I started watching professional wrestling in 1974. This was long before there were international federations, and long before nightly wrestling programs. This was a time when wrestling promotions worked weekly shows out of a singular building, and it was a time long before the advent of pay-per-view. It was a time when the sport took itself seriously, but no one else did. People in this time knew that professional wrestling may not be 100% authentic, but no one discussed it publicly. It was the time before "Sports Entertainment". The athletes took what they did for a living very seriously, and so did the announcers.In the "Golden Days" of wrestling, television shows were all more or less scripted the same. There was an open by the lead announcer, which included a listing of the matches on the card, and that was usually followed by an interview with one of the combatants in the main event. There would be a match, and after the match would be a promo by one of the combatants in the match. This promo would usually include a mention of the next house show or TV taping. This was usually followed by a commercial for said show, with a complete card listing. The entire card was constructed this way. For fans of Extreme Championship Wrestling, if this line up sounds very similar to an ECW program, that is because ECW is patterned after "Golden Era" wrestling. Since there were spots designated for hyping the next "big" show, the announcers were able to concentrate on the match in the ring. During this era was when many of the really great wrestling announcers worked.
The announcers, in the time before pay-per-view, called the matches as if they were genuine sporting events. The announcers knew the names of all of the holds that were being used, as well as their impact on the human anatomy. Gordon Solie was the first man to point out that the figure-four leg lock effected 7 points on the legs with its punishment. Jim Ross, a former college football announcer and wrestling referee was cut from the mold of Gordon. During his NWA, UWF, and pre-Hogan WCW days, Jim Ross was the benchmark for wrestling announcers in the post Solie era. But that was before pay-per-view.
Today, professional wrestling on "free" (cable or network) television is designed, not so much as an entertainment medium in and of itself, but more as a one-hour, two-hour, and in the case of WCW Monday Nitro for a short time, three-hour infomercial for the next "big" show. It didn't matter if that show was a house show; a "Super" card or a PPV, wrestling on television was scripted as a means to "put butts in the seats". Wrestling announcing is the medium through which the promoters sell these shows.
If a viewer were only able to listen to the audio of a wrestling program for whatever reason, they would have absolutely no idea what was going on in the ring. The person might know who was competing in the match, and they also might know which move was used to win the match. Beyond that, there would be know way that this person could relay the details of the match to someone who was unable to be present for the broadcast. They would, however, be able to tell anyone who asked when and where the next PPV is being held, the reason that the main event is being held, & the participants in the main event. If this person listened to an entire two-hour broadcast of Raw, Nitro, Smackdown or Thunder without a picture, they would still only have information regarding the main events of the next PPV. Unless there was a segment where other matches were announced for the card, the person would not even know anything about the other matches on the card. But this is what wrestling announcing has become.
Beyond the comic heel announcer, whose job it is to root for the "bad guys" while attempting to inject humor into the broadcast, professional wrestling announcers are nothing more than pitchmen for the federation. One would question if these men even need to have any knowledge of the sport at all, seeing as how they rarely discuss the events of the athletic contest. Old time fans like me long for the days when professional wrestling, at least the events "in the ring", was treated like true athletic competition. There is room the "Sports Entertainment", but not when the men are competing. It is not fair to the men, who are giving all of themselves to entertain the crowd in the arena and the fans watching at home, if the announcer act as if they are filming a commercial for the federation. This is, however, what professional wrestling has become in the 21st century…or should I call it "Sports Entertainment".
On December 17, 2000, WCW Starcade was the fifth PPV over the previous five weeks, and the eighth in the last nine. To take this point even further, Starcade was the 11th PPV over the previous 14 weeks. As a wrestling fan, this was the greatest time in the history of the sport. Each and every week, the federations were giving their all to produce 4 hours of quality television, then turning right around and producing a 3 hour special show for Sunday evenings. But just how special are they?With shows from the WWF and WCW being priced at $29.95 (except for Wrestlemania), and ECW shows being $21.95, those 11 shows were broadcast at an average cost of $28.50 per week. If a wrestling fan got together with a group of his friends, they could split the cost. If the group consisted of 4 people, they would pay $7.00 each, and if there were 7 people in the group, they would each be paying $4.00. Imagine being able to see PPV wrestling at a cost of $4.00 per week. For a working person, $4.00 is the cost of a cup of coffee or a fast-food meal. For a child, $4.00 is the cost of lunch once a week. By taking a lunch to school or work once a week, anyone could afford to pay for wrestling on PPV, but is it really worth all of the money?
When special event wrestling was in its infancy, there would be regular house shows, and they would culminate with a major stadium show once a year. That stadium show was converted to a bimonthly "Clash of the Champions" in the NWA. In the WWF, that stadium show was converted into a closed circuit event called "Wrestlemania". That closed circuit would then become 4 PPV events per year per federation, making a total of eight events that needed to be purchased, never more that one per month. The rule used to be that neither federation could do a PPV show within 4 weeks of another federation's show, which is why WCW continued the "Clash" shows. When the rule was relaxed, the WWF started the "In Your House" series, which increased the number of PPV's on their calendar. The WWF and WCW would alternate months, and things were still manageable, and the shows were still special. Then ECW entered the mix, and things exploded to what we have now.
In a previous article, I wrote about how wrestling announcers are nothing more than pitchmen for the next "event", but as long as professional wrestling offers PPV's as often as they do, that is what they will get from their employees. As soon as one show if concluded, the federations start trying to sell the next one. Pay-per-views used to be as special as a "Going out of business" sale, but if a store goes out of business every week, then how special is the sale?
I recently conducted a poll of wrestling fans, and the results were overwhelming. I learned that many fans have noticed that wrestling has become stale, especially on television, because the federations spend so much time concentrating on the PPV, they ignore the free television product. Also, the fans are outraged at the cost of purchasing 12 WCW, 12 WWF, and now 8 ECW PPV's every year. If a fan purchased every PPV show, he would have spent $914.40 in the year 2000. If this fan also has access to the Japanese, the German and the UK PPV shows, that figure would have been well over one thousand dollars. If the federations are wondering why attendance is down at the house shows, $1,000.00 per year for pay-per-views could be the answer.
PPV wrestling was a great idea, but a show every week is bad for business. Every show has a great lineup, and every show is worth the money, but when the money or the interest runs out, the shows buy rates suffer. Professional wrestling has reached a level that it had never achieved in the past. If the sport wishes to maintain its popularity, the best solution may be addition by subtraction. Cut back on some of the "Special" shows, and make the shows more special.
Lionel Tate, a 13-year-old Florida boy, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick. Lionel faces the death penalty due to the fact that Tiffany's injuries were the result of professional wrestling style roughhousing between the children. Allegedly, Lionel performed a bear hug, a body slam and various other wrestling moves on the young girl, which resulted in injuries caused by blunt trauma, including a fracture over her right ear. Broward County, Florida Sheriff's Office spokesperson Veda Coleman-Wright told APBnews.com "Based on everything we've been told, along with the medical examiner's report, we felt we were bound by law to charge the kid with murder."The assumption in this case is the belief that at the age of 12, a child knows right from wrong and understands that if he or she is told that something is dangerous, and then the child would understand to avoid that dangerous thing. Professional wrestling has, in the past, issued many public service announcements warning against the practice of duplicating the things seen on television during pro wrestling shows. Though those announcements have lessened recently, the message is still being heard. The question now is, what more could professional wrestling have done?
Professional athletes are viewed as, and are expected to act as, role models. Whether this is right or not, it is a fact of society. Children duplicate the things that they see, and are more inclined to duplicate the things that appear slightly more dangerous or risky. It would be impossible for the stars of the various professional wrestling federations to visit the homes of every child pretending to be a wrestler, or attend every backyard match with the hopes of putting an end to the practice of imitating professional wrestlers. The job of supervising children who desire to imitate wrestlers falls on the parents or guardians of these children. As often as professional wrestlers tell the world that what they do is scripted, choreographed, and well rehearsed but they still get injured, someone else has to make sure that the message is received by the children.
Children young and old go to the local basketball course to practice moves that they have seen from Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan or Vince Carter. Weekend softball players attempt to duplicate Mark McGwire's one-handed release on his home run swing. These acts are harmless and often frustrating. These men worked years to perform these acts, and they cannot be learned and mastered overnight, but the fun is in the trying, and no one else's health is in danger if they are done incorrectly. Professional wrestling holds and moves require a performer and a recipient for them to be practiced. Done correctly, the moves can severely injure the recipient, but as we see in the case of Lionel Tate, if they are done incorrectly, they can kill.
Lionel Tate, though not totally responsible for his actions, is old enough to know that he should not be hitting girls, whether playing or not. He is old enough to know that a girl half his size and half his age is doubly at risk of injury if he physically assaults her. Lionel Tate should be held responsible at some level for the death of Tiffany, but if the child was in the care of his mother, his mother should shoulder some of the responsibility as well. Professional wrestling let it be known that they are trained professionals at what they do. If a man walks into a bar, utters the words "Go ahead, make my day", and then shoots the bartender, you are not going to hold Clint Eastwood responsible. You also cannot blame wrestling if a child kills another child pretending to be a wrestler.
Take Luke Hadley, 21, of Sturgeon Bay Wis. McMahon hasn't discovered him yet - maybe because the WWF refuses to watch homemade wrestling videos it receives - but that's not because Hadley isn't trying. He says he's had 10 concussions, a broken arm, a broken tailbone and 5 horrific falls, and he's got a hundred scars and a few soft spots in his brain to prove it. "Sometimes I want to say stuff, and no words come out," he says. He doesn't have any insurance, but, "in 20 years, after I hit it big, I'll be able to afford all the surgeries I need." Damn right, Luke.The opening passage was taken as written from an article written by Rick Reilly for the February 12, 2001 issue of Sports Illustrated. It serves to illustrate the mentality of young men throughout this country who participate in backyard wrestling. The homemade video that Reilly was talking about is a video entitled "The Best of Backyard Wrestling". The youths who participate in backyard wrestling video tape their efforts and send them to a Bill Mahr, who sells his "Best of" videos for $19.95 each, but the participants do not receive any money. According to Mahr, "it's the hottest selling videotape in America", thanks in part to the fact that Howard Stern advertises the tapes on his syndicated television show. These videotapes are regularly sent to WWFE headquarters, only to be rejected before even being viewed by Jim Ross, VP/Talent Relations, and Vince McMahon.
Kids (compared to my own age) like Luke Hadley believe that by duplicating the WWF and videotaping it, they will be discovered by the World Wrestling Federation and be well on their way to becoming huge stars like the Rock & Stone Cold Steve Austin. What these kids do not understand is that the wrestlers in the World Wrestling Federation either went to well established wrestling school to learn their craft (Steve Austin, Triple H), or were recruited directly into the WWF by Vince McMahon himself (Kurt Angle, Mark Henry). Stars like Rikishi, the Rock & Brian "Grand Master Sexay" Christopher grew up around the sport and gravitated to it naturally. No matter how the men and women got to the federation, they had to first work their way up the ranks to become the stars that they are today. Not many people realize that Kurt Angle lost his first PPV match to Tazz before working his way through the greatest rookie year in the history of the sport. All these children see is the fame, the notoriety, and potentially the riches connected with being seen on television nearly every night. They do not see the countless hours spent in the gym and in the ring training and working to hone their craft so that the finished product that we see on television looks perfectly natural.
These kids also feel that by hitting each other with chairs, sticks, shovels, cactuses, ladders and by slamming each other on nails, tack, and by setting each other on fire, they are receiving adequate training for the World Wrestling Federation. However, the types of "matches" that you are likely to see at a backyard wrestling "event" is nothing similar to what you will see on a WWF telecast. "Extreme" federations like ECW, XPW of FMW in Japan are more likely to have matches featuring these implements, but these kids are not soliciting these federations with their videos, because only in the WWF or WCW can a wrestler make really big money.
Many professional wrestlers, most notably "Fallen Angel" Chris Daniels and Mick Foley have been very vocal in speaking out against the practice of backyard wrestling, imploring the parents of these children to put a stop to this before someone is seriously injured. Unfortunately, it is too late, as many participants are injured each and every time they go into their rings, but the continue to come back for more.
According to Rick Reilly's column, 16-year old Danny Rivera got a piece of light bulb stuck in his head, and once had a thumbtack stuck backwards in his head as well. In removing the tack, a piece of skin was pulled out, which Danny simply "Superglued shut". Frank Criniti of Cleveland, Ohio caught on fire after being thrown through a flaming table, and Tony Nash died his first time in makeshift ring. These are just three examples of the carnage that is being felt throughout the country in backyard wrestling "federations".
The WWF, and other wrestling organizations, have offered Public Service Announcements against backyard wrestling, and it is also getting a lot of mainstream news coverage in an attempt to put an end to it. I do not blame professional wrestling for this; I blame the parents of these children. Children will only do what they are allowed to do, and as long as they are allowed to mutilate themselves in this fashion, they will continue. Whether or not they ever actually become professional wrestlers, what damage have the participants of backyard wrestling done to their prospects for a normal life once they reach their declining years? That is, of course, if they live that long.
Steve Austin is in the middle of his long ago predicted heel turn, and whether the fans accept it or not, he will be crafted as a hell by the WWF writers. Austin has aligned himself with Triple H and Vince McMahon, which means that for the time being, the three of them will preside as the top heels in the WWF. The Rock is scheduled to work a significantly reduced schedule so that he can conclude the filming schedule on his upcoming movie "The Scorpion King". Rocky is also up for the lead in the new Duke Nukem movie, which is based on the popular video game. With Rocky out of the picture, Rikishi injured and a recent heel convert, and The Undertaker planning to retire soon, there seems to be a severe lack of quality faces at the top of the World Wrestling Federation.There are many quality athletes that could fill the role as top face in the federation, but each man seems to be missing something vital to their success. The two most obvious candidates are Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit. Unfortunately for the two Canadian boys, they both qualify as Light Heavyweights in terms of weight, and the top heels in the WWF all weigh more than 250 pounds. This weight disparity makes it very difficult to sell these two men as credible champions, especially after each has just dropped decisions to top heels in their last singles matches (Jericho to 3H and Benoit to Angle).
Kane has the size, is becoming a quality interview, and has incredible ring skills. The main drawback for Kane is the fact that his entire career seems to have been marked by his relationship with the Undertaker. If the Undertaker does indeed follow through with his retirement plans, Kane's career stands a good chance of floundering. Without the Undertaker for Kane to either team with or oppose, it might be a little difficult for the writers to incorporate Kane into story lines. Without a purpose in the federation, TV time and quality matches start to decrease to near nonexistence (see Al Snow).
Billy Gunn has been discussed as a potential top face, but for whatever reason, the WWF writers have not been able to conjure up that one feud that will propel Gunn to the next level. Gunn also has recently become very susceptible to injury. Prolonged stints on the injured list have prevented Billy Gunn from climbing the ladder to the top. Billy is currently working without a story line, and is just participating in matches with no real direction. Time may be running out for "The One".
There are other men in the WWF who could possibly fill the role as top face in the federation, but the Rock, Taker, Austin & 3H seem to have a monopoly on the top spots in the federation. With Kurt Angle, Rikishi (when he returns), the recently returning Big Show, and Commissioner William Regal all plying their trade as "bad guys", the WWF may need to import a face from elsewhere.
There have been rumors that Vince wants Goldberg & Sting in the WWF, and Paul Heyman is campaigning for Tommy Dreamer to hold a wrestling role and eventually transition into a booking role for WCW. Injury problems for all of these men may prevent them from having the impact that is necessary. It may become necessary for the WWF to take one of their secondary heels and transform them into a top face. The likely candidate is Kurt Angle, but the fans might never take to him. Rikishi could come back as a good guy, indicating that he ran over Austin because he knew that Austin was evil. This might work, and the big Samoan's work rate is just good enough to generate quality matches against Hunter and Austin, but he might not be enough.
The WWF is in serious need of a face that can wrestle, cut promos, avoid injury and always be available to perform when called upon. A man like this would be an instant star in the WWF because of the void at the top. Are you listening Diamond Dallas Page?
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