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| Guest Columns | Pitbull 3 |
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I Listen to My Grandparents When I was a young child, my grandparents lived with us. Some of the earliest memories I have are of my grandparents, my dad, my brother, and I watching wrestling. And I always listened to what my grandfather had to say about this wrestler or that wrestler and their histories. My grandparents used to go see wrestling every Friday night. When they were living near Dallas, they would visit the world famous Dallas Sportatorium. They used to live near Amarillo, and would visit the shows there. Back then, it was generally accepted (among the fans) that wrestling was real, and that spirit lives on today to some extent. So, when I "smartened" up, I enjoyed hearing the stories even more, as I could look at them through the eyes of a smart. But some things don't change. They saw, actually saw, Iron Mike Dibiase die in a ring as Harley Race (I believe) tried to revive him. They saw Terry Funk wrestle in his first match. While these events were very real, they have seen some things that were works, pure and simple. It is this that I want to write about. People on the net look at certain angles and wrestlers with a skewed view. We think of how degrading it must be for a true great like Terry Taylor to walk around in that Red Rooster outfit. Or we see someone like Hulk Hogan come back to WCW from knee injury, and within 2 hours has the strap back. And we complain that Benoit had to job to David Flair. And I talk to my grandparents about how they feel about situations like this. I want to talk about two guys in particular. Guys who, according to my grandparents, "Can't do a damn thing." The Rock and David Flair. To start with, you must drop any and all prejudices against Flair for actually not being able to wrestle. And, you must drop any and all prejudices you might have about how good a worker Rocky is or how funny he is. Once you get past those "smart" prejudices, then it is easy to see how the characters of Flair and Rocky are pretty similar. Start with the Rock. If we go way back to when he was a member of the NOD, just getting started as a heel, then we can get a good idea of what his character is, and where it stands today. Back then, he was this whiny heel that hardly won without the help of his NOD buddies. Then, he started to develop this underground popularity, though all through 1997, and into the summer of 1998, he was a heel. In the fall of 1997, he got the IC belt when Austin forfeited it to him, only to get spanked by Austin. Then, he had his feud with Shamrock. Ken looked like he was going to win the strap at every turn, only to have Rocky squeak by with the NOD's aid. The same happened with his short feud with Ron Simmons (with Ron giving some great looking piledrivers to Rocky). Then, he lost the ladder match to HHH when his buddies could not provide enough help. Then a weird thing happened. He turned face as the boos changed to cheers. He went on a tear, even securing one of the "favorites" spot for the Survivor Series World Title Tourney, only to win it and turn heel, with outside help. And this pattern continued during his feud with Mick Foley and a little with Austin during the buildup to WM 15. During this time, though, he still had his fan base and the number of Rock fans grew. So, he turns face again after WM, and what has he done since then? Well, he didn't win the King of the Ring, and has jobbed (seemingly) alot to everyone else, while getting some wins against some of the lower card guys. He has fallen short of Billy Gunn, HHH, UT, and probably others I am not thinking of right now. And, it looks as if he will be just another stepping stone for Gunn's rising career at SummerSlam. The other day, my grandfather compared The Rock to Koko B. Ware. In some respects, I think they are similar. Koko was always (at least in my house) looked at as someone who could do much more than he did. If he had focused more on his opponents and less on flapping his wings like Frankie (his pet parrot) he might have won more matches. He was a great JTTS, and that is what The Rock has become. "Do I smell what The Rock is cooking," he said to me, "Yeah. But that's all he can do now is 'Smell what I'm cooking', 'rooty poo', and 'candy ass'. He can't beat anyone anymore." Now, on to David Flair. Flair is a character who (obviously) can't win a match without help from (many) others. From the get-go, my grandparents knew he was a bad wrestler and knew that no matter who he fought, he would lose. But, the Flair character is fundamentally different from Rock's character in that at least the Rock has a chance. I think this is one of those intangibles that the WWF has, and WCW does not have. Here we have two characters who have the same basic result in mind, and similar character traits -- characters who can't win big unless they have help of some sort. But, the WWF's version keeps people watching. Well, David has his father speaking for him, and the Rock has just as great (if not better at this point) mic skills than Ric...so that's not it. The Rock can wrestle a better match than David, but then again, the match where Shane Douglas returned a few weeks ago was a much better wrestling match than what was on RAW, so maybe that is not it either (though that could just be attributed to the momentum of each show). The difference is that Rock has a fighting chance. With David, we know that he will not lose because of the entourage around the ring. But with Rocky, we can always hope that he won't screw it up this week. For a while now, it really hasn't worked out for the Rock, whether it be because he has to fight off Chyna and turns his back on his opponent, or he just has the urge to play with the camera or a head set while he is in control. To my grandparents, wrestling is about who wins and who loses. It is about the competition. When I was a kid, I actually believed that Andre or King Kong Bundy or the Bossman or Zeus were going to physically injure and maybe even put Hogan out of wrestling. And there was conflict and competition and a chance for the heels to win. I look back now and know that that wasn't the case, but it doesn't matter. I, like my grandparents do, look a few month ago at the championship scene in WCW and we just knew that there was no way Hogan would lose the belt because of all of the nWo cronies that came with him to the ring. The competition was down to a minimum. Sometimes, it is not HOW the result got there, but what the result is that makes us want to watch a match. And often, it is not even about the match, just the final moments that lead to the result that matters most. Too often, there is no real competition in WCW, and that is one of those problems that depends entirely on the details of the case, rather than just a large overhaul of the situation. If they tweak the David Flair character just a bit, he could get over as a heel who can't win. I listen to my grandparents and when I do, I am able to get back some of that mark-ish innocence regarding wrestling. I often miss that feeling, but then I remember what a huge hero Hogan is in that world right now, and I come on back. Pitbull 3 freelance Mail the Author |
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