Welcome to the second installment of Spoon-Fed Wrestling. As we all know, over the past few weeks the IWC has been agog over the CM Punk-Cena-McMahon work/shoot angle. Every possible blogger, dirt-sheeter, and podcaster has expounded on the significance of the angle and what the possible affects mean for wrestling.
With this issue of Spoon-Fed Wrestling, I could have easily added to the noise and given my opinions on the Punk angle, but as this whole thing continues to play out, a thought has come to mind on which I feel worthy of exploring—how does one maintain their fan-ship of pro wrestling through a multitude of eras.
To explain my perspective, a bit more of my history must be told. Please bear with me as I take you all down my own personal memory lane.
As I detailed in the last column, my fandom began as a child. With a few notable exceptions, I have been a fan of pro wrestling for nearly four decades. I was there, on the sofa, watching the WWWF give way to WWF and NWA become WCW. I saw the rise of pro wrestling beginning with Wrestlemania I. I marveled at the Macho Man vs Steamboat match at WM-III. I lost count of how many Saturday Night’s Main Events I watched. I witnessed the rise of WCW and Sting transform from the Surfer Dude with Tude to the Crow.
Sadly, my interest in wrestling waned at the time that the WCW imploded. The drop in interest wasn’t completely due to the loss of the once great WCW, but at that time my life began to take more and more of my free time. Between becoming a newlywed, going to college at night, and working full-time, I had little time left for my guilty pleasure of pro wrestling. Adding to the lack of free time, I had come to believe that wrestling had passed me by and that maybe I had outgrown it.
During this period, I missed out on the attitude era and ECW. I heard about things from time to time from my friends who remained fans, but I couldn’t spare the time. But thanks to the invention of the internet I have been able to find much of the high points of the era, even if some of the meaning and immediacy has been lost due to the passage of time.
Then some five plus years later, after I was done with school and my free time was slowly becoming available, I was channel surfing and stumbled upon TNA. It reminded me of what I used to love about wrestling: technical wrestling mixed with storylines that had meaning. This all took place in the last weeks of 2005 when TNA could truly be called total nonstop action.
In short order, I returned to watching pro wrestling anew. Since then, I have maintained my fan-ship, although from a perspective of someone who remembers what used to be when kayfabe was alive and well. Yet despite that fact, I still find myself often entertained enough to enjoy watching although it’s become difficult to suspend my disbelief.
Then while watching the CM Punk promo on the July 11th Monday Night Raw, I was struck by my reaction. I had gone from lounging on my chair with my feet up on the ottoman, to sitting up and taking notice. I don’t remember dropping my feet to the floor or moving to the edge of the seat. It all seemed organic. I was drawn in with Punk’s passion and realism in the mic work. I only noticed my posture when John Cena’s music hit and I fell back into the chair with a groan as I always do with his entrance gimmick.
As the segment continued on, a thought came to mind. Why am I still a fan?
Is it because of the work-rate in the ring? Can anyone honestly say the current level of ring work is anywhere near that of those from the past? I have nothing against high-spots, but not for the sake of high-spots, there must be a reason and it has to be telling a story.
Am I still a fan because the storylines are fresh and new? Seriously? Not a chance. As has been said countless times, nothing being done hasn’t already been done.
The primary reason I’m still a fan is because of the hope for seeing a character that is compelling and entertaining at the same time. For this fan, the ability of a wrestler to work well in the ring with great psychology is not enough on its own. If it were, then Dolph Ziggler, Bryan Danielson, and AJ Styles would be my favorites. Don’t get me wrong, I think they are great talents and their ability to work hard in the ring is amazing. I do enjoy watching them work, but put a mic in their fist and I tune out.
What I need are characters who have all the tools in and out of the ring. It doesn’t matter if they’re over-the-top bigger than life characters like the late great Macho Man Randy Savage and the Undertaker, or if they are more realistic personalities like Kurt Angle and Stone Cold Steve Austin. It also helps if they can go face or heel seamlessly as if it takes no effort.
This brings me to CM Punk. To me, it took only two promos to take Punk from someone who I thought had the potential to be something great to someone who’s now on my personal top five list of all time wrestlers. Punk always had the ring work. I had seen clips of his mic work from ROH, and knew he had that indefinable ”it” factor. But for whatever reason, the powers that be in Stamford had forced Punk to be something less than his potential. The only glimpse we had of the greatness that could be Punk was the short-lived Straight Edge Society. We all know how that went with The Big Show singlehandedly dismantling the group.
With the current work-shoot angle between Punk, Cena, and McMahon, he’s managed to do something I haven’t seen or felt since I watched Nash and Hall walk into WCW and form the NWO. He’s blurred the line between work and shoot enough for me to make Punk a must-see for yours truly. The final piece of the puzzle was how he carried Cena to the only four star quality match I’ve seen from SuperCena. Simply put, I believe we are seeing the birth of this era’s SCSA.
His rise in my own interest level has grown so high that when I hear the opening guitar riff and scream from This Fire Burns by Killswitch Engage, I pop like I did back in the day when the first strands of Pomp and Circumstance began playing, or the lights would go out for the Undertaker and the single gong would reverberate throughout the arena. Yes, I admit it. I’m officially a Punk mark.
With all that said, my main point here is that I believe for me, the only way I have been able to continue my fan-ship of pro wrestling for 40 years has been the characters that I identified with. I need someone to root for, or against, someone who I enjoy watching whether they are a face or heel, someone who makes me stop what I’m doing and take notice from the moment I hear their intro music. I need a character that makes me mark out like that kid on the sofa beside my Grandma Spoon.
Thank you Phillip Brooks for ensuring that I can still be pulled in and suspend belief. Because of this, I can still believe in wrestling and if that makes me a mark, so be it.
Read more »
