After sixteen years in the wrestling game, I have forgotten the names of most of the folks that I met during the first years of my career. Certainly, there were those who significantly influenced me in some way or another, but there are a lot of faces that have blurred into the background. It's not that I have a bad memory, it's simply that there are a lot of guys and gals that get into this business and simply don't last. The numbers of guys that dropped out in their first year -- after discovering that wrestling wasn't for them -- has diminished greatly over the past few years. We have let our guard down, have been less selective, and we have allowed garbage to creep into the business.
Anyone that has read my previous columns will recognize that I hold wrestling in as high regard as other professional and world calibre sports. I think that with the action we present, and the characters that we showcase, professional wrestling is competitive with any other sports entertainment offering on the planet. However, we don't come out on top in all respects.
I think the one area where we fall dreadfully short of the mark is the selectiveness of who is allowed into our business. Certainly, if you look at our peers in other sports genres, one would agree that the contracts are only handed out to the elite. Professional wrestling, particularly on the independents is not as restrictive, and as such, we have those in our midst that simply do not belong.
I have thought about this a lot over the past couple days -- especially as I think about the proposal to consider professional wrestling for the Olympics. What would the criteria be for selection of potential competitors? Once the competitors are selected, what is the scale for judging the performance between the ropes? The more I thought about this -- the more I readily identified the wrestlers who are currently active on the independent scene (some who are carrying championship belts) that would be excluded from the outset. As I thought about this more -- if someone could be so readily EXCLUDED from the selection process of identifying credible wrestlers, why are they still INCLUDED in our business anyway?
Sitting in most locker rooms, you can readily spot the select few that are career focused. I think that's a pretty sad statement. When you can look among your peers and see the guys who don't put in any effort at all -- who don't show any athletic ability at all, who will chug back a RedBull and that constitutes their personal commitment to personal health. Very sad. If you can scarf down your take out food ten minutes before you hit the ring -- you're simply not working hard enough and aren't focused enough on your business. If you have a main event opportunity to showcase yourself and you spend the duration of the previous match wandering about the venue and chatting with people instead of parking it in the locker room with your peers and concentrating on your business -- you don't have a grasp of your business.
From my perspective, I think that there are some wrestling fundamentals that should be a given. Can a wrestler properly execute a rudimentary repertoire of moves and holds? This is important. Wrestling is an adrenaline-charged sport and as such, one should develop such a keen instinct for some of the basic wrestling moves that they could revert to them at any time. If you can't deliver a hip toss, arm drag, headlock, or bodyslam safely (or correctly) -- time to go back to wrestling school. Without these tools, you are a danger to yourself and others.
Conditioning. When you reach the five minute mark of the match and you're rolling around on the map like a fish out of water, gasping for air -- maybe you need to spend a little less time at the buffet and a little more time on the eliptical machine. High performance athletes don't leave their opponents hanging high and dry when trying to deliver a solid match for the fans. Tired, sluggish, and out of shape does not give anyone a whole lot to work with.
Complacency is a problem. There are guys strutting around the business who operate with the assumption that their spot is secure, so they don't have to work for it. It could be that they are tight with a local promoter - or worse, are the promoters themselves. As such, they cast off opportunities to get in the ring and tighten up their ring skills, they ignore the input of more experienced opponents, and spend more time bitching and moaning about politics that don't affect their match on that night than focusing on the task at hand. That complacency might be the reason that some self-styled promoters can only secure bookings on their own events and aren't welcomed anywhere else. Hmm ...
And let's be honest about gimmicks fellas. If you're five foot fuck all and weight one hundred and fifty pounds, nobody is going to take you seriously as a one man wrecking crew. I don't care how many grade school kids you can beat up at one time. Inversely, if you're 250 pounds with no ass to speak of, perhaps the pleather pants with no draw string are a bad idea as well. Nothing says high performance athlete like a guy having to stop the match fifteen times in ten minutes to hike his pants back up - ridiculous!
Some may think that I take myself too seriously - that I am too critical of the business, and that maybe I should dwell more on the positive. However, if somebody doesn't say something and maybe inspire some corrective action, the wrestling business and those select professionals that are a credit to our industry, will never gain traction. We need to police our own -- if the business is going to turn around, it needs to start with those of us INSIDE the ring. It's up to us to re-inspire the confidence of the people that loyally buy tickets to see us in action.
Don't misunderstand, if I look at the list of 260+ active wrestlers in western Canada over the past year, I would be hard pressed to narrow that list down to the Top 20 elite -- but as I gaze over that roster, I can identify the bottom twenty pretty quickly. Remember everyone, a wrestling event is ONLY as strong as its weakest match. Do you want your hard work to be dismissed by the fans because one of your peers can't be bothered to focus on his business and take his craft seriously? I don't, and won't.
Professional wrestling is NOT for everyone. It will take a collective effort to clean it up again.
Vance Nevada