The Moss-Covered, Three-Handled Family Gredunza

The moss covered, three-handled family gredunza is the third of Chris Jericho’s 1004 moves, preceeded by an armdrag and armbar, and to be followed by an armbar and the Saskatchewan spinning nerve hold. It is a reference to the Cat in the Hat’s TV special.

Links

The Kaiser Cheifs interview with SMS headlines Broken Dial as primetime stuff. They’re getting big over there.

Greg Wind breaks down emusic, free music, subscription music, and the mess we’re all in because of it.

Keith reviews ROH’s 100th show.

“Black Machismo” Jay Lethal and revisiting the idea of the gimmick

A lot of wrestling fans, myself included, have a pretty potent love/hate thing going on with Kevin Nash. On one hand, he’s probably the most casual character to ever have graced the screen, and his presence is a priceless addition to the gaggle of aggressive characters that are seemingly angry all the time. On the other hand, he has a worldwide reputation as one of the laziest athletes alive. Currently, he’s the de facto ringleader of the X division in TNA, a place that usually focuses on wrestling acumen but as of late has found itself privy to comedy and gimmickry. This has a lot of pure wrestling fans crying foul, because the X division seemed to represent a mainstream outlet for quality wrestling sans shenanigans. But Kevin Nash, along with the X division and the TNA writing staff, know something that a lot of people don’t want to admit: pro wrestling without the shenanigans is just two men in underwear, hugging.

Nash has focused his attention, mostly, to three wrestlers; Alex Shelley, Sonjay Dutt, and Jay Lethal. Shelley spent most of last summer and fall being Nash’s buddy, giving Nash a reason to appear in the backstage “homemade” videos of the Paparazzi production crew as opposed to showing up in the ring. Through this, Shelley’s dark sense of humour began to shine (Nash: “Where is this, I’ve never seen a two-sided ring before.” Shelley: “You’re damn right you haven’t, because this is Madagascar!”) and since then, he’s enjoyed cool heel status, which is probably the best place to be character-wise for him.

Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal got Nash’s attention during the PCS challenge series of vignettes from last December. These six one-minute videos showed more character and comedy than just about any storyline from the past year. Specifically, it was Nash spearheading inane comments towards Lethal and Dutt that sparked the best moments (Lethal: “Why do I have to go first?” Nash: “Because you’re Black.”). Nash’s constant berating of Dutt for being on steroids (in case you’ve never seen him, Sonjay Dutt looks like he weighs about a buck and a half). Here’s one of the vignettes:

After the PCS challenge was finished, the backstage altercations between X division wrestlers and Kevin Nash sauntered on, eventually leading to a skit where Jay Lethal performed his Randy Savage impersonation, which was damn near perfect. Kevin Nash has since manipulated Lethal into adopting the Macho Man gimmick, tassels and paranoia and all. The only difference? As Kevin Nash said, “I don’t remember Savage being black.” Hence, instead of being a “Macho Man,” Jay Lethal is now known as “Black Machismo.”

There are writers calling for the end of this gimmick, but there are just so many reasons why it should continue past the honeymoon period. In fact, the Macho Man gimmick—and more importantly, Lethal’s acquisition of it—has three things going for it that pro wrestling badly needs. First, the Macho Man gimmick was incredible, and there’s never been one like it since Savage retired. While there have been plenty of Hogan imitators, and while tons of wrestlers have stolen from Savage incrementally, nobody (perhaps save his spiritual heir Shawn Michaels) eschews so much empathy in a wrestling match. Lethal has yet to tap into this, and it’s likely he won’t, but Savage wasn’t famous because of his nutty interview style or his tassels or his signature moves (the only three things Lethal has adopted so far), but because he was the symbol of all men who fight and nearly lose for a universal just cause. Savage crawled and bit and scratched and cheated and decried his fans because of his love for Elizabeth. The lines between fiction and fact blur so many times along the line that it’s impossible to say when it became insanity, but in terms of his storylines, he never really stopped fighting for her. It’s nice, even though this comical homage, to be reminded of when a wrestling character believed in something and stuck with it for as long as he did.

Paradoxically, the second thing the Macho Man gimmick is useful for is humour. Nine times out of ten, when a tv show or movie makes a reference to wrestling, they make it by summoning the image of Randy Savage. The gonzo quiet-to-loud interviews, the crazy colour schemes of his tights, and the intensity in those crazy eyes of his stuck with people who watched wrestling in the 80’s and now produce and write for mainstream audiences. This is a fast chord to pull, and it works on everyone. I’m surprised it’s taken the wrestling business this long to figure it out. Finally, we have a wrestling character that evokes the stereotype of what normal people see wrestlers as, and it’s really, really funny. Nash gets it. Lethal, Dutt, and the rest of the X Division get it. Why doesn’t its hardcore audience? Wrestling is ridiculous by it’s very nature, and it’s very important not to forget that.

The last reason I’m going to mention is that of referential importance. It is incredibly important to have a past to steal from, for two reasons. Firstly, so you don’t make the same mistakes that were made before (if we could keep crowns and nWo contracts away from the poor boy, that would be fantastic), but secondly, so that your audience will appreciate the work you’ve put into your character. References are applauded when they’re used in writing for other media, so why not wrestling? Subtle use of quality references is why Kevin Nash has been such an entertaining character in TNA. He even summoned Bob Backlund from whatever backwater presidential race he was running (see? There’s one there) and did a great foreshadowing job by using the “Bob Backlund scoring system” and qualifying illegal objects as “Bob Backlund approved.” Using references in clever ways is a quick road out of idiot television, and wrestling has always lost its way on that road.

The whole thing works, however, because of Sonjay Dutt. Nash has sculpted Lethal into being a “character,” while Dutt is still just a “wrestler,” and is either jealous about it or regretting even agreeing to take part in the whole mess. Dutt makes a great foil to the whole thing, because while he’s not a serious wrestler by any stretch, he represents the group that like “real” wrestling and hate all this fake stuff, as if there’s really a difference between the two. Still, the foil here is important to showcase the conflict between the two schools of thought—wrestling is fake and athletic, and the incredible athleticism is what entertains the crowd, or, in Nash’s eye, wrestling is fake and silly, and advantage can be taken from that to make it entertaining. These two views aren’t necessarily in total conflict, but there are scores to settle here. I’m on Nash’s side, because, as he would say, “the proof is in the doll/pudding.”