----New column from Eric Wayne.
----Wayne finishes the year with one of my favorite columns of the year!!
"Pissing Off the Unimportant"
After reading Beau's recent Facebook post, I felt inspired to write again. If anyone truly knows me, you know the passion I share with a select few about the sport called pro wrestling. I've been in numerous arguments about what I do and had several intelligent discussions on it, as well. I knew when I was 6 years old sitting upstairs in the Mid-South Coliseum that I wanted to be a wrestler. The environment I was being exposed to was different than anything else I'd ever seen and I LOVED it! I loved everything about it and wanted to be in the middle of it all..I wanted to be the best. That's when the journey began.
I started out as a very young kid, just travelling with my dad to different towns, but soon was brought into the "limelight" so to speak. I got a small taste of it and never thought twice about it. I was going to travel and wrestle and be paid to do all of it! Yeah, right...I forgot where the industry had fallen. No matter how hard I wished things were different and not so terrible, I was constantly reminded of it everywhere I went.
I've made my share of mistakes and learned from them as best as I could. However, there are guys out there that continually make mistakes and piss on a business that was once considered mainstream and popular. At one time, being a pro wrestler put you at "celebrity" status. Wrestlers were tough and guys you didn't wanna mess with. What's it like these days? A joke.
I know, I know, I know...you're all saying I'm beating a dead horse, and I might be. Maybe I'm venting my frustrations to the internet. Maybe, just maybe, I'm trying to make a difference. I hear all the time that guys wish things were like they used to be...as they sit there with beer bellies hanging over their oleather shorts and they pull their knee pads down and stuff them inside the kickpads they wore a few minutes ago during the abortion of a match they just had. Did I mention it only went 7 minutes and they're complaining about being blown up?? Because that is the state of wrestling today. Book a card in a town with nothing better to do than watch a bunch of losers pretend they're on the "grandest stage of them all!!"
It doesn't have to be the wrestlers without gear or talent that are tearing this business apart either. Its the company owners and bookers. It does not matter if you're an old man that has a grudge against one person and you shut the company down. It does not matter if your dad bought a company for you to pretend you're Randy Orton and let everyone else run your show but YOU. It does not matter if you wrestle under a mask even though everyone knows your identity and that you own the company. Or that you won't pay the talent what they deserve, but think its perfectly ok to book yourself in the last match(NOT the main event) just because you're a mark either. What it all boils down to is this: a whole boatload of idiots that outnumber the business-minded PROFESSIONALS left in a dying industry.
A lot of you that are reading this are probably wanting to write BT with your very own one-hit column to knock me. But I'd rather you do it to my face. We're all in a sport that calls itself the king of kings, which means we're all men, right? Then why do we all act like little boys? Whether its a childlike state of mind and not understanding that to be an athlete you should train, perform and look like one, not to mention act like one. In a business that isn't a HOBBY and intended to make money, why do so many people think they can wear street clothes, carry a broom and call themselves "smart"? Why is it that they can be 150lbs of skin and bones, or flabby, gross, never-been-in-a-gym body or 250lbs of fat and puke but wonder why the small crowd laughs at them? Why do people think they can book their show TWO hours before belltime or start 20 minutes late or do any of the stupid things they do? Because they're in the business. Wait- no. They're killing what's left! So to all the people that know I'm talking about them, its nothing personal against you...just your less than half-assed involvement and lack of dedication or heart that pisses me off.
After reading Beau's recent Facebook post, I felt inspired to write again. If anyone truly knows me, you know the passion I share with a select few about the sport called pro wrestling. I've been in numerous arguments about what I do and had several intelligent discussions on it, as well. I knew when I was 6 years old sitting upstairs in the Mid-South Coliseum that I wanted to be a wrestler. The environment I was being exposed to was different than anything else I'd ever seen and I LOVED it! I loved everything about it and wanted to be in the middle of it all..I wanted to be the best. That's when the journey began.
I started out as a very young kid, just travelling with my dad to different towns, but soon was brought into the "limelight" so to speak. I got a small taste of it and never thought twice about it. I was going to travel and wrestle and be paid to do all of it! Yeah, right...I forgot where the industry had fallen. No matter how hard I wished things were different and not so terrible, I was constantly reminded of it everywhere I went.
I've made my share of mistakes and learned from them as best as I could. However, there are guys out there that continually make mistakes and piss on a business that was once considered mainstream and popular. At one time, being a pro wrestler put you at "celebrity" status. Wrestlers were tough and guys you didn't wanna mess with. What's it like these days? A joke.
I know, I know, I know...you're all saying I'm beating a dead horse, and I might be. Maybe I'm venting my frustrations to the internet. Maybe, just maybe, I'm trying to make a difference. I hear all the time that guys wish things were like they used to be...as they sit there with beer bellies hanging over their oleather shorts and they pull their knee pads down and stuff them inside the kickpads they wore a few minutes ago during the abortion of a match they just had. Did I mention it only went 7 minutes and they're complaining about being blown up?? Because that is the state of wrestling today. Book a card in a town with nothing better to do than watch a bunch of losers pretend they're on the "grandest stage of them all!!"
It doesn't have to be the wrestlers without gear or talent that are tearing this business apart either. Its the company owners and bookers. It does not matter if you're an old man that has a grudge against one person and you shut the company down. It does not matter if your dad bought a company for you to pretend you're Randy Orton and let everyone else run your show but YOU. It does not matter if you wrestle under a mask even though everyone knows your identity and that you own the company. Or that you won't pay the talent what they deserve, but think its perfectly ok to book yourself in the last match(NOT the main event) just because you're a mark either. What it all boils down to is this: a whole boatload of idiots that outnumber the business-minded PROFESSIONALS left in a dying industry.
A lot of you that are reading this are probably wanting to write BT with your very own one-hit column to knock me. But I'd rather you do it to my face. We're all in a sport that calls itself the king of kings, which means we're all men, right? Then why do we all act like little boys? Whether its a childlike state of mind and not understanding that to be an athlete you should train, perform and look like one, not to mention act like one. In a business that isn't a HOBBY and intended to make money, why do so many people think they can wear street clothes, carry a broom and call themselves "smart"? Why is it that they can be 150lbs of skin and bones, or flabby, gross, never-been-in-a-gym body or 250lbs of fat and puke but wonder why the small crowd laughs at them? Why do people think they can book their show TWO hours before belltime or start 20 minutes late or do any of the stupid things they do? Because they're in the business. Wait- no. They're killing what's left! So to all the people that know I'm talking about them, its nothing personal against you...just your less than half-assed involvement and lack of dedication or heart that pisses me off.
