This post is about 10 days late. I wasn't going to write about this, but after seeing Shawn Michaels retirement speech/video again the past few nights I decided to put down a few thoughts.
Besides being one of my favorite wrestlers ever, Shawn is the last of a dying breed.
He, along with the Undertaker, was one of the only remaining active wrestlers who had trained and performed back in the territorial era. Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair do not count, as calling them "active" is an insult to what Shawn and the Undertaker are still capable of most nights.
This insight (Shawn being the last link to the old days) is not specific to me. Many people wrote about it on wrestling websites and the excellent message board I post on that cannot be named.
It just seems that a certain level of storytelling and ring psychology might be lost forever when all links to the territorial era are severed.
Many veterans of that era, such as Ric Flair, have lamented the fact that the newfangled superstars are thrown directly into the mix of television and pay-per main events after only a year in the business before they're able to completely learn their craft; whereas in the old days you had to hone your craft and learn all aspects of the business inside and out over a period of years before you were considered ready for a prime-time push.
That period of development was crucial to developing elements of ring psychology and storytelling that could make someone with a work-ethic and talent truly great.
Shawn wrestled in Central States, Mid-South, World Class and the AWA during his development and I think the experience working with all the grizzled veterans in those territories contributed greatly to his understanding of how a match works; and perhaps more importantly how a well-worked match effects the audience emotionally.
The first really memorable Shawn Michaels moment came via his participation the feud between the Midnight Rockers and "Playboy" Buddy Rose and Doug Somers, and he says in an interview on From the Vault: Shawn Michaels that "Buddy Rose was the general of that entire situation."
Rose was a respected veteran with years in the business expected to teach these young guys how to work.
A similar quote was uttered by Marty Jannetty regarding the importance of working with a veteran like Tully Blanchard and the impact it had on his, and by extension Shawn's, development.
I can only hope that Shawn was able to effect people like Randy Orton in the same way when they worked together.
Development and dues-paying aside, Shawn Michaels possessed an undeniable athleticism.
I'd pick one of his many classics to show the ever boring "don't you know that stuffs fake?" crowd.
I notice that a lot of these "wrestling is fake...hehe" people seem to be Golf fans, and Eldrick Woods fans in particular.
And I'll just simply state: Shawn Michaels is more of an athlete than Woods or any golfer, no matter what you think about wrestling.
Locked-in results non-withstanding, it takes agility, stamina, and strength to perform at the level Michaels did for over 2 decades.
Phil Mickelson's pot belly says all you need to know about the level of conditioning, agility and stamina "pro" golf requires so spare me this garbage about Eldrick Woods being "the world's greatest athelete." He might the world's greatest game player, but he's no athlete.
Golf takes skill, no doubt, but so does surgery, yet I never hear doctors being referred to as athletes.
It might have been predetermined, but you absolutely have to acknowledge that Shawn was truly an athlete after watching the first Hell in the Cell match vs. the Undertaker, or the ladder match vs. Razor Ramon.
I largely sided with WCW and Nitro during the Monday Night Wars. I loved the NWO and the Cruiserweights and the WWE just seemed to be at a low ebb in the early phases of the battle.
Shawn singlehandedly shifted the tide back towards the WWE for me with his performance in the Hell in the Cell match in St. Louis vs. the Undertaker.
That match was flat-out incredible.
It still is the benchmark for those type of matches (my apologies to Mick Foley's brain, ribs and teeth).
My friends and I were buying WCW pay-per-views at that time and getting increasingly disgusted. This was the time when Piper and Hogan were fighting over who was the "true icon" and we'd just wasted our money on some embarrassing cage match they had to "settle" it, and just by some chance we decided to order WWE's "Badd Blood" to watch Shawn/Undertaker and I remember nothing but jaws dropping.
The quality of performance, athleticism and talent in this match was so vastly superior to what WCW was putting forth in their main events at that time.
I wasn't the only person who noticed, either. I'll never forget a sign I saw the next night on Nitro, it read simply:
Shawn is the REAL Icon
RAW got more and more time on Monday Nights all the way up until Shawn's back injury forced him into semi-retirement.
I found his retirement speech to be moving and sincere. It was brutally honest and when he said "I spent more of my adult life with you than my own family. And I don't say that with regret because I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to come here night after night and show off for you", I couldn't help but be reminded of Randy "the Ram" Robinson's final realization at the end of The Wrestler: that the audience was his family, and that dying in front of them would be preferable to dying alone somewhere.
With all the sad endings and premature deaths that wrestling has wrought, it felt so great to see one of the all time best go out on top, healthy, happy and with a smiling family to go home to.
No one deserves it more than the Show-Stopper, the Main-Eventer, the Heart Break Kid.
Peace.
Just letting you know I'm still reading...hah. Anyway, I think they handled Shawn's retirement pretty well. I'm not a huge fan of the current run, and I wasn't watching any wrestling during the attitude era, so I missed the first DX run, but I can't deny his in ring and mic abilities. His work as a member of Midnight Rockers, Rockers, and early HBK is top-notch. Respect.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, in regard to these old farts still hanging around, I think William Regal and Finlay deserve a mention. Both were stars in England and Europe before signing deals with N. American companies. Not quite the same at the territory work here, but close. If they had been in the states, they would have been doing that, too.
In my opinion, they have done more for the young guns of the WWE than Shawn or 'Taker have...They are the Buddy Roses of the 2010 WWE. They work the early matches with the new guys. They work ECW, NXT, and Superstars. They sell hardcore and put these potential stars-in-the-making over. They are the in-ring trainers in technique and performance. They aren't main-eventers, tied up in elaborate story-lines. They get a "low-tier" belt thrown at them, so they can lose it to the "next big thing". For example, how'd the put Shaemus over? They let him beat the shit out of Finlay on ECW for weeks.
Neither Finlay or Regal possibly have much left in the tank. Finlay is 50 and Regal is 41. Wonder who is going to take over this role in the WWE.
I don't think HHH has it in him. It's a different breed of wrestler, really. I'm surprised Chavo hasn't stepped into this role more. It's significantly more honorable than being the comic foil, but whatever.
ReplyDeleteI could actually see someone like Carlito being good in this role. He understands the history and business of wrestling. He comes from a wrestling family. Maybe the Hart Dynasty dudes, too, given the history of their family. I could see someone like Christian or CM Punk in this role too, depending what they do with them.
Maybe this NXT thing is really more about making mentors than putting Daniel Bryan over. I don't see them using R-Truth or Matt Hardy for much at this point in their careers. If they can hold on to them long enough, it could work. It's not a very glorious path, though, that's for sure.
Mike-
ReplyDeleteYeah...wishful thinking regarding Triple H.
I just wish he would give a little more back to the business, especially because Jim Ross and everyone are so quick to tell us how much he loves it all the time. I agree with you regarding Carlito (even though I'm not a big fan) and Chavo's potential to fill a role like that because of the length and depth of each of their family's history in the business.
Man, Carlito's dad Carlos might win the award of most pictures of I've seen a wrestler without actually seeing one of their matches...haha. PWI used to always have pictures of Carlos Colon vs. Abdullah and all types of heels passing through San Juan.
As far as the Guerreros go, I remember way, way back seeing Chavo Sr. once on Mid-South.
And I'm such a mark for Eddie I've been storing up stuff for a post on him for the last week or so.
I definitely could see Christian in this role, too.
He's such a hard-worker and he's acknowledged how much a veteran like Rick Steamboat's advice and encouragement meant to his development that I can see him realizing the importance of passing it on.
The deaths of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit are sad for so many more important reasons than the one I'm about to give, but think of how awesome either of those guys could have been as an in-ring mentor.
I need to start watching NXT more and your comment regarding its purpose certainly makes sense to me.
Maybe they are trying to who out of Punk, Christian, R Truth etc. has any desire for this role going forward.
Last night on Raw was actually a couple great examples of this...
ReplyDeleteCarlito had a match with Evan Bourne, who is certainly "exciting" but all his matches are sort of the same (and the same as most Mysterio matches). Be the little guy, take some bumps, turn the tide by pulling off some moves that wouldn't work in real-life based on the physics of the move, hit your finisher and win). Anyway, Carlito bumped big for him without making it look like he was giving the match away.
Of course Michael Coles and Jerry Lawler spent the whole match talking about other matches that night, the upcoming ppv, etc, rather than talking about what was happening in the ring.
Later in the evening, they scheduled a squash between Cena and Otunga. Otunga had zero offense, but they still ran the match for 5-10 minutes, to show how powerful Cena is, which does nothing for the future. I don't think Otunga is really interested in wrestling, anyway (this is his audition reel for the film industry, I'm guessing), but still. Cena isn't going to put a new guy over. Ever. Even Shaemus had to beat him by a fluke or by cheating (see also HHH).
Mike-
ReplyDeleteI turned the channel on that Carlito/Bourne match. Now I wish I hadn't.
I'm going to start paying more attention to this mentoring angle (or lack thereof) whether I like Carlito personally or not.
I think the X-Division match might have been on TNA at the same time and I opted for that.
Douglas Williams (even though he was just on commentary) is seriously one of my favorite guys at the moment.
I did see some of the Cena/Otunga match.
It was terrible. How desperate can the WWE be to let this guy blatantly use their company as a platform to bigger, better things?
I think the Rock actually loved the business at first and didn't realize how big he'd actually get. Once that happened movies and everything seemed to come to him.
It seems like Otunga and some of these dudes have it in their mind right away: I'll just do this stupid rassling shit for a few months and then they'll see that I'm so good and the money will roll right in, etc.
I wonder if their thinking he can be the next Miz (can't believe I wrote those words).
Reality TV straight to passable in-ring stardom.
I don't see it at all.
To your larger point: I can't see Cena putting a guy like that over, but at some point management has to realize that Cena/Triple H, Batista etc. are getting, or have been, stale and some of these guys are going to have to be elevated whether the current stars like it or not.
I think Monday was a low-ebb for the WWE and TNA. I gave up on RAW and started watching "No Reservations."
The only thing exciting on RAW was the Hart Dynasty/Showmiz angle.
TNA was flat-out terrible.