[Speed Gibson,
Thursday December 27, 2007 at 11:57am]
How 'bout dat?
For Christmas, I received "The Spectacular Legacy of the American Wrestling Association", a two DVD set. Disk one is a documentary of the AWA. This was Verne Gagne's organization, so it also covered some of Verne's impressive amateur career and ended with his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.
As it hints more than once, professional wrestling was until recently a family business with some faint similarities to the Mafia. It was territorial, until Vince McMahon Jr took it all, not with bullets, but with satellite TV, cable, and rock & roll. We couldn't have cared less at the time. We wanted to see Da Crusher!
I still fondly remember getting tickets by mail, to attend the free TV matches at what was then the Calhoun Beach Hotel, the original home of WTCN channel 11 before their move to Golden Valley.
We maybe got down to the "real" matches once a year, but most of the show was on TV anyway. We grew to like the doormats like "the very capable" Kenny Jay. He would always get the upper hand briefly in his match, but a quick poke in the eye would stun him long enough for the star to recover and get the pin.
The DVD runs well over 2 hours and fills in so many details of what I was watching then. It was done with love and respect for Vern and I agree with the picture they painted. Gagne was a great athlete and a great showman. In the end, those very qualities kept him too rooted in the past, making him easy prey for the WWWF. To be fair, the WWWF has made the same mistake, though still alive as the WWE. They would do well to re-incorporate some of what Vern did, not merely parade steroid taking wife beaters.
Disk 2 has some old matches, including Jesse Ventura. I'll post on that tomorrow but already, this is one of the best presents ever.
As it hints more than once, professional wrestling was until recently a family business with some faint similarities to the Mafia. It was territorial, until Vince McMahon Jr took it all, not with bullets, but with satellite TV, cable, and rock & roll. We couldn't have cared less at the time. We wanted to see Da Crusher!
I still fondly remember getting tickets by mail, to attend the free TV matches at what was then the Calhoun Beach Hotel, the original home of WTCN channel 11 before their move to Golden Valley.
We maybe got down to the "real" matches once a year, but most of the show was on TV anyway. We grew to like the doormats like "the very capable" Kenny Jay. He would always get the upper hand briefly in his match, but a quick poke in the eye would stun him long enough for the star to recover and get the pin.
The DVD runs well over 2 hours and fills in so many details of what I was watching then. It was done with love and respect for Vern and I agree with the picture they painted. Gagne was a great athlete and a great showman. In the end, those very qualities kept him too rooted in the past, making him easy prey for the WWWF. To be fair, the WWWF has made the same mistake, though still alive as the WWE. They would do well to re-incorporate some of what Vern did, not merely parade steroid taking wife beaters.
Disk 2 has some old matches, including Jesse Ventura. I'll post on that tomorrow but already, this is one of the best presents ever.