The Return

It's been about five or six weeks since my last regular TSR column has appeared on the Internet. Some of you, probably about six, have probably wondered what has happened to me. So I'm going to be completely honest with you.

It's coming up to the third anniversary of The Two Sheds Review first appearing in the Internet. My first column, about the effect that a group of wrestlers known as the Radicals were having on the WWF really set the ball rolling. Since then it's been one hell of a roller-coaster ride.

But the wrestling world of 2003 is a lot different to the wrestling world of 2000. I don't think I need to point out the most obvious differences to you, do I? The "big three" is now the "big one". My column now appears all over the Internet, and I even work for a wrestling promotion here in merry old England. Mind you, if you believe what my own government is saying now, England doesn't actually exist. But that's another story for another time.

Now comes the total honesty part. This may shock some of you, so those of you who suffer from a nervous disposition (I include myself among that number) should look away now.

I think I'm falling out of love with the wrestling industry.

Those of you who read my last column way back in April I think it was will have seen this coming. The fact that it was entitled "It's Not Fun Anymore" on my TSR web site was kind of a big hint, wasn't it?

I could sit here each and every week and tell you exactly what is wrong with the wrestling industry. I could sit here each and every week and tell you just why wrestler#1 sucks, how wrestler#2 should be given the World title, and how wrestler#3 shouldn't be teaming with wrestler#4 because as a unit they just don't gel.

But my thinking is, why should I? Would you, the reader, enjoy it each and every week if I did this? I know that, as a writer, but more importantly, as a person, I wouldn't enjoy it. Why be so negative all the time? Why spend hours each week sitting in front of my television just waiting for an awful match to appear before me?

I've always stated that first and foremost I am a wrestling fan. Always have been. But when one begins to write about something they've loved and enjoyed since they were young, it seems to take something away from the actual pure enjoyment of the product.

I still remember fondly the first time I began to take an interest in the then-WWF in the summer of 1989. It was a Saturday Night's Main Event show, which was playing in the background. I wasn't really paying it much attention.

I remember Bad News Brown and Hulk Hogan literally kicking the crap out of each other. The excitement of the match just grabbed me, and from that moment on, well, from Wrestlemania V at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, I was hooked.

But I began to think what would happen if the wrestling fan of today, that strange animal known as smarticus marcus would make of a Bad News/Hogan match. In the prime of their careers both guys could actually wrestle. I remember Hogan trading move for move with Randy Savage at Wrestlemania V, and I've heard that in Japan he put much more of a wrestling effort in. Bad News, competing as Bad News Allen, wrestled for the UWFI in Japan, the company who were famed for their worked shoot matches. If they were told to, these guys would have probably been capable of putting on a good, pure wrestling match.

But if the fan of today looked back at that old Saturday Night match, and saw Hogan and Brown punching and kicking the hell out of each other, they would probably look on in horror. "Where is the psychology?", they would ask. They would complain about the lack of "spots". The kind of punch-and-kick brawling match would be lambasted by smarticus marcus.

This is probably one of the reasons why I don't enjoy things as much as I used to. I'm fed up with people writing their reports and saying "the match was good but so-and-so missed an elbow drop by a couple of millimetres."

The majority of people who watch wrestling these days just don't seem to enjoy it. They don't seem to have the ability to maintain the simplest of emotions. They intentionally look for faults, and on many occasions make up their own faults.

We all know that the wrestling industry isn't what it used to be. This writer for one if sick and tired of hearing how those in the business have no idea what they're doing because certain wrestlers are "pushed" more than others. When I read things like that sometimes I wish those "fans" were pushed, preferably off the top of a high cliff or building.

The fact that I'm having trouble enjoying the wrestling I am watching is also having an effect on my ability to enjoy writing about wrestling (as if you haven't worked this one out for yourself yet!) If I'm not enjoying watching wrestling, then I'm not enjoying writing about how much I'm not enjoying watching wrestling.

So am I throwing in the towel? Am I about to resign my post as jack-of-all-trades in WAW? Am I about to say adios to the wrestling industry? All I can say is "watch this space."

Although writing about wrestling is how I essentially made my name, I am starting to explore other avenues in the writing world. I have recently taken to writing fiction again, something I haven't done in quite a while. Who knows, maybe someone like Marvel Comics will someday see fit to publish my work. And even if no-one wants to pay me for my work, I could still put it up on my web site. That way at least some people will get some enjoyment out of them!

So keep an eye out for this ageing writer as he attempts to make his way in the world, forever paying attention to an industry that is far too heavily criticised in my opinion.