What I Watched Instead of RAW
I’m pretty much done with WWE at this point.
It’s not the first time I’ve stopped watching. I stopped once before, during the cartoon era. The last straw, for me, was the first appearance of the Gobbledy Gooker. It wasn’t so much that weeks and weeks of build-up had led to some guy (Hector Guerrero, as it turns out) running around the ring and dancing with Mean Gene while wearing a big rubber turkey outfit. It was more the way that the announcers tried to spin it that the crowd was really happy to see this happening, when in fact you could clearly see that everyone in attendance was furious that this was what they’d paid to see:
At the time, the World Wrestling Federation had become such a Festival of Crap that it was hard to believe that anyone was still watching.
I eventually got interested again, when I heard about Bret Hart’s world title run. That was all it took. These days, I think I’d need to hear that either:
They are letting a wide variety of wrestlers wrestle a wide variety of styles instead of having cookie cutter male model/bodybuilders working strictly WWE Main Event style.
Bryan Danielson or Samoa Joe has signed with the E and he’s being pushed to the moon.
Vince McMahon has legitimately handed total control of one of the shows over to Heyman, Cornette, or even Bischoff.
London and Kendrick are regularly defending the Tag Title belts in 20-minute matches where they are allowed to pull out all of the stops.
Stephanie has left her position as head of WWE “Creative” and is devoting herself full-time to raising her new child. In her absence, the E has hired a group of writers who understand and care about Professional Wrestling. They’ve fired all the divas, they are giving the wrestlers the chance to develop their characters and improvise their own promos, and they’ve cut way, way down on the goofy and offensive skits…
…or something else along those lines. Sure, it seems extremely unlikely… to say the least… but so did a Bret Hart or a Chris Benoit title run at one time.
Anyway, giving up on World Wrestling Entertainment is by no means the same thing as giving up on Professional Wrestling. I’ve got two hours on Monday now that I’m not doing anything with.
Here’s the highlight of what I watched instead:
World of Sport Wrestling (UK): Robbie Brookside vs. Johnny Saint (June 13, 1987): World of Sport was the classic British TV wrestling program that used to feature the morbidly obese yet phenomenally popular likes of Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy. Brookside would go on to form a successful tag team with Steven Regal, and beat Chris Jericho at the 1997 Super J Tournament. To the best of my knowledge he is still wrestling. Here, we can see him as a skinny lad just out of his teens fighting his second televised wrestling match. His opponent, the perennial World Lightweight Champion Johnny Saint, was trained by the legendary Billy Robinson and was heading towards his third decade in the ring at this point.
World of Sport style is, for want of a better word, gentlemanly. This match is broken up into three-minute rounds. Brookside and Saint tie up, grapple entertainingly, and break their holds cleanly without needing the referee to tell them to do so. All of this is narrated by the well-spoken, dulcet-toned Ken Walton, who calls the match with the kind of class and grace that one might expect from a Wimbledon tennis commentator. What makes this match truly special, though, is the simple fact that Johnny Saint has the single oddest wrestling style of anyone I’ve ever seen… and I’ve seen Kiku-taro.
It’s very hard to describe, but what it comes down to is that Saint apparently tries to play mind games with his opponents when they’ve got him tied up, or before he slaps on a hold himself. He’ll do things like ripping off half a dozen deep squats, or thrusting his arms out rhythmically at odd angles, before reversing a hammerlock. It works, in its way, as I found myself wondering ‘What is he going to do now?” every few minutes throughout this match.
I don’t know if I’d want a steady diet of Johnny Saint matches, but I do want to see some more of him in action. Brookside, too. This was extremely entertaining, and the tasteful style of World of Sport definitely makes a refreshing change from the obnoxious WWE.
The patron Saint of bizarre wrestling
NEXT WEEK
I’m going to watch some NOAH and some U-Style instead of RAW, and I’ll probably write about one or the other.
FOR OTHER ALTERNATIVES TO WWE
If you haven’t already, check out our year-end puroresu and lucha libre awards.
While you’re at it, take a look at Phil’s latest Reality. I may not agree with his opinions, but he presents them really well, and Black Tiger Mike Campbell makes a guest appearance, too!
Or how about some US Indies? Would you like some PWG? ROH? TNA X-Division? Whatever you’re into, IP has got you covered!
THANKS FOR READING!
