The Troublemaker
Wrestlers Ramblings.com wrestling news

Mr. Mal and I have taken many a trip together down memory lane, laughing hysterically at some of the lame/ridiculous gimmicks that the wrestling industry – mainly the WWE – has trotted out over the years.

Back in the 90’s, (the exact year escapes me) wrestling as a whole vanished from public television, leaving schmucks like me who lived in the sticks without access  to cable, on the outside looking in. Gimmicks like Knuckleball Schwartz and The Goon were off my radar. Other than the odd PPV, my life as a wrestling fan was over. Even Mr. Mal ceased bringing up the latest wrestling news aside from the occasional death notice from time to time. There was even period when our pal Mal had seen enough and swore off the mat game entirely, if only for a brief juncture. (Bloggers note – It was the Haku & Andre tag title reign that broke the camel’s back.)

As I’m sure the Evil One has said a few times on these pages, watching wrestling in the Mal Occhio household meant taping virtually every segment. Sounds a bit crazy, but I gotta admit those squash matches provided some of the funniest moments in wrestling history. Who could forget Bruno wondering out loud on the identity of The Giant Machine – “I think it might be The Giant Baba.� Priceless.

Anyway, my moment to question the logic of my fandom happened last night during the WWE’s  PPV, Cyber Sunday. Not overly impressed with the card’s content, I was flipping back and forth between this and the WWE’s History of the Heavyweight Championship. Neither show was that stimulating by the way. As I made my way back to the live action I was surprised to see Ric Flair and some old fat guy about to tangle with tag champs, the Spirit Squad. Squinting my eyes, I couldn’t quite make out the identity of this out of shape has been. At first I actually thought it was Jim Duggan. Alas, upon further review it was none other than a haggard-looking Roddy Piper.

Convinced that the champs would roll along in there undeserved push, I stayed tuned, awaiting a merciful end to another tag division farce. I should have known better. Staying true to his old mid-eighties mantra – “the man who’s never been beat� – Piper refused to take a fall when he obviously should have, and in the end folks we have NEWWW tag team champions. What’s worse though is that millions of people were then subjected to Dusty Rhodes, Sgt Slaughter and the Flair and Pair Connection dancing to Rhodes lame theme music. Never have I watched anything so pathetic. Think Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler at a nightclub dancing to Diddy. I would be remiss not to mention that Rhodes did clean house nicely by landing a few lefts and rights followed by a thunderous “Bionic Elbow.� The nostalgia act however should have ended there.