One year ago was March 29th 2011. One year ago, I was coming back from Anaheim with my brother, his wife, his wife’s sister, and his mother in law. I was tired and frankly I felt bad because I had gained so much weight. I knew I was going to pig out a bit but looking back it wasn’t that bad because I was on vacation and it was the first one that I had taken in some time. The day started off with noisy kids and that was because my niece and her cousin were ready to go telling by there whining and crying. That was understandable as the sun was hot that day in Anaheim and we were all getting ready to hit the road. I remember my IPOD Touch was dying as I had no battery left almost from three days of travel and it sucked that I had no charger with me. My phone charger for my primary phone had also recently stopped working on that trip because the wire got messed up somehow and I wasn’t too pleased with that either. I wondered then, do I really need technology to survive? That whole weekend was filled was filled with fun and excitement as our buddy down here in Mountain View got married and that was the main reason why we originally went down to San Diego and then to Anaheim. That whole weekend was also the weekend of Wrestlemania 26 (currently playing on WWE 24/7). I remember waiting anxiously to get home because of the fact that one of the greatest careers ever had come to an end. Shawn Michaels had decided he wanted to hang em up and he went out with a bang. The night before (on sunday), I anxiously hoped that my IPOD would not die and I waited constantly to see if and how the card of Wrestlemania was going. I waited so long for the main event of Shawn/Undertaker because of how much those two had an impact on my childhood. I saw them so much on TV that they were almost of iconic status to me and I was afraid for Shawn now that he was putting his career on the line. Waking up was no easy task either as I dragged my stuff to the rental truck we had as my brother tried his hardest to tie all the bags on top and he also had to tend to his “family’s” needs. My brother is quiet, helpful, willing to say words that have meaning when needed, and he also is very passive aggressive at times. I saw this while he was tying the bags and all the luggage. This made me kind of sad because as the older brother you are supposed to be the role model and also the one people look up to. But, here I saw how much he gets crap by his secondary family and he has no real comeback for much of what they say. For example, I see how sometimes he gets these lectures from his wife and he has nothing to really counteract her sayings or her demands. I can see how sometimes my brother may demand too much or has too much of an old school macho mentality but if people like that hassle him so much, why doesn’t he stand up for himself once in a while? I can see situations where he wants to please his girlfriends family or maybe he doesn’t want to cause any trouble but I see something inside him that makes me want to be like him. Even here, I saw how much he was willing to show his love for everybody traveling with us. He did almost 90 % of the driving in this case on the trip as he wouldn’t let anybody else near the wheel. That right there showed his willingness to be able to take care of those close to him. As we were driving off towards our reality I realized how much harder my brother has it than I did at the time. He didn’t do it for personal gain to start a family but he wanted others to be happy as well. He wanted my mom and dad to be happy as well as his girlfriend in this case as well. What got me was how much he tried to hold his anger in and he never ever resorts to violent tactics in any sort of way. I thought about how much this vacation was for the better anyway because I was so burnt out on life, school, and work. I had never given myself the chance to breathe and take every little detail in on what was going on around me. I was going so fast and I had little chance to stop and think that a little relaxation and rest does the body really well in times of need. On my way back, I tried my best to keep chatter going with my brother because I knew at some point that this new family of his must have been driving him insane at this point. We talked about wrestling, sports, our dog, plans when we got back, life, and the epic I-5 which is no easy task unto itself. I thought about also the ever impending classes that I was going to take with an old friend of mine and how much I was going to have fun. To tell the honest truth, that quarter at school gave me hope that my friend and I would ultimately be friends forever. As it got closer, I was amazed at the fact that this friend of mine was willing to take these exciting classes with me for the sheer joy of accompanying me towards “being ready”. I don’t know what that meant at the time but as that time got closer I was convinced that my friend and I would excel essentially at the promises of being in the same classes together. He would constantly talk about how much girls would talk to him and I. I was saying to myself dude that sounds great, I can’t wait! Looking back, the hype to taking classes with him was more exciting than the actual classes but that’s another story. Anyways, I remember on the way back, my brother’s technical mother in law realized when we stopped at a gas station that she might have left her wallet there which was confusing as to why she would leave it there. We were already on our way back when she told my brother to pull back and go back to see if it was there. She looked through the trash, through the gas pumps, and other things as well. But then, my brother’s girlfriend saw that she had left the wallet under her seat which left me dumbfounded and made me feel stupid. One for the fact that this lady wasn’t really looking for her wallet for any real purpose, and two, all she had in there was a blockbuster card and her ID. From that time till we got home, I kinda stayed quiet because I realized then that my brother’s new family wasn’t very keen on keeping their priorities straight and do things how they want to do them. They always have to be right which disappoints me anytime I hear them having conversations with others. Once we got home, I waited for my brother to unload my stuff and then I saw how one of my brother’s compadre was treating him. This compadre of his was yelling at him and giving him instructions on what to do after wards which really upset me because my brother had no chance in this situation. My aunt from Mexico had also recently come to visit us from Mexico and they were already at our house when we got home. I saw my dog was in a room all by herself and I was so happy to see her when I did see her. I gave my greetings to all my aunt’s family but after I had to leave to go and accompany my brother to take the rental truck back to the airport. It was a long drawn out process because my brother was still getting crap from his family and I just went home wondering how does he handle all that? I sat down and watched maybe the last time that I got to watch Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and Undertaker on the same show. I had nostalgia that night as I saw Shawn Michaels show real emotion to wrestling fans and wrestling pros alike as he poured his heart out to everyone that came to see him that night. I was a little saddened too as I sat there thinking this is the end of one of the greatest careers ever. Then, I just sat back and relaxed the rest of the night. It was one of those days where you don’t think about anything and you saw a lot of good unraveling around you. I got to see what human relationships do to people, how well others treat each other, and most of all I got to see real people saying real things that they meant. I also felt that this was one of my favorite days in my life as I saw what it meant to be living and to be free amongst myself. Till Next Time!
Tag: Shawn Michaels
Why the same patterns in wrestling always work…
On Thursday afternoon, wondering if I could get wifi in my car, I read something interesting while I was sitting there studying for my Speech 8 midterm while I was able to actually find a connection, and that was in the wrestling organization TNA Hulk Hogan has proposed that TNA will no longer be doing fake story lines and they will be in fact shifting to real story lines. I was kind of taken aback by this because for one, no one will buy and two it’s something that can’t be helped out by the fact that wrestling formality is and always will be what draws people to it for the sake that it’s like a soap opera. Let’s make an analogy here, if on one of my favorite TV shows, The West Wing, they made it known that the original main character, Sam Seaborn, who is played by Rob Lowe, was upset because his role on the show was dwindling and they made that real, it would feel strange and upsetting because I want to know about the character Sam Seaborn and not the actor who actually ended up feeling upset because his role was downgraded to a supporting role instead of a main one. For all intents and purposes, wrestling has always relied on several things to keep it alive which makes it simple and yet still exciting for “hardcore” wrestling fans to tune in. For example, I always joke with my brother Jesus about the oldest tricks in the book in wrestling and it still keeps us entertained, Some of the examples for this would be (but not limited to)
1. The idea of good vs. evil: There have always been two forces in the universe that triumph and that is good and evil, that is the basis for wrestling and it doesn’t get anymore simple than that just watch it and that’s what you get.
2. A battle for pride or “who’s better” series of matches between two competitors: One of the best examples of this is when way back when in the 1980’s Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair put on one of the best rivalries I’ve seen through matches that just wow’ed me when I viewed them on DVD because they were crisp and the psychology and storytelling put on by both men made me appreciate just how hard these guys have to work in order for the crowd to buy into what they were doing because they were not only working their asses off but they were also trying to show that wrestling can be a sport if it wanted to be.
3. The heel stable against the group of disgruntled babyfaces: I have mixed feelings about this one because it can be really good if executed correctly. The best example of how this may work is with the Hart Foundation in 1997 and the way it happened was awesome because for years Bret Hart was the beloved hero but he ended forming a heel stable because now things were a bit different and people wanted to cheer for the bad guys instead of the typical bland babyfaces. What ended up happening was you got Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Mick Foley, The Road Warriors, Dustin Rhodes, and others to form an alliance against this rugged group of individuals. What ended up happening was a U.S. against Canada and for everything for what it was worth it was and is one of my favorite times in wrestling because it showed what life demonstrates sometimes: ideals, righteousness, and the supremacy to see who is number one in the world matters to some.
4. The build up of the chase for the world title babyface: I like this one in part because some really good stories have come out of this one. Several examples include the Steve Austin rise to the top in 1998 when he was facing Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 14 and he ended up winning, another one is when Sting wrestled Hogan at Starrcade 1997 which was built up with a year’s worth of promos and what not, and another one of personal favorites is when Eddie Guerrero won the championship here in San Francisco from Brock Lesnar which was made even better by the fact that I was there live and I couldn’t have been prouder of one of the little guys that was a great wrestler and he had a great persona.
5. Building up something without the babyface even being on TV: I have seen this numerous times throughout my years of watching wrestling and it seems difficult to execute but once it’s done I feel proud to be a wrestling fan. The master of this is Chris Jericho who feuded with Dean Malenko over a title but in hindsight Malenko was off TV for several weeks which resulted in Jericho insulting him, his family, and even his famous 1000 holds moniker. Looking back even 2 years ago, he had one of my top 10 favorite feuds with Shawn Michaels in which he may have ended his career and for weeks he bragged about it which made the fans even more furious because they wanted to see their hero Shawn return and show Jericho that he was in fact not retired. Michaels did in fact return after being off TV and once he did the crowd just ate it up because he was back for revenge.
Looking at these, I realize wrestling would be impossible to actually have as being real with real storylines. The basis for wrestling is to have it be fake but these guys are athletes that are integrated with storylines that sometimes have real life implications. For example, we always root for the underdog in any situation which is something wrestling is excellent at because writers and agents want us to feel enthralled in what they do instead of actually seeing the bad guy come out on top all the time. I don’t want to know what goes on behind the scenes, it’s juicy and funny when it they talk about it on TV but too much is overkill and it just makes me think how they can allow these inside things onto a “wrestling” show. Anyway, wrestling will be and always will be using the same formula because without it not many new ideas can be come up with. Have a good afternoon everybody and here’s a demonstration of why I love wrestling( insane heat 101)
Just Another Day... 