You Gotta Ask Yourself…
November 1, 2009Why anyone who knows what happened with Chris Benoit would try to emulate his style with a clear conscience?
Why anyone who sees the condition that Kurt Angle is in would try to emulate his style?
Why anyone who read the New York Times articles on concussions would continue to work that style unfettered and unfiltered?
Why anyone who’s heard Chris Nowinski talk about the effects of concussions wouldn’t think it’s time to change the way they do things?
Has anyone ever told you work harder not smarter? The Mofo doubts it. Hopefully, you’ve been told to work smarter not harder at some point in your life. Why do so many guys ignore that advice?
Just getting in the ring is a risk. There are so many things that can go wrong at any time. Just like with any other risk in life the smart people do everything that they can to mitigate that risk. Whether its investments, the stock market, movies, speeding, lifting weights, crossing the street or whatever. You know there is a risk involved, but you do what you can to mitigate that risk. You don’t do things to exacerbate that risk. You don’t see risks that others have taken that have not paid off and say to yourself “I’m going to do that too.”
The Mofo would rather guys stick needles in their asses than take those kinds of risks in the ring. Time and science have shown that you can survive steroids. If you take them correctly and judiciously and don’t abuse them you’ll have side affects and they will hurt you, but most likely they won’t kill you or leave you crippled.
When do we look ourselves in the mirror and realize what we are doing to ourselves? When do we look at each other and say, “Man you need to slow down you. You need to stop. You need to not do that. You need to sit out for a bit. You gotta take care of yourself.” We shake each others hands. We call each other brother. We hug each other and try to protect each other in the ring. When do we extend that consideration outside of the ring as well?
While I agree with you in principle…
I don’t think it’s a easy task to place the burden on the brotherhood for the safety of the brother. And at the risk of being vague…we both know a specific cat who needs to sit for awhile and get his gray matter straight…but who’s going to be the one to tell him?
The guy who worked with a broken back? The one who’s knees are gone? The other members of the Virginia head trauma society? You’d ask the mass to become hypocrites of the highest order.
The only one that can make him do the right thing… is himself.
Any other course of action contains more slippery slopes and blind pitfalls that it’s best to be avoided.
This is entertainment. I hate to see anyone injured – especially on small independent shows. The reward is simply not worth the risk. Work reasonable and well thought out matches. If you can’t do that, then you probably shouldn’t being doing it at all.
In all reality, I’m a bit shocked at the lack of discourse about this. Agree/disagree with whomever, or have a alternate opinion ,but to think a “contest” got 32 comments compared to THIS…the nature of how we as a group should deal with the wounded getting just 2 opinions. It speaks volumes to how we just try to ignore our own mortality and the dangers we face in the ring.
Honestly, i think we’re beyond the point of being able to slow down enough to avoid lasting damage. I think the business as a whole is beyond that point. Fans have gotten so used to seeing big moves, hardcore matches, high flying flippy guys, etc, that in most major markets slowing down and working a match will be met with people sitting on their hands. Or, even worse, the dreaded “boring” (thank you, Steve Austin).
I’m not saying that’s the case everywhere you go. NWA Fusion is a fine example of a crowd that will give you bigger reactions from what you’re saying than what you’re doing. But try that in ROH, CZW, PWG, anywhere the fans expect quality in ring work and let the gimmicks slide. Hell even the E is feeling the ill effects of having their guys cut back. Ratings drop, PPV buys drop, people are generally less invested in the product.
By this point in the evolution of wrestling, i don’t think anyone who really wants to make wrestling his career can avoid scrambling brain cells. And even if the rest of the boys wanted to tell each other to slow down and take it easy, there’s always a handful of people who are either driven to do wild physical stuff, or just better physical performers than they are at working their gimmicks. I don’t think something as simple as “hey, bro, take it easy on yourself” is going to put an end to that.
The Mofo would completely disagree with you. UFC is pro-wrestling from the 70s and 80s and it draws huge. Don’t give me that, but it’s real bullshit. If that were what drew then Anderson Silva would be the company’s big draw and not Lesnar. And Matt Hughes would’ve saved the sport and not Tito Ortiz and Frank Shamrock. Well promoted, pushed, exposed, and marketed pro-wrestling would get over and draw.
Smart work will get over wherever if it’s pushed as such. Maybe it will take longer with ROH, CZW, PWG or wherever, but it would get over. The Mofo guarantees that Corino gets over in ROH. CM Punk didn’t get over until he started working smarter.
WWE business being down has nothing to do with toning down the style and everything to do with not making new stars and staying with a pat hand and not adapting.
The 90s era was nothing new it was the same sort of hotshotting that happened in dozens of territories in the past and burned them out. It didn’t happen in the WWE because they lucked into two of the most charismatic stars in history in Austin and Rock and now the brand is so well established with diverse revenue streams that it’s almost impossible for them to go out of business. If they had to survive on just the wrestling side of the business then they’d be in trouble.
I don’t buy the UFC comparisons at all.
It’s like an inverse comparison between the drawing power of a movie about Aliens and a documentary about aliens. It’s too apple and oranges to demonstrate any linear logical conclusions.
As for the idea that risk is a part of trying to get ahead in wrestling…well sure, but that doesn’t mean an injured guy should feel obligated to risk further injury for the sake of a one or a couple of matches inside the span of a total career.
But what we get is guys willing to risk lifelong problems to work ONE show instead of taking the time off to heal.
Then explain why TNAs highest drawing PPVs in history were both based around a sports style build like UFC and the WWFs biggest drawing Non-WrestleMania PPV since the glory days was the Rock-Brock PPV with the sports style build. Those guys had both been on PPVs the months before that that didn’t draw nearly that number. Do you really think that if they had done their typical build with that match instead of keeping them apart and doing the sports build with the training packages and stuff that it would have drawn the same buyrate? No way, all evidence indicates otherwise.
You don’t have to be UFC to promote like UFC. Watching them draw HUGE PPV numbers and not taking from them what you can and using that to promote your product is being blind, stubborn and stupid. I’m not saying the entire show needs to be UFC, but using what they are doing to promote their main events and promoting your main events in a similar fashion is just being smart.
I won’t lie and pretend I got the PPV numbers locked down in my head …BUT I remember having this very same argument last year when Samoa Joe vs Angle broke TNA records with a MMA style build/flavor.
The point was made then that the problem with getting too excited that it was the MMA factors adding to the buyrate was that Samoa Joe also headlined the number 2 and 3 best sellers that year vs Sting and Booker T respectivly. And no one was ready to say (at that time)that the key to those buyrates was Samoa Joe.
I personally think too MANY factors go into a PPV build to pin the success/failure on just the main…let alone the build style for the main.
But Joe’s buy rates with Angle after the first time they worked when Angle first came in were stinkers and very disappointing and Joe headlined some other stinkers.
I would say that Joe was a factor because people were ready for him to be on top and headline, however, those two shows that did not do the sports build didn’t draw nearly the buyrates that the sports build did. So while I wouldn’t say that the sports build was the only factor, and obviously you need to have a match that people want to see, that it’s pretty apparent that the audience out there is more interested in a more serious and sports like product than they are in what they are typically given.
I can buy some of that reasoning. Another of my issues is that for that concept to be working, one must assume that the MMA type fans are watching the free product and are motivated to buy a PPV based on a different type of build.
If that’s realy the case then something should be said or noted to that affecting the TV shows as well rating wise.
Well we’re kinda diverging from the original point, aren’t we? I agree the UFC is running a huge hype machine right now, and i also agree that there are some characters that stand out. But remember, for every tito ortiz you see, there are three tim boetches who are bland nobodies that just fight. Pro wrestling and MMA are nowhere near the same thing, hype machine notwithstanding.
The fans who go to ROH, etc, shows don’t want to see smart work. They want to see in ring work, plain and simple. The only person to ever get over there on anything other than that was Adam Pearce, and even then he split the crowd between getting heat and genuinely being disliked. Which is a shame, because he’s brilliant in the ring.
I don’t think WWE business is down from any one factor. I think what you said about making stars is accurate, but i also think the 90s set the bar very high for what happened in the ring; not just in the E, but also in WCW and ECW. And i think that the slowing down and changing of the product from that standard has had an impact as well. Casual fans watch briefly and get bored by the 4 minute punch and kick fest that happens now.
I’m not saying there’s not an avenue for smartly worked wrestling anymore these days…but it would be lightning in a bottle if you could find the right market.
If you could use foreign objects….Prison would be such a market.
Otherwise leave the fighting up to the fighters and let the workers work.