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Marvellous Martin

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MARVELLOUS MUSINGS
The hidden complexity of the Al Snow/Steve Blackman story

Hi peeps. It is I, your favourite British [slash] columnist and WWF PPV writer exponent. Speaking of the PPV report, thanks to all the people who visited it and a huge thanks to those who mailed me with their kind words. I may be easliy pleased but I am still most grateful.

I have received emails, believe it or not (I nearly don't sometimes) and I have decided to print one or two occasionally in a section I like to call:

I HAVE BEEN RECEIVING EMAILS (well, its better than just calling it 'I get letters' like all those unoriginal folk do!)

This mail is from Marcel who read my story of how Gangrel stopped me from giving up with wrestling and mailed me to tell me he too had an unusual reason for getting back into wrestling:

Hey Martin,

Just read your column and wanted to let you know that you're not the only guy who was down on wrestling and got back into in an unlikely way.

I had stopped watching the whole deal back in 1992, 17 and in senior year of high school. WCW had finally insulted my intelligence too much with a cheesy "Spin The Wheel, Make The Deal Match" at that year's Halloween Havoc. I was done, finished.

I was away from the stuff for two years, until while at college for my freshman year, a friend that I had made told me he was into wrestling in a big way. I said something like "I used to be, but I just gave up on it" Well, he popped in a WWF tape. At the time Jeff Jarrett was the greatest country singer in Nashville, and was wearing some pretty gaudy outfits. A mutual buddy glanced at Jarrett and said, "Who is that, Flash Gordon?" We all had a good laugh and I said, "Let me keep watching this stuff..."

>From there came regular RAW viewings, WCWSN was still good back then, and then I discovered the internet and from that, puroresu and lucha libre. Now, it's, like most of the people who write for or surf to CRZ's site, high up on the list of pastimes.

All from an off-the-cuff joke. Funny how that happens sometimes.

Anyway, cool column. Keep it up.

Marcel

As you can see, its not just wrestling that's weird, us fans are not exactly normal either are we? :) THANKS MARCEL!!


I think it is about time, and I hope that I am not the only one who thinks this, that one or two of the columnists on [slash] should get over themselves a bit and start writing decent columns for people other than themselves. Yeah you two, you know who you are......


THE HIDDEN COMPLEXITY OF THE AL SNOW/STEVE BLACKMAN STORY.

This whole story that the WWF have going with Steve Blackman and Al Snow, its great isn't it? I'm enjoying it for the "Head Cheese" and "Here come the Snow Bunnies!" Its goofball Al Snow at its best. I'm enjoying it for another reason also, however. On Smackdown when Al was backstage with Steve, he was kind of goofy and reminiscent of the old Al Snow that used to get crowd reactions. But then when he came out for the match with Billy Gunn, ellegedly mere seconds later, he was back to being the mean and angry looking Al Snow who doesn't get crowd reactions. Al was backstage suggesting new gimmicks to Steve. Is this just a coincidence and this is just a jolly little comedy plot to give a light alternative to people getting put through tables and Tori turning on Kane? I don't think so. This is far more important.

This whole plot with Blackman and Snow is in fact a subtle parody/critique of 'the wrestling gimmick' and is the best thing going in the WWF right now. Is it any coincidence that WWF Raw magazine has just run a feature on 'the wrestling gimmick' in a recent issue? If you see how this story is constructed, you will see it as less of a 'two guys who don't get along too well' comedy story, and more about Al Snow's quest to give an over the top wrestling identity to his new buddy, thus parodying the idea of 'the wrestling gimmick' in the process. Al has the gimmick of being unhinged, he enjoys pain and inflicting it and he is more than a little out of his tree. Now while this is not very original, Raven does it far better and with more depth, Al still carries it off with great aplomb. Blackman is the opposite to Al, he has very little outgoing personality and his gimmick is that he does martial arts, that's it so big deal. Al, as the dominant personality out of the two, feels that Steve would benefit from having a gimmick to make him more popular and a more suitable tag partner. Now so far Al has come up with absolutely pathetic gimmicks, 'Head Cheese' and 'Snow Bunny' are very lame. I can see this continuing for a while probably until one of them snaps, but that isn't the important part. What is important is that Al isn't coming up with good, convincing gimmicks for Steve, he is coming up with absolute stinkers. The whole 'funny man, straight man' routine is then used to maximise the comedy effect.

Now, this situation is probably not that different, except for some slight exaggeration, from the kind of meeting a booker will have with a wrestler who is new or is not proving successful. Look at Kane. His previous gimmicks included 'Isaac Yankem the Evil Dentist' and 'Fake Diesel'. Utter stinkers. Lets face it, the Kane gimmick is a bit crappy too, but anyway. Now how is that different to the situation with Al and Steve? Al and Steve are doing the entire thing on TV. You are not just seeing the end result, you are seeing the products of Al Snow's twisted mind but you are also seeing the reasoning behind them and Blackman's reluctance to be part of it. Just as the film This is Spinal Tap was an excellent parody of a rock culture that was starting to become a parody of itself anyway, so the Al and Steve story is sending up the very idea of what 'the wrestling gimmick' has become. If you look at the WWF over the last couple of years, in the Federation that believes itself to almost 'believable' we have seen servants of Satan involved in attempted sacrifices and black weddings; a wrestling pimp; a Samoan Sumo Wrestler who dances to hip hop with two dumb looking white guys; a man who has to wear a mask because he was horribly scarred in a fire; the list goes on. Al acts differently back stage to how he acts while wrestling, showing holes in his gimmick. Do you see? This could easily be the WWF admitting to how silly wrestling is. Lets be honest, its pretty ridiculous isn't it? This story is classic self-parody. Is this genius or am I severely over-analysing it?

Also, is it not possible that if one of these stupid gimmicks for Blackman actually catches on, we might actually see him lumbered with it for a while?


That's it from me for now. Please take the time to mail me and the other columnists (except THOSE TWO) because we are doing this entirely for your benefit. A small show of appreciation and evidence that people are actually reading our columns will surely brighten our day up no end.

Thanks and take care.

Marvellous Martin
[slash] wrestling

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