BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE
I’ve watched wrestling since my first memory in life. I recall Wrestlemania 3 happening and it being new. For the life of me I couldn’t tell you ONE Spanish announcer. I think Savio Vega announced for awhile and I think one of the main ones is/was named “Hugo”. I’m not a Spanish speaking person so this is lost on me. I respect them for doing it, but it’s not for me. Still, I love the hell out of their table. If you watched wrestling in the 90’s you’d know the on-going joke/tradition of the wrestlers smashing and breaking the Spanish announcers table. There is just something about a match going crazy and the wrestlers using the Spanish announcer table as a deadly weapon. It’s become a little cliché, but I still can’t help but smile when this happens today.
(THREE) HOMMAGES
Ric Flair’s entire gimmick is a rip off of Buddy Rogers. He owned that shit though. Now when people chop someone in the corner a crowd will scream “Wooo!” as an homage to Flair. A lot of wrestling is like that. Someone steals, someone makes it their own, and then they build their own legacy. Certain moves are always going to be associated with other wrestlers. I once read a line from someone that basically said that wrestling cycles the same stories every seven or so years. It’s just the little things. The divas doing “stink faces” are pretty much homage to Rikishi. Triple H is good for the homage stuff too. It just carries on and on. I love that about wrestling. It’s a sense of tradition and longevity. The memories of those who have earned the memories are safely presented. If I see someone “skin the cat” I know they’re a Shawn Michaels fan. I’ve recently noticed the rise of NFLer’s Aaron Roger’s “championship belt victory” thing and the first thing I think about is an Undertaker or Diesel doing it during the mid 90’s. You don’t get that kind of thing with many forms of entertainment.
(TWO) VALETS/DIVAS
When you’re a young boy becoming a young man you start to notice the opposite sex a bit more. You’re already watching wrestling so why not take notice that there are some really hot chicks in wrestling. For me, I had Sunny, Sable, Francine, Dawn Marie, Chyna(yeah, so what), and others from the 90’s wrestling world. The perversion side of it is just one aspect. Females have an important part of wrestling. They’re often disregarded as sex symbols. The women in wrestling, the good ones, are often the unheralded heroes of wrestling. Trish, Lita, Molly, and the others who came in the late 90’s/early 00’s are just as important as the mid card guys. Sure they’re not on the level of an Austin or Rock, but is it safe to say Trish was just as important to the show as say a Hardy or a midcarder? Yeah, it is. Sure the guys had to work longer matches and take crazier bumps, but Trish was a special attraction draw. Sunny was a special attraction draw. Right now, it’s dry. Beth and Natalya and the girls today don’t have that worth. I miss that, but I’m sure it’ll happen again. Hopefully soon.
(ONE) THE REF BUMP
In any other sport, I think they’d end the competition on the spot. If you watch a boxing match and after a long fight the referee accidentally gets knocked out I’m pretty sure the fight would be over. If a football player “accidentally” knocked out a ref I’m pretty sure any play that happened afterwards wouldn’t matter. In wrestling IT DOES. You can knock down a referee, hit someone with a chair and then cover up your opponent and then out of nowhere the ref would “wake up” and then count the three. You don’t get that anywhere else! If it’s done wrong then it looks bad. If it’s right, it’s one of the biggest crowd antagonizers you can use. There is a certain art to it that I love.
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