Question to one & all: has there ever been a song with "Thursday" in its title? My guess is probably not; it falls in the catagory of Tuesday as the days that have no meaning......let me pause while I ask myself what point I was trying to make here.....
Theres a nice feature in todays Herald Mail about TNA's upcoming event this sunday at the historic Maryland Theatre,featuring an interview with none other than Double J himself, Jeff Jarrett. Its a nice if not particularly revealing piece. One particular aspect that I struggle with, as a "old school" guy is the public revelations, not only in the piece but as a part of public knowledge, is Jarrett"s partial ownership of the organization.
I suppose that its time that guys like myself "get with the program" & just outright admit that in wrestling, all isn't what it seems, but some things are hard to let go. It was impressed upon me, from the day that I started my training, that wrestling was, in essence, a club that had a certain membership, and that membership shouldn't be compromised, no matter what, to "outsiders".
The belief was simple: if everyone knew "everything" about wrestling, that it would hurt the overall business- people who believe shouldn't be told not to; the people who didn't believe, we didn't necessarily want them, anyway. Think of it like this: If you went to see David Copperfield, and you knew how he did all his tricks, would you want or need to see him again? Mind you, there is a certain percentage of the population that will enjoy a particular form of entertainment, no matter its truths, but....believing in wrestling MAKES wrestling.
I look around and see how the business has changed over the years, and its hard to dispute what the promoters & wrestlers of the past ascerted: while WWE's overall business is strong, due to international licensing agreements & merchandise sales, could you even argue for a second that the whole business is better now than it was in 1985, just to use an example?
The one thing JJ said that rang very true, is the belief that there is room for a second national wrestling entity, and there are alot of fans disenfranchised, to which TNA, at least in terms of their touring shows, is trying to cater. ( If they only did that on their TV show as well....didn't I just do that blog?)
I look forward to seeing many from the local wrestling community at this event, and I hope we get a chance to chat, if even briefly....
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Just mentioning 1985 made me think of how much wrestling terminology has changed over the years as well-for example, in previous times, a wrestler might mention that he was going to work for New York, which meant WWF, now WWE. Going to Atlanta meant WCW; heading to Dallas meant World Class; and so on. Largely, the promotion was identified by the largest city in which it operated, or maintained its booking office.
These days, such references are limited due to the lack of places to go, so they are almost always referred to by the promotion. Mostly, guys working the independents ( once known as "outlaw" or "bushes", as in bush leagues) who will be trying out for WWE are "going to the FED", as in the WWE's previous monniker,the World Wrestling Federation.
The term "boys", in reference to the wrestlers, has been replaced by "workers"; The word "show", in the past taboo because it implied it wasn't real, has replaced "card". I speak a slightly different language than most of the 18-30 year old "new" generation; I get confused looks when I tell them we can just "walk & talk", or just "work thru" or "go Broadway". Asking some if they "made their shot" over the weekend can lead to a puzzled look, "getting potato'ed" might as well be asking what they ate on the ride home at Wendy's, and "KayFabe" could possibly be someones mother,and most of the guys on the card wouldn't know the difference.
However, after 18 years, I still learn new terms as well, as back in October, for the first time ever, I was shown a "ferbie derbie".....so that just goes to show you no one knows it all ( not that I've ever believed that of myself in the first place)
Don't even get me started on the lost art of Carney.........maybe another time!
It was alot easier when we all spoke the same language- but then again, some of us were trained by actual wrestlers, and others, well, they.....weren't.
Until next time....
SSS
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