I recently bought the special edition
DVD for “Beyond the Mat,” Barry Blaustein’s revelation of
a documentary on the seedy underbelly of professional wrestling.
I figure most wrestling fans have seen this movie at one time
or another and I really don’t have any comment about the movie
itself. I enjoyed it. This column is not a review of the movie,
but rather it is written in response to one of the special
features.

One of the extras on the disc was a “dinner”
hosted by Barry Blaustein with special guests Mick Foley and
Jesse Ventura. They talked about many interesting things but
there was one that stuck out. When they were confronted on
the issue of wrestling today vs. wrestling back in the day,
a lot of it was typical old timer ramblings, but one thing
that Jesse Ventura mentioned was the fact that finishers today
don’t have the same effect that they did many years ago. This
is not to say the fact that a backbreaker was a guaranteed
three count way back when and is barely a set up move today,
although that was a point that Ventura made. The main point
was that finishers don’t necessarily finish a match these
days. It is very true.

Think about all of the moves that wrestlers
use to end their matches. Mick Foley with the Mandible Claw,
the Rock with the Rock Bottom and People’s Elbow, Undertaker
with the Tombstone and countless others, with the exception
of the Tombstone pretty much every other move has been reversed
or kicked out of on countless occasions. When a wrestler debuts
a new move, such as Brock Lesnar and his F5, very few people
kick out of it. Angle was the first. Benoit was the second.
Granted Brock didn’t compete long enough for people to kick
out of it in most matches, but Angle’s Angle Slam was at one
point a dreaded match winner now almost never ends a match
and is a set-up for the Ankle Lock which most people get to
the ropes on or reverse in every one of his matches. Jesse
Ventura’s point was that at one time when a guy hit his finisher
it ended the match. He expressed his surprise that some of
the older school guys like Macho Man and Hogan succumbed to
this new fad of devaluing finishing moves. Ventura said that
at one point Savage’s elbow was a guaranteed winner. Now everyone
under the sun has kicked out of it. He improved his argument
with the statement that if someone jumped ten feet in the
air and landed on you elbow first you’d probably be dead,
it should at least end the match. Foley quipped that wrestlers
are just more resilient today, but ultimately he agreed.

This leads to a further inconsistency
in wrestling: The finisher done in a segment vs. the finisher
done in a match. It seems that a finisher, when executed during
a promo, is far more effective than when it is executed during
a match. The prime example of this is Stone Cold Steve Austin
and his Stone Cold Stunner. Stone Cold has delivered the stunner
to pretty much every wrestler on the WWE roster either inside
or outside of the ring. It seemed that when Stone Cold stunned
someone during a promo it damn near sent them to the hospital,
but in some matches, matches that have gone on for 15 minutes
plus he has delivered a stunner and his opponent has kicked
out at 2. It just doesn’t make sense. Maybe he was tired and
didn’t give an effective stunner, but I doubt it. It just
doesn’t add up. Finishers should nine times out of ten end
the match. Sure every once in a while let the opponent kick
out, that does add drama. But these instances in which almost
every week someone new kicks out after a “devastating finisher”
it just serves to devalue the wrestler giving the maneuver.

Wrestling would make a lot more sense
if 90% of the time when someone grabbed his opponent by the
neck, hoisted him into the air, and slammed him to the ground,
or jumped off of the top rope and did a flip before landing
on their opponent, or kicked someone in the gut, grabbed their
neck and dropped to the mat, it would end a match. Am I asking
too much?

If
you have any comments or opinions you can spin
back on the moodspins forums
or e-mail me at andymac
(at) whrwfm (dot) org.

Last 5 posts by Big Andy Mac

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