It's all about respect
February 25, 2003

Sup everyone, after a very crazy week, I finally have a chance to sit down and write. No time to waste, so let's get moving.

Although the week in general was crazy, it was my very first week without having to play basketball, so I found myself with some extra time on my hands. For the first time since early November, I had the opportunity to watch my two favorite TV shows, Around the Horn and PTI, and both shows really got me thinking.

I know that it is an established concept that ESPN or any other sports network does not consider professional wrestling a sport. In fact, in watching each show every day this week, the WWE was only mentioned once on Around the Horn, and that was a topic comparing UFC to WWE in which Max Keller called it a trick question because professional wrestling is not a sport unlike UFC. It will forever be claimed that since the outcome of every match is pre-determined, wrestling cannot be called a sport. Or will it?

As much as any long-time sports writer would hate to admit it, certain interesting things are happening in the WWE that may cause people to rethink their beliefs about the "sport." In my opinion, the biggest setback that WWE or any other wrestling organization has had is the fact that unlike in other sports, athletes from the college ranks do not strive to reach the professional level. There is no draft of college wrestlers and for the longest time, no college wrestler wanted to enter professional wrestling because it was a slap in their face. Well, look what we have here, Brock Lesnar, former NCAA champion has risen to the top of WWE. Haas and Benjamin, both NCAA All-Americans, now tag team champions in WWE. Not to mention Kurt Angle who was a gold medalist in the 1996 Olympics. I checked my contact prescription and it is fine, so I know that I am not just imagining the sight of four successful amateur wrestlers in WWE.

Why is this happening? It's simple, and I've been saying it for months now. Whether anyone likes it or not, WWE is becoming more wrestling based. It's no longer 1997 where every show revolved around Austin and McMahon. With this new found wrestling aspect of professional wrestling has come somewhat of a more serious nature to the shows, especially Smackdown. You can look into Angle's eyes, or Benoit's eyes, or any other of these wrestlers' eyes and see a true intensity that you never saw before. This intensity is not fake; it is a genuine sign of just how important this is to these guys. I don't think that it is a slap in the face to them, in fact, it seems to be a damn honor.

Professional wrestling is a business where you are forced to work your way up in the company through your promos, wrestling, or a combination of them both. For these guys, this is the challenge that is presented to them continuously. Sure the matches are pre-determined, but the outcomes of these matches are determined by how well each wrestler has worked in the ring up to that point. None of them entered the WWE and immediately got a title shot via a random computer generation. Wrestling skills and in Kurt's case, amazing ability on the mic got them the chance to be where they are. They are getting a chance to do what they know how to do and that is wrestle, and are not being held back by the old adage that everything in wrestling is fake. A sledge hammer to the head is fake, a fall off a stage is fake, but you can't fake a German suplex. You can't fake the wrestling moves that these guys are doing, and week in and week out, these are the kinds of matches that we are seeing.

So what does this all translate to? It translates to respect. Respect that amateur wrestlers are slowly going to have for the WWE. Lesnar, Haas, Benjamin, and Angle all were highly respected amateur wrestlers and they made the jump to WWE. You also have people like Benoit, Eddie and Chavo, and to an extent, Rey Mysterio and his unique style. These guys raised the bar as to what the second W means in WWE (remember the days that HHH was considered a great technician.) All of this will without a doubt lead other amateur wrestlers to think more highly of professional wrestling instead of looking at it is a step down in their careers.

Once this happens, maybe it will all finally translate to respect for professional wrestling from sports writers and analysts. If the athletes themselves no longer see WWE or even the NWA as a joke, the analysts can no longer see it as a joke either. I don't know if all of this will happen in the near future, but I'd keep an eye out to see if any other amateur wrestlers make the jump. I know that I'll have a huge smile on my face when some of those asshole analysts have to sit and discuss professional wrestling and everything that happened on Raw the previous night. Until next time, this is The Anti-Antagonist, signing off.