Redd Reddick returns with a commentary on his 10th anniversary as a wrestler.

“Redd” Reddick — The Other Side of the Ropes

10 Years Already!?

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After a good pre-summer vent (refer to TSOTR “To Ohz and Back” from May) and a lengthy procrastination (i.e. no follow-up to said vent), I just put my nose to the grindstone and ground myself down in the gym with no break or hook. During the interim, I suddenly found myself as a permanent employee where I was once a temp (and it only took the bastards 38 months to do it!), about 10 lbs lighter and after realizing what I’ve been doing wrong since going to the gym for the past 4 years, totally ripping my workout routine apart and giving it a makeover. Somewhere in the midst of that, the very last time I stepped foot in the ring was to *gasp* manage someone else, and I’m a wrestler! That was just up to mid-July. Fast forward 3 weeks. I find myself recovering from a nasty chest cold (self-inflicted by not changing hand towels during the 5 day/night workouts) and going into my 10th year as a professional wrestler. No celebration. No party. A lot of coughing, fluids and work in between, that’s about it. I’m actually not even griping. I couldn’t even come up with a witty quote this time…

A decade is a fairly decent amount of time for anything to happen. To be honest, my father swore that I’d be sick of the game after 7 years. I not only proved him wrong, but I was in the middle of cutting a deal to get my foot in the door in the scene over in Europe. Turned out fairly well, too. I’m still famous obviously, but then I know better than that; in another time it would’ve given me more reverence had I been in the Territories, but we all know that that sort of thing doesn’t fly on the Independent Circuit. It never really has. I say ‘never’ because I also see what’s been staring us in our faces all this time but refused to see even now. The indies never went away, they’ve simply been ignored for most of their existence…

I know that sounds cryptic of me, and people who know me accuse of me being that way often, but after looking back on the history of wrestling (yes, one still exists, even before Flair) turns out that when people mentioned how the business runs in cycles like everything else, they failed to realize that independents existed even before the National Wrestling Alliance did. It had to start from somewhere, after all, didn’t it? After reading about the NWA’s history, it’s very clear that even during its inception, promoters didn’t think it would work, and technically, it didn’t at first: too much backstabbing and betrayal. That happened even when it flourished under Sam Muchnick’s watch. It was laughable to think that a third generation promoter could ever take a regional company and make it go national, but it wasn’t only done, but it went global and got repackaged as Sports Entertainment by its creator, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. The market worked so well that even indie promoters were and still are convinced that what they put out is the same. The sad reality is this, unless you’re under contract by the aforementioned, you’re still a wrestling promoter like the rest of the rabble.

My point here? Wrestling’s not going to die, but it’s not going to be as phenomenal as it was, at least not at this point. It’s back in incubation mode. It’s not going to be saved by some ambitious yahoo with deep pockets, because he’d only get bought out by the mainstream. The indies aren’t supposed to have that strong of a voice, but the talent’s always drawn from their vast pool. It was the swirling Chaos in which the shrewd business savvy who created the NWA sprang forth. These were the Ancient Ones and Elder Gods (or if you like the Greek version better, the Titans and Olympians) who set the wheels in motion for the wrestling universe that we know of come to be and to pass. Hell, I can even give you Old Testament version (the obscure book of Daniel, not the cliched Genesis one), A huge statue in a large field was made up of different metal - the head and neck was gold, the arms and upper torso silver, and the lower half was made of iron with clay mixed in near the feet. The metals represented the ages of man and the body parts the length of time the ages lasted. Naturally the Golden Age was the most precious and the shortest and the Iron Age the longest and least of value. Now that you all know I’m a mythology buff, I’m gonna let you do math on what I’m getting at here. Yes, that statue’s time has come and gone, but that only means that it’s time to build another one.

Personally, I have to say that I’ve seen my fair share of activity on the circuit in 10 years, and in places where even my older frat brothers haven’t. I’ve outlasted stables, managers, the odd valet, I’ve even revived a tag team that I didn’t even think would be mentioned, but here, my partner’s from another country this time. All things change. It’s the universal constant. I know I have over the last decade, and the only way to change the business itself is to become part of the change that you want to see in it…
– Redd

[...] Reddick — 10 Years Already!?Somewhere in the midst of that, the very last time I stepped foot in the ring was to *gasp* manage someone else, and I’ma wrestler! That was just up to mid-July. Fast forward 3 weeks. I find myself recovering from a nasty chest cold … [...]