It is unavoidable,
pro wrestling and mixed martial arts have to step on each other toes.
People feed on violence, and unfortunately for pro wrestling, the
audience is differentiating and demanding the real thing. Honestly,
that is kind of sick (what is more unsettling that it makes Vince
looks like a saint).
Violence is
not sex. Unlike the porn market, snuff is not something people expect
to find on your PC. While directors are trying to incorporate unsimulated
sex into cinema, you do not see them rushing the debut of unsimulated
murder. Of course, trying to bring actual death to the big screen
would screw over makeup artists, and I doubt the future Tom Savinis
will stand for that. Hell, they are probably wise enough to form a union.
I would not
call MMA fans sickos (I love the Japanese scene), but that is because
I was an amateur wrestler and bar room boxer. If anything, my 15 seconds
with Derrick "The Eraser" Noble at the Peoria 2001 "Toughman"
contest demands that I admire mixed martial arts. My issue with the
sport is that the art is fading away.
The most awesome
tweet ever came from Chris Jericho (oh my disappointment when he reneged
on it):
Ok guess I'm the only "old school pro wrestler" to say it...screw UFC fighter. U could NEVER do what me and my brothers do. #bringitbitches.
I share the
sentiment of the tweet. It goes back to the days of kayfabe where
wrestlers had to believe and prove they were bad asses. My Tae Kwon
Do masters taught me all the short cuts to avoid losing fights, so
I am not afraid any repercussions to my belief in our savior.
Still, I am
not saying that the TUFs cannot execute the moves, but look at Ken
Shamrock. We know they cannot sell, but since there is no A in MMA,
maybe they cannot make the moves look good.
Working for
promotions north of I-80 in Illinois, I have seen my share of full-time combat sports contestants try to be part-time wrestlers. The
motivation is easy to understand. It is the reason I got into the
business myself.
Outside of
intercourse, there is no greater sensation than to give everything
you have and risk everything, and be cheered and even loved for it.
Guess that makes combat sound like an a homoerotic unprotected Thai
sex show, but I digress. The point is, we get addicted to the rush,
and unlike drug addiction, we can get paid to capture the this
high (and in turn we have the option of paying for a drug addiction
with the earnings). I can at least attest that this was my motivation,
and I hope that it was theirs. Regardless of the motive, the MMA guys
did not find much success, and I suspect it maybe because they have
never mastered an art.
And I think
Tyler "Seth Rollins" Black would agree to the statement
after "The Ultimate Fighter 5" wash out Wayne Weems broke
his jaw. A true artist should immediately know their power and need
to restrain it. This is probably why instead of booking him in matches,
that promotion would send out challenges to "fighters" for
him to have shoot matches against and other promoters would cast him
as a bystander to get stiffed.
I still love
to fight, but the fight game requires that you win. In high school,
I succeeded in being loved for my efforts, but that was because I
was a babyface. My starts were notoriously slow, usually resulting
in me needing to comeback from an 7-9 point deficit. 60% of the time,
20% of the time the matches were close, and the other 20%...well I
succeeded in my last five years of my amateur career in never being pinned. Unfortunately, the amount of beating I took when I was used
as a weight class filler my sophomore year was too much to finish
with a winning record. Still having the itch to compete, and having
flunked out of computer science (I did not think there was an actual
use for calculus), pro wrestling seemed to be the right career move.
Oh the naïve
nature of youth. Especially in 2000 when ECW showed the potential
of a grounded mini in Little Spike Dudley and Tommy Dreamer taught
us that you can have a fun and exciting matches without needing to
lift anyone.
Pro wrestling
was the art I chose to pursue when MMA required you to master one
style, and trust that your mastery of it would lead you to success
(like Big Foot did to Fedor). If I knew that I could cut and paste
styles and not have to finish opponents, I may have made a different
decision. I doubt it because I would rather be the best in the most entertaining
televised athleticism next to Cubs baseball. Like Banky Edward's father
told him about going down on women, "Don't do anything if you
can't do it well.
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