“I will forever be unsettled by the acception of mediocrity”
-THS
Hey! I’m just like you! I’m a WWE fan too! When I was young and STUPID. I was there though! The original master of the full nelson with Hercules Hernandez and his epic battle with Billy Jack Haynes, I was there for one of the most emotional wrestling matches in Wrestlemania history between Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior. Hell, I was there for Tito Santana vs. The Executioner at Wrestlemania 1, even though I was only 2 years old. Here’s a famous quote though; “When I was a child I spoke as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things.” I’m ATHEIST and I can understand that one. The WWE? Childish? “OMG the Boogeyman is gonna be so KEWL!”
Case in point; Could the majority of WWE fans appreciate or even understand a match like Samoa Joe vs. Chris Sabin at TNA’s No Surrender? I’ve gotten the argument that Chris Benoit and William Regal had a good match on Velocity. Yeah, it was on VELOCITY, the show King Vince likely cares least about. Maybe they snuck in the match without him knowing? For shame! Vince prefers the punchfest we usually see, like Eddie Guerrero vs. Hardcore Holly on Smackdown. I watched this match, and then later on a forum I was told that Christopher Daniels does too many wrestling moves. You guys make my head hurt. I feel as if I have to repeatedly explain the concept of pure, athletic, competitive wrestling. Of course the WWE fan wouldn’t have any great matches this year if it weren’t for Shawn Michaels seemingly, and they can wait for that, but I’m going to wait for Samoa Joe vs. A.J. Styles at Sacrifice. Then likely Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels a month afterwards. I’ll go into “match comparing” later. First, a history lesson. Now don’t get defensive yet WWE fan, and please refrain from using the “I’m a WWE fan and that’s just the way it is and TNA sucks!” when you don’t even have any points to support that at all.
Besides it’s Greek origin where they often wrestled naked, pro wrestling started out as a carnival side show. Wrestlers would even challenge audience members to grapple, and when the wrestlers wrestled each other, matches would last sometimes for hours. As wrestling grew so did the territories and the National Wrestling Alliance was formed including the Capitol Wrestling Federation, which would later be named the WWWF in 1963. Athletes with athletic skill and wrestling ability were awarded championships, names like Lou Thesz, Argentina Rocca, Verne Gagne, Nick Bockwinkel, Bruno Sammartino and more. It made sense right? Did you ever wonder why Verne Gagne never put the AWA world title on Hulk Hogan eventually leading to his departure to the WWF? No? Well, to be blunt it was because Gagne viewed it as insulting to put a world title on someone who had very little wrestling ability. Gagne lived in a time where athleticism was awarded over vanity. Pure, athletic wrestling lived underground for a long time and occasionally peaked it’s head in the WWF with names like Bret Hart, Curt Henning, Ricky Steamboat and even Shawn Michaels. In 1994 ECW started to promote pure, athletic wrestling with names like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko and others and throughout it’s history like Jerry Lynn, Lance Storm, Jinsei Shinzaki, Taz, and many more. The difference was that this wrestling was much faster, much more innovative and a lot more exciting. Unfortunately the bulk of the talent was swiped up by Turner and McMahon to mostly empty promises. Time passed, the era of wrestling champions has faded, Bret Hart, Jerry Lynn, even Chris Benoit’s title run seemed underappreciated and long gone. They have been replaced with good looking guys with endless potential…Potential in MARKETING, NOT WRESTLING.
Wacky World Entertainment: Sounds good doesn’t it? Between the last two Raw and Smackdowns, only about ¼ of the whole show was consumed by actual wrestling. Most of the actual wrestling that took place were “punchfests”, my answer to “spotfests”. If I wanted to watch punchfests I would watch boxing. Storylines have overtaken any competitive wrestling. Hulk Hogan vs. HBK. Sounds good! TEN YEARS AGO! Now it’s a simple case of whoring big name talent for ratings. Will I watch the match? Why? Hogan can barely move, and HBK won’t look as good if it’s not against Benjamin, Angle or Edge. (3 WWE match of the year candidates) Hogan? I don’t think so. Bad storytelling too; HBK has never been jealous in his career, and suddenly he is jealous of Hogan? Even after playing a huge face over the past 3 years? Horrid writing. They could have come up with something better. I was also awarded for sitting through RAW with John Cena vs. Gene Snitzky. Thanks for the punchfest. I don’t even know who is tag champions on RAW anymore, the only tag team division on Smackdown consists of two wrestlers. If I wanted to watch 8 sluts, I would watch a porno, and I don’t have to hear Jerry Lawler act like a 12 year old! Let’s move on to the champions, Batista, Orlando Jordan, and Carlito Cool, all of which have about as much wrestling ability as my left nut. I may even be too lenient with that comparison. So comes the other side of the argument for the WWE fan. “We have athletes!” Yes! You do! Angle, Benoit, Guerrero, Mysterio, Benjamin, London, and even more! But what are you doing with them? Nothing. What happens when they have to conform to the slower, WWE style? Watch Paul London in his Ring of Honor days and you’ll see a huge difference. I watch Eddie Guerrero use only one offensive wrestling move the entire match against Hardcore Holly, and still WIN. Benoit and Regal have a good wrestling match so important that it airs on VELOCITY. Benjamin is jobbing to a man with little wrestling skill and a bad Cuban accent, while Jericho has finally made the main event against John Cena, but we know the outcome already and it will be soon spoiled by Triple H’s return where he will likely take back the WWE Championship because he hasn’t held it in a while. You see, as a fan of pure wrestling it’s insulting to me that the WWE will hold back athletic ability for B-rate entertainment. You can make all the exception you want, compare “punchfests” to “spotfests”. Make excuses that TNA wrestlers do too many moves, or that there is no psychology or storytelling to their matches. Besides the fact that you can’t even back any of these points up, you seem afraid to criticize your own product.
So when I grew up, and ECW died, I was left with little wrestling, and I found that the only promotion besides the Indie scene to offer this was a promotion called NWA-TNA. I left behind childish thoughts of million dollar gimmicks, and GNC addicted “hosses”, I left behind a company that would rather create marketing tools, than wrestling legends. Athleticism still lives on though, so if you would like to grow up just a little, I would like to re-introduce you to the TNA X-Division.
Samoa Joe?! Yes! What people fail to realize is that TNA never used the term “cruiserweights” for the X-Division. They used “athletic”. How many of the “athletes” in the WWE now were cruiserweights at one time or in their career? TNA has lots of cruiserweights, AKA athletes. Samoa Joe breaks some ground because it shows that you don’t have to be a cruiserweight to be athletic. He shows that the X-Division doesn’t require high flying move after high flying move. While I appreciate wrestlers like Sonjay Dutt and Amazing Red, that’s not just what the X-Division is about. It’s about athleticism and diversity. Samoa Joe incorporates submission and strong style in his style, Christopher Daniels is the modern version of Mr. Perfect, Chris Sabin is pure speed, agility and innovation, Petey Williams is a great technical wrestler, and A.J. Styles is just phenomenal. Let’s not forget Alex Shelley’s European influenced style as well. If you actually watched any of these wrestlers in action along with some other names in TNA, you’ll realize that the X-Division is not made up of “spotfests”, but actual pure, athletic wrestlers. They display more athleticism and more wrestling skill than the WWE has in 3 years. So let’s celebrate athleticism! I have now countered the “spotfest” with “pucnhfest”, “rest-holdfest” didn’t flow well. Let’s look at come comparative matches; A.J. Styles vs. Christopher Daniels, Christopher Daniels vs. Chris Sabin vs. Michael Shane (now known as Matt Bentley), A.J. Styles vs. Sean Waltman, Samoa Joe vs. Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley vs. Shocker and this is far from all of the matches from this year. These were all “spotfests”? I’ll give the WWE fan the fact that most X-Division matches with more than 6 competitors tend to be spotfests, but I would still take those over a Snitzky/Cena punchfest. The matches listed above are pure, athletic wrestling matches. You might even hear Mike Tenay explain to the audience the different style each wrestler has and what strategy they’ll use to counter their opponent during a match. Compared to other announcers who simply talk about other stuff during the match they are calling. Even Bubba Ray Dudley called TNA “ECW 2005”. He says that for reasons beyond TNA’s fan following.
Now think about it, you can’t deny these facts, you could take the Styles/Daniels match and put it into the WWE and you would love it, if Paul London and Shelton Benjamin had an X-Division like match you would throw it in my face. Guess what? IT’S NOT HAPPENING IN THE WWE. No matter the argument, the WWE is not having quality matches every week or every month due to its slow “WWE Style” and overproduction of B-rate scripts and “sports entertainment”. SO, it comes down to this: You are too stupid and childish to be anything else but a WWE fan. You just don’t understand pure wrestling, OR you could be a blind defender of the WWE without even seeing TNA, and listen to the “WWE SMARKS” that so easily dismiss TNA just because it’s TNA. Don’t be afraid to like something worth watching my friend. OR, you could actually think the WWE is good and that they actually wrestle! Even Batista! If that’s the case, then you don’t deserve to watch wrestling or to be a wrestling fan. You might even be one of the female viewers who love Batista and Cena because they are “hot”. It’s very sad. Take all of this into consideration, look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself. Do you like wrestling? Or marketing? Believing hype? Or wrestling that is right in front of your face? Are you a mouse? or a wolf? Are you a man? Or a child? It’s time for wrestling fans to grow up. TNA awaits you.
