Wednesday, December 23, 2015

The Airing Of Grievances

Do not chant "Show your tits" at Scott or any woman, you animals
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein
"I got a lot of problems with you people!" -- Frank Costanza

The date on the calendar reads December 23, so once again, the sacred and honorable holiday of Festivus is upon the world at large. As is tradition, I have some grievances that I would like to bring to light. Rather than do one longform rant about something in specific, I have a few things I want to touch upon, because I am a sad, cold, bitter old man who gets irritated way too easily nowadays. The time has arrived to air some grievances.

- I'm not sure how many of the gross lunkheads who chanted "SHOW YOUR TITS" at Veda Scott at Final Battle read this blog, but if you do, maybe rethink your priorities and learn how to talk to a woman. Just because you're a wrestling fan doesn't give you license to be gross at a female performer who so happens to be a heel. I was embarrassed to be a wrestling fan, a Ring of Honor fan, and a human being on December 18. The fact that most of the people who partook in that chant don't feel the same way makes me ill.

Some might attack this problem by saying to treat all women like one might treat their mothers, but that implies that a woman has to have some kind of blood relation in order to matter. Everyone deserves basic human respect. Boo Scott or any other female heel, but when you verbally sexually harass them, congratulations, you've affirmed that you're kinda scummy and that you give everyone else who likes wrestling a bad name. Thanks, jerk.

- NXT has been one of the best parts of a sneakily satisfying 2015 (sneakily because nearly everything that hasn't been WWE's main narrative has been solid at least), but even it hasn't been able to escape criticism. Not that it should remain faultless, because critique is the stone what sharpens the mind, but the most pervading one says that the fantastic output of the program needs to be graded on a curve, and thus is not as good as it appears, because the performers get to practice their matches at the Performance Center.

Obviously, something can be said of being able to perform off the cuff and improvise, but how does anyone have any knowledge that WWE or any other promotion is a one-take entity nowadays? The art has been populated with folks who have practiced until they made perfect. Randy Savage and Chris Jericho are two major, major examples. The function of house shows has always been two-fold. The first is to provide revenue and drive up business in disparate markets from the home base, but the second has undeniably been to work out all the kinks for the big monthly supercard at Madison Square Garden or the Omni or the Greensboro Coliseum or the Rose Garden or [insert big arena here]. Maybe if it was just noted that main roster WWE or New Japan Pro Wrestling or indie wrestlers don't have the practice time that the NXT wrestlers to, it might not be as bad, but then again, I'm not sure what functional difference that would make judging outputs.

I thought I had more than two grievances I felt comfortable airing, but c'est la vie. Anyway, enjoy the rest of your Festivus, and please don't strain yourself too hard during the Feats of Strength.