Chances are, this is the only pro wrestling and/or mma post I'll ever put up

Jul 10, 2009 12:13

And because it's something of a niche interest, it's handily placed behind a cut.

And I was more than a little surprised about how incredibly vehement my reaction to both the event in general and Lesnar/Mir II in particular was.  He was very positive about the whole thing, loving the build up, the contrast between what he sees as Mir's quiet arrogance and Lesnar's intensity.  Which is fine, but it's not for me, fundamentally because of the raft of problems I have with Lesnar.  In order:

1  He's been elevated past numerous guys who deserve the shot much, much more than he does and he's been elevated for exactly the same reason he was in the WWE; he's big and looks intimidating.  It's not so much an insult to the sport as it is a sad and open indictment of the fact that for all the chest beating, 'we're real' bullshit, mma is run exactly the same way as pro wrestling.  If you're bigger than you should be, you'll get further, faster than guys who aren't.

2.  As a result, he embodies the worst excesses of the machismo and chest beating nonsense that's slowly choking the sport.  Lesnar is BIG!  He's DANGEROUS!  Look at how BIG! and DANGEROUS! he is!  And don't for a second think about the fact that this is a man whose MMA career is four fights old.  Never mind the quality, never mind the longevity, feel the width.  Look at the BIG!  Look at the DANGEROUS!

3.  This led in turn to one of the most offensive build ups to a fight I've ever seen.  Frank Mir was staked out as a sacrifical goat for Lesnar, a man who was simply a stepping stone on the way to an early championship.  It didn't matter that Mir had literally rebuilt his career after a serious motorcycle accident, it didn't matter that he was a veteran whose return to the Octagon was straight out of the sort of sports movie that usually gets criticised for being schmaltzy, that he had faced down and recovered from an injury that would have ended a lot of careers.  Mir was set up to lose and every single promo leading up to the fight drove that home.  It was only when Mir won that the script was changed and even now, he's seen as the outsider.  Lesnar is the champion who is 'learning on the job', Mir is the arrogant outsider wanting to take it away from him.  Somehow, a multi-year UFC veteran (And yet, strangely, not one incessantly introduced as a future UFC hall of famer.  Perhaps he needs to quote the bible constantly like Matt Hughes) is the bad guy.  Clearly he's not BIG! and DANGEROUS! enough.

4.  Lesnar's victory over Coutoure has an ideological element to it that's incredibly troubling.  Coutoure was, and is, rightly regarded as one of the greatest fighters in history, a man who is quiet, focussed, dedicated, courteous.  He didn't earn the nickname Captain America for nothing and to have someone who managed the near impossible task of being paid to hurt people professionally and still be a good role model beaten by a man who trades off arrogance and gives every impression of relishing his work leaves a very bad aftertaste

5. I'm a big guy.  I'm 6'1 and I'm built like a door and this leads to certain expectations being place on you.  I am expected, on some level, to be a jock, to be a meathead.  This was driven home at school when I was drafted into the school and later Island Rugby Team because if you're built this size, it doesn't matter what you want, it's what you do.  Because you're a jock.  Because you're a meathead. 
   I've spent my entire life rebelling against my size.  I'm smart, I'm well read, I'm softly spoken, I barely drink, I'm an academic and as a result, at school, at least two people thought I was gay.  Because God forbid someone this size shouldn't be a red meat eating, hard drinking, hard fighting bad ass, right?  Brock Lesnar embodies everything I was expected to be, everything that I am supposed to admire from his physical size to his ambition, his, until recently, lack of humility and his aggression.  He is everything I am expected to be and NOTHING I want any part of.

Of course, the truth of the matter is none of this is remotely important.  Lesnar is money, plain and simple and as long as he draws, as long as he knows how to build a fight, he'll stay in the spotlight, stay part of the machine.  But the machine is the real problem.  The last few years have seen, in short order, Eddie Guerrero die, Chris Benoit kill his family and then himself and a seemingly endless legion of old wrestlers who should know better making their way back to the ring and a wide array of old storylines either being brushed off or, at present, the WWE changing things week by week in an attempt to get ahead of the internet.  The talent doesn't matter, the talent's health doesn't matter.  What matters is you produce the show and move onto the next one, what matters is you stay on top and you sacrifice your health, or your principles, or your family to do it because at the end of it you can look forward at best to a reduced schedule and a healthy paycheck and, at worst, playing tiny shows and trading off past glories. 
   The same friend finds the behind the scenes politics at least as entertaining and, to be fair, there is something strangely charming about how open Dana White is about his spectacular lack of maturity and tact.  But cutting through that, increasingly, is the knowledge that two of my favourite wrestlers are dead and that a further two have returned to the company who spectacularly failed to use them properly and will serve out the rest of their careers there.  The fifth is working as an actor and clear of the business whilst the sixth is still working but appears to be bucking the trend and is actually protecting himself and working within his limits, despite his age and the injuries he's carrying.  I'm pleased for their success but at the same time, I've seen too many shoes drop in the last few years and, crucially, seen MMA lose the moral high ground following the 'Rampage' Jackson incident and Mark Coleman's spectacularly ill advised return to competition.  Both professions have consequences, neither are taking that into account and everyone at that level, even Lesnar, is simply more meat for the grinder.  So, by and large, I'm done.

mma, pro wrestling

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