Ok... Perhaps the opening of this thread is a tad dramatic, but what the Hell, we're all talking from a wrestling perspective, aren't we?
Part of this may seem like a bit of a bitch-fest, and if you feel that way, you're entitled to your opinion. I'll make one thing clear right here and now: I, personally, consider myself a fan of WWE, WWF, WWWF, and all other permutations of the wrestling promotion we now refer to as "The WWE". I do, in fact, acknowledge that, aside from the NWA, the WWE is the most historically relevant wrestling promotion in America. Now then, I feel that's very important to conclude, as I wouldn't dare say Vince's WWE was any more important than All Japan, or perhaps even for that matter, Stampede Wrestling. However, I do accept that the WWE is, indeed, a historically relevant promotion, and that it is, currently, the most important wrestling promotion in the world. That much, I can grant any fan of the WWE's programming. This isn't so much an attack on the WWE, so much as it is on Vince McMahon. I suppose that I should acknowledge that I'm personally not a huge fan of Vince McMahon himself. While I credit him for how far he has taken professional wrestling, there's still something about him that specifically irks me, and this is it.
To be frank, this topic is going to deal with the simple fact that any wrestling fan accepts: Unless you're Vince McMahon's creation, you mean absolutely nothing to the professional wrestling business, in Vince's eyes. Now, the argument here is simple: I understand exactly why Vince McMahon does such a thing; because he's a greedy, ungrateful bastard for those that paved the way for those before him. I'd be naive to argue that I don't understand why does Vince does it. Rather, the argument to be made here is that it's completely wrong of the man to do.
Let me explain where these feelings of resentment first began to arise. A little while back, these here WZ Forums decided to hold a Wrestlezone Olympics, in which wrestlers represented their respective countries, all in the attempt to decide country supremacy. Now, as has been told to us many times, these follow kayfabe rules, so I'm good for that. Anyway, as the nominations for team members began to arise, I made the decision I was going to nominate one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, John Tenta, onto Team Canada. Though I decided to do this, even I admitted it was probably a lost cause to even think to nominate the guy, mainly because of the many good wrestlers that can be found on Team Canada. Surely enough, the best wrestlers were selected, and there's little I could possibly argue in terms of Earthquake's snub. The guy was a good wrestler, but he was dealing in a situation way over his head, with wrestlers that will probably be very close to the top on the list of all time greats. Again, no true qualms to such a decision by wrestling fans.
Let's fast forward, if we may, to the selection of Team Japan. Now, if any team is going to match Team Canada for pure talent, it has to be Team Japan. Given the list of nominations, I'd be very hard pressed to say this wasn't the most talented list of wrestlers to represent Japan. When you have names such as Tiger Mask, Kensuke Sasaki, and Hase struggling to get into the double digits, you're dealing with an absolutely stacked roster. Sadly, even the late Giant Baba, a fine wrestler in his own right, one of the most influential men in wrestling, and the founder of All Japan, was struggling to find many votes.
Then, there was Yokozuna. I honestly find it very hard to say, by anyone's standards, that Yokozuna is even the fraction of the worker that any of these men are. I've said it before, but it is my true belief that this man was easily the worst champion in the history of the modern era of professional wrestling. Still, this man managed to squeeze himself onto the roster, much to the chagrin of legends such as Muta and Baba. And I couldn't help but think to myself, what could Yokozuna have that none of these men did? Couldn't be promo skills, the guy never cut a promo in his career. I'd laugh at the first poster to tell me had more ability than The Great Muta. So, again, what did this man have that none of the other candidates had?
In two words, name placement. The sad fact is, Yoko worked under Vince McMahon's company, and as stated earlier, Vince completely buries all talent that wasn't his creation. Even those that aren't even competing with Vince McMahon, such as promotions of the past, get this sort of treatment, mainly because Vince wants credit for all of the events that shaped professional wrestling. And I can hear the arguments coming from those that state "Vince doesn't have Japan's Library Tape". That would be a perfectly fine argument if;
1. All of these Japanese wrestlers had stayed confined to Japan. Baba has spent extended amounts of times in America, and is a former NWA Champion. I know specifically Antonio Inoki has a pinfall victory over Bob Backlund. However, this defeat is absolutely forgotten in history. Muta has plenty of matches in America. Vince has plenty of footage in his vault of these wrestlers, so I don't buy the excuse that he has none of their footage.
2. Vince still has a tendency to do this with American companies that are no longer competing with Vince. Names like Lout Thesz, Dory Funk Jr., and even to some extent Harley Race, are completely abandoned by Vince McMahon, in favor of his own creations. Harley Race should easily be in the discussion as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Still, because he's not Vince's creation, he takes a back seat to such men as Triple H and Shawn Michaels. Watch, pretty soon John Cena will surpass Harley in those discussions, if he hasn't already. So will Randy Orton. The point being, unless you were Vince's creation, you have no chance of your legacy being nearly as justified as possible.
And I, for one, am sick of it. If you choose not to acknowledge your present competition, Vince, I'm all for you. I don't see any reason why you have to accept AJ Styles as a formidible champion, and as an outstanding wrestler. I can even understand not accepting present champions in other countries as a justified practice, as Vince seems Hell Bent on making his promotion the dominant promotion of the entire world (good luck when you try to overtake Japan, Vince. John Cena's going to go over ther as well as a fart in church.) But what purpose does it serve to bury the names of the past, and refuse to give them the recognition they're due? Antonio Inoki is no longer battling you, Vince, nor was he ever particularly battling Vince, anyway... Would it kill you to acknowledge his presence, if not for the fact that he's one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
Again, perfect example of such a thing: In Mick Foley's Hardcore Diaries, Mick details the angle of him and Edge facing Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer. For months, Mick pushed, almost pleaded Vince, to build Terry up as the legend he should be built up as. Foley implored for Vince to acknowledge Terry's work, and the entire run of his career. Sure, Mick wanted Vince to also include how hardcore Terry is, but that rarely even begins to scratch the greatness of what Terry Funk is. Terry Funk is fantastic for plenty of reasons, but his hardcore matches aren't even an iota of the talent the man had in his heyday. Still, because Vince refuses to accept Terry as anything he didn't create him to be, we wound up getting an image of Terry Funk as merely the psychotic old man that doesn't know when to hang it up. Now, that will forever be Funk's lasting legacy. No one will remember Funk for his classics with The Sheik, or Harley Race. People won't even know of his fantastic work with Ric Flair. His "I Quit" match with Ric Flair alone should stand as a testament to him being perhaps one of the greatest wrestler's of all time. Instead, however, Vince wanted to give us the image of the Funker he built; a raving lunatic that doesn't know when to retire. Again, Funk's legacy is short changed. All so Vince's placement of dictator as the sport can rest comfortably.
Look, it shouldn't be hard to see where I stand in this argument... Vince is a bitter, petty man, who has absolutely no respect for his audience, or those that came before him. He's an arrogant prick, and for every bit the shrewd businessman he is, he's every bit the egomaniac that his character on Television is. The question, however, is simple; does Vince owe it to the fans, and to the history of wrestling, the recognize the past works of all these workers that have come before him?
Part of this may seem like a bit of a bitch-fest, and if you feel that way, you're entitled to your opinion. I'll make one thing clear right here and now: I, personally, consider myself a fan of WWE, WWF, WWWF, and all other permutations of the wrestling promotion we now refer to as "The WWE". I do, in fact, acknowledge that, aside from the NWA, the WWE is the most historically relevant wrestling promotion in America. Now then, I feel that's very important to conclude, as I wouldn't dare say Vince's WWE was any more important than All Japan, or perhaps even for that matter, Stampede Wrestling. However, I do accept that the WWE is, indeed, a historically relevant promotion, and that it is, currently, the most important wrestling promotion in the world. That much, I can grant any fan of the WWE's programming. This isn't so much an attack on the WWE, so much as it is on Vince McMahon. I suppose that I should acknowledge that I'm personally not a huge fan of Vince McMahon himself. While I credit him for how far he has taken professional wrestling, there's still something about him that specifically irks me, and this is it.
To be frank, this topic is going to deal with the simple fact that any wrestling fan accepts: Unless you're Vince McMahon's creation, you mean absolutely nothing to the professional wrestling business, in Vince's eyes. Now, the argument here is simple: I understand exactly why Vince McMahon does such a thing; because he's a greedy, ungrateful bastard for those that paved the way for those before him. I'd be naive to argue that I don't understand why does Vince does it. Rather, the argument to be made here is that it's completely wrong of the man to do.
Let me explain where these feelings of resentment first began to arise. A little while back, these here WZ Forums decided to hold a Wrestlezone Olympics, in which wrestlers represented their respective countries, all in the attempt to decide country supremacy. Now, as has been told to us many times, these follow kayfabe rules, so I'm good for that. Anyway, as the nominations for team members began to arise, I made the decision I was going to nominate one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, John Tenta, onto Team Canada. Though I decided to do this, even I admitted it was probably a lost cause to even think to nominate the guy, mainly because of the many good wrestlers that can be found on Team Canada. Surely enough, the best wrestlers were selected, and there's little I could possibly argue in terms of Earthquake's snub. The guy was a good wrestler, but he was dealing in a situation way over his head, with wrestlers that will probably be very close to the top on the list of all time greats. Again, no true qualms to such a decision by wrestling fans.
Let's fast forward, if we may, to the selection of Team Japan. Now, if any team is going to match Team Canada for pure talent, it has to be Team Japan. Given the list of nominations, I'd be very hard pressed to say this wasn't the most talented list of wrestlers to represent Japan. When you have names such as Tiger Mask, Kensuke Sasaki, and Hase struggling to get into the double digits, you're dealing with an absolutely stacked roster. Sadly, even the late Giant Baba, a fine wrestler in his own right, one of the most influential men in wrestling, and the founder of All Japan, was struggling to find many votes.
Then, there was Yokozuna. I honestly find it very hard to say, by anyone's standards, that Yokozuna is even the fraction of the worker that any of these men are. I've said it before, but it is my true belief that this man was easily the worst champion in the history of the modern era of professional wrestling. Still, this man managed to squeeze himself onto the roster, much to the chagrin of legends such as Muta and Baba. And I couldn't help but think to myself, what could Yokozuna have that none of these men did? Couldn't be promo skills, the guy never cut a promo in his career. I'd laugh at the first poster to tell me had more ability than The Great Muta. So, again, what did this man have that none of the other candidates had?
In two words, name placement. The sad fact is, Yoko worked under Vince McMahon's company, and as stated earlier, Vince completely buries all talent that wasn't his creation. Even those that aren't even competing with Vince McMahon, such as promotions of the past, get this sort of treatment, mainly because Vince wants credit for all of the events that shaped professional wrestling. And I can hear the arguments coming from those that state "Vince doesn't have Japan's Library Tape". That would be a perfectly fine argument if;
1. All of these Japanese wrestlers had stayed confined to Japan. Baba has spent extended amounts of times in America, and is a former NWA Champion. I know specifically Antonio Inoki has a pinfall victory over Bob Backlund. However, this defeat is absolutely forgotten in history. Muta has plenty of matches in America. Vince has plenty of footage in his vault of these wrestlers, so I don't buy the excuse that he has none of their footage.
2. Vince still has a tendency to do this with American companies that are no longer competing with Vince. Names like Lout Thesz, Dory Funk Jr., and even to some extent Harley Race, are completely abandoned by Vince McMahon, in favor of his own creations. Harley Race should easily be in the discussion as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Still, because he's not Vince's creation, he takes a back seat to such men as Triple H and Shawn Michaels. Watch, pretty soon John Cena will surpass Harley in those discussions, if he hasn't already. So will Randy Orton. The point being, unless you were Vince's creation, you have no chance of your legacy being nearly as justified as possible.
And I, for one, am sick of it. If you choose not to acknowledge your present competition, Vince, I'm all for you. I don't see any reason why you have to accept AJ Styles as a formidible champion, and as an outstanding wrestler. I can even understand not accepting present champions in other countries as a justified practice, as Vince seems Hell Bent on making his promotion the dominant promotion of the entire world (good luck when you try to overtake Japan, Vince. John Cena's going to go over ther as well as a fart in church.) But what purpose does it serve to bury the names of the past, and refuse to give them the recognition they're due? Antonio Inoki is no longer battling you, Vince, nor was he ever particularly battling Vince, anyway... Would it kill you to acknowledge his presence, if not for the fact that he's one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
Again, perfect example of such a thing: In Mick Foley's Hardcore Diaries, Mick details the angle of him and Edge facing Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer. For months, Mick pushed, almost pleaded Vince, to build Terry up as the legend he should be built up as. Foley implored for Vince to acknowledge Terry's work, and the entire run of his career. Sure, Mick wanted Vince to also include how hardcore Terry is, but that rarely even begins to scratch the greatness of what Terry Funk is. Terry Funk is fantastic for plenty of reasons, but his hardcore matches aren't even an iota of the talent the man had in his heyday. Still, because Vince refuses to accept Terry as anything he didn't create him to be, we wound up getting an image of Terry Funk as merely the psychotic old man that doesn't know when to hang it up. Now, that will forever be Funk's lasting legacy. No one will remember Funk for his classics with The Sheik, or Harley Race. People won't even know of his fantastic work with Ric Flair. His "I Quit" match with Ric Flair alone should stand as a testament to him being perhaps one of the greatest wrestler's of all time. Instead, however, Vince wanted to give us the image of the Funker he built; a raving lunatic that doesn't know when to retire. Again, Funk's legacy is short changed. All so Vince's placement of dictator as the sport can rest comfortably.
Look, it shouldn't be hard to see where I stand in this argument... Vince is a bitter, petty man, who has absolutely no respect for his audience, or those that came before him. He's an arrogant prick, and for every bit the shrewd businessman he is, he's every bit the egomaniac that his character on Television is. The question, however, is simple; does Vince owe it to the fans, and to the history of wrestling, the recognize the past works of all these workers that have come before him?
