Chris Benoit
Chris Benoit wasn't my favorite professional wrestler, but anyone who knew anything about the sport knew he was absolutely awesome. Most hardcore wrestling dorks consider him to have been the best wrestler in the world, some would even say of all time. Plus, in every interview ever done by him "out-of-character," he seemed like a good guy.
There is absolutely nothing anymore that can shock me with professional wrestling. The Benoit murders didn't faze me in the least. The "wrestlers who die young" list is so fucking insane, and the amount of wrestlers whom appear outright insane is nearly as long. If I were to see a headline tomorrow that read "Hulk Hogan Joins Al-Qaeda," I would not even bat an eye.
The only industry more fucked up than professional wrestling is West African diamond milling. Anyone who watches pro wrestling on television can tell how brutal and demeaning it can be. But away from the cameras, there are hundreds of non-televised matches. The wrestlers are on the road constantly, getting beat up. There's only a handful of guys at any time who aren't completely replaceable with one of the thousands of indy wrestlers out there, so the only way to keep the income flowing is by constantly performing, the only way to constantly perform is to pop dozens of Vicadin or other painkillers at a time, and the only way to get the chance to perform is to look like a superhuman freak from years of steroid abuse.
This is all disgusting enough, but making it all revolting is the WWE's business structure. They're considered as independent contractors. The WWE doesn't give them health insurance. (But office workers in the company do.) Even though they have to travel all over the world for their job, they have to pay the travel costs out of their own pockets. There's no vacation time.
Even sadder, not too many of them have the strength to step away from the "fame" of being a pro wrestler. It's completely delusional -- they aren't actually famous, but to a few nerds (such as myself) and a bunch of socially retarded people, they're next to gods. These guys are broken down wrecks physically and emotionally.
It all makes me feel like I probably won't watch wrestling for a really long time, probably ever again.
There is absolutely nothing anymore that can shock me with professional wrestling. The Benoit murders didn't faze me in the least. The "wrestlers who die young" list is so fucking insane, and the amount of wrestlers whom appear outright insane is nearly as long. If I were to see a headline tomorrow that read "Hulk Hogan Joins Al-Qaeda," I would not even bat an eye.
The only industry more fucked up than professional wrestling is West African diamond milling. Anyone who watches pro wrestling on television can tell how brutal and demeaning it can be. But away from the cameras, there are hundreds of non-televised matches. The wrestlers are on the road constantly, getting beat up. There's only a handful of guys at any time who aren't completely replaceable with one of the thousands of indy wrestlers out there, so the only way to keep the income flowing is by constantly performing, the only way to constantly perform is to pop dozens of Vicadin or other painkillers at a time, and the only way to get the chance to perform is to look like a superhuman freak from years of steroid abuse.
This is all disgusting enough, but making it all revolting is the WWE's business structure. They're considered as independent contractors. The WWE doesn't give them health insurance. (But office workers in the company do.) Even though they have to travel all over the world for their job, they have to pay the travel costs out of their own pockets. There's no vacation time.
Even sadder, not too many of them have the strength to step away from the "fame" of being a pro wrestler. It's completely delusional -- they aren't actually famous, but to a few nerds (such as myself) and a bunch of socially retarded people, they're next to gods. These guys are broken down wrecks physically and emotionally.
It all makes me feel like I probably won't watch wrestling for a really long time, probably ever again.
posted by Gregg G. at 7:26 AM
1 Comments:
"The only industry more fucked up than professional wrestling is West African diamond milling." Brilliant.
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