It’s Written for Your Benefit, Not Mine!
The following column contains both opinions about wrestling, as well as content concerning religion, and specifically, Christianity. If you are offend by religious content in ANY WAY, you are advised NOT to read this week’s column. Thank You.
Hello fellow wrestling fans. It’s Mike, once again, and this week, after a long reprieve from this column, I’m back to share more of my revelations over the past several months and years in this very column. In case you haven’t had a chance to catch previous editions of the Rants, let’s get you up to speed. As of a month ago, I came out of a “spiritual closet” of sorts and publicly declared my faith in Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God, in this very column. For some reason, it has now become apparent to me that my faith, or whatever you choose to call it, is not something I can keep to myself anymore. It is prudent, whether you understand it or not, to share some of the thoughts and prayers I have now concerning not just myself, but the wrestling world in general. It may seem silly to you that someone would pray concerning the state of wrestling, but if you really know anything about the inner workings of the wrestling business, you can see a real deep need for the light of Christ to shine in that world. Anyone who’s ever been screwed over by a promoter, betrayed by a fellow wrestler, or fell into a deep depression due to financial downturn, drugs, or some other personal demons, there is a need for Jesus in your life, whether you acknowledge that or not. I came to that realization after many years of playing religious games and attempting to position myself as a sort of “spiritual free agent” between God and Satan, trying to get one of them to outbid the other. The problem is, God doesn’t negotiate, and Satan doesn’t have to. If you’re not with God, you’re against Him. There is no in-between. It is a harsh truth that could very well cost me readers. I’m used to that. I’ve done everything possible to kill off my audience since day 1 writing this column, so losing readers is not something I’m concerned with. If I disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn’t matter. The WWE doesn’t care. Most wrestlers don’t care. Most of you wouldn’t care. So why should I write to please you when I don’t matter? Would it not be better to write the truth, and how I see the truth, rather than lie to a bunch of people who don’t really care about me either way? I believe it is to speak the truth as I have seen it in my own eyes, which is why I write the column you see here the way I write it.
I’ve tried to be considerate to people’s feelings on the matter of “religion”, as some would call it, but this isn’t a “religion” to me. Religion is a dead thing, created by Man, in order to spread a culture of Death and Fear among weak peoples. This is TRUTH. The only thing I know to be true in my life is that I am NOTHING without Him guiding me. Al I have ever had as far as success has only occurred because He wanted me to go there. Because of Him, I’m free of years of bitterness and sorrow and depression and suicidal tendencies. I believe I had expressed in this column at least once that I had been suicidal. The very fact I’m still here today is not because of me, but because of God who had called me to His Purpose, which is to share His Freedom with you now. Yes, you. The Wrestling Fan. The Indy Wrestler. The Small-Time Promoter. The Lone WWE Superstar Who Actually Reads The Different Stuff On The Internet. The Struggling Superstar at the End of His Rope. The Female Wrestler Who Wants To Be Taken Seriously In The Ring, Not Just As A Piece Of Flesh To Be Paraded Around Like An Object Of Sexual Desire. I’m here for you, because I’ve been there, too. I see how things are, and I’ve been screwed around as much as anyone. Maybe not as much in the wresting world as I have been screwed with personally, but we all know betrayal and hurt. We all have seen the toll of drugs, alcohol, and depression in our lives, either directly, or through others around us. We all have seen injury and the toll it takes, especially on the in-ring performer who loves what he/she does.
And I believe we all understand the social rejection that comes with the world of Professional Wrestling, either as a fan, performer, or office personnel. There’s a stigma to the business, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. Some do not, and direct insults to the rest of us because of some sort of physical superiority or over-blown egotism that allows them to believe they are somehow absolved from the stigma that is carried by the wrestling world. But to those of us who do, we know the rejection of the outside world, and the embrace of fellow fans and workers. Unfortunately, for some, the stigma also creates a sort of paranoia. This leads to the destructive nature of backstage politics and jockeying for position based on a supposed idea of who makes money and who doesn’t. Fact of the matter is that NO ONE in the wrestling world truly draws right now. There is no one “name” that is really putting the butts in the seats, other than MAYBE World Wrestling Entertainment itself. Triple H isn’t drawing. John Cena isn’t drawing. Jeff Jarrett certainly isn’t drawing. And Hulk Hogan, despite his ego, has not drawn in the past 5 years. If you really want to talk about “draw”, there is only one real draw in wrestling these days, and it’s the letters “WWE”. If you’re not on a WWE show, you’re not going to draw anything more than the most loyal, hardcore wrestling audience… i.e. The Internet Marks.
There are a lot of things in the business that need to change. For one, putting aside one’s ego for the betterment of the over-all show should be valued, while backstage politicking should be ostracized. There are more important things than YOU and your position on a card and how much you’re getting paid and who’s at “your level” to work with. If you truly love the fans and appreciate their support, then do the right thing, and think about THEM and what they want to see when they spend their money to watch you perform. When your position is jeopardizing the product, it only makes sense to say, “You know what? I think it’s time I step aside and give the fans something different for a while”. Maybe do some jobs for up and coming talent, or, at the very least, mentoring the younger guys and helping them gain their bearings, rather than just handing them everything before they’re competent enough to handle such pushes. When you have a crowd chanting at you to “Drop the Belt”, it should tell you something more than to just drop the title belt on the ground… although, as far as getting heat in concerned, that was a brilliant move on Jeff Jarrett’s part.
There’s also a belief that “nice guys” should not be in the business. Please define a “nice guy”. To me, I see a “nice guy” as a fair person, who’s willing to be honest with you, even when it’ll piss you off, because it’s for your betterment and not your harm to tell you the truth. I see a “nice guy” as someone who pays you a fair wage for a good match… actually, for many, that would be “paid at all”. Not many small-time wrestlers get paid. Some say that this is part of “paying dues” and “building character”, which it is, but at some point, it goes beyond building character, and it becomes just another way for a promoter to be a cheap bastard. I worked for a promoter who lied about his finances in order to excuse the fact that he didn’t pay anyone. He had a successful business and was making money hand over fist, but he never paid anyone. It’s on thing to pay a guy $20 because he’s a rookie and needs to “Pay his dues”. It’s quite another thing to not pay someone at all, especially when you HAVE the means to do so. A lot of promoters, I understand, can’t afford to pay talent at the most local levels of the business. But some of you can, and you lie about it so you don’t have to. Is that fair to the people who break their backs every night they work for you? How much would it be to give them at least $10-$20 to cover the cost of gas when you can afford it?
A happy worker is a loyal worker. I know that for a fact. When I was ousted out of TCW and it was sold off to become AAW, the TALENT asked the folks at AAW to bring me in. The owner didn’t want to have nothing to do with me, but the talent stuck up for me, convincing Kevin to attempt to bring me in (which was later vetoed by the former TCW owner due to a contractual clause which prohibited Kevin from hiring me, among other things). Lester in particular stuck up for me, I was told in later accounts. Lester, who had basically worked as a “go-to” midcard heel, who worked with whoever I didn’t have a good program for at the moment so they could have a program to work, put his neck out for me. And the thing is, Lester had never met me face-to-face. He knew me through my dealings with TCW, but never met me personally. Now, tell me… why would someone who never met you stick their neck out for you if you weren’t good to them? The only direct contact I ever had with the talent of TCW was a series of Christmas Cards I made out to everyone I wrote for, letting them know how much I appreciated their cooperation in playing out the various storylines I wrote for TCW. That was it. So why would someone who never met me stick their neck out for me? I’ll tell you the truth – It was because I took the time to let them know I appreciated their hard work and cooperation. That’s it. I never paid anyone. I never had the capacity to do so. All I ever did was write. But, because I let the talent know that I appreciated their work, later on, when I was ousted out, the people I wrote for advocated to bring me into AAW. It’s actually one of the lessons we can learn from the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD – If you are loyal to the talent, the talent will be loyal to you. It is good business to treat your talent well and to be fair with them. Taz stayed loyal to ECW for many many years, all because Paul Heyman honored a verbal agreement to pay Taz his downside agreement while he was out with a neck injury. Tommy Dreamer stayed loyal to ECW because ECW was good to him. Happy talent equals loyal talent. That’s a fact.
Simple things like paying a fair wage, being firm against backstage politicking, and putting the fans wants before yours are just a few ways to improve the state of wrestling on a backstage level. I’m not saying that you should be weak and kiss up to people for whatever reason. In fact, you have to be firm in order to maintain control. There’s a difference between being fair and being a kiss-ass. Eric Bishcoff, for all intents and purposes, was weak for letting the talent basically do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. He and the folks at WCW lost control of their locker room because he was unwilling to be firm with the political powers of WCW, and it was the politics, not Vince Russo, that killed WCW. Russo may have very well had saved WCW if he was at all prepared to do anything about the backstage politics in WCW, but by that point, he might have not been able to do much of anything about the chaos that was the WCW locker room. There is a difference between being fair and letting people walk all over you. I know if Eric reads this next sentence, he’ll want to rip me a new hind-end, but it’s the truth… ERIC BISCHOFF LET PEOPLE WALK ALL OVER HIM. That’s why he works for Vince McMahon right now, instead of ruling the wrestling world, or, at the very least, still fighting the Monday Night War against the WWE. He let certain people have their way instead of putting his foot down. He’s said that when he was challenged by higher-ups in the WCW Corporate Office, he did everything he could to assert his authority believing he always had Ted Turner to back him up. Okay… so why not put Hulk Hogan in line? Why not reign in Kevin Nash’s political tendencies? Why not keep a reign on the “name talent” in WCW, and why not take the creative control out of the hands of the wrestlers and say, “Hey, you guys are here to entertain fans, not jockey for the tops spots. Now, this is what we’re doing tonight, and if you have a problem with that, take it up with me after the show”? Why not execute the same amount of control over the wrestlers that you apparently demanded form the Turner Corporate Structure? If anything, it sounds like you ignored the locker room and preferred to seek a higher office in the Turner conglomerate. But hey… What do I know? I’m obviously not in a multi-million dollar a year wrestling organization, am I? It’s too bad you would rather look at my means instead of looking at the logic of the situation you were in… If you really want to pick at me, you can go right ahead. It doesn’t change the fact that you’re working for Vince, while the company you once had now sits on a shelf at WWE headquarters, helping to fill “Best of” DVDs for current WWE talent and being replayed for a price on the WWE 24/7 service.
Okay, well, I’ve exhausted my words for the time being. If you have any comments or questions about anything I’ve mentioned in this column, feel free to write me at TheMaverickMJ@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading, and feel free to come back again for another installment of The Trademark Rants!
