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/wrestling /guests /Carlin |
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/wrestling /guests /Carlin |
| Guest Columns | Chuck Carlin |
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Hi, Chuck again. Now that I'm a "guest columnist", I guess I'll say a few
quick things about myself to familiarize all of you fine readers with who I
am. Firstly, I'm 21, live in Connecticut, and as such have been a WWF mark
since I was, oh, some quick math, let's see... 6. I'm President and Founder
of the NWCT Undertaker Fan Club, a society that is not very popular right
now (membership: 3) since Taker is now a heel, pure evil, and, oh yeah,
really fucking stupid. Man, why do they even give him mic time? "Ooooh,
I'm EEEEVIL!!! You see Kane, X-Pac cannot see the power of Evil like I
can. You see Kane, uh, I'm REALLY evil! You see Kane..." You get the
point. But I can poke fun at him and still be the NWCTUFC President,
because I've been a fan of his since he debuted right here in Hartford, CT 9
years ago. Plus I have a big cardboard cut out of him. Plus I'm special.
So there. I'm very biased toward the WWF. Always have been, even back when they were pathetic. But I didn't have this "internet" thing at the time, so I had no idea just what a "smart" was, or a "work" or "shoot". My favorite wrestling memory is my dad taking me to see WM3 even though he hated wrestling at the time. He used to laugh at it, and I would take it seriously, being a little kid. But then after that Savage/Steamboat match, he looked at me and said "Huh, well that was pretty good." My dad the nerd liked a wrestling match! I had gotten my dad into something I liked, and I was only 7! Of course, now he's almost as hooked on Raw as I am, but he won't admit it. I've been anti-WCW forever. Kinda like a Yankees-Red Sox thing. I backed my team through the dismal early to mid nineties, and now that they're on top, I'll bask in it for a while thank you. I'm talking about WWF here, by the way. Now don't get me wrong, I still like to watch WCW if it's worth watching. Kinda like I don't mind Nomar Garciapara. I respect Flair. I like Goldberg. But I hate that program. Case in point, last Monday, I was watching the end of the first hour of Nitro, and at 8:55 I was actually interested in Goldberg coming out to talk to Sting. Then they flubbed his entrance by going to his camera too soon. Then he was easily distracted from GOING ONTO TELEVISION by One Of The Stieners. Ok, if I was walking along TO BE ON TELEVISION, and some guy that hates me was in a boiler room saying "Hey Chuck, come over here and get some" I'm sorry, but I would not go in there. Why? Just in case a really big guy that also hates me was hiding behind the door. With a snow shovel. In August. Ugh. I was so disgusted that I turned to USA early just to get away from it. Oh look, Nash Bridges is having a picnic. And there's a dog eating something. And that guy is growling at the dog. I don't get it, but it's BETTER THAN NITRO! And for the record, I know what the Millennium countdown is for. It's for my birthday next monday! Wow, little old me gets all this TV publicity. How sweet. And now for the meat. The actual *gasp* COLUMN! Here it is: Wrestling scares me. The impact that it has had on our culture freaks the hell out of me. Just two years ago, pro wrestling was a nice happy little guilty pleasure. Not many knew or cared about the Vince/Turner rivalry, or that Wrestling had changed from its mid 80's style of (excuse the pun) GvsE, into what it is now. It was big enough to keep the fans and the companies relatively happy. We had our own little corner of the Cable world, and we were satisfied. But something strange happened. They caught on. The media, the public, and of course the critics caught on. Now, to the rest of the world, wrestling just kinda faded away after the Hogan years, and only occasionally surfaced on Leno and as a fond memory in Jesse Ventura movies. Then it made this huge "comeback". And I admit, I stopped watching wrestling. It was Papa Shango that turned me off. It was just getting too wacky. I didn't get back into it until around mid '95. Anyway, back to the point, wrestling is bigger now than it was in the mid 80's. WWF is going to start their THIRD weekly show in primetime this month, and on network cable no less. Even when WWF was on NBC, it was nothing more than an occasional filler for SNL, and an even more occasional Wrestlemania lead-in with their "Friday Night Main Events". (By the way, if anyone has a copy of the first one on tape, you know with Macho Man/Honky and Hogan/Andre, PLEASE email me. My copy finally died three years ago.) Now look at the wrestling merchandise. It's scary how much room wrestling toys take up on the shelves at my local Wal-Mart. It's second only to Star Wars stuff, but not by much. I saw a kid with an old nWo shirt on last week, and I asked him how old he was. He was 7. I asked him if he watched that show. He said no he didn't. But his parents did and they gave him the shirt because it didn't fit on his dad any more. It's no longer the kid dragging the reluctant parent to watch his silly little show, it's the parents doing it. That's how mainstream this has gotten. Even with all the bad press that wrestling gets (hey, you hear that wrestling outcomes are... PLANNED!), it's ok to watch it. Wrestling is no longer a kid's show. And it's a shame, because the public still sees it as one. The blatant marketing to kids doesn't help to change that image either. Wrestling is treated as a kid's show gone awry, one that is far too violent for the kiddies. And the language, and the sexual references, and the puppies, and so on. What this show really is is a program that is perfectly designed to allow oneself to turn off your brain and go numb for a few hours a week. But it's NOT FOR KIDS! Admittedly, I have a 9 year old sister who loves it. But I screen every single match she sees, even for the Saturday and Sunday morning shows. Wow, that was one hell of a rant there. Sorry to get all serious like that. Don't worry, it WON'T last. And if you REALLY need to know more about me, just visit my happy little funland at http://www.CRZ.net/cgi-bin/redirect.cgi?http://www.oe-pages.com/ARTS/Symphony/chucarlinmain/ Next week: That great pizza recipe I promised last week! And some stuff related to wrestling! Chuck Carlin And I'm not a freelancer dammit! Just an inexpensive one. Get it? HAHAHAHA! Mail the Author Visit my happy little funland |
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