How To Tell Your Loved Ones You're a Wrestling Fan

So, it's the holiday season. We will soon be spending time with our families, friends, and other loved ones.

And for many of us, we might try and have that conversation with the people closest to us. That despite our education and general ability to function in society, we like professional wrestling.

Sure, it's easier to avoid the discussion: some of us have spent the better part of our lives hiding behind Simpsons avi's or pretending to be a dead author on Twitter to hide our wrestling shame (hey, that's the name of this website!). But given that these are people we love, we might harbor a desire to tell others about this side of our lives.

I mean it's not like you have a website dedicated to.....oh, god. Oh god.

Anyway, I really wouldn't bring up your love of pro wrestling at the dinner table; instead, accuse your uncle that voted for Trump of ruining the country (because he did). BUT if you feel like you still want to tell people, then I've come up with a guide that will help you.

But you're warned.

These people might --- might --- listen to you. 

How to Tell Your Kids (8 and below): 
These are the easiest people to tell because your children will likely have a friend who wears a John Cena t-shirt to school. I mean wrestling, especially the WWE, is directed toward them, so you can appear to be the cool dad who is willing to wear a New Day unicorn horn on his head.

It is also easy to troll these kids. I suggest walking up to one as you're waiting to pick up your kid from school and yell "Roman Reigns can't talk to save his life!"

Also, take their WWE microphone at the playground and totally cut a promo at the kids. Don't do this to random people at the grocery store. My court date is January 14.

How to Tell  Your Kids (8 to 12): 
This is a trickier audience. Kids are now starting to become ashamed of you because "your jokes suck Dad" or "you're not a real doctor Dad - no one cares about 1930s theatre." (I'm preparing myself for this). Anyway, since I don't have a kid this age yet, I imagine what you should do is say their favorite tween-Disney Channel singer is the daughter of the Rock or something.

Teenagers may flee from you. 

How to Tell Your Teenagers:
Probably will be easy with boys because, as an educator, I can tell you boys are pretty much dumb until they are 42. Also, you can tell them about the Montreal Screwjob! As for girls, I have no idea. I presume they won't want to talk to you at this point. Actually, your sons probably won't either.

I don't like the look of any teenagers.

Maybe don't tell them if they have pick-axes. 

How to Tell Your Work Colleagues: 
This is a tricky group. Ask yourself this: do you like the people you work with? Also ask yourself this: am I close to being fired? In either case, you might want to lay off on the wrestling talk until you become the boss or earn tenure.

If you start to dislike your co-workers, try dropping some wrestling knowledge at random points in your conversations. Here's my suggested script:

Co-worker: Hey you, Monday's right?

You: Mondays were much more exciting during the WCW / WWF Monday Night Wars in the 1990s. In fact, WCW often would reveal the outcome of WWF shows during their....

*Co-worker leaves*

Or perhaps you're in a meeting that is bogged down and dull. Try just pontificating on how good the booking was for the Mega Powers alliance and break-up for a good 20 minutes. Watch their faces judge you.

Or perhaps buy a paperback copy of Ric Flair's autobiography for "Secret Santa." (I seriously came close to doing this last year. And I actually like my coworkers.)

Get used to this look.

How to Tell Your Baristas and Bartenders: 
Usually, these people are cool with it. Hey, you're now the interesting person who comes into the bar or coffeeshop and wears a CM Punk tshirt.

Yes, I consider these people loved ones. No, I don't have a caffeine addiction or a drinking problem.

*blankly stares at you for 30 minutes*

And then he started talking about kayfabe!!!

How to Tell Your Friends: 
Perhaps some of your friends - Hi Ron Felten! - are wrestling fans. Most will not be, but they are your friends and they will like you no matter what.

Just remember they are making fun of you behind your back.

AFTER ALL THEY'VE DONE FOR YOU!

How to Tell Your Parents:
Trust me: your parents know. And they are so, so, so ashamed of you. Well, you dad isn't because he likely still has strong opinions about Verne Gagne and the AWA. But your mom is so ashamed of you. How do you expect to find a girl that way, huh?

Mr. Whiskers is not impressed with your bullshit. 

How to Tell Your Pets:
Dogs will love you know matter what. You can even get your chocolate lab to wear a Hulkmania bandanna! ....*Googles Hulk Hogan*....Maybe that's not a good idea.

If you have a ferret, you probably have bigger problems.

If you have a pet snake and you're a wrestling fan and that snake isn't named Damien, then screw you.

Cats will not give a fuck either way because cats are the best.

Get used to this look as well. 

How to Tell Your Significant Other:
He or she very likely knows. You can't hide the fact you have the WWE Network on Roku. You can't hide the fact you borrow academic studies of Lucha Libre wrestling from the library. Just admire the fact that they are willing to tolerate your bullshit --- at least for the time being or until you try to decorate the tree with a Sabu figure holding a candy cane.

Remember the good times? You won't soon!

How to Tell a Person That You Want to Be Your Significant Other:
Eh, don't? Not sure. Listen, it will come out eventually, so maybe introduce it to this person slowly. Maybe do a Macho Man Randy Savage impression while biting a string-cheese? Or you could always send them a weird wrestling GIF (or GIF) on social media. Or if he or she doesn't understand that Hefty ad, you can explain "oh that's John Cena - he's a wrestler."

BUT DO NOT WEAR A WRESTLING T-SHIRT ON A DATE. I AM TALKING TO YOU RON, JESUS.

Now, there are people who date other people who are into wrestling. And that's great, but rare. Like Columbus Blue Jackets fan rare. Seriously, do they even exist?

Listen, you don't want this information to come out by accident. You will eventually have to tell this person the truth. My advice? Cook them a huge dinner with lots of carbs, plenty of wine, a couple slices of pie, and stuff that person till he or she doesn't know what is what. Then they won't care about anything you say because you've gone out of your way to demonstrate your love to that person.

Haha, kidding. They will immediately text their friends the news and you'll forever be known that group of friends as the "wrestling" guy or girl.

So, you've been warned. Admit your fandom at your own risk. But if you need comfort or support, follow us at @WrestlingShame, @@Rick_City, @JohnDosPassos2 or on Facebook at WrestlingShame.

Top V: Wrestling Documentaries For Fans (and Non-Fans)

Hello there readers.

Recently, a number of you have stopped by our little corner of the inter-webs, perhaps intrigued by our recent posts about politics. Like this one on potential WWE Hall of Famers in politics. Or this one on Linda McMahon. Well, we are glad you stopped by and we look forward to you coming back for our 5,000 word treatise on American-Asian trade policy.

But in the meantime, I want to take a break away from politics (well, sorta, as you'll see), and speak to those of you who may have been surprised to read such trenchant analysis of the Linda McMahon appointment on a wrestling website. Yes, you. Don't leave us just yet!

So, I have a couple questions for you: do you like movies? You do! Great! Hey, do you like documentaries? You do! Terrific!

Given that we write about shameful, shameful wrestling here, I thought it might not be a bad idea to give readers my Top V list of the best wrestling documentaries out there for fans of wrasslin' and for non-fans. It is my hope that you'll find these docs interesting and you can appreciate a little bit of our weird fascination with this performance art.

And if not, you can blame Rick.

5) CM Punk: Best in the World (2012)

I've recently gone on record advocating that we wrestling fans need to take a hard look at our support of the WWE. And I mean that. But it's also difficult to be a wrestling fan when the WWE holds a virtual monopoly on the industry, including the production of documentaries. Many of these - and in a future post I'll address the most egregious ones - become revisionist hatchet jobs that make Vince McMahon's company heroic.

There are a few exceptions to this, and in my mind the best one is CM Punk: Best in the World. What's unique about this documentary is not only how the company allowed footage from a rival company (Ring of Honor) to be inserted into the film, but also how honest they allow Punk to be here. He complains about his frustration with management, his booking status, and the work ethic of other wrestlers. Additionally, he's allowed to voice his own hostility toward his family (Punk did not have the greatest of upbringings and he does not shy away from that here).

For non-wrestling fans, I think this will be appealing because of not just Punk's story, but his humanity. He was arguably the most complex wrestling star of the last 20 years and that's on full display here. If one has the WWE Network, this documentary is still available (but I'm not sure if it's been edited as the WWE has a tendency to edit its material through that service).

4) I'm From Hollywood (1989)

There's been a long intersection of professional wrestling and other forms of entertainment - see my post here - but the best example of this is the Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman feud in Memphis wrestling during the early 1980s. I'm From Hollywood chronicles that story, and features a number of Kaufman's co-stars from various Hollywood projects including Tony Danza and Marilu Henner (among others), and is a fascinating look at one of the most surreal stories in wrestling and entertainment history. Perhaps the best aspect of these interviews is how the celebrities try and rationalize Kaufman's behavior -- and many of them struggle mightily to do so.

Even better is how the documentary incorporates archival footage from Memphis wrestling from the era and demonstrates how hated Kaufman by fans was in the territory (think Trump supporters, but madder). Perhaps even better than that is the dedication to kayfabe from the performers and interviewees, especially Jerry Lawler, in their interviews. There's a dedication to the performance and the "reality" of wrestling here that is just not seen in other documentaries. Everyone seems in on the act, and that's very interesting to see.

The documentary is available on YouTube in segments, but you can also find cheap DVD copies of the film easily online.

3) ESPN Docs on Scott Hall and the Von Erichs

The two shortest documentaries on here - and I know I'm cheating a bit by including them both - these two ESPN produced films illustrate the struggles and tragedies of Scott Hall, nee Razor Ramon during his first WWE run, and the Von Erich family who dominated WCCW wrestling in the 1970s and 1980s.

One of the constants of professional wrestling is that the wrestlers suffer a tremendous amount of damage to their bodies and souls for a variety of reasons. Injuries. Drug and alcohol abuse. Alienation. The two stories presented here show how these two figures (and their families) endured almost unbelievable anguish. Thankfully, both function as redemption stories for the men as they both seem at peace.

Both are streaming on YouTube and I've included links to them here.

2) Lipstick and Dynamite (2004)

For a long time, women's wrestling has been treated far less seriously than it should have been by - oh, I don't know - the WWE. A lot of that is because of the rampant misogyny of the Attitude Era and the company's belief that women wrestlers should be more about looks than skill.

But the history of women's professional wrestling is detailed quite well in this documentary about the pioneers of the art who made names for themselves after the Second World War.  Directed by Ruth Leitman, the film features interviews with The Fabulous Moolah, Mae Young, Gladys Gillem, and Ida Mae Martinez, and others. Like Beyond the Mat, this film illustrates how difficult life was for many of these wrestlers before, during, and after their lives in the ring. But the film also shows how many of the women harbor lingering animosity toward some of their colleagues, especially Moolah and Young for continuing to be involved with the WWE and its derogatory story-lines. 

I believe this is available streaming on Amazon Prime, if you're interested. And I recently discussed this film on an episode of the Random Tandem podcast.. 

1) Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (1998)

This was a hard number 1, but I went with Paul Jay's documentary over Beyond the Mat for a few reasons here. Primarily, I think this documentary serves as a fascinating historical document, illustrating the set-up to Hart's defection to WCW and the infamous Montreal Screw-job - which is arguably the biggest wrestling moment of the last 30 years.

As a wrestling fan, I used to  be lukewarm on Hart, but I've developed a much more positive view of his career - especially his "Anti-USA" persona around the time of his documentary. But I also see him as an antidote to the crassness of the soon-to-be Attitude Era which, as Rick noted in a recent piece, wasn't all that great per se.

I also think this would appeal to non-wrestling fans because it's such a fascinating story. People understand the falsity of wrestling, but the blurring of reality here makes for a compelling narrative. In addition, Hart is a compelling figure in this documentary: he's both steadfast in his beliefs, but perhaps also a bit naive about the larger picture.

Available on YouTube and a number of other places.

So that's it! My Top V of wrestling documentaries for non-fans and fans alike! Hate my list? Again, blame Rick.

Also, we are on both Facebook and Twitter, so follow / like us there. Or not. But do!

Other WWE Hall of Famers Who Could Be in US Goverment

Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States of America. I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I think that's the first time I've ever typed out that particular sentence and now I need to go cry for a bit.


Okay, I'm back.

Wait, what? Linda McMahon is going to lead the Small Business Administration?

I'm now waiting for Linda to rip off a mask after she's sworn in, revealing that she's actually Vince McMahon, complete with yelling "IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!"

Well.... this situation is basically a tragedy now.

Anyway, if you didn't know, Donald Trump is a member of the "Celebrity Wing" of the WWE Hall of Fame, because of course he is. That got me thinking. Trump is the first WWE Hall of Famer to become president, but he might not be the last.

So here is a list of other WWE HOFers who could possibly be president one day, or at least serve in the government in some capacity. I fully expect at least three of these people to be given cabinet positions by the time I hit publish on this post. Speaking of time between writing and time of posting, this piece started off as "funny" and just became depressing as I continued. In that respect, it's like Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Before I actually start, a couple of notes:
1) Someone must still be alive in order to make this list. As much as we all want the Ultimate Warrior to be president, sadly, that is no longer possible.
2) This isn't a serious list.
3) I wept for the future of our society four times while writing this.

The Bushwackers
Who says you can't have a team of presidents? It's 2016. Anything is possible. Sure, they weren't born in the US either, but we no longer have rules in our society, so who cares? I just want to see them lick another world leader's head. If they can't be president, Secretary of Agriculture makes sense, right?

Lita
Hillary Clinton won't be the nation's first woman president, but maybe Lita will. Is there a "Secretary of Moonsaults?" If there isn't yet, there will be soon. I feel bad for her because Trump will most likely "grab her by the thong."

Ric Flair
Wooooooooooooooooooo. That is all.

Rikishi
He's gotta be Secretary of Defense, right? The USA would have no more enemies and they'd take part in no more wars. No other nation would risk having Rikishi shove his ass in their collective faces and so everyone would just be polite and dignified. We're a few weeks from having "Give Them A Stink Face" be official government policy anyway, so Rikishi needs to be the one to enforce it.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan
He would, of course, be the Secretary of U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! The task of "Making America Great Again" would be given entirely to him. Hooooooooo!

Jerry Lawler
We haven't had any sex scandals in the White House in a while, and you have to figure that the Trump Administration needs at least one, so that's why Uncle Jerry is here.

Shawn Michaels
Someone in this administration has to be good at politics. No one is better at politics than Shawn Michaels. That is, except for....

Hulk Hogan
Sure, the WWE doesn't mention him very much anymore, but he's still in the Hall of Fame. Oh, of course, he's said horribly racist things in the past and is, by almost all accounts, a terrible person. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) those facts no longer disqualify someone from becoming president. And he would have to be president. Hulk Hogan doesn't get out of bed for anything other than the main event. He's not traveling to Washington to be a Secretary of anything.

The best part of Hogan being president is that he'd be the last president ever because he'd refuse to lose an election and use his creative control to hang onto that title long after he should have stepped aside.

Linda McMahon and How Everything Sucks

Courtesy NBC News (and I think we all feel like the woman on the right does)

On October 7, I published a piece on this website examining the relationship between Donald Trump, the confidence artist, and his relationship with the WWE.

On December 7, Donald Trump nominated Linda McMahon to head to Small Business Administration.

Obviously, a lot happened between that first post and this one. And lord knows Rick and I - and a lot of people - have had a hard time processing these events. Over the past few weeks, he and I have exchanged a number of tweets, messages, and emails expressing our bewilderment at the state of American politics. I've also had to console family members, friends, and students to a extent I could not have imagined.

Since election night, the absurdity of all of this has not subsided. Alt-Right Nazis feel emboldened to voice their perspectives; newspapers and other media outlets dedicate a lot of space to detailing readers how to spot erroneous news; and, in addition, Ben Carson was selected to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The McMahon nomination is insulting on a number of levels. In one sense, there's the aura of blatant cronyism with this news that is reflected by other Trump nominations: hell, as an educator, I'm not nearly as angry at the McMahon news as I am about Betsy Devos being named to lead the Department of Education. And in that vein, of course the McMahon family would be - possibly - represented in the Trump administration given their sizable contributions to his campaign and their business dealings that stretch back to the 1980s.

But as a wrestling fan, I find this news really disconcerting. For starters, what sense does it make - again from a logical standpoint, but apparently logic no longer has a place in the United States - to appoint someone who was involved (or at least partially involved) in following to head an administration dedicated to assisting small businesses:

The destruction of the territory system in pro wrestling: after taking over control of the WWF/ E, the McMahon family started an aggressive expansion of their corporation into regional territories, such as the Midwest and South, and raiding the talent of those territories. Perhaps the WWE's worst talent-raid was that of the American Wrestling Association, as the McMahon family lured figures like Hulk Hogan, Gene Okerlund, and Bobby Heenan away from the Minnesota-based company (the talent-raid was so aggressive that even the WWE-produced documentary on the AWA cannot shy away from acknowledging it).

To be clear, she helped to make the WWE a de facto monopoly in the professional wrestling world by helping to destroy smaller organizations. So I think her advice to a small business contractor in Peoria will be "steal all the employees from your rival across town then brag about doing so in DVDs 30 years after the fact."

The product's continual reliance on racism, homophobia, and misogyny:  This almost goes without saying, but the WWE - indeed, most pro wrestling - has relied on these aspects in their storytelling for decades. But as Rick notes in his piece here,What Was Good About the Attitude Era (and What Wasn't) , the WWE achieved the height of its popularity with over violence, stereotypes, and rampant sexism. 

But that has no connection to the Trump campaign. *cough*

The Anti-Union, Anti-Benefits Company: Look, unions are seemingly a bad word in American political and social discourses, but I think wrestlers are long overdue for union representation. Hell, Darren Aronofksy, director of The Wrestler, has spoken at length about wrestlers finding representation, even through SAG. Of course, no company has worked as hard to prevent this as the WWE. When Jesse Ventura tried to form a union in the 1980s, his movement failed in part due to threats of the McMahons toward wrestlers (also Hulk Hogan ratted on Ventura's plan because he's a real American).

In connection to that, the WWE is company that labels its employees independent contractors to not only avoid paying employment taxes, but also to deny wrestlers health insurance and other forms of compensation; indeed, as ex-wrestlers like CM Punk have claimed, it's not only not uncommon for wrestlers to foot their own medical bills, but also to be expected to return before getting any opportunity to properly heal. Oh, and to procure their own travel. And food. And spend an ungodly amount of time traveling.

Actually, we could probably add a second-section entitled abuse of wrestlers here. Oh, the steroids! Remember the steroid trial in the 1990s? The McMahons don't want you to!

And there's so much more I could detail: the company's aggressive use of tax-breaks for producing movies, the hypocrisy of sanitizing the product - again, not that as that was a bad thing - to coincide with her Senate campaign when she was incredibly active in a number of non-sanitized storylines, the hypocrisy of promoting anti-bullying messages when the McMahons are notorious bullies, etc,, etc,, etc,

But the larger issue here is that someone who rose to prominence off the literal sweat and blood of many workers who were not properly compensated is now (likely) going to be in a position to sway government policy for businesses. And frankly, she shouldn't be. Frankly, Donald Trump shouldn't be president either, but here we are.

In my Trump piece, I urged wrestling fans and Americans to not fall for the confidence game that Donald Trump was playing. In that piece's conclusion, I wrote this:

Yet the real confidence artist that appears to be Donald Trump reminds us that actual confidence schemes can be dangerous and destructive to both people and institutions. And he has left a track record of very real confidence schemes that have destroyed the finances and careers of many. And what wrestling fans - and voters - should remember is that there are times when you should consider the implications of our entertainment: wrestling fans should consider the real problems with the WWE and voters should not embrace the illusion of one con man.

Obviously, my appeal to voters and wrestling fans did not work. But it's important to remember that Linda McMahon has been involved in the destruction of many careers and businesses. The legacy of the McMahon family has not only been about dominating the professional wrestling world, but also helping to eliminate WCW, ECW, the AWA, and the WCCW, as well as abusing and defaming wrestlers who dared challenge their business practices.

But what I would ask wrestling fans to think about, especially if they are like Rick and I and lean toward the left and are frustrated by the results of the election, is to consider our own complicity in all of this. I don't mean that we actively campaigned for Trump or voted for him, but we have subscribed to the WWE Network, purchased DVDs, gone to live events, or purchased merchandise. To an extent, Linda McMahon's success was a by-product of our own involvement and in many cases our investment.

We obviously cannot go back and change the history of what we did spend on the WWE product, but we can start to consider how much we will be planning to spend in the future. For me, it has been clear for a long time that the brain-trust of the WWE holds values that are extremely different from mine. And for a long time, I was able to reconcile that fact by noting that most owners of the sports team I follow would not vote for the same candidates I would.

Yet now, one of those owners - along with the man that she and her company have been mythologizing for years - is in the position to do severe damage to not only wrestlers and rival companies, but the fabric of the American economy and society. And I think it's time for we wrestling fans to take a very long look in the mirror and ask ourselves if we want to support those figures any longer.

I feel it's time to give the WWE - and, by extension Linda McMahon - the boot.

House of Hardcore / Great Lakes Wrestling, Waukesha, WI

I was a teenager in the Philadelphia area during the mid-1990s, and, as such, I gravitated toward ECW. As someone who was tired of both WWF / E and WCW, I found ECW exciting and dangerous, and I would watch the show every Friday night (or was it Thursday?) at midnight on Sports Channel Philadelphia.

At some point, I'll write a piece about my relationship and recollections of "growing up ECW" (shit that's a good title), but for the time being, I think it's important to know that I have a complicated relationship with the company. On the one hand, it rekindled my love of pro wrestling and connected me to 1990s counter-culture; on the other, I cannot condone its violence or views toward women.

I mention this because on December 3, I attended Tommy Dreamer's House of Hardcore show in Waukesha, Wisconsin. As Rick can attest, I had concerns about this show: the Expo Center is not the most pleasant of accommodations, Waukesha is basically "Trump country" of this state, and Ryback was performing on the card. But more than that, I wasn't sure how I'd feel seeing a hard-core show live in 2016.

And I'm still not sure how I feel about the show, and, in some ways, wrestling in general.

To quote Dennis Lemieux from Slap Shot, "My allergy to those fucking fans has returned." And in contrast to my experiences with Mondo Lucha (and even the WWE Smackdown taping I attended in March), I had a really hard time dealing with the fans at this event. Again, this was a clear cross-section of Red State America, but there was also a heavy contingent of snarky twenty-somethings that were both "in on the joke," but also mocking the entire art of wrestling show. In fact, I eventually moved from one section because I grew frustrated with a group of people who were laughing way too hard at their "wow, how is that permitted in the rules" and "god, this might be fake guys!" jokes.

There were also a number of "snarky smarks" in the crowd. While there was a large number of kids - and one large group of 5th grade-aged youngsters who chanting "We want tables!" a few times - a lot of the crowd just chanted as you'd expect other fan bases to react. They chanted "you still got it" at Mickie James (fair enough), and the "this is awesome" chant directed at the match of the evening. But there were also a number of homophobic and overly-sexualized comments loudly uttered by fans. I'm not claiming that I wasn't expecting to hear such things, but I am asserting there's no place for them, even in Trump-World.

By the way, dear wrestling fans, stop chanting "this is awesome" at every show. Western society has already diminished the meaning of the word awesome enough --- getting your Starbucks order quickly is not "awesome," your cat is not "awesome," and a wrestling match - no matter how incredible it may be - is not "awesome." Ya know what's awesome? Jupiter. The distances in space. The universe.

*angrily throws on corduroy jacket, grades papers* 

As for the wrestling, well, let's just say there were some highlights and lowlights Matt Cross - who's quickly becoming one of my favorite current wrestlers - had an amazing match with Tony Nese that earned a standing ovation from the crowd; meanwhile, Colt Cabana was his comic best in a match with a Canadian wrestler. But the rest of the card suffered in comparison. Mr Anderson had a dullllllllllllllll, clunkkkkkkkkkkkky match that just sorta ended (did you know he's from Green Bay?). And then there Tommy Dreamer's tag team match with Mickie James that eventually featured run-ins from Hornswoggle and *sigh* Ryback.

Was this match interesting? Not really. For starters, I hate inter-gender matches. Besides that, I feel very conflicted about watching Dreamer still wrestle. On the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast, he outlined his litany of injures and concussions, and I get a bit uneasy seeing him take bumps. This is not to say I didn't enjoy seeing one of my favorite wrestlers from my teenage years in person. But it felt odd.

In addition, House of Hardcore bills itself as "free of politics," which is a statement that's patently absurd. Claiming that you or an organization is devoid of political thought or action is itself a political claim......

*fights impulse to go full-on English professor for the second time in this post*

There's also something odd about a show being called "House of Hardcore" when there wasn't - until the end of the evening - anything resembling "hardcore." To be fair, a lot of the violence of hard core wrestling doesn't make me comfortable (seriously, watch the Barbed-Wire match between Sabu and Terry Funk and note your honest reaction), so I think it's probably a good thing there's a dearth of hard-core components.

Edit: as a few followers on Twitter pointed out, Dreamer uses "hardcore" as a synonym for hard-work, but I still feel like evoking the term hard-core when so many fans interpret the words in other ways is misleading. 

I should also say by this point, I was getting tired from standing. General admission tickets didn't come with actual seats, so after 2.5 hours of standing on concrete, I was ready for a break. Also, my drink was really watered-down. Also, my soft pretzel sucked.

The other main event of the night was a steel-cage match between the stars of the Milwaukee television show, The Pro Wrestling Report with Al Snow and Abyss in their corners (Milwaukee is apparently one of, if not the, only market in the country with its own wrestling commentary show -- although it may be off the air at this point as I haven't seen it advertised in awhile). It was at this point that things started to get "hard-core" as Abyss dumped a bag of thumb-tacks onto the mat and then was joined in the ring by his pals to destroy Al Snow...

And then, the guitar rift of "Enter Sandman" filled the arena.

I have to admit as Sandman entered, I marked out a little. Despite whatever wrestling shortcomings he has, you have to admit the man can make an entrance. In fact, he bumped into me as he walked onto the railing of the main stairwell. I took the pic at the top of this page at the moment (and I think I took a nice pic actually) and then this one where he poured beer into a fan's mouth.

That's pretty great, admit it.

But again, the fans. During both Dreamer and Sandman's match, they began to chant "ECW! ECW!," but they were saying "DUB" instead of "W." To be honest, I never really heard the "DUB." Perhaps it's my East Coast-raised ear, but it always clearly sounded like a W to me. When did this shit start? I blame the WWE somehow.

To be fair, I always blame the WWE.

And then the Sandman caned a couple of guys and left. One of the other wrestlers won the match? I don't even remember.

I left the arena right after the end of the steel-cage match. There certainly were enjoyable moments of the evening, but on the whole, I can't say I enjoyed myself: the fans got on my nerves early and often, my stomach was bothering me, and the matches were uneven. But more importantly to me, this was a show that forced me to confront things about professional wrestling that I don't particularly care for, and I have to consider what that means for me as a fan moving forward.