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Learning The Game |
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Saturday, 10 September 2005 |
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I just had an e mail from my old pal Brett Summers at 1StopWrestling, he said he had read one of my commentaries and liked it, he asked me if I could elaborate on some of the stuff on it and he would put it on the 1stop site, I hope he doesnt mean I have to take my swearing out of it, if I do it may end up one paragraph long, apart from that it just wouldnt be me. Hard times and periods of being broke are never too far away from a pro wrestler who wrestles in the UK, its getting even harder now for the full time pros to make a decent living since nearly anyone who fancies calling themselves a wrestler can just waltz in through the back door, mainly because he can do all the high flying moves, chances are he will know sweet f*** all about the psychology of the job, or even the basics of the job for that matter, their idea of getting heel heat is to make a fist and punch their opponent in front of the referee, this make the ref look like a fool who has lost control of the match, lack of psychology Failing that blatant punch to their opponents face, there is always the old favorite for cheap heat the nut shot again in front of the referee. These two examples are only a few I have seen from new wrestlers who have learned their craft from watching videos, or from trainers who were only wrestlers themselves for a few weeks. Whose fault is it that the full timers are having a hard time making ends meet sometimes? Ourselves, we are to blame, we left the backdoor open and people just walked in and stole our work because they wrestle cheap or free, you cant blame a promoter for using cheap or free bodies, its his business to make money, would we go out of our homes and leave the back door open? Hell no, because if we did the chances are someone would come in a f***ing rob us so why have we done it with our profession? Our lackadaisical attitude will be the death of pro wrestling in our country, as I said the promoters will use the cheap and free bodies to make money, their shows will suffer in the end and they will suddenly notice that their houses are down, by the time they realize they need the full timers back it may be too late, many will have found other work, others will just be sick of the job full stop. Real wrestling fans who come to shows and spend their hard earned cash are entitled to a good show, I have noticed over the last few years that nearly every match is the same now, crash bang f***ing wallop, every move in the book being done in the first match, it makes it hard to have a top of the bill match when the first match on has put someone through a table and hit their opponents with everything but the kitchen sink, to make matters worse the skinny kid with the T shirt and cut off jeans who got hit with it all is still standing when the final bell goes. Lack of psychology again. That kind of match does not make for a good start to any show, shows should start off slowly and build up to the final match, the top of the bill match should have the fans wanting to get out of their seats with excitement, thats hard to do when they have already seen everything. What I think professional wrestling in Britain needs are the journeymen back in the job, the old hands who would teach new comers the respect for the job, old timers who would drag you about in the ring without injuring you, they would just show you that you were no where near as good as you thought you were, you would nine times out of ten come out of the ring and sit in a corner with your head in your hands gasping for breath because the old hand had just doubled you over and cut your breath off then moved you about in double quick time, he would come in as fresh as a daisy with hardly any sweat on him, they would then tell you where you went wrong and that you should burn your f***ing boots because you werent going to make it. All sounds a bit harsh I know, but it made you either get stuck in, learn what you had to learn or get to f*** out of the job because it was not going to get any f***ing easier, when the journeymen thought you had the balls to take what they were handing out they would slowly start to help you, things in the ring would get a little bit easier, if you got ahead of yourself and started to believe you were getting better they would cut you back down to size just to let you know you were still just learning, these journeymen were not bullies, far from it in fact, they were your teachers, you had just gone back to school, instead of getting lines when you messed up you got a thick ear, in the end it becomes a bit of a joke, you would come out of the ring with your ears ringing but smiling because you knew you had f***ed up something you shouldnt have, you always knew it could have been worse. This next paragraph is from a few months ago when the original column was written, I just decided to leave it in here. I have just been on 1StopWrestling forum and read about some company just starting out, they are looking for people to work for them, it goes on to say that the only paying job will be the promoters, well f*** me is all I can say, anybody who works for a company like that is f***ing insane, at least if you break your leg and earn yourself a few pounds in the process that goes with the territory, if you break your leg and get sweet f*** all then your just a dumb f***er who deserves to be f***ing injured. I know it must be hard to start a promotion company, but you need to have the money in the bank before you start, you cant rely on the gate money to pay the wrestlers with, if you did have full timers on the show and you couldnt pay them the chances are you would end up with a good battering for your cheek, I know if it was me you couldnt pay I would take it out of your body, with what I would charge you, you had better have a big f***ing body. I know some people out there think that I hate the new wrestlers, they are wrong, I respect every person who can put the boots on and step in the ring in the first place. I do think a lot of the new wrestlers should get their butts in a gym and lift a few weights, a sunbed or two would not go amiss either, if your one of the skinny guys who seem to be popping up more and more these days a good tan can give the illusion of being bigger than you really are. Im not having a go at the skinny kids in that last statement, I am in fact trying to help them. A lot of us dont like the way the job is going now, but like it or not these new kids are the future of the job. We can try and help them or we can just bow out and say f*** it, the unfortunate thing is that when you say something to some of them, they look at you like you dropped out of a dogs arse, they actually believe they know better. In my 23 years of wrestling I have seen the bodies come and go, I have seen so many guys who have been described as the next big thing or the next Dynamite Kid, some have lasted 1 or 2 years, others a matter of weeks, why? Because in a lot of the cases they just would not listen to advice from the older guys. We are here to help you if you want it, just ask, dont think you know it all because you f***ing dont, nobody does, but a lot of asking different people will help you become the best you can be. If your on the lighter side you will be expected to be able to wrestle as well as fly about like a headless chicken, if your on the heavier side or a fat t**t like me you can get away with taking things slower, it took me ages to pick that up myself. I used to be able to fly about like that headless chicken until my injuries caught up with me. Its no fun waking up to find that you cant move from the waist down, I got my surgery and managed to get myself right again, I think, I hope, Dynamite Kid never and he could do this job with his eyes shut. I have said it before and I will say it again, a few years from now there are going to be a lot of the new guys with bad injuries, mainly down to the fact that they have not been taught correctly or have been self taught. Just before I leave you all to read this and slag it off as being written by someone who does not understand this generation I would ask you when your at your next wrestling show to watch the matches closely, see who throws the first punch in the match, I would put money on it being the face. I have been lucky, I have worked with the best faces in this country, Tony StClair, Dave Taylor, Robbie Brookside, Danny Collins, Marty Jones to name but a few, these guys could have the fans crying at ringside because you were beating the crap out of them, most of todays so called faces want to enter the ring clapping and begging for the fans to like them, they get on the microphone and start chanting England or Fatty before anything has happened. Whats the answer? Learn the job correctly.
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