BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) HOUSE SHOW TITLE CHANGES
This hasn’t happened in awhile, but I used to love it back in the day. What I mean by “house show title change” is that sometimes, very rarely, a champion will lose their belt on an untelevised show. It’s shocking as hell. When a champ loses to someone in BFE it meant something. It was an added spark of “anything thing CAN happen” and it made me a little more excited at these untelevised “house shows”. The one that stands out most to me is when Diesel beat Bob Backlund for the WWF World Title, but I remember tons of secondary changes. The Tag Titles went back and forth at times and it seemed like WCW passed the TV Title around like it was a ring rat. I remember a common theme back in the day when a company would have a show, drop the belt on a Friday to a local hero and then take it back on Saturday. Now I’m trying to think about it, but I cannot recall the last switch of this nature. It’s about that time again, I hope…
(THREE) STABLES
I credit my huge fascination for the movie “The Warriors” as a child for my love for gang warfare. In wrestling, the gangs are called “stables”. In the history of wrestling there has been some great groups like The Four Horsemen, nWo, DX, The Flock, Evolution, etc. etc. etc. They get together for a common purpose and they then proceed to rely on gang warfare to gain the upper hand. These groups made the WWF Survivor Series awesome. There might have been some successful good guy groups, but they only work after being forced to unite after a group of evil heels ran amuck a bit too long.
(TWO) THE LADDER MATCH
I know I’m not alone or special in this situation. If you’re old enough, you’ve heard this one before. My favorite match of all time features my favorite wrestler of all time, Shawn Michaels losing to Razor Ramon in a ladder match from Wrestlemania 10. That specific match registered in my brain like an explosion. I’ve always liked these matches. Their rematch was remarkable as well. The concept is simple. They hang a belt above the ring and the first wrestler to climb up a ladder and pull it down is the winner. In the middle is a war where the fighters can and will use the ladder as a weapon to get the upper hand. I love the whole cliché of “the slow climb” where someone will clearly climb slower up a ladder for suspenseful purposes. It’s annoyingly “stages”, but you just have to accept it as “wrestling being wrestling”. A ladder match is like pizza or sex because even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty awesome.
(ONE) “MARKS”
It’s taken me some time to put this into perspective, but I think this is an area that’s the most insulting of the wrestling “biz”. Those within the wrestling business can sometimes get really smug or dickheadish towards their more innocent and wide-eyed fans. The asshole wrestler will mutter to themselves or lash out by calling fans “marks”. What the hell is wrong with being a “mark”? I’ve been on both sides of the curtain and not once did I stop loving professional wrestling. I am a fan. We all are. In today’s internet-minded world the term “mark” is reserved for the fans who can’t grasp the fact that EVERYTHING is predetermined. It’s the little kids, the naive folk, and the ones who get a little too wild over the stories being told to them. We’re quick to tell people NOT to tell a kid that Santa isn’t real, but why do we have to scream “it’s fake!” like it’s a negative thing? Let’s enjoy it for what it is. But that’s the cool thing about art, “what it is” is always subjective and based on perception. And the fact that it’s wrestling. It’s hard enough to find like-minded people to share in the fun with. Why segregate? So in the sense of “marks” being a general wrestling fan… awesome.
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