Necessary Roughness

My condolences to all that are affected by the deaths of the Chris Benoit family. Chris was probably the last real wrestler, preferring submission holds over inducing concussions in one’s opponents. The WWE tribute show last night was quite good, showing his best matches.

AP also reports that 11 wrestlers have been implicated in a national investigation involving performance enhancing drugs. The Edge, Triple H, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, and the late Eddie Guerrero are all named. Given the super size of these guys it’s not surprising. All of these guys sacrifice their bodies to the god of marketing. They are athletes without a doubt, but the competition is no longer comparable with history. Today’s wrestler/soap opera stars cannot be compared with those who use their strength, wit, and skills in competition.

I hadn’t watched wrestling in some time, but I realized how much I had really out-grown it (or perhaps wrestling out-shrank me) when Vince McMahon revealed that they were going to fake his death Monday night. Who was going to believe that, anyway? Maybe Benoit’s dose of reality can bring wrestling back to some sort of “real,” or if not, “believable.”