Written By: Greg Stephens
RAMBLE ON–The Embarrassment Continues
By Greg Stephens
Welcome to ‘Ramble On’. First and foremost, allow me to wish everyone a happy and safe July Fourth. I confess that I did not get to see Raw last night because I took the family to see fireworks at a good friend’s house. As soon as I got back home last night, which was about eleven-thirty, I immediately jumped on www.pwinsider.com to check the Raw Report. Again, it was one of those times where I apparently did not miss much.
In case no one has noticed, the sports world has become very convoluted in terms of scandals and ‘hot topics’. Last week, many new and, might I add, incredible, allegations surfaced in regards to an athlete many of us consider the last great American sports hero–Lance Armstrong. While Lance Armstrong may go the rest of his life with no concrete evidence proving he used performance enhancing drugs to accomplish one of the greatest athletic feats of modern times, his legacy of seven consecutive Tour De France victories will forever be tarnished by the questions. Major League Baseball is a fiasco of controversy with steroids and human growth hormones, but also with the recent allegations of a starting pitcher roughing up his wife in public, only to make his next start the very next day. The National Football League seems to get new black eyes every day from a less-than-model-citizen corps of draft rookies, not to mention players such as my hometown ‘pride’, Chris Henry. Where would we be without the day-to-day saga of the New York Knicks, Larry Brown, and Isaiah Thomas, and the lamest draft in the history of professional sports, thanks to the National Basketball Association. And, last but not least, let’s here it for the anemic performance of our national soccer team that scored one goal in three games in the World Cup. I shall not even bother ranting about the fact there are no more Americans playing in Wimbledon.
Now we shift our attention to the world of Professional Wrestling. There are not many things in this world that America can truly call its own. American-style football may be one. The sports utility vehicle may be another. Certainly one thing we Americans can lay a virtual exclusivity to is professional wrestling.
We are, I hope, fairly familiar with the history of this great ‘sport’. When I say that, I do not mean to imply that everyone should know how many times Frank Gotch was the American Wrestling Champion, or who Lou Thesz beat for his third NWA World Title (three and Eduoard Carpentier, respectively). At the least, we should all recognize the beginnings of modern day wrestling in the great carnivals of yesteryear. That humble beginning, along with the ninety-year adherence to strict kayfabe treatment of the business, has made professional wrestling the laughing stock of the American sports scene. Professional wrestling is seen as being redneck entertainment that ranks up there with tractor pulls.
One would think that with the history of mockery this noble business has endured for decades, the industry would attempt to separate itself from all other sports by rising like a phoenix from the ashes, and restoring credibility to itself. In all honesty, there probably is no better opportunity in American sports history for the business to accomplish this. With Barry Bonds, Chris Henry, Jamal Lewis, Jose Canseco and many other professional athletes attempting to destroying our faiths in organized professional sports, professional wrestling could really stand up and establish itself as a serious, legitimate, and clean business that would set new examples by which all other sports would be ashamed.
We need to face a certain reality. Professional wrestling is now synonymous with one name–Vince McMahon. As scary as this may be to admit to ourselves, the very future of the business rests on his admittedly broad shoulders. I do not want to hear from the TNA apologists, either, nor those that believe ‘real rasslin’ still lives on in the hearts of the indies. Whether the business succeeds or fails will be determined by the WWE. I understand this reality may well be as scary to Vince as it is to us. That is a lot of pressure on one man to think he literally controls the destiny of an industry. We all know, however, that Vince McMahon never runs from a challenge. He always seems to rise to the challenge when he truly needs to.
Which is why the latest happenings in the WWE leave me totally baffled. In an era where wrestling needs to legitimize and gain some respectability, we have the WWE/ECW champion and another top ranked ECW star busted for possession of marijuana, contrary to the WWE’s ‘wellness program’. What is his punishment? He main events Raw the next day and loses the WWE title. Sure, one can applaud Vince for prematurely taking the belt off RVD as a form of punishment, but that’s not the reality. Vince pulled the title in order minimize embarrassment to WWE and the title. If there are any teeth to the ‘wellness program’, and any serious attempts at discipline, the only right thing to do would be fire both RVD and Sabu, ala Brian Lawler. Of course, that kills ECW probably. However, the way ECW has been promoted and booked with zombies, vampires, incompetent strippers, and terrible wrestling, would that even be such a bad thing at this point?
We can also point to an alarmingly increasing reliance on sexual innuendo and graphic material as another way in which Vince is missing his opportunity. If he had any desire to raise the prestige of the business, there would be more wrestling and less divas, less penis jokes, less gluteus maximus sightings, less retards, less has-beens, less…oh never mind. I suspect you get the idea. And don’t forget the DX Reunion Tour. You have two of the greatest wrestlers in the history of the business rejoin to try to capture lightening in a bottle twice. These guys could be used to build the stars of tomorrow. Michaels and HHH could elevate the business as no one has before. Instead, they spent two hours last night totally humiliating as much promising talent as they could with sophomoric humor and inappropriate comedy, all to further their monumental feud with…Vince and Shane McMahon–the two non-wrestlers. I think I now know why Vince was never a track star. Try to hand him a baton, and he drops it every time. As it says, the embarrassment continues. Until next time, keep reading, and keep ramblin’ on.
Greg Stephens
Gstep77507
