Alice Cooper

ON A SERIOUS NOTE: Prayers go out for my friend Wes Drake, aka Scoops' "The Showstopper," and the webmaster of 2dope.com. Due to some personal crises in his life, Wes has elected to stop updating the website. Wes is a great guy, and he gave me my first spot as a columnist. Best wishes to Wes.

LAKERS UPDATE: One win away, baby! With all due respect to Reggie Miller, who's one of my favorite players of all time, he and his Pacers don't stand a chance now. They'll make it interesting by winning Game 5, but I'll call it Lakers in 6.

I GIVE UP: Let me go ahead and say it: WCW is officially fucked. Lance Storm is a tremendous talent, but he can only do so much. The last few weeks have seen turn after turn after turn by just about everyone in the Mick-forsaken company, and combined with the temporary departure of Ric Flair, it's reached the point where the show is just about unwatchable. Of course, if Hogan gets the World Title at Bash at the Beach, and Bob Morris quits his recap spot on Rantsylvania, I'm still going to try to get his spot. And you should still support me by e-mailing Scott Keith and telling him that you support me as the next Nitro recapper.

HARDY HAR HAR: I have to say that I don't think much of the Hardy Boyz in their current situation. Their heat has dropped and dropped since Wrestlemania, and while they're entertaining to watch as the designated whipping boys for Chris Benoit and Eddy Guererro, there's a better place for them in the company. Picture this: the WWF continues to build Chris Jericho as a serious challenger to Triple H, maybe even have him win King of the Ring. From there, he tries to get a title shot against Triple H, and as a semi-main event on RAW, Jericho and the Hardys take on DX, with Jericho getting a title shot if his team wins. Matt and Jeff turn on Jericho and join DX, which kind of makes sense anyway, since the Hardys are in the DX music video. Matt and Jeff get a huge heel push, feuding with Too Cool for the tag titles. Oh well, that's my booking suggestion of the week.

DOOMSDAY ON BOOKS: I just read Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card, and it's an absolutely amazing book. If you're at all into science fiction, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up. Card is a tremendous writer, and he has some really interesting ideas in this book.

OK, enough bullshit, time for the Device. This week's column is a column that a lot of other people on the Web wouldn't write, but I'm gonna write it anyway. Here we go...

You know, on this here Internet, it's really cool to like guys like Chris Benoit, Eddy Guererro, the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian, Kurt Angle, Dean Malenko, and Chris Jericho, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I love watching these guys, just like most of you. They're tremendous workers, and they've put together a lot of great matches that have made the WWF quite enjoyable over the last few months.

But you know what? I love watching the Godfather just as much.

Now, I'm not saying that Godfather is a better wrestler than any of these people. I'm not comparing the level of talent at all. Chris Benoit is still the best wrestler in the world today. The Hardys are a better team than Godfather and anyone. Everyone else I mentioned up there can run rings around the Godfather when it comes to talent.

Guess what? I could give a shit. I don't watch the Godfather for his talent. It's not the ho factor, either, although it's very nice to have such eye candy at ringside on a regular basis. The reason I love to watch the Godfather is this: more so than just about any other wrestler in the world today, the Godfather loves what he does, and he shows it in the ring.

We've heard it a million times, and by now, we all know that he's "the fun-loving Godfather." And as CRZ loves to remind us, the Godfather is a "fun-loving guy who loves to have fun." Yes, it's cheesy, but guess what? As Kurt Angle might say, it's true. It's true. The first thing that I notice about the Godfather when he comes out to the ring (other than his female companions, of course), is his smile. The world at large thinks of professional wrestlers as scowling, grunting animals, but each and every time he walks down the ramp, the Godfather is grinning from ear to ear. Now, I know it's part of the gimmick, but damned if that smile doesn't look pretty Mickdamn genuine. It's the look of a man who loves what he does for a living.

When the bell rings, the Godfather's love for his job continues to shine. As we've already established, Charlie isn't exactly the most skilled wrestler in the WWF, but it doesn't matter. He has more moves than a lot of other wrestlers his size, and he executes them well each and every time. But not only does he execute them well, he executes them like he loves what he does. You can see it in that little extra oomph that he puts into his belly-to-back suplex. You can see it in that extra bit of height he gets on his legdrop. It shows in the way he plays to the crowd before executing the Ho Train (yeah, I know it's his job, but he does it with such gusto), and then, in that little extra bit of energy he puts into the Pimp Drop at the end of a match.

It also helps that the Godfather is one of the most over superstars in the WWF. Yes, part of it's for the hos. Yes, part of it's for the catchphrases. But the fans are genuinely into the Godfather as a wrestler. You can tell by the way the fans stay into the Godfather's matches, as opposed to some of the old New Age Outlaw matches, where the fans would sing along with the opening mic work, then go silent for most of the match. Apparently, the fans at large appreciate the Godfather's love for his job as much as I do.

I've been a wrestling fan for ten years. I've seen a lot of wrestlers, some good, some great, some not so good. But there are very few wrestlers that I've seen who seem to love the business as much as Charles Wright, and that's saying something. Any opinions? Send 'em to me at dandoomsday@wrestlingfanz.com, and I promise I'll respond. Until next time, this is Dartmouth Dan Doomsday, the World's Most Dangerous columnist, reminding you to keep reading, because READING IS FUNDAMENTAL!! Goodnight, everybody.