Big Phil’s Ramblings- Maturity
A slightly different column this week. Inspired by reading columns such as The Vin Sanity of Wrest’ing’s Bat Dadded, made me think, I’m getting really bored of writing Raw reviews. So I needed a topic. A topic I’ve heard a lot lately. Maturity.
Being a hormonal 16 year old, maturity is a word I’m used to hearing as how it relates to myself. It’s a word that causes great debate, are girls TRULY more mature than boys? When can one officially be classed as “mature?” and what does the word “Mature” even mean? This then got me thinking about the word maturity in terms of wrestling. Ever since D-Lo Brown returned, the announcers keep reaffirming his maturity to us, how he’s got this whole new attitude. Shawn Michaels, who, for the largest part of his career was branded “cocky” and immature, has since found religion and with it maturity. Chris Jericho’s new gimmick is all about his maturity, and no longer being “your party host for the new millennium.” Cryme Tyme, originally released for the immaturity of giving a referee a G-9 after he fast counted them out of a match as a rib, have now returned, vowing to be more mature.
Perhaps, however, this theme of a “new attitude” is most prevalent with Jeff Harvey… I mean Hardy. Now of course, with him, this is very understandable, as one more mistake leads to the immediate shredding of his contract. Now, for this column, I decided to be rather professional and dig out a few of my wrestling autobiographies and the suchlike to garner some quotes. I was successful. Reading Lita’s autobiography, A R.O.A.D Less Travelled – The Reality of Amy Dumas, she mentions some of her problems with Jeff.
“As much as I love Jeff, in a business capacity he can be very aggravating. It’s been pretty well documented, but Jeff is habitually late. I’m not talking about ten minutes late or a half-hour late. It can be anywhere from six hours to an entire day late.”
She then goes on to say, “Jeff can be incredibly irresponsible, but I guess that’s just the downside to his being a free spirit.”
So that was 2004 if the copyright on the back of the book is anything to go by. Let’s fast forward now to August 2008, and this months edition of WWE, with the cover story being a huge Jeff Hardy interview. In it, he puts over the fact that he is a lot more mature. He says “ I can’t guarantee how long I’ll be around, but I can guarantee that I’m going to rock it for the next little while” Now, to me, this is what I would call a mature attitude. He understands that while he won’t be around forever, he needs to make the most of the time he has left. However, I hope that he’s talking about not having much time left because of the wear on his body, rather than not much time left because he may mess up again. I really hope that doesn’t happen. It would appear, that Jeff Hardy is now a man who “gets it,” he understands his mistakes. It’s very obvious just how much these mistake have cost him as well. He was odds on favourite to win money in the bank and get a world championship run this year. However, his lack of “maturity” cost him both these things. Yet, he has managed to take some positive out of this, it has fuelled what I believe to a potentially GREAT angle with MVP, based around his lack of “maturity.”
Now, in the same magazine, there is also an interview with one Randy Orton. A man who also has/had maturity issues. However, his certainly don’t seem to have held him back at all. Known for being a bit of a dick to fans, everyone just thought he was staying in character, and being the heel. Then stories began to leak out of trashed hotel rooms, and thrown spaghetti. It seems Randy certainly was immature. However, he was obviously this way for a while, yet it didn’t stop him from receiving a title run. So, does maturity really have any bearing on career success?
Take the case of Shawn Michaels for example. In HIS autobiography, he admits to being “obnoxious, cocky and rude.” However, this was all during the time when his career was at it’s hottest. Since finding religion and maturity, his career seems to have lost a lot of the power it had before, although that might also be in part down to his numerous injuries. Shawn was never known for his, shall we say “pleasing” backstage attitude, yet the company knew he could get it done in the ring, so got behind him wholeheartedly. So, this would certainly appear to add momentum to the “maturity doesn’t matter” side.
Especially when you consider this. Two of the most popular entities in WWE history are DX and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Now, what are these two entities if not immature?
Who can forget HBK jumping up and down with the gauze in his boxers during his J.R interview, or Stone Cold’s taking over as CEO? DX’s Strip poker, Stone cold’s beer truck? DX ramming coach’s head through a wall, before spray painting his buttocks? The fans seem to relate to someone who’s immature, because it’s funny. No-one’s really interested in maturity are they? Or are they. Admittedly Randy got a title reign while he was immature, but it lasted a month, fast forward to a mature Randy, who states in the interview that his “Perception of the world has changed, I’m married, and I’m about to be a father, my job is to take care of my family, to make sure the world is a better place for them,” and he now has a 6 month title reign under his belt, if you’ll pardon the pun. Of course, Jericho was also at his best when he was coming up with the most immature puns ever, and starting his promos with “unter gleeben glouten globan,” so, is this reason to believe the perfect wrestler is mature backstage, but immature in character? I’ll let you decide.
It seems that this is an argument that will last for a while, as there are many points on both sides.
Why don’t you email me with your views? bigdaddyphil92@hotmail.com
Also, my official website has just undergone a complete redesign, so check it out at www.wrestlingramblings.tk we are currently looking for talented columnists, so email me with an example of your work if you wish to be featured.
Finally, I’ve just undergone the most painful 6 hours of my life creating my own forum, www.wrforums.co.nr and would be really grateful if you would join. We have a part for wrestling discussion of course, but we also have sections for music, film and tv, food, comedy, multimedia, and of course, the UGEN. The UGEN is a part of the forum dedicated to User Generated Content, where you can post you tube videos you have made, music you have made, or anything else that is about you. We have a points system in place where you gain points through good use of the forum, which can be exchanged to change your username, your rank, buy a WWE championsip title (not a belt, just a rank on the forums) or even become a moderator for a day! So come and join up, it’s free and it’s fun!
Until next time.
Keep Rambling
Big Phil
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |