Finally, El Generico Gets His Due

A Long Overdue Grab

So if you do not follow any independent pro wrestling fan on the internet, this will be the first time you’ve probably heard the big report that WWE has signed the one and only El Generico to a developmental contract. And just like any time that the big group up north makes a grab from the independents, it is met with a whole lot of positive and negative reactions from the fans.

Let me just start by giving you an idea of how I felt when I found this story out. Like I’ve mentioned before, the internet was my main way of following independent talent since I lived in Corpus Christi, a city with little to no indie wrestling. From watching his various works in companies like ROH, Chikara and many other top companies, El Generico became one of my favorites. And as I began to watch more, my view of him progressed from him being an ungodly hilarious comedy character into seeing him as an absolutely amazing professional wrestler. Living in Texas, I knew that there was a good chance I was never going to get to see him perform, and then while venturing the internet in December of 2011, I saw he was wrestling in Austin for a little promotion called Anarchy Championship Wrestling. Now, I am a devout “Fanarchist”, and because of following this company I’ve seen many other great talents I never thought it was possible that I could see. But going back to the show, when I walked into Mohawks, Generico was standing by the merch stand selling his 8x10s and t-shirts and I decided to stop by to buy his signature blue El Generico t-shirt (which I wear all the time now). Then Generico offered his hand for a handshake and I remember being so petrified that I awkwardly forgot to even reach my hand out. I’m usually never nervous when it comes to meeting wrestlers, but I remember the only thing going through my mind was, “Holy crap I am about to shake hands with El Generico”. This was the guy that constantly gave me a laugh and entertained me across my computer screen that I was finally getting to meet in person, and I pretty much went into shock.

That is the effect Generico has had on me, which is why I was so happy when I heard the news about his recent signing. Not too long ago, I watched the first round match from PWG’s Battle Of Los Angeles 2011 with Generico vs. Claudio Castagnoli, and that excites me in so many ways as far as the opportunities that come with bringing in a star like Generico. However, many people are talking about how they fear that WWE will repackage the character, making “El Generico” gone for good. I won’t go too long into this, because you can read the post I did about a week ago titled “A Great Wrestler Does Not The Indies Make”, but Generico will still be the great wrestler no matter what WWE gives him. I’ll ask this question. Are stars like Claudio Castagnoli, Chris Hero or Jon Moxley that much different from the way they are now in the WWE? Besides the definite name changes, these men have all gotten to keep the qualities and the styles which have made then so successful on the independents. There is no doubt they will be changing the name of El Generico for the whole “rights to ones name” issue, but I highly doubt that they will remove his mask or change his style in any major way. Sure, we won’t see a lot of him dropping people on their heads with a BRAINBUSTAH, but Generico is so much more than one move.

Also, I see Generico as an amazing money making opportunity for the WWE. Since bringing him in, WWE has tried to capitalize on their younger market by pushing someone like Sin Cara, expecting to see him get a large following, followed by a great deal of merchandise being bought, to the level that people did when Rey Mysterio was first brought in. So far, it hasn’t been as successful as they wish it could be, and I think the character of El Generico could be the perfect way for WWE to get to this goal. Generico is one of the few people that WWE could grab from the independents that target the “indie wrestling fan base” as well as young children, and they would be idiots if they didn’t run with it.

Overall, as an independent wrestling fan, I must be proud and hopeful that someone that I have known as good for so long is getting recognized and getting the opportunity for some major success. Yes, I will miss the fact that I could see him wrestle in a bar in downtown Austin for only $15. But, I am excited to know that I could pay $60 dollars to see him wrestle in an 18,000 person packed arena for the entire world to see. So Mr. Generico, I salute you and I cannot wait to see you tear it up inside a slightly larger squared circle, that way so many others can see what a lot of us thought about you for so long.

Until then,

The Wrestlefan

Why Am I A Wrestling Fan?

Hello people of the internet. You may know me as Eamon, that guy who 95% of his posts on Facebook and Twitter are wrestling related and you get irrationally angry about it. If that describes you… then go away. But if you follow me on the internet and don’t completely hate when I talk about people rolling around in tights and kneepads, welcome! This is the place where I will now post all of the things going on in my head in wordy paragraphs and I hope you enjoy it and have some fun. Because that is what it’s all about. I spend my Tuesday nights talking about this sport, or art, or this fake thing that’s super gay and is not as cool as MMA or whatever you believe, and I want to continue doing that and this is my vessel to do so. So lets tell some stories, share some memories and have a conversation about this multi-faceted thing that is pro wrestling.

I thought it would be good to start off by going over my journey to becoming a pro wrestling fan, something that has become a very important and long running descriptive quality of me.

I’m pretty sure a lot of fans are able to pinpoint the exact moment where they saw it for the first time and became enthralled with it. Getting to know a ton of people who became wrestling fans back in the late 80’s-early 90’s, they’ve mentioned to me that seeing guys like Hulk Hogan or Randy Savage for the WWF, or guys like Ric Flair or Sting for WCW sucked them into loving pro wrestling. In case you didn’t know, I did not grow up in that generation, and because of that I tend to get tons of crap, as young wrestling fans usually do. The reason I tend to not care too much about the downfall of the legacy of Hulk Hogan in TNA is because I never grew up as a “Hulkamaniac”. Hulk Hogan truly never mattered to me when I started watching because I was never able to understand how at his age he could still hold his own with the tough stars of the WWF/E at the time. As you could see, even at a young age I began to show my narcissistic personality at times, but let me explain the reasoning behind my immediate love for wrestling. I was flipping through channels in early August of 2002 and stumbled upon an episode of Raw in progress, where Triple H and Shawn Michaels were trying to figure out who attacked Michaels on a previous episode in the parking lot and slammed his head through a car window. I remember them showing the image of a bloody Shawn Michaels being put onto a gurney and sent to the hospital and, being barely 9 years old, thinking how gruesome it was. Then Triple H was in the ring to talk to Shawn Michaels via satellite to try to figure out who had done this to Shawn, when Shawn revealed that police officers gave him footage of the attack from one of the security cameras. After showing the grainy and unrecognizable footage, Shawn noted that due to the advancements in technology nowadays (which is immensely funny looking back at it in 2012), he was able to enhance the footage to reveal that his attacker, was none other than…wait for it… TRIPLE H! They then cut back to a stone-faced Shawn Michaels who says, “It was you, Hunter”, which Triple H rebuttals with a line that is engrained in my memory to this day, “You’re damn right it was me!”, said in his very own Triple H way.

My First Memory

Now if you listen to me today, I tend to give those two guys a lot of crap (mainly Triple H who even after losing an END OF AN ERA WAR with The Undertaker has been back and is still gonna be back to kick the diverticulitis out of Brock Lesnar, but that’s for another blog post), but that moment kept my young eyes glued to the television and captivated me in a way nothing else had before. There was drama, a line between good versus evil, gruesome imagery as I mentioned before and I became hooked. It’s funny to see how I’ve advanced from mostly only caring about the drama played out in the ring, but the thing that got me into wrestling were two guys talking to each other. However, they followed up with more drama and intrigue in an amazing street fight at Summerslam 2002, which I still believe is one of the best matches those two have had. Those images that were stuck in my head of a bloody Shawn Michaels in the parking lot, were followed by Triple H raising up his sledgehammer and striking down with vengeance across the back of Shawn like something out of Gladiator. But since that moment, I have never waned from the product or had a period where I stopped watching, whether people told me to or not.

My Inspiration

So that brings up the question of how my parents reacted to this newfound love of pro wrestling. Well, as it is the case most of the time, they reacted very differently. My father, the minute he saw that I was interested in it, jumped completely on board. While I was following the modern day guys that I was seeing on television every week, my dad was showing me videos of his favorites when he watched, guys like Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and The Von Erich’s. He shared stories with me about how when he was working as an orthopedic cast technician, he made the cast for Sting when he tore his patella tendon at Clash Of The Champions 10. He always promoted and encouraged my love for it, whether it was sitting with me every Monday night to watch Raw, taking me to any event that was in town, or just sitting down and discussing the current storylines and where we thought they were going. He was usually right and I was usually wrong. But because he spent his time doing those things, not only did it fuel my love for pro wrestling, but also it gave the two of us a connection we probably would not have had otherwise. My father passed away over 5 years ago from pancreatic cancer and I still feel that connection I felt with him while he was still with us, due to having wrestling in my life. I honestly feel that if I didn’t spend my time engrossed in following this crazy interest, I’d end up on a completely different, and probably not well-adjusted, path.

While my father encouraged my love for professional wrestling, my mother was not as positively receptive, as should be expected with most mothers. Funny enough, she actually took me to my first live wrestling event ever, which was a Smackdown house show in 2002. The reason she took me was because the company that she worked for was sponsoring the event and she was able to obtain free, floor seat tickets, which made me a happy, young child. If you ask her to this day, she will tell you how that was the first, and the last time she will go to a show with me. Since that day, I would have to go with either my father or our old next-door neighbors who had a daughter who’s favorite wrestlers were John Cena and Randy Orton because they were so damn oily and ripped… so you can tell whom I preferred. And I feel that the reason my mother disapproved of this interest of mine wasn’t even because of the violence that was involved with it. To my parents, I always tended to be considered the promising one. I always came home from school with good to great grades, focused a great deal on my schoolwork and would at times be very hard on myself for not achieving the best. And I think that my mom felt that if I focused my time on something that she did not understand the point of, I would be losing all of that. When I was younger I got upset with her over thinking that, but now I am able to understand it. My mother never went to college and was lucky enough and worked hard enough to gain a successful job where she was able to support her family, and she did not want her children to have to struggle the way she did to gain that success. Luckily, nowadays my mother is more approving of this thing that I am passionate about because she has seen how much it has done for me, especially the stuff I do every week with the Wrestling Mayhem Show. She has understood the joy it has given me, the great people I have met because of it and the fact that it keeps me very happy. Whether she supports it or not, I still love her to death, because your family is definitely much more important than the things you like, but involving myself in following, watching and studying pro wrestling has given me something to appreciate, and it makes me happy to know people who I hold so highly, approve of the things I hold so highly as well. Now as far as getting her to another wrestling show, that may take some more work.

Well that’s it. That’s a start to this fun project I plan to contribute to once or twice every week. There are still tons to talk about and discuss and I hope you will be there to discuss it with me. Feel free to leave a comment telling me what you think, and also you can always send me pro wrestling you think I should watch for a little column I like to call “What Wrestlefan Watched”, that I will be doing on this site.

Until then,

The Wrestlefan