My name is Eddie, but this won’t be a News and Analysis report, nor it will be another column. This is coming off Monday’s RAW, and simply a commentary. Feedback is welcomed at Levski11@aol.com
What we all saw on Monday night was wrestling personified. That was a very good lesson in what this business does to you. I have been one to take shots at Triple H for a long time. I don’t feel bad for doing it. Not one bit. Every time the man has done something positive for the company, I am the first one to note it. If you have read my stuff on the site, you know very well that I have taken many shots at him, but I have also praised him. I won’t lie to you — In 2000, I was a huge fan of Triple H. I loved his work in the ring. I loved the Cerebral Assassin persona. I loved everything there was to him. He just had that great feeling to him.
Most imporant of all, Triple H WAS indeed The Game. He could step up in the ring, and carry one of the best matches on the card every night. He WAS indeed that damn good! He didn’t just talk the talk. Oh no. He proved it in the ring. That’s why even today you’ll still hear a lot of fans cheer for him. They always will. The past can’t be forgotten.
For a long time now, I have been in the midst of a mixed up situation. Triple H, in my opinion, has had only one good match… I repeat… only one!… good match since returning from his quad injury in 2001. That match was with Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam 2002. I don’t know if it was the fact that Hunter finally got to fight someone he thought is “deservant” of being in the ring with him or what, or just because he was in there with his best friend, bottom line is, they went, they saw, they conquered, as the saying goes. They had me excited, and they entertained me. No doubt, Triple H deserves a lot of praise for that match, as he carried a hurt Michaels through it and did it perfectly. That’s pretty much how I feel about The Game. I was proud to remember sitting in my little room during WrestleMania 2000, cheering for The Rock, and hating every second of it when he got screwed. Yes, I was just being a wrestling fan. I was just enjoying it. You’d think I’d hate Triple H (storyline-wise) for what it happened, but I didn’t. Again, he was the badass he was built to be! He’d cheat, he’d get away from matches, he’d do whatever he wants, but at the same time, he could get in that ring and end the career of Mick Foley. He could get in the ring and go 60 minutes in an Iron Man match with The Rock. He could team up with Steve Austin and create a great heel duo. He was the man!
Fast forward — March 10, 2003 — WWE RAW. Look at what’s happened. Triple H vs. Maven. Triple H in the midst of a storyline with Booker T, which in my opinion, has shown nothing good so far, but poor mic work, and cheap racial teases. Triple H running around, and doing whatever he wants, basically. Now you tell me… How did the man who in 2000 was fighting The Rock for 60 minutes of hell in an Iron Man match at Judgment Day where they did it all, and the man who has been busted open by Mick Foley so many times, I forgot the count, is now running around and embarassing himself. I get the point. He’s the World Heavyweight Champion. He’s setting up a big feud, which if it doesn’t make Booker T champion, will be horrible. Why is this happening?
Wrestling personified, my friend. Wrestling personified. What does that mean? What are you talking about Eddie? Are you smoking crack again with that Blaszkowski guy? Is RVD around? No. Here’s what I mean. The wrestling industry/business changes lives. You know, you never really stop to think how much it does, because all you see is the glory, the pyro, the fans, the ring, the matches, the titles, etc. But nobody tells you how that life is. How it affects you. Look at Triple H. I’m dead honest with you when I tell you that I watched RAW a while ago (It’s 12:30 AM on the West Coast, just about an hour and a half after RAW went off the air) and I was ashamed of even liking Triple H. So he beat Maven. He embarassed him. Fine. I’ve lived with him acting like the a-hole he is before, but enough is enough! Then what happens? He pedigrees Al Snow for what? For no reason. Was that so next week he’ll fight Al? That’s why they did. They couldn’t explain it by simply just having Al there? Please. I know many of you will jump at me and come up with at least ten reasons for why what happened, happened. But all of you deep inside know why it happened. Triple H wanted it to happen to show he’s the champ. It happened for the same reason for which in the past 5 months, he has defeated Spike Dudley with a Sleeper Hold, D’Lo Brown in a NON-TITLE (Non-title! Doesn’t even matter if you lose!) Blindfold match, and why he has defeated Jeff Hardy in a 2-miute squash. Was it to show how powerful he is? Yup, that’s what I thought.
I had lost hope by the end of RAW. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t like the show. I found it boring and the constant technical difficulties didn’t help. There’s one man who saved the show, and has been for the past three weeks — The Rock. Here’s your primary example of Wrestling personified. You have a guy who in the past three weeks has done nothing, but put people over. Oh, so he can put people over, he’s a movie star, he’ll leave, Eddie! What are you talking about? He is a movie star, yeah. And he’ll leave probably. But you know what? It takes respect, it takes will, and it takes love for what you do, NOT FOR YOURSELF (unlike the other individual I talked of earlier) to be in this business. Rock could have squashed Hurricane. He could have refused to job to Booker T last week. He didn’t need to do all the segments with Hurricane either. But he did. Will he get something out of it? Hell yeah, he will, hey, let’s be honest. But most importantly, he put the people over!
You see, it takes heart to be in this business. Triple H loves what he does, I know that for a fact. But he also loves himself. It’s really sad to see that the same guy who in 2000 was doing all these great stuff just for the love of the business, in 2003 has now become a sad sad sad parody of his former character — the Cerebral Assassin.. of future stars.
I have been following wrestling news on-line for a while. Not once do I remember ever reading that The Rock has refused to job to a guy, whether it be Hurricane, or someone like Chris Benoit or Kurt Angle. Rock has always put over anyone! Anyone, anyplace, he was there and he did it all. The fans hated him for trying to be successful in his personal life. He comes back and STILL does what’s right instead of saying “screw you assholes, I’m a movie star!” I talked about The Rock in a recent edition of News and Analysis and I was glad to see many people open up to what I was saying. I’m glad that more people are seeing who the real “sell-out” here is, and trust me it’s not The Rock. It’s the guy holding the belt on RAW.
Anything goes in WWE, right? Anything goes! Well, anything goes in real life too. And real life has proven to me that wrestling can get personified and changed around what people stand for and for who they are… Then again, Mick Foley said it best — Life’s faker than wrestling.
Eddie
