2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

I know it's been like four years since the Rise and Fall of WCW was released, so if it's been discussed, my apologies for being, uh, four years late to the discussion.

Wife was out of town last night, and I was struggling to find anything interesting on tv, so I somehow ended up on Netflix and watched The Rise and Fall of WCW. How do you make an hour and a half video about NWA/WCW, and essentially leave out Sting, one of the company's two biggest stars ever? I know the WWE owns the footage, and I'm sure he was probably with TNA at the time, so maybe they didn't want to promote a competitor, but I wish it had been anyone but them putting it together. If you're going to make it, you may as well make it the right way. There were some shots of Sting, and a few of the speakers mentioned him as they were listing off names for one thing or another, but for a guy who was consistently their biggest star, he got almost no run at all.

 

I was just about to post this. I thought I might see a little more insight into why things got to the point they did for Flair, but in reality it just reads like a laundry list of his financial and personal problems. That said, it is enlightening in showing just how bad things have gotten with him, and why he's still working in the business instead of being comfortably retired.

 

I think it says in there that he was unwilling to comment on the story, so it probably would have been tough. I doubt any of his ex-wives wanted to talk about it, since they all probably have legal motions against or with him still. The WWE never comments on stories like this.

The Highspots guy was probably as close as they could get, and it's amazing that Flair managed to fuck over even him. The interviewer for them comes off as anti-WWE and pro-individual wrestler, and they still were critical of him.

 

My head was hurting just trying to read through all that. Lawsuits and fuckups on top of lawsuits and fuckups.

Flair always seemed, at least publically in non-wrestling interviews to be a fairly smart guy, and I can fully understand getting scammed. Lord knows a lot of people have that happen to them. But all the borrowing money and not paying it back? Or the constant spending on a lavish lifestyle? Ridiculous.

I know he wants to keep up an image, but you'd think after 40 years, he'd figure out that there's a difference between playing a character and actually being the character. You hear of wrestlers, especially when they're first starting out, sleeping five to a room, or ordering a cup of hot water and pouring ketchup into it. Flair didn't need to go to that extreme, but would it have hurt him to just keep on a budget?

And the sad thing is, I can fully imagine the day coming where I read about Flair dying of a legitimate heart attack in the ring. As is, the story said he has heart troubles, and doing steroids and years of drinking isn't very healthy for the body.

 

Not that Flair doesn't deserve the overwhelming majority of the blame for his own failings, but he was also instructed to do the whole jet flying, limousine riding schtick for much of the 80s and 90s. I wonder if that screwed him up at some level (a far more direct example of life imitating character development is Yokozuna, who was asked to pick up a few pouunds in the WWF to build up his gimmick. he picked up bad eating habits in the process that made his weight spiral out of control and hastened his death).

I cannot and will not watch Flair anymore. Not only because I fully expect him to drop dead in the vein of Moondog Spot and Gary Albright, but because his performances are absolutely cringe-worthy. That would have been the case even without the backstory, but the chronicle of his many financial problems just makes it that much harder.

 

This business really screws up lives. You don't see many people make it a career and then retire in good health or good stead financially or in terms of family.

 

It does and it doesn't. It has certainly played its part by forcing/compelling people to using performance enhancing drugs, putting them on the road for 300 days a year, not providing health insurance and in essence making them work injured for fear they'll lose their jobs if they're out for too long.

But for a lot of these guys, all they know how to do is wrestle. They didn't save their money during the glory days, they didn't learn trades or figure out what their post-wrestling career would entail, so when the big leagues no longer had use for them, they had to cobble together an existence on low-wage grunt jobs and working shows for $100 or less in junior high schools and VFW halls. It sucks, but by now there should be enough cautionary tales out there to scare them straight.

 

The thing is, promoters are supposed to pick up their flight expenses, and as far as limos go, he couldn't have say, had the promoter pay it, or cut it down to twice a week?

The stories of Flair going into bars and buying drinks for 100 people are legendary. Too bad he chose to do it seven days a week instead of, say, three days a week. At some point, he had to take Superman's cape off and live a regular life. He didn't.

 

Agreed, although it could be debated whether or not wrestlers in the past had it better or worse off. Nowadays, a lot of them have college degrees and can hopefully do something with their lives when their careers are done. You still have your high school dropouts, though.

They also were gone seven days a week. At least now, they have a couple days a week at home. On the other hand, the matches are considerably harder on the body, with more bumps, and you're seeing guys taking all sorts of meds to deal with the pain. A match in 1980 might feature a wrestler taking two bumps a match. Now, they take 20.

They also do have, at least in WWE, a minimum guarantee nowadays, so they get some money coming in. In the old days, they didn't know how much they would get until the promoter handed them their money.

Thing is, if a wrestler makes it to the WWE today, it's kinda like being an NFL player, in a way. Unless they're top guys, an average run can go about 3 or 4 years. They probably will make low-to-mid six figures (granted, travel expenses take a lot of out it). If they're careful with their road expenses, they can have a nice little chunk of change at the end of their run, and hopefully use their degree for a good job afterwards with some independent bookings for a little extra dough.

 

I'm constantly reminded of something Vonnegut said. Well, apparently not that reminded, because I remember the exact quote, but it's something about human beings being attracted to money and fame like moths to a flame, and it's just as bad for us as them.

 

Wait, the WWE doesn't pay for its wrestlers to travel?

 

I forget, but it either doesn't pay for travel or doesn't pay for lodging. It may be lodging, because often wrestlers will double up unless they're big stars to save money. Some of the top names have first-class accomodations and travel built into their contracts.

This is an old list, but it'll give you some idea of how it works: http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-65957.html. Note that now wrestlers are required to buy health insurance as part of their contracts. It's not being provided, but it's being mandated.