Post That My Readers Might Not Care About In 3, 2....

I miss the WWF. As I see Floyd Mayweather get 20 million dollars for breaking The Big Show's nose, I remember what wrestling used to be in my childhood/teenage years and I miss it so. Vince McMahon has managed to make something special into a national joke about steroids, soap operas and men in tights.

I guess since I still care about the WWE (ugh, still annoys me to say it), I can say this is my 20th year of being a wrestling fan, starting with Wrestlemania IV in Atlantic City that year. First time we ever ordered a Pay Per View event at my house and it was spent watching Hulk Hogan, The late great Andre The Giant, Macho Man Randy Savage, The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, and my childhood fave, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, just to name a few.

Those guys were believable back then, especially Ted DiBiase because as long as there has been a separation of rich and poor, there's always an asshole like Ted DiBiase flaunting his cash and thinking everyone will bow down. I really used to think dude would walk around, stuffing C-Notes in people's mouths after slapping the Million Dollar Dream (his patented sleeper hold) on them.

Today, there's too much behind the scenes b.s. that prevents it from being like it was back then. For one, Vince is ruled by his daughter's husband, Triple H, the most powerful wrestler/backstage presence going today, and he uses his marriage to Stephanie to basically be in charge of the whole operation. That's why folks like Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy (....Kennedy!) never get a shot at holding the gold because Triple H wants it all to himself.

Not to mention creativity is lacking. When Jake sicked his King Cobra on Randy Savage a little over 16 years ago, we really though Savage was going to die. Of course he came back two weeks later to beat Jake in a match, only to get his ass beat again by Jake, who then slapped Macho's wife, Miss Elizabeth (R.I.P.). That was some cold stuff, you hear me? You let your pet cobra bite and poison a dude, lose your big match, then drop him with three DDTs (greatest wrestling move ever) and THEN you put your hands on his wife? Great theater, I'm telling you.

Nowadays, Vince's idea of theater is having a little Irish man parade around as his illegitimate son. Horrid.

I guess the WWF to WWE transition proves that nothing great lasts forever, especially things we held dear from childhood or young adulthood. I was a teenager struggling for an identity during the WWF Attitude era (the best of them all), and I found out that I could be myself just fine from rebels like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and DX. Although they were characters in a show, they still had real-life human qualities, like the lack of tolerance for abusive authority (Austin) the high self-esteem bordering on sheer arrogance but still cool enough to be liked by everyone (Rock) to flat out sophomoric pranks and hi jinks (DX). Although it was "just wrestling" as folks used to tell me, it was an important outlet for me to have back then. Still is in some ways.

Oh well, that's why youtube and dailymotion exist, where you can find matches and angles from long ago that you remember watching live, not to mention long forgotten superstars and theme songs that you used to rock out to when they were brand new.

Sorry for the non-interesting subject guys, but I do have a new voice post (widget to your right) to go along with this post, and it has more about regular life stuff, so feel free to listen to that, while I watch more WWF memories on youtube.