October proved to be a very sad month for professional wrestling. We lost three guys. Stu Hart, Road Warrior Hawk, and Crash Holly all passed away within a couple weeks of one another. Stu Hart was a case of it being very sad and everything, but it was exactly unexpected. Stu hadn’t been in the best of health anyway and was certainly not a young man. However, with Stu’s passing went a great legacy of the way he trained guys and everything. I never saw Stu wrestle, I only knew of him as Bret and Owen’s father, and the guy who trained both of them along with Benoit and others. I still feel bad for the Hart family and the wrestling world in general, as I see Stu as a great loss, but he definitely lived a very full, rich life.
Road Warrior Hawk is a different story. That one really shocked me. Much like when Mr. Perfect passed on earlier this year, I felt like a little bit of my childhood died with Hawk, as the Road Warriors were two of the guys I remember a great deal from when I was younger, and I always was partial to Hawk. I had seen them wrestle in 1997 while they were the WWF Tag Team Champions, and that was a great memory itself, but back in April I had the pleasure to see the Road Warriors wrestle on one of Ted DiBiase’s PWA shows and then got to meet both Animal and Hawk and get their autographs after the show. It was already a priceless memory and everything for me, but now I cherish that sheet with their autographs on it all that much more now that I know I’ll never have the pleasure of meeting Hawk again, and that their can never be another Legion of Doom/Road Warriors match. I won’t lie though, I’m pretty proud that Kane was one of the guys who had the honor of fighting them in their last (televised) WWE match. I suppose all of the years of Hawk abusing his body caught up with him, because normally a healthy 40 year old man doesn’t drop dead suddenly. It is sad and seems worse, but at the same time is a very good thing and couldn’t have happened better that Hawk had just recently gotten his life straightened out with the Lord, because now we all know that he is in a better place. I’ll miss Hawk, and of course I’ll always remember his classic “WELL”, and “OHHHHH WHAT A RUSH!”
Then there’s Crash Holly. That one caught me even more off guard I think, just because he was so damn young. I’m sure that Crash’s death was caused by something that we probably don’t want to know about, and I assume that is why the WWE chose not to do a tribute to him as they did for Stu and Hawk. That doesn’t make it right, but I figure the WWE doesn’t want to call any more negative attention to them, and a third death and a death that probably has to do with drugs/alcohol would not garner them any favor in the public eye. I enjoyed Crash when he was doing the Superheavyweight/24-7 Hardcore title stuff, but I’m not going to claim to have ever been a real big fan of his.
It’s sad that it seems like every couple months I have to read about another guy dropping dead way before they should, and I wish that there was some way to stop it, but I don’t think there really is. These men are all adults and make their own decisions. It’s easy to blame it on the business, but it all comes down to personal choices. They are theirs to make, and no one else’s. I send out my sympathy to all of their families and I hope that this is the last time I have to write about a wrestling death for a long time.
In other news, however, Survivor Series is in the books. I felt that Survivor Series was the WWE’s most solid outing since Wrestlemania XIX. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole show (although I will admit that the Kane vs. Shane match was a weak ending to a very long feud). Survivor Series looks to have very much planted the seeds for at least a couple of big time matches for Wrestlemania XX. It seems as though we’ll be getting Kane vs. the Undertaker, who should be returning with his dead man gimmick. That will be a total mark out moment for me, and perhaps one of a very few instances where I may find myself not caring if Kane wins or not. I felt as though the WWE also planted the seeds for a possible Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg match down the line with their staredown, and what better place for that than Wrestlemania?
Survivor Series did an excellent job of starting new storylines and making things fresh once again. Things were quite stale for awhile on both RAW and Smackdown, but now we have fresh things going on with both shows and it is quite refreshing and makes me look forward to watching the shows much, much more. John Cena and Benoit are emerging as the next challengers to the title, which isn’t a bad thing in either case. I think Benoit should finally get his hands on the strap at least for a week or so, and Cena is over in a major way, so that’s only a good thing for the WWE that there is a new face at the top. On the RAW side we have Kane chasing the title now, finally (and he’d better get at least a short run with it), and we have the return of Mick Foley!
Oh man, when that music hit on RAW I had no idea that he was returning and I nearly choked on the dinner I was eating at the time. Foley just adds such a sense of fun to the shows and makes everything seem a little livelier. I suppose I wouldn’t mind seeing Stone Cold Steve Austin return to RAW, but I feel that it’s a bit too soon to do so, and he had better not kick Foley off of the show.
Also on the RAW side we have Matt Hardy switching shows to rejoin the RAW brand. I have no problem with that so long as he stays heel. I think Matt Hardy would rejuvenate the Intercontinental Title scene given the chance. I also shit myself to see Molly Holly retain the Women’s title at Survivor Series against Lita. I was sure Lita was going to take the title to complete her comeback, but at least for the time being that isn’t the case. Maybe the WWE has finally seen that Lita isn’t that great of a wrestler, hence the very sloppy and scary looking moonsault she does. When she fought Victoria in a cage match a couple weeks ago (I was very stoked for a women’s cage match, by the way) I was sure that Lita was going to try that moonsault off of the top of the cage, ala Kurt Angle, and snap her damn neck in half in doing so. I’m not a big Lita fan, but I would have hated to see that.
One thing I did not hate to see, however, was Jackie Gayda’s boob. Seriously, I try to not be a pervert, but when I saw her whole tit hanging out my jaw dropped and I was in awe. She’s got a nice rack, no doubt. She’s hot and all, but you know, there was no saying that she didn’t have some dinner plate nipples or something. Well, we know now that this isn’t the case. Wow, I don’t know what else to say. I love live television, and I am so glad I tape RAW every week.
However, train the girl to wrestle before you shove her out there into matches. I know that they are only putting her out there to capitalize on the nipple slip, but she’s still so green. I was very down on her for a long time after the clusterfuck of a match she had against Trish Stratus shortly after she won Tough Enough II, and had only recently started to forgive that, and then she was missing spots last night on RAW. Train her and Lita and we’d have two good additions to the Women’s division. Until then, I really don’t like anyone but Molly, Victoria, and Trish. I am so happy for Molly Holly that she’s getting a pretty lengthy title reign, and I love to watch all three of those women wrestle, not just because they’re attractive, but because they have all taken huge steps forward in their wrestling abilities and really do perform well now, so long as they aren’t doing a carry job with Lita or Jackie or someone equally as untalented.
Well, in case I don’t do a column before then, cross your fingers that Kane wins the World Heavyweight Title at Armageddon, and until next time…
