Nostalgia: Not What It Used To Be

[Mr. Monday Morning]

(Note: This isn't actually the column I was planning on posting. That one is taking a *lot* longer than expected and I don't know when I'll have it finished, but I am working on it. Consider this, then, as a preface, a lead-in if you will, for what is to come. I find I work best when I'm actually writing, ideas just flow to me better, and they have started to gradually. So we'll see what else I can come up with.)

Hi, my name's Mr. Monday Morning (no, really). You may remember me from such columns as Whoop-Ass 101, and Nevermore. Ah, those were the days. Bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this.

I first watched pro wrestling in roughly 1988. My only access was through video tapes from the local rental place. I started with the early Wrestlemanias, and kind of worked my way from there. Around 1993 I got Sky, who broadcast the PPVs over here (I live in England, btw). Not all of them - early on unless I'm mistaken they didn't broadcast the very first In Your House shows. Yes, I missed Hakushi vs Bret Hart

Roughly around 1995-96 my interest kind of dipped a little bit. WWF as it was then was going through a bad patch, and I had stuff like school to concentrate on. I had no access to any other promotions, so my interest in wrestling as a whole had dipped.

In late 1996-1997 my interest returned though, and in good time, as it coincided with the dawn of the WWF's golden age. Around 1999 I started watching WCW regularly as well (not so great timing, unfortunately) and intermittently had access to old ECW shows from the mid 90s. For a few years I watched, and life, in wrestling viewing terms, was good. I even purchased for myself a few Japanese compilation tapes. As my knowledge of the business grew (yes, the internet helped), so did my exposure to more promotions, more wrestlers - an ever-widening circle, if you will.

Late 2002 I lost my access as I went off to University for 3 years. I'd keep up with results now and again, but in all honesty it slipped from my mind. When I got my access back in mid 2005, it wasn't what I remembered. To be honest I had no interest in what WWE (as it was now) was putting out. And naturally, it made me nostalgic for what had once been.

Now, since the A&E biography part of this column is over, to the point. What I was nostalgic for was stuff like ECW. The alternative promotion, the extreme, anything goes no limits hell to everyone else promotion, the stuff of legends. And I grew nostalgic for the days of Stone Cold (bah gawd), the nWo, everything that was when I made sure I didn't miss a single show.

Fortunately for me I still had some ECW tapes from the time, and so one day I randomly pulled a few out and sat down to bask in the reflected glory of better days. Only something odd happened. It wasn't what I remembered it to be. The matches I had marked out over seemed slow, plodding, maybe even stale. Angles and interviews that were unique and edgy at the time were just...there. How could this be the ECW I once loved?

Now this is not a phenomenon unique to wrestling, by any means. In all walks of life, nostalgia taints the memories of the past, painting them in far more favourable terms than they actually deserve. Go back and watch a cartoon show you loved as a child, and more often than not you'll be shocked at how shoddy it seems. Listen to an old CD you never took from the stereo, and chances are you'll have heard similar songs more recently, but done better, or you'll just have some other band that you just like more now.

Consider how wrestling evolves over time though. Not just aesthetically, i.e. better TV production, better music, better promotional materials. Wrestlers evolve. Movesets evolve. Wrestling styles evolve.

Look at a guy like, say, Dino Bravo. 15 or so years ago, he was put over as a guy with a chiseled physique, a great physical specimen. Today, he wouldn't look out of place on the ring crew.

Around that time, Jimmy Snuka's Superfly Splash was death for anyone on the receiving end. Now you have frog splashes, 450s, 630s, Shooting Star Presses, Phoenix Splashes...suddenly the Superfly isn't so super, is it?

20 or so years ago, it was revolutionary for Dynamite Kid to use a diving headbutt, or Tiger Mask to use a plancha. In the mid 90s lucha style gained an influence in the mainstream, encouraging more aerial moves and fast-paced matches, and men like Shaun Michaels and Bret Hart broke the mould for smaller men to be able to carry companies.

In the late 90s and early 00s the focus shifted to a more shoot or Mixed Martial Art style, especially in Japan. And what you see in an average match today is a hybrid of everything that has come before. Look at a WWF match from 1985 and you'll probably see a guy pinned by a clothesline. Today you can drop a man on his head through a table and he'll kick out at 2. It takes something really, really special to be able to stand that sort of test of time.

How much of what has gone in the last 5 years will be remembered in 10 years, let alone beyond that, in the way that say, Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair still is, more than 15 years on? Not much, I would wager. This isn't a criticism of the current product though (that's another column for another time). More that, in my opinion at least, there is a tendancy too often to label something as 'classic' or 'legendary' when in reality it is simply better than what came before it last week, or last month.

In an interview with Mick Foley I saw recently, he said that there are probably 10 true legendary wrestlers in the business, at least in the US. And if he was put into that kind of bracket, there would be hundreds of guys in there with him. The same holds true of matches, and maybe even promotions. Think of a match or wrestler from the past that you hold in high esteem. Think *why* you regard them in that way. And then ask yourself; is it really as good as I remember?

Year in and year out the WWE will say that the current Wrestlemania will be 'the greatest of all time'. We know that isn't the case. It might be, by chance, but just because something is new does not automatically make it better. True greatness in the wrestling business comes along rarely, and a lot less than perhaps we would like to believe. This is not to discourage people from watching, or caring, or enjoying what they see. Not every match will be a ***** classic, not every guy who comes into the business will be a Sammartino or Hogan or Austin. But given that, maybe we should give more appreciation to those who were truely great, and slightly less to those who were great at the time.

[Nervous Ferret]

I think everyone mssed this for some reason.

[McLegend]

great column

[The Mackem]

MMM