A Post about Wrestling

I guess in this case I elect myself as one of the ignorant. When I was a kid, my uncle got me watching WWF Wrestling and believing that it was a sport. Let me clarify that I was not one of the stereotypical (and correctly stereotyped) ignorant, white trash fan base.

I grew up with these guys. I remember where I was when the Ultimate Warrior pinned Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania for the strap. I pretended that I was Bret Hart on recess for much of my elementary years. Every girlfriend I had was Ms. Elizabeth while I was the Macho Man Randy Savage. You can wikipedia all this shit if you need some historical info on any of these cast of characters.

I still find myself tuning into wrestling each week, not because its any good or even entertaining, but because I have nothing better to do. Where as in the past it was very entertaining and while it insulted your intelligence with its storylines, there was some innocence to it all. It was just good, wholesome, fun programming.

Wrestling today sucks ass. They've caved and they cater to the mass of uneducated fans with their sex, violence, and drug addict wrestlers involved in storylines that are supposed to be 'real life'. Okay, we're not stupid. We know that this guy isn't banging so and so's wife and that the acting is so bad we aren't even going to come close to believing it. At least in the past when the guys were drug addicts there was something innocent about it that made the product worth watching.

Now I can say I am fully embarrased to watch wrestling. I don't admit it to anyone, not my friends, not my family, not even my girlfriend (she eventually caught me watching it a little too regularly not just flipping through the channels and now embarrases me in public about it). But I'm not embarrased because I'm a nerd who used to really enjoy it. I'm embarrased because of the shit they put on television each week is so dense that only a true hillbilly could get into it. Only the armpit of our society would really con themselves into cheering for this utter shit.

Two years ago for my birthday my girlfriend got me tickets to a 4 hour live event here in Columbus. We attended and I felt like the politcally or situationally correct thing to do in certain situations was to cheer. Something was wrong though. I felt really stupid cheering and getting fired up for something so cheezy. For the better part of 4 hours I sat there wondering how to act. Finally I just gave up altogether and hoped to leave without seeing anyone that knew me. After that everything I've watched I've taken with a grain of salt. It's just so damn watered down and anyone who followed wrestling back in the late 80's and early 90's knows exactly what I mean by this. It's completely fucking retarded nowadays.

All the cowboys from my era are dead. The remaining are broken and are a sad part of society. Take Jake Roberts for example, he's fallen so far from his heyday, as evidenced by his interview below. Wrestling is a very sad existence folks.