Wrestling

I used to be a huge fan of the WWF/WWE when I was younger. I still check it out from time to time to see what passes off as wrestling or sports entertainment these days.

I remember waiting with bated breath for every Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC. I've been soured on wrestling ever since Owen Hart fell to his death from the top of the Kiel Center in St Louis. I think that Vince McMahon was trying too hard to compete with WCW and that ultimately cost Owen & others their lives (directly or inderectly)

I used to marvel at the athleticism of the big guys and the bumps they took as well as the trash talking during their interviews. This is when wrestling was entertaining. Now it's more porn & Howard Stern type programming than anything. I enjoy some T&A (especially T see my post from Dec 6) but this is my soap opera featuring some pretty cool feats of strength. It's like drama class meshed with gym.
Let's call it Adult Gym. Although that would probably better suit the Olympics than anything but I'm going to use it regardless.

These guys are killing themselves doing stunts that some pro stunt men would never do. I don't know if it's an ego thing, drug thing, or an "I'm showing the boss that I should get paid more" thing.

This means working through the pain and taking painkillers & illicit and illegal drugs in order to perform.

Rick Rude, Brian Pillman, The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, Road Warrior Hawk, Mr Perfect Curt Henning, Hercules Hernandez, Big Bossman, Eddie Guerrero. Most of these were heart failure due to drug abuse.

I loved wrestling and am still a mark for Hogan, Piper & Flair Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! But I hope the rest of the guys realize (like Kurt Angle did) that they should escape the ring with their lives. Kurt jumped ship to TNA because of the less hectic work schedule. The WWE does 200-300 shows a year + autograph signings & other BS. These guys are humans too.
I remember going to Algonquin College in 2002-03 to watch Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart, Hacksaw Jim Duggan & King Kong Bundy doing some indy show. These guys are probably in their 50's and their doing pictures & signing autographs for $5-10 to make a living. Kind of sad but you gotta do what you gotta do eh? All three guys are huge in stature. I can just imagine how much food these guys need to ingest just to maintain their size. These guys were having a tonne of fun wrestling in this little house show on a piss-poor ring in the middle of a Canadian college.

Being at that show was great. No fancy fireworks just a crappy sound system for the entrance music, the wrestlers & the ref. Old school wrestling & mat work. That day was a good day for wrestling. I hope to see more of this in the future.

And for those who think wrestling is stupid, well it is and I enjoy it because it is my guilty pleasure.