Idiotic if True: How an Impact Burnout May Have Screwed over the Young Bucks

Were these guys wronged by the competition?

Cageside Seats has a pretty good summary of the scuttlebutt surrounding the Sin Cara hood and the two men who play it, especially the original. It's a good read, but in describing one of the reasons why Mistico has become persona non grata in WWE right now, they brought up this nugget on a recent controversy involving two decidedly non-Sin Cara related wrestlers:

The Young Bucks shouldn't have bothered turning up for their recent WWE tryout, their chances were shot as soon as Rob Van Dam gave them the rep of dodging veteran's handshakes. In a predictable development, RVD's good friends Booker T and Goldust made sure to concur with his assessment via Twitter that they were a couple of disrespectful young punks and thus the Bucks could kiss their WWE chances goodbye.

First, a disclaimer, I don't assume that this is 100% truth here. Dave Meltzer (the source for the Cageside article) may have an element of truth to that slant on how things happened. He may be talking cynically. I don't know.

That being said, if there is any element of truth to this... what the fuck, WWE? Really? Really? I purported not even to want to judge how the WWE backstage culture was, and if the Bucks did "wrong" Booker T, then it's one thing. It's a personal beef, and they handled it the way that they handle those kinds of things backstage. However, if what Meltzer is insinuating is true here, then it's a clear case of a guy who works for another company influencing policy. Regardless of who the guy is, that seems pretty fucked up to me. The guy basically is using his influence to make sure that two guys who might have a future in the industry can't get ahead. Isn't that kind of blackballing considered unethical at the very least?

Furthermore, let's look into the guy who's starting this bullshit. Rob Van Dam. Apparently, if the insinuation is true, he cares about respect and petty bullshit, which is fine and dandy if you're into having your ego stroked, but let's look at some of the things he doesn't care about. He doesn't care about showing respect, since he mouths off about Impact in the media if he's unhappy (and regardless of whether you agree with him or not, you take care of that shit in house). He doesn't care about following drug policy obviously. He also doesn't care about co-worker safety, since his well-documented sloppiness hasn't abated over the years. In fact, I'd say it's gotten worse since his most egregious offense against protecting his fellow workers happened within the last six months, i.e. his amateur dentistry on Abyss with his foot. So now, WWE HR policy is going to be directly impacted by a burnout working for the struggling competition? That is hilarious.

That also isn't to say that RVD and his cronies Booker and Goldust would be totally at fault here. If WWE really is going to not sign the Bucks due to that backstage fracas without further investigation, then what does that say about them? It's one thing to have a guy in the doghouse in Mistico because of behavior that's widely observed, but wouldn't you think it funny that the Bucks, who apparently shook hands with everyone else, had a problem with only two guys, guys who were friends of a habitual drug user with a massive ego? If the reports are true, then doesn't this make WWE look fucking stupid for siding with a guy who ultimately is part of the organization that's most competing with them, whether they know it or not?

But that's the kicker. I keep going back to the disclaimer. There's no way to gauge whether any of these reports that are based on non-primary sources and conjecture are 100% factual. While I have my reasons to believe Meltzer over anyone, including his colleague Bryan Alvarez, wouldn't have an axe to grind, it's entirely possible that he has a journalistic bias against the WWE. It's not that big a negative. It's human nature. There's entirely a chance that this whole post is bluster, and within six months, the Young Bucks will be in WWE, and who knows, maybe Mistico will be Sin Cara once more. That being said, there's too much smoke in the form of wrestler chatter about this kind of thing for there not to be fire. If it was just something internal, then yeah, maybe I wouldn't have wasted any more words on it than I did back when I reacted to it first. But the fact that someone working for Impact may have something to do with the Bucks not signing WWE contracts seems stupid at least, unethical at the midpoint and illegal tampering/collusion at the very worst. It's so mind-bogglingly awful that even the very specter of it doesn't pass the smell test.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Wrestling High School, or Why I Don't Wanna Hear about Who Disrespected Whom

Centers of a firestorm that I wish I'd never known about

There's a reason this is the first time you're going to be reading about the supposed disrespect shown by the Young Bucks towards Booker T. It's the same reason why I don't follow Joey Image on Twitter anymore, or why I bristle at people who retweet his "YOU NEED TO RESPECT THE BUSINESS" BS rhetoric. I hate hearing about treating this mythical thing like the "business" with a fake layer of respect that's been propped up by guys who never fully left high school. I also don't want to hear about how people I generally like - and I like both the Young Bucks and Booker - bristle and act like assholes over feeling entitled over respect or being portrayed as disrespectful, whether right or wrong.

Granted, I haven't come to say that these wrestlers need to grow up and that they need to get out of this mold that respect is earned through tenure, not through deeds and demeanor and whatever other happy horseshit code they abide by. It's as old as wrestling itself, and hey, if that's how they want to conduct their business, then hey, good for them. I don't want Undertaker coming to my office and telling me how to conduct business there. Even if I think how they conduct their locker room code of ethics or respect or whatever is pedantic and childish, it's their business. What they do behind closed doors is what they do behind closed doors, and there's a reason why I'm an engineer and Booker Huffman and the brothers Massie both went into the wrestling business.

But that's the thing. If Booker didn't take to Twitter to put the Bucks on blast, then I wouldn't have known about it. If Rob Van Dam hadn't slammed the Bucks for "disrespect" before they left Impact, I wouldn't have known about it. If the Bucks and their brother Malachi hadn't responded in kind on social media, I wouldn't have known about it. Now, we're inundated with this wave of "he said, he said" accounts to incidents that maybe shouldn't have been big deals in the first place. Furthermore, you get Booker and Malachi carrying on to the point where I unfollowed both of them.

It's bad enough when the dirtsheets report on this kind of thing like it's news, but they can be ignored because hey, unless they have primary, neutral sources who are able to be named transparently, it can be dismissed. But when you have the people themselves taking to Twitter to fight in an attempt to curry favor with the masses, it gets right in your face, and you have to deal with the reality that people you enjoy on television can be assholes, or at the very least, they can be fool enough not to keep their dirty laundry contained within the confines of their locker room.

That's what gets me about people like Image. They want it both ways. They sanctimoniously preach about how we fans need to stop being disrespectful when we refer to wrestlers by their real names or (in what is the most hilariously preachy and wrong example) when we predict how a match is going to go, (and it's not just Image who does this, a lot of mainstream wrestlers do too) but then they carry on in public, either airing dirty laundry or weighing in on dirty laundry. I mean, if referring to a wrestler by his real name is disrespectful and invasive of their privacy, what does it say when they throw those otherwise private issues into my face? I would say that airing your own dirty laundry, or even worse, commenting on someone else's is far more damaging to this imaginary respect than would be if I referred to these men by their real names₁ (which aren't exactly secret anymore). When Shane Helms is posting passive-aggressive blogs piling on the Bucks, detailing why "RESPECT" is so important, that's giving everyone a peek into the backstage world of these people, one that by all accounts, we should not be allowed to see. So, which way should it be?

Personally, I would much rather try to stuff the toothpaste back into the tube and go back to a world where the wrestlers handled their business internally and didn't blab to interviewers or take their fight to Twitter. Especially in the case of the Young Bucks and the people they may or may not have disrespected, I don't know whose side to take, mainly because it's all based on hearsay. When you have disputes between two parties, and no one's really there to witness, that's all it is. I don't know either party in this case personally either, so why should I feel the need to judge like I do? For all I know, RVD and Booker could be onto something. For all I know, RVD and Booker could be full of shit and have really fragile egos, taking something innocent the Bucks did and misconstruing it because they feel like they're owed something. But the thing is I don't know, and I'll probably never know.

And the whole not knowing thing? I think I liked it better that way.

1 - If you take that as an explicit endorsement to refer to guys by their real names, congratulations, you've missed the point completely.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Your Favorite Wrestlers Ever: Don Owens

Now that my own favorites list is out of the way, I posed the question to some of my colleagues in the fan/writer community. Who are your favorite five wrestlers?

Today's list comes from Don Owens of the Future Endeavors podcast. He's a fun guy, and I enjoy him both on Twitter and when he guests on Jason Mann's podcast after WWE PPVs. Here is his list, back do descending order:

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1. Shawn Michaels - THE Greatest of All Time! There is no doubt that HBK is #1. This is the man that has blown away audiences for decades. His list of accolades is long - the 1st Grand Slam Champion, Tag Titles, IC Title, European Title, World Title, WWE Title, 1st Hell In A Cell Match, Elimination Chamber match, 2 Royal Rumble wins, revolutionized the ladder match, best Iron man match, best WrestleMania match. The list goes on and on. No one made their oponent look as good as Shawn Michaels did. The greatest to ever do it, NO DOUBT!

Don's top two
Photo Credit: WWE.com

2. Triple H - The King Of Kings is easily one of the greatest of all time, a true student of the game. I was a major fan of his since the day I saw his debut on WWF Superstars and saw him hit the move known as the pedigree for the 1st time. I said, "That Hunter Hearst Helmsley is gonna be a big star!" and boy was I correct.

His transition into Triple H was amazing - so many good feuds and another Grand Slam Champion. Triple H has done it all. He was a part of D-Generation X, then lead the group when HBK retired, went on to form and lead Evolution. He was the 1st WWE World Heavyweight Champion. As with HBK, Triple H could make a match work with anyone, a true in ring general. In the last year he has become more of an office hand backstage, but when the time calls for it as we saw at Wrestlemania 27 with his amazing match with Undertaker, he can still hang with the best of them.

3. Kevin Nash (Diesel) - My favorite big man ever. The day Diesel made his debut as HBK's bodyguard I knew I saw a star in the making. Seeing in that 1st year in the WWF, Diesel won the Intercontinental Championship, Tag Titles and the WWF Championship in a record 8 seconds from Bob Backlund to become a Triple Crown winner, and he went on to be WWE champ for almost a full year. Big Daddy Cool was the Man! He dominated in Rumbles, had a great feud with HBK, had the best WrestleMania match with the Undertaker (at the time) and had the match of his carreer with HBK in his last WWF match before going to WCW at In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies. Diesel went to WCW and went by his real name, Kevin Nash. He was the single reason why I started watching WCW, and then we saw the birth of the nWo, one of the greatest factions and most influental groups in all of sports entertainment. Nash went on to win more titles and had a great run in WCW.

After the company went out of business Nash did some movies and returned to wrestling and the WWE with Hulk Hogan and Scott Hall to debut the WWE version of the nWo. After some ups and downs in WWE, Nash left again and had a good run in TNA. At the 2011 Royal Rumble, Diesel returned and a surprise entrant. One of the greatest moments for me as a wrestling fan. Kevin "Diesel" Nash is now back as part of the WWE Family. What his future hold no one knows, But for me, he will go down as one of the best.

4. The Rock - Not much to say here for the Most Electrying Man in Sports, wait I mean ALL of Entertainment. Rock is easily the most entertaining man ever on the mic, and that definately translated into the ring. A superstar who has done it all, left WWE to become a true Hollywood actor and successfully made the transition better then anyone that tried before him. Rock's charisma made him a huge bankable star, and just when we thought we would never see him back in a WWE ring, 7 years later, he returned! He electrified audiences again like he never left, instantly he went from Dwayne back to The Rock. He went on to host WrestleMania 27, and will lace up the boots once again to take on John Cena at WrestleMania 28. FINALLY!!!! The Rock is back and is no doubt in my top 5 of all time.

5. Rob Van Dam - I have lost a lot of respect for RVD since he joined TNA, but I cant let that take away my love for him the rest of his career. RVD amazed me in ECW and instantly became one of my favorites to watch. The guy I always hoped would make it to WWE one day. Then that day finally happened. He came over after the buy out of WCW and was a part of The Alliance. His first ppv match in WWE against Jeff Hardy for the Hardcore Championship at the Invasion PPV was a classic. I was hooked and wanted more. For years I got to witness amazing matches with RVD and many other great opponents. He had great runs as Tag and IC Champion, but one belt always eluded him, the WWE title. At WrestleMania, RVD won the MITB briefcase and cashed in against John Cena at One Night Stand to become WWE Champion finally! Not only was he the WWE Champion, he was also awarded the ECW Championship for relaunch of that brand. RVD had made history. Unfortunately some bad things happened shortly after his win that led to him losing the WWE and ECW Titles back-to-back in the same week. RVD retired soon later after being frustrated with the direction of the new ECW. He made a couple surprise appearances that made me totally mark out for a full-time return. Unfortunately that never happened in WWE as he decided to join TNA. Although I'm not happy with him there, I am proud that he became TNA World Champion and had a great run. He definately deserves it. The Whole F'n Show!

The Bound for Glory Series: A Good Idea Towards Establishing an Identity

The first match in the series was a good one
Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

Last week on Impact, the Bound for Glory Series started with Rob Van Dam defeating Samoa Joe. For those who don't watch, the series is a 12-person round robin tournament aiming to decide who will face the Impact World Champion at the titular PPV event. My protestations at calling it "groundbreaking" aside, I really like this idea. I don't know if I've written this or not a lot here, but I love tournaments of all shapes and sizes. You get the potential for different match ups and have several different opportunities to make new stories.

In this instance though, the most important thing is that it provides an opportunity for Impact to establish an identity. Right now, they really don't have anything to make their big PPV event pop. Having the main event spot being something you fight for goes a long way in establishing that, especially in an event that takes four months to conduct. It helps add to the mystique of the event, which is something Impact desperately needs. Right now, the slogan "Wrestling Matters" feels empty. They went a good long way to rectify that this past week with the focus on the X-Division (Austin Aries being the biggest star in that) and launching the tournament.

Now, I know that there's skepticism out there as to whether they'll be able to pull this off. I'm a bit wary myself. Remember last year, when they were going to install a ranking system? Eric Bischoff, the biggest proponent of it in character, sure doesn't. It was dropped faster than a tray of hot soup by an epileptic waiter. The players remain the same here, so it's reasonable to suspect whether this idea will be carried out to fruition, and if it is, whether it'll be executed satisfactorily. Impact doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt right now; that's the stark truth.

However, that doesn't mean that you can't root for them. I really hope that this thing works out, because it's a killer concept. If they were going to port anything that Chikara or any other indie fed was doing this year, I'm glad it was the round-robin tournament. We already got one really good match out of it. If it produces more good tilts and has a modestly satisfying endgame, then it's a success. And for the former TNA? That's a win.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!