Today’s Episode: Requiem
A number of wrestlers were released by WWE last week. This isn’t so uncommon an act, and one that should be expected in the horrific economic times that we are living through today. WWE, in fact, recently announced that it was cutting 10% of its workforce, showing that even in an environment hungry for escapism, the entertainment industry still isn’t safe.
Thanks for giving us false hope, 1936.
Anway, it stinks that D’lo Brown is out of a job again, but he wasn’t pushed with any real regularity, nor did he pop up a crowd that hardly remembered who he was anymore, and was, thus, expendable. Same with a few of the refs let go as well. While it’s terrible that these men are unemployed, there’s no real zebra shortage in the company. The company will survive essentially unchanged in that respect.
To tell you the truth, the requiem I’m writing is for one of the longest-employed men in the company who, despite being entertaining in the ring and on the mic, has been drifting aimlessly in the background for years.
I will honestly miss Val Venis.
Sure, his last name was spelled nearly identically to male genitalia. Sure, he was supposed to be a former male porn star who decided to try his physical stamina in the ring instead of in the bedroom, and it’s a bit silly that we were supposed to swallow all of that today, when the big deal is second and third-generation superstars, quasi-realistic characters, and utilizing real-life occurrences such as the economic crisis to create viable storylines. I understand the reasoning why he hasn’t been pushed; the only cartoon character left is the Undertaker, and it’s likely to stay that way. Even MVP and Kane have been somewhat humanized, and Kizarny is in trouble after one match; frankly, I imagine his nutball character isn’t helping him any.
Still, Venis aka Sean Morley was a good performer, and was awesome on the mic when given the chance to be serious. I remember the lead-up to his match with Mick Foley, and how comfortable and strong he was giving a heel interview. Even though the words escape me, I’ll never forget that image of Venis as a serious contender, dropping the silly and sophomoric porn star image to become someone who was a viable contender, a serious man who could utilize a sleazier side of his character if the occasion called for it.
Naturally, there were other gimmicks, such as his time as “Chief Morley,” an authority figure on Raw working for, I believe, Bischoff, as well as being converted into the Right To Censor, the parody of the Parent’s Television Council that took four otherwise wasted wrestlers and actually turned them into a major force that was heels to everyone, no matter the level of morality of the other superstars. Really, that’s something that was unique to the RTC: they were such a different breed of heel, even other heels found them reprehensible. Morley was their best wrestler, and strongest soldier, especially when you consider that their roster was made up of The Godfather, Bull Buchanan, and the cult-leader Steven Richards. Still, Morley was their man, and he could always be counted on for a solid show.
His ring work was actually something that grew on me slowly, as I began to understand the intricacies of what makes good wrestling matches. His style was not terribly flashy, with clean but typical brawling and occasional technical moves, but he was always solid, and in the right situations could be great. Appropriately enough, I remember a match from Summerslam ’98 between Venis and D’lo Brown, when Brown was still wearing his special chest protector in all of his matches. While it ended in a DQ for Val when he tried to utilize said chest protector against D’lo, it was a match that always entertained me, and I must have watched Summerslam ’98 over ten times. It didn’t hurt that the show also included a fantastic ladder match between HHH and The Rock, either.
So, I’ll be sad to see Val go. He deserved a lot better than to be jobbed out for years and years, only to unceremoniously be dumped at the first sign of major financial trouble. I would have happily sacrificed a useless lump like Ricky Ortiz or the still untrainable Boogeyman for poor Sean Morley to get some screen time. Thus, while I understand the cut, it is a sad sight to see this underutilized wrestler from my childhood abandoned like an old toy.
If I were Bob Holly or Funaki, I’d avoid the phone like the plague for the next few weeks.
