Well, for this being the final week's post, I figured I would cover the real reason that many people bought the book, "Heartbreak and Triumph". Moving on the the evening of November 9, 1997. The place...Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The home of the Montreal Expos, uncrowned World Series champions of 1994. Home of the Metallica/Guns n Roses riot. Yes, good old Montreal. Shawn actually started talking about this match in the very beginning of the book. Unfortunately, this match would be the most memorable moment of his career. Kind of sad when you think about all the other classic matches he had in his 25 years in the business. But this match would go down as the most real moment in all of sports entertainment and would change the course of the WWE for years to come.
For those who don't know about the night in Montreal, let me break it down for you. The WWE was in dire straits financially in 1996 and 1997. Their rival organization, World Championship Wrestling, was killing them in the ratings and was able to bring in guys from WWE for more money than WWE could pay them. Bret Hart was the biggest star that WWE had at the time but could no longer afford the contract he had signed a cuople years prior, so he was talking to WCW about a move there. When that was finalized, Bret had in his contract that he would have what is known as creative control during the last 30 days of his stay in WWE.
Now, there was a ton of friction between Bret and Shawn by this point. All the respect they had for each other prior to Wrestlemania 12, when they had the one hour Ironman match that is widely considered the greatest Wrestlemania match of all time, was gone by November of 1997. So Bret was not about to give up the belt to Shawn again, especially in his home country of Canada. This did not sit well with Vince McMahon as he had already been embarassed one time by Alundra Blayze who took her WWE women's title belt to WCW with her and dropped it into a trash can on national TV. So with all that being said, it left Vince in quite a precarious situation.
So after some conversations with Bret and Shawn regarding the PPV, it was devised that if Bret would not give up the title willingly, or as they say, do the job, then Vince would be forced to do the unthinkable: screw Bret out of the title. And that's what they planned on doing. From the way Shawn describes it in his book, nobody really wanted to do it. They all were hoping they could trust Bret to do the honorable thing and drop the belt to Shawn on his way out. That's the tradition and Bret was well-known for being a man of his word and a man that honored tradition. That is also part of the reason the events that transpired were so shocking to everyone watching.
Shawn did a great job, to me, describing the situation and how he felt during the time leading up to that fateful night and also what happened during the day and so forth. He talks about the emotions he felt during that day and how scared he was that they were actualyl going to take the belt from him the way they were. He compared it to a mafia hit. He even talks about a converstaion he had with Bret a couple hours before the show started and how awkward he felt and how bad he felt for Bret.
He also goes into detail about what happened after the match was over and he got back to the hotel. One thing he says that I found very interesting was how he didn't know if he would be able to have fun in the ring anymore. Also, how deep down he really wished that people would like him. The things he says here remind me of myself in some ways. I've always wanted people to like me but if I get the slightest inkling that they don't, then I get rebellious and just do things my way, instead of trying to repair what was wrong. I'm glad that I don't do that as much anymore. But nobody is perfect, we all just want to be and think we can be. And we want our heroes to be, as well.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Week 9 Blog
We are going to dive further into the Shawn Michaels Biography, "Heartbreak and Triumph". I like the next parts of the book as it brings Marty Jannetty back into the picture as he returns for a short time and actually beats Shawn in one of the greatest matches of all time to win the Intercontinental Championship. This was a huge deal for me personally as it gave me bragging rights as a fan of the Rockers. I could now say that both members of my team had won some sort of singles acclaim in the WWE and that was a huge deal back then. Up until that time, not too many teams could claim that. Bret Hart had won the IC title and would win the WWE Championship later that year (1993) but his partner, Jim Neidhart would have an issue just keeping a job in the WWE. Neither member of Demolition had any kind of impact in the singles ranks. Heck one of the members of that team never had a singles match in the WWE. Also, for all the acclaim that The Legion of Doom received while teaming up, neither one of them would ever be a serious threat to anyone in the singles ranks. So to have both members of your favorite team win singles gold was a big deal.
Of course, Marty would not last with the company because of his partying ways and his little demons he had to deal with. So the story starts to resort to the new reltionship between him and Bret Hart. It was the beginning of one of the most storied relationships in wrestling history. One that went from two men at the tops of their respective games and who respected each other very much for their abilities. During the years of 1993 to 1994, both Shawn and Bret were at the top of the WWE. Bret held the WWE Championship for the majority of the time between 1993 to Wrestlemania 12 in March of 1996. Shawn had 3 stints with the Intercontinental Championship during that time including the famous storyline between he and Scott Hall (Razor Ramon) where they both layed claim to being the IC champion. This storyline concluded at Wrestlemania 10 when they had the classic ladder match to determine who the rightful champion was. Shawn talks in detail about this match as well, concluding at the end by saying Gorilla Monsoon called it the greatest match he'd ever seen. Which is a great compliment from someone who, at the time, had around 40 years in the business!
Shawn also talks about a great program he had with Curt Hennig in 1993 that lead to their match at SummerSlam that year. Curt Hennig was one of the greatest heels of all time and to me, is the greatest Intercontinental Champion ever. So his feud with Shawn was a dream match for me. I really enjoyed watching them both since they were both so athletic and loved to bump around all over the place. Shawn actually blamed this fact for the reason he wasn't too proud of the match. Both guys were both so great at making their opponents look good that it was difficult for them both to take charge of the match between each other. This was still a great match in my mind though.
Of course, Marty would not last with the company because of his partying ways and his little demons he had to deal with. So the story starts to resort to the new reltionship between him and Bret Hart. It was the beginning of one of the most storied relationships in wrestling history. One that went from two men at the tops of their respective games and who respected each other very much for their abilities. During the years of 1993 to 1994, both Shawn and Bret were at the top of the WWE. Bret held the WWE Championship for the majority of the time between 1993 to Wrestlemania 12 in March of 1996. Shawn had 3 stints with the Intercontinental Championship during that time including the famous storyline between he and Scott Hall (Razor Ramon) where they both layed claim to being the IC champion. This storyline concluded at Wrestlemania 10 when they had the classic ladder match to determine who the rightful champion was. Shawn talks in detail about this match as well, concluding at the end by saying Gorilla Monsoon called it the greatest match he'd ever seen. Which is a great compliment from someone who, at the time, had around 40 years in the business!
Shawn also talks about a great program he had with Curt Hennig in 1993 that lead to their match at SummerSlam that year. Curt Hennig was one of the greatest heels of all time and to me, is the greatest Intercontinental Champion ever. So his feud with Shawn was a dream match for me. I really enjoyed watching them both since they were both so athletic and loved to bump around all over the place. Shawn actually blamed this fact for the reason he wasn't too proud of the match. Both guys were both so great at making their opponents look good that it was difficult for them both to take charge of the match between each other. This was still a great match in my mind though.
Week 8 Blog
Ok, so we are going to return to the Shawn Michaels autobiography, "Heartbreak and Triumph". And I'm going to start with one of the saddest chapters in his career (at least to me LOL), the breakup of the Rockers and the beginning of his singles career.
Shawn talks about how the Rockers were screwed out of the tag team titles in these chapters and how that pretty much started the issues between him and Marty Jannetty. That may not be a fair statement but it was shortly after that, that Shawn started to think about going singles. The Rockers had been together for 5 years which wasn't that rare back in the late 80's, but nowadays it's almost unheard of. About the only teams I can think of that were together that long now are the Hardy Boyz, the Dudley Boys, and maybe Edge & Christian. There are some others but it's still a long time for one team to be together. The book then goes into the whole debace of how the Rockers got screwed on a deal to appear on a Wheaties box and how they found out they were only getting paid half of what the other wrestlers there were getting. This set off Marty calling Vince McMahon and quitting, telling Shawn they could get a deal in rival WCW. This was not the case yet however and that's when Shawn starting talking to Vince about going singles and breaking up the Team of the '90's.
From there, he talks about the famous "Barber Shop" incident that officially broke up the Rockers. The incident where Shawn throws Marty through the window on the set and he is off and running. He goes into how he took the initiative to walk in ahead of the other guys and marched into Vince's office at a TV taping and demanded to be a larger part of the company's future. Shortly after that, he won the Intercontinental Championship and his career starting taking off from there.
Again, winning the IC belt back then was a huge deak for a wrestler. Nowadays, it seems like they put it on guys to see how they will do with a title. Back then, it was not something you received because there was nobody else to put it on or as a way of finding out how good you are. It was a title that was given because you earned it. So it was a huge deal when Shawn beat Davey Boy Smith to win the belt. Especially since you consider that Smith won it in a classic match two months earlier from Bret Hart. Now, Shawn may have won the belt from Davey because Davey was injured. I've heard that and it would make sense but I don't think there was a doubt that Shawn would have won it eventually anyway. He was thrust into the IC belt race pretty much from the outset of his singles career and he was in the main event of the Survivor Series event with Bret Hart a month after winning the IC belt.
Shawn talks about how the Rockers were screwed out of the tag team titles in these chapters and how that pretty much started the issues between him and Marty Jannetty. That may not be a fair statement but it was shortly after that, that Shawn started to think about going singles. The Rockers had been together for 5 years which wasn't that rare back in the late 80's, but nowadays it's almost unheard of. About the only teams I can think of that were together that long now are the Hardy Boyz, the Dudley Boys, and maybe Edge & Christian. There are some others but it's still a long time for one team to be together. The book then goes into the whole debace of how the Rockers got screwed on a deal to appear on a Wheaties box and how they found out they were only getting paid half of what the other wrestlers there were getting. This set off Marty calling Vince McMahon and quitting, telling Shawn they could get a deal in rival WCW. This was not the case yet however and that's when Shawn starting talking to Vince about going singles and breaking up the Team of the '90's.
From there, he talks about the famous "Barber Shop" incident that officially broke up the Rockers. The incident where Shawn throws Marty through the window on the set and he is off and running. He goes into how he took the initiative to walk in ahead of the other guys and marched into Vince's office at a TV taping and demanded to be a larger part of the company's future. Shortly after that, he won the Intercontinental Championship and his career starting taking off from there.
Again, winning the IC belt back then was a huge deak for a wrestler. Nowadays, it seems like they put it on guys to see how they will do with a title. Back then, it was not something you received because there was nobody else to put it on or as a way of finding out how good you are. It was a title that was given because you earned it. So it was a huge deal when Shawn beat Davey Boy Smith to win the belt. Especially since you consider that Smith won it in a classic match two months earlier from Bret Hart. Now, Shawn may have won the belt from Davey because Davey was injured. I've heard that and it would make sense but I don't think there was a doubt that Shawn would have won it eventually anyway. He was thrust into the IC belt race pretty much from the outset of his singles career and he was in the main event of the Survivor Series event with Bret Hart a month after winning the IC belt.
CM Punk Interview
Ok, so as we all know by now, I think it’s pretty obvious I’m a pro wrestling fan. If you don’t realize this by now, you need help. Anyway, with that being said, I’m going to take a little bit of a change of course with this week’s reading. No, I’m not going to go away from the pro wrestling theme but I’m going to get away from biographies and go to an interview that was done with arguably the hottest commodity that the WWE has right now, CM Punk. This interview was put on the site on July 14, about 2-3 weeks after Punk’s now famous tirade on the WWE, Vince McMahon, Triple H, and others. Punk is the #1 contender for the WWE title at the time of this interview and is planning on leaving the company after the Money in the Bank PPV on July 17. The promo on RAW was so well-done that two days after it, I was on my way to my Algebra class when I heard national sports radio talk show host, Jim Rome, talking about it and talking about how real it was and that he wanted Punk on his show. The promo turned the world of pro wrestling on its ear and brought about a new superstar who had already had a measure of success in the WWE.
One thing I loved about the interview was how it opened. In his 2nd promo the week after the original, Punk tore into the WWE by stating that the only times that the WWE gets national attention is when he’s talking or someone dies. So this interview started off with a question about that and Punk backed up his very true statement by talking about the recent death of “Macho Man” Randy Savage. That story was all over ESPN and every other news outlet. He could have went further into that by talking about the deaths of such WWE stars like Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and the tragedy of Owen Hart. How much did the nation outside of the underground world of pro wrestling know about them before their tragic deaths? Not much unless you exclude Nancy Grace. She seemed to know everything about Benoit, even though she had probably never seen or much less talk to him before in her life.
The rest of the interview talked about the reactions to his promos and the reality of the situation. Punk talks about how he can leave the WWE and be happy because he has taken care of his money and doesn’t really have to work at all if he doesn’t want to. He also talks about getting into the WWE and how he actually trained for 3 months after they first called him so he could be in shape and they couldn’t deny him. He has a lot of things to say that could be very inspirational when it comes to how hard you have to work to be successful in wrestling. The interview is at: http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/201107/cm-punk-wwe-wrestling-interview
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