RE-POST: Random Ramblings December 2002

It's been a while since I wrote one of my usual columns. If truth be known, apart from doing my regular reviews of WAW's shows, I haven't really felt inspired enough to put pen to paper, as it were. But there is a lot to talk about.

WAW's arena show commitments are now completed for the year 2002. I'm in the middle of writing a review of WAW's year, but for obvious reasons, I am unable to finish it at present. A lot can happen in four short weeks, and I'm not talking about Christmas here.

The Two Sheds Review website, which can be reached by logging onto www.twoshedsreview.cjb.net, is coming along nicely. I've added the bulk of my wrestling-related archive, and I am in the slow process of adding material I wrote some three-four years ago, when I first began to write about a business I had watched for most of my life. It's interesting to see how my writing has developed over the years.

And just to show that I'm not just a wrestling writer, you can read my views on other subjects as well. Another added bonus to fans of mine may be the Fiction Section. Soon, the first instalments of a certain science fiction story will be uploaded and available for viewing.

The past few days or so I found out that I've been nominated for two awards. WAW have added another category, Employee of the Year (non-wrestling) to their annual awards voting, which is voted on by both the wrestlers and the fans. I was a little flattered when I heard about this, but I'll be the first to admit I do have a lot of great competition in the WAW ranks. WAW isn't just about the wrestlers, it's about all the people who work behind the scenes as well, making sure everything goes according to plan. Most of my work is done away from the arenas, writing my reviews and keeping the website running, as well as coming up with new ideas on how to gain WAW even more exposure, both on the Internet and in other areas as well.

Although I don't think I'll win this award, it doesn't help to do a little harmless canvassing for votes, does it? So log onto www.wawwrestling.cjb.net to find out how you can vote not just for me, but in the other categories as well.

The second award I am up for is the A1 Wrestling News "Columnist of the Year". For those who don't know, A1 Wrestling news is based in Canada, and is available free via e-mail. All of their regular column writers are up for this award. My competition here is also great, including the likes of Marie Martin and SamJerry. It really would be a great honour to be picked by the A1 readers over these kind of writers, they are that good. If you're interested in subscribing, I can't remember the exact e-mail address, but you could e-mail the editor, Bill Taylor, at bill.taylor@sympatico.ca for more details. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help.

Winning awards is nothing new to me, of course, although it's been a while since my work was praised in such a fashion. In 2000 Powerbomb Wrestling News, a now defunct newsletter, made me their "Columnist of the Year". Again, I beat out such opposition as SamJerry and *Graysox*, so this was an honour.

And of course, the Union Jack awarded me their "Ass Kisser of the Week" award this past summer. All because I said I liked a Ricky Knight v Zebra Kid match! Well, I'll accept any award that's given to me!

Enough of this shameless self-promotion! There has actually been something going on in the wrestling world, hasn't there? Where should I begin?

So the WWE has crowned two new champions in recent weeks. Shawn Michaels, for all intents and purposes, is now the WCW champion, while the Big Show now holds the WWE version of the strap. Both of these title reigns has caused a great deal of debate among the Internet fans.

Let's not beat around the bush here. Shawn Michaels is not the wrestler he was before the back injury, but I can see the reason why the WWE gave him the title. It wasn't that long ago when we all walked down memory lane when Hulk Hogan was given the title for a few weeks. Everyone seemed happy with that.

When Michaels won the belt, I thought that this reign would get the same sort of reaction, but the fact of the matter is, nothing could be further from the truth. The problem seems to be with the fact that he won the title from his good buddy, Triple H. Or, as the smart marks would have us believe, Triple H would only drop the title to his best buddy.

Triple H's performance in the Elimination Chamber at the Survivor Series must earn some sort of praise. The nasty accident with Rob Van Dam could very well have cost him his life that night. He could have taken the easy way out of things, got pinned, and then made his way backstage. But no, he stayed with the script, despite it being obvious that he was struggling for the remainder of the match.

Mind you, now that I've said that, I'll probably get tons of e-mails from fans saying that Triple H only stayed in the match because he didn't want to be pinned by someone he consider "unworthy". But that seems to be the way of things these days. HHH bashing is fast becoming a way of life.

Maybe some of the things that are said about him deserve to be criticised. Maybe Triple H does hold far too much power in the backstage area, and maybe he is the reason that the Raw product is somewhat lacking these days. But then again, maybe I'm just going with the flow here. Maybe I'm only saying that Raw is somewhat lacking these days because I've read it so damn much on the Internet.

Which brings us nicely to the other big champion, the Big Show. Okay, let's get this out of the way, I have never really been a fan of Paul Wight, not when he was in WCW, or when he first came to the WWF. There's just some wrestlers who I just haven't been able to take to. I'm sure this is the same for many people.

I've read on the Internet how the Big Show sucks as a champion, how he shouldn't be champion, how Brock Lesnar should still have the belt. So here's an interesting question for you - surely if you hate the Big Show so damn much, doesn't that mean that, as a heel character, he's simply doing his job? And the fact that he's now a heel champion, and you hate him even more because he is a champion, he is really doing his job here? Some would say that it's poor booking on the part of the creative team. Perhaps, perhaps not. On the other hand, it could be seen as a stroke of creative genius. Get the ratings up a little more, so fans will tune in to see the big nasty bastard get his backside handed to him on a plate. After all, isn't that the reason Roddy Piper said the first Wrestlemania was so successful?

I was also a little saddened by the news that came out of the WAW offices yesterday. A little over four weeks since defeating Ricky Knight for the vacant belt, Bash was stripped of the British title and fired from the company, the official line being that he was unwilling to give one hundred percent to the company cause.

I don't want to sound like I'm biting the hands that feed me here, and they will probably respect my view here, but sometimes these things can put me into a difficult situation. I consider those I work for my friends, but at the same time, I also consider Bruce Solomon (Bash) my friend as well.

This news did come as something as a shock for me. I always thought of Bruce as one of the best wrestlers not just in WAW, but in the country as well. Bruce was one of the first wrestlers who actually talked to me when I began to work for WAW. I had watched his career with interest in the past year, and when he won the title at October Outrage IV, I was pleased that his years of hard work had finally been rewarded.

But now the relationship between wrestler and company has come to an end, and I'm sure I'm not the only associated with WAW who feels a little saddened by what has happened.

I'd like to wish Bruce all the best with whatever he does. Good luck buddy.

Now onto other things. A few days ago I had an e-mail from an old buddy of mine. The old buddy said he thought it was a shame I didn't write about wrestling as often as I did a couple of years ago, because my work of two years ago was extremely good, compared to some of the material I had been churning out on a not too regular basis these past few months.

The truth is, there are many reasons why I'm not as prolific as I once was. There's been my illness of recent months, which I've written about in the Personal Journals section of my website (www.twoshedsreview.cjb.net). There's also the fact that when I first began to write about wrestling, there was a "big 3". Now, there's just a "big 1". Also, my work for WAW does take up some of my time as well.

But one of the reasons is this - I spend a bit of time each week visiting various fan forums, and it annoys me the way some people not only overanalyse the wrestling business, but the work of many of the wrestling journalists currently plying their trade on the world wide web.

I'm not saying that we should return to the dark ages here, when we had the likes of plumbers, garbage men and pig farmers plying their trade in the wrestling world, and Vince McMahon refused to publicly acknowledge the wrestling world outside his own front door, but there are times when some fans tend to take things a little too far.

One of the reasons I began to watch wrestling all those years ago as a child was that it was a form of entertainment, pure and simple, and when I first began to watch the WWF in 1989, it was for the same reason. Even now, when Sky show the old NWA shows from around 1990, I always get a warm feeling of nostalgia when I see the likes of Sting and Flair in their prime.

But then I begin to wonder if the wrestling world would have been the same back then if the Internet had been around, and the Internet wrestling fan had spent hours each day scouring the web for the latest bit of juicy gossip.

Even after all these years, and even though I work for a wrestling company, first and foremost, I am a wrestling fan. I watch whatever show I see, be it live or on television, as a fan, first and foremost. I don't sit in my seat looking to analyse every single detail, hoping that I'll be able to find the spot where so-and-so missed a move, or botched that move, or blew that spot, or looking for a moment when a wrestler broke character and could be heard complaining to the man he was working with in the ring.

Think back to the time when you first found out that Santa Clause didn't exist. How did you feel? Were your hopes and dreams shattered? Now think of the first time when you found out that the two wrestlers you had just watched, the good guy and the bad guy, were actually good buddies, and the result had already been predetermined. How did that make you feel?

It isn't just the wrestlers who get a great deal of heat these days, Those of us who write on the Internet about the industry we love also take a great deal of heat. In recent months, I've had complaints about my show reviews. As I stated, I go to a wrestling show as a fan, not as someone nitpicking every single move. I try to write as a fan, for the fans. If I tried to overanalyse each and every move the wrestlers before me make, I just wouldn't be able to do it, because, first and foremost, I wouldn't enjoy it. It wouldn't be fun, and if something's not fun, then why do it?

What is also annoying and frustrating is the fact that fans who criticise wrestling writers just don't seem to be able to handle things when writers criticise the fans for the comments they have made. It's a double-edged sword here. You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't. At times, you just can't win. I could go into a verbal tirade here, and insult all the so-called "smart marks" who follow every aspect of the industry and then pick over everything with a fine tooth-comb, but what would be the point? This part of this column would probably just end up on the UK Fan Forum being picked apart by people with nothing better to do. The other day, I made a slight typing error over there, and they even picked that apart!

Something tells me that perhaps people on the UK Fan Forum probably won't be voting for me in either the WAW or A1 awards now. Am I upset? No, not really.

So when will you hear next from the man from the Shed? Very soon, I hope. WAW's arena shows may be over for the year, but there's still the aforementioned year to review.

No doubt the smart marks will pick apart all of that as well!