Now on WWE 24-7 -- an exercise in hypocrisy
A few random thoughts as I click through "Wild Kingdom" month on WWE 24-7:
-- Ya gotta check out Wrestle War '90, if for no other reason than to see this red-headed guy on the Skyscrapers. He could really be something in this business.
-- That gimmick where the snake bites Randy Savage's arm is still one of the sickest things in the history of wrestling.
-- Yes, that is a young Owen Hart competing under a mask as the Blue Angel in that house show from 1988.
-- My favorite moment of the month is during the classic RAW, watching Vince crack up as Paul Bearer starts to tell the back story of Kane, realizing how ridiculous the whole thing is.
-- And finally I come to the Jake Roberts "Pick Your Poison" documentary. The fact that they made this thing was just staggering to me. For all WWE's talk about that ridiculous wellness policy, to offer this as part of the programming is downright ludicrous.
It's basically WWE making money off this horrible story of an addict with severe chemical and mental issues. And you've got all these guys who worked with him at the time talking about how they knew of his problems (even Vince!) and yet everyone looked the other way because he was a big attraction and was making the company money hand over fist.
Basically WWE's message seemed to be "guys can do whatever they want, but as soon as a few start dropping dead, we're gonna start paying attention to that stuff, but only because we don't want the bad P.R. And those who do survive, we'll make documentaries about their heroic survival. Yay -- more money for us either way!"
You can't have your cake and eat it too, WWE. Either you resolve to be drug-free and cleanse your locker room and programming of that element, or you don't. But making money off the story of one of the business' most notorious addicts just reeks of hypocrisy.
The other thing that I noticed about Jake's documentary was the way everyone buried "Beyond the Mat." Talk about trying to rewrite history. First off, Jake admitted that he had never even seen it. Second, and more importantly, WWE wants to control every single bit of information that comes out about their company, so discrediting a really well done documentary is just a part of that missive. And so everyone under contract to Vince follows the company line -- this is not at all uncommon -- and buries the movie that Jake HAS NEVER EVEN SEEN.
Perhaps if they had taken "Beyond the Mat" more seriously, at least a few of the dozens of wrestlers who have died might still be with us. But it wasn't produced by them, so why would they? WWE was too busy producing DVDs about guys who almost died but didn't. Or guys who did die, like Pillman. That's WAY different.
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Comments (8)
Funny story about the Savage/Roberts cobra angle. I was interviewing the Macho Man for a sports radio station in Dallas a few years ago, and I asked him about that incident. Obviously it was a devenomed cobra, but apparently the cobra died a few days after biting him :)
When money is involved all rules en regulations go out the window. THAT's what's wrong with modern society. WWE is just one of many, many companies who give in to this well known fact.
And the bad thing is we let them get away with it and so in my view the WWE encourages it's roster to do EVERYTHING to get over but get caught.
It's like the eighties wagain ith Jesse Venture on commentary: "It's only cheating when you're caught!"
Isn't that the way it always is, that nothing is done until it's politically right to do so? And one question, Seth. Was there any storylines that Vince kept trying to push that the creative staff had to continually say, "We can't do that" ?
I also saw a couple of those classic RAWs, but I was actually quite intrigued by that whole Undertaker/Bearer angle that was going on in spite of having a good idea about what was going to happen. Taker's promos made the situation so believable in spite of its over-the-topness. I guess this was what Vince Russo was aiming for with the Abyss angle in TNA, but it didn't have that same magic to it.
As far as the whole Jake Roberts thing goes, you've done an excellent job in bringing you former-employer to question. In light of Mike Knox's bust, it's really no secret that more changes are going to need to be made to keep the WWE roster clean.
Thanks for another great read Seth!
1) I agree with EVERYTHING in this post. Terrifically written, well said, and something more people should come out in the business and say. Major credit!
2) About the cobra, I am glad Jason brought that up about the cobra dying because for whatever reason nobody has ever brought up that snakes can NOT be devenomized. Not legally anyway. It's considered animal cruelty as snakes have to have their venom glands in order to subdue food in order to eat.
The only way to devenomize a snake is by removing it's venom glands (or Jacob's organs) via a rather brutal surgical procedure. The snakes then starve to death.
I was always under the impression they simply milked the snake before the angle in order to reduce the amount of venom, but if the snake died a few days later that tends to tell me that they went through with the venom removal, and thus broke a few laws in the process.
At any rate, Savage is a MAD MAN for doing that!
On a side note, the Barry Horowitz vs. Blue Angel match is a beautiful match for two (at the time) jobbers.
On a side note, the Barry Horowitz vs. Blue Angel match is a beautiful match for two (at the time) jobbers.
The Jake Roberts thing is fairly old, made at a time he was recovered as I recalled. And he continues to take them up on their offers of rehab.