. Sure, that was wasted in the end, but when he was in the rafters and staring down at everyone, eventually attacking his adversaries, it was awesome. You never knew what to expect.
WCW offered top quality wrestling and interesting, if inconsistent, storylines. I bought just about every PPV in '97 or '98 and was blown away by the match quality and how the mid-card and opening matches were always given plenty of time. They were the PPV. And by the time the main event rolled around, the match quality wasn't great, but the star power was.
My interest in wrestling was renewed! I was back and feeling it again!
And I hated the WWF. I didn't get it anymore. Bret Hart being screwed was the final straw for me, and I refused to watch anymore. My friends' all watched it, but I couldn't do it. Not even Mae Young's boobs or her amazing "hand" birth could bring me back. The Mick Foley characters were beyond me. Steve Austin was interesting, but I didn't really care. Degeneration X et al was just taking all of the true wrestling skill and throwing it out the window for me. I didn't care to see Triple H drugging the boss's daughter and marrying her, or the Undertaker taking his gimmick to a new and digusting level.
Now, eventually WCW got pathetic too, and you know how that ended. My interest waned again after a year or two as storylines became watered down and they changed from week to week with no continuity. Wrestling was disappearing for me again.
The WCW was gone. I didn't even know what to make of the last show.
I don't remember ever watching the infamous WWF VS. WCW/ECW Invasion angle. Wrestling was over for me. But, like an old bad habit, time went by and eventually memories flooded back of when I loved wrestling. I was perusing the web for old school wrestling info when I stumpled upon WrestleView. Reading what was going on renewed my interest. I began watching the WWE. And three or four years later, here I am. Writing about wrestling. Not really feeling like I did "all those years ago" with the old WWF or WCW, but not being turned away either.
And now I watch as everyone gives props to ECW (which is something I've never checked out except for the odd TNN broadcast). I think it's well deserved. In a short amount of time, ECW changed wrestling forever.
But I have to admit, it saddens me to watch as WCW goes unnoticed when I know that World Championship Wrestling meant a lot to me back in the day. It brought me back to the sport that I'd all but given up on.
Before I go furthur, I must give someone his due. Read this: http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_13607.shtml. James Guttman at Pro Wrestling Torch, I thank you! While I don't know that Guttman and I agree on every point, I am just glad to see someone else defending WCW. I know all the crap that can be said about it, but the truth is there were some great moments in WCW history, and for a long time it was a welcome alternative to Vince's Sex TV.
Guttman makes the point that Vince seems to have bought WCW just so he could get away with sh!tting on it. I think he's right. And I think if he could have gotten away with doing the same thing to ECW, he would have. But the fans would never allow that. ECW fans truly are hardcore, and the few of us who carry the WCW torch are few and far between. If Vince were smart, he would carry on the few things that made WCW a real alternative. Luche libre wrestling, the cruiserweight division. Top quality wrestling. Even the Nitro Girls I liked more than this god-awful diva search crap.
No WCW wasn't perfect. They made a lot of stupid calls. But so did the WWE. All kinds of them. And WCW, as Guttman points out, made most of its bad calls in its dying days. That's why its not around any more. Mismanagement ruined the whole thing, and it slowly died a very painful death. But there were good points in the two or three years before things went to hell. Many good and great things about WCW television. Those things need to be remembered too. So while you're making fun of WCW as you watch Kurt Angle stalking Booker T's wife, or Gene Snitsky claiming "I didn't kill the baby" and writing poetry about erections, or listening to Lita express what an honour it is to be a sl*t, or (my personal favorite) watching Viscera hump his opponent, give that some thought.
Thanks for reading.
Eric Lewis
kissfan_5@wrestleview.com
Back To WrestleView.com
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