Falls Count Anywhere

12-18-08

Somebody get a paper towel.

I managed to squeeze a little wrestling in this weekend. In this case it’s the latest Shawn Michaels DVD, the first disk. It’s the story of Shawn Michaels in biography form and while it doesn’t include much wrestling, it did feature a lot about Shawn Michaels the guy, which is a very interesting story. The one thing it very much included was the story of Shawn’s drug use.

The WWE of late has been far more forth-coming when it comes to drug use, especially by those who managed to get themselves clean. Like Shawn Michaels and William Regal.

Shawn had a long run as a world class partier and continued that well into the period where he was the top dog in the WWF. He was champion and he had a serious pill problem. He also failed a steroid test back in the day, and he completely denies using 'roids. Well, it’s possible that he’s telling the truth, but there’s a little bit more than some disbelief in his denials. It’s far more acceptable to say you were once a coke user than it is to say you were into steroids.

The part I liked the most was the segment where Shawn talks about losing his smile. I watched that interview on RAW (which I believe was from Lowell, MA) and it was the single most emotional interview I’d ever seen. He talked about being injured, about how his life had been rough.

This was the low-point in his career in many ways, though it was also at the legitimate peak when it came to his position in the company. I think that Shawn’s interview was amazing, and while many say it was his way out of having to do a job, you could see the sincerity about living in hell.

There’s the talk about the Survivor Series 1997 match with Bret where he comes clean about what really happened. He and HHH both admit that they were in on it and that they were told to keep it under wraps. I was amazed that they put everything out like that, basically telling the truth that we all knew anyhow. HHH gives more insight than Shawn, but what can you do?

There’s a part where a lot of folks talk about Shawn trying to apologize to Bret and everyone says that Bret’s been the one blocking the apology. Bret doesn’t share the same view and has called Shawn a hypocrite in various interviews, and he’s got a point, but it may also be that the WWE machine is simply trying to paint Bret as the bad guy as they have so many others who are on the outs.

The section about his return to the WWE in 2002 is pretty good. He got clean and started having great matches, arguably getting the biggest push of his life because he was seen as a legend by that point. He was never a huge draw, but he was a strong draw in the mid-1990s, but he was always second to Austin and the Undertaker. The match with HHH at Summerslam that year was legendary and I think it was the best match of that year and one of the few that still remain in memory. They cover the match from the Seattle Wrestlemania where he took on Chris Jericho which wasn’t a bad match, but I didn’t think it was anywhere near as good as his match with Angle two years later.

The other things they didn’t mention were the matches with Austin, including what’s one of the best RAW matches ever, Austin and Michaels vs. Owen and the British Bulldog for the tag titles, and anything about the other Bret vs. Michaels matches, including that first Ladder Match. That’s a rough one.

The depth of the coverage of the Montreal screw-job was very good, but there was little talk about the Austin matter. Austin was the biggest star, but he was never the worker that Michaels was. That’s not entirely true, but it’s safe to say that Michaels was a far superior athlete. It would have been nice to hear Michaels talking about playing number 2.

All in all, it’s a good biography.

In other news, I tried to find video of TNA Final Resolution, but alas, no. I did read about it and it sounded like a good main event with a weaker undercard.

Lesnar-Couture didn’t set the all-time MMA PPV buy-rate record, though it did pretty good. The match was solid and I think that, after watching it again, Lesnar looked so confident that it’s impossible to say he’s not a top ten fighter right now. He really did control the pace of the fight. It’s not that Randy looked bad at all, but he certainly wasn’t the leader. It does bring up the DeLaHoya fight this weekend that Oscar just quit after the 8th round. Oscar looked old and slow and while he was fighting a very skilled boxer, it wasn’t like the time he lost to Felix Trinidad and was simply out-boxed.

The Christopher J. Garcia Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Wrestling Excellence is coming up. This year, the Fanboy Planet reader’s poll, which produced incredibly low results last year, will be scaled back to simply Fanboy Planet’s favorite wrestler. I’m hoping we get a bigger turnout.

This year’s categories for the regular awards are Trish Stratus Award for Woman of the Year, Tag Team of the Year, Match of the Year. MMA Fighter of the Year, MMA match of the Year, Best on Interviews, The Lou Thesz Award for Good Wrestling, MMA Show of the Year, Wrestling Show of the Year, Feud of the Year, and Wrestler of the Year.

That’s all for today. More next week!

Chris Garcia