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/wrestling /guests /Coale |
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/wrestling /guests /Coale |
| Guest Columns | Mark Coale |
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YOU *CAN* GO HOME AGAIN When you've been a journalist or critic for a long time, no matter the subject matter, it's easy to become jaded and cynical. And it becomes harder and harder with each passing moment to be moved or surprised by anything. Having been a film critic on various levels for almost a decade, it's not always easy to go to the movies, especially when you know that the picture is something to dread even before the credits roll. And, contrary to what most people think, "seeing movies for free" is not all that it's cracked up to be. As the late Gene Siskel used to say, a bad movie robs you of two hours of your life that you can't get back. Sometimes, it feels like that on Monday nights. Although it's not my day job, a healthy chunk of being a "wrestling journalist/analyst" (whatever that means) means watching the various TV shows each week. And, of late, trying to watch Nitro is almost as painful as having to sit through a Pauly Shore movie. On rare occasions, the stars are in alignment and you can find the needle in the haystack, separate the wheat from the chaff or whatever other farm analogy you choose to use. Before this week's RAW, the last time I got that feeling watching wrestling on Monday night was the Ric Flair made his MacArthur-like return to WCW. But things got good again Monday night, thanks to Chris Jericho. No one really knew for sure if he was going to debut on the RAW telecast from Chicago, but the odds were certainly good. Everyone, including Jericho and Jim Ross, denied the Millennium countdown was somehow Jericho-related. Most thought this was a swerve (as it turned out to be), but who really knew for sure? So, as the clock got closer and closer to 10:30, the tension began to build. Out came the Rock. Was he "the Millennium Man?" Then, the timer rounds out, the arena goes black and what happens? A Jericho chant comes next. Then, the arrival of "the Savior," striking an all-too-familiar pose. By the time the segment was over, Jericho had turned the crowd against him and was "on the verge of tears." And one jaded and cynical reporter had Goosebumps. It was "only" an interview, but to me, it should go down as one of the greatest debuts on a wrestling program of all time. It immediately goes right into the pantheon, earning a spot right next to the infamous debut of Paul E. Dangerously and the Original Midnight Express on TBS, the night they destroyed Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton and left Jim Cornette a bloody mess on national TV. There's no guarantee that Chris Jericho will be a match made in heaven. But for one night, things were magical, and one reporter, bitter and coarse from years of bad angles and worse wrestling, marked out the way he did as a 16-year kid the night Eddie Gilbert and the Russians ambushed Cowboy Bill Watts and buried him under a Soviet flag. Mark Coale O-Goshi Studios - Popular Culture Journalism for the Next Millennium Mail the Author Check out WrestleLine's Coale Column Archive Visit O-Goshi Studios |
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