As some of you might know, I am getting to cover the boxing reality show, The Contender, this season. I am really having a great time doing this. After all, boxing is ‘real’, and we all know that wrestling is not. If there is any doubt that I am being sarcastic here, believe me, I am! I thought that the old lament of “wrestling is fake” was dead and buried, at least as far as I was concerned. True, some people that I know think I’m a bit nuts, but they thought so before my addiction to professional wrestling. Imagine my surprise when I heard things like, “Oh good, I’m glad you’re covering something that is really a sport again.” (I guess professional bull riding isn’t considered a sport, either.)
Throughout these many years I have run the gamut of emotions and answers. At first I would get a bit angry, fueled by a touch of the feeling that I must defend myself. Why, I have no idea. So I would proceed through my sermon. You know the one – yes, the winner is predetermined, but the rest is real; the injuries are real; the athletes are super at what they do; the list goes on and on.
And then the answer came to me – it was a V8 moment. (You know, when the guy slaps his head and says…ah, never mind.) Did I really give a damn about what people thought? Did it matter that I had only a handful of friends that I could actually talk to about Raw or SmackDown!? Hell no!
So I began thinking about boxing, The Contender in particular, and wrestling. And I started to realize that for me, and I’m the only one who counts here, there are a lot of similarities. Injuries are a part of the game, either game. There is a lot of action during a bout / match. The participants have different personalities, some that I like, and some I don’t, but that’s what makes it more fun to watch. I normally have a preference as to which one I want to win said contest. A lot of training and conditioning goes into making a champion in both arenas.
I have been fortunate enough to have been able to interview a few professional wrestlers. TNA superstar “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels was probably my most notably to date. But I have gotten to sit and just chat with the likes of another TNA star Chris Sabin – a fabulous young man – and independent stars Human Tornado, Scorpio Sky, Kevin Steen, and Mike “Disco Machine” Mondragon, (interview pending) to name a few.
During the last few months I have interviewed the fabulous Sugar Ray Leonard, “The First Lady of Boxing” Jackie Kallen, and the loser (God, I hate saying that!) of The Contender each week.
The reason I mention these names is to point out one thing: the biggest similarity is simple – they are all people, doing what they love to do. They happen to all be in a high-impact line of work, but in each profession I found some of them to be funny, some quiet, some really fun to talk with, some a bit more difficult to handle. Most have families and want but one thing; to bring security home to those families.
I wasn’t going to do this, but I changed my mind. Let me just close with this. To all of you who still might feel that professional wrestling is silly and / or stupid because it is “fake”, ask Kurt Angle. Ask Bob “Hardcore” Holly. Ask John Layfield. Ask Vickie Guerrero and the Guerrero family. I could go on, but I won’t. The list would be too long. Just think about it.
By the way, if any of you reading this watch The Contender, there is a contest to vote who you think will be The Contender Champion. There is still plenty of time to cast your votes. There are gloves signed by Sugar Ray Leonard as well as autographed pictures, and other prizes also. Just go to www.mopsquad.com and click on the banner on the left side of the page. That takes you straight to the contest. Let me know what you think.
E-mail me at coyotemoon8@verizon.net.
Be safe and God Bless,
Viva la Raza,
Barb.
