Redd Reddick returns with a a salute to Killer Kowalski and some news on changes in his own wrestling career.

“Redd” Reddick — The Other Side of the Ropes

So Who Labors on Labor Day?

.

.

Before I get started with the next column, I’d like to send my condolences to the family of wrestling forefather Wladek “Killer” Kowalski, who recently passed away at the age of 82 years. He was one of the true legends in the ring and trained many before he left us, and will undoubtedly be missed. Thank you, sir. I know I never had the opportunity to meet you, but you have my gratitude.

Now then, after putting off this column for about 2 weeks, let me say that I’ve been far from idle. I’ve had an interview with one of the bigger German boards, which can be seen in English and German on their site http://wrestlingjunkies.de and in the blog section of my Myspace page at http://myspace.com/shaka57. I’ve also publicly announced the ‘retirement’ of what I’ve referred to as the next evolution of my in-ring alter-ego, the Crimson Assassin, which pretty much means that anyone who comes to one of my matches can expect me NOT to appear as they’re accustomed to seeing, and believe it or not, I actually got a little bit of flak behind that move. I can clarify that a little bit…

While I’m aware that I don’t owe anyone an explanation for my actions, I will say that it’s not uncommon for me to do something of this nature, it’s just the manner it was done in. It represented a change of attitude, not of heart; I’ve seen this business mutate as much as I have while I’ve been involved in it, and to be honest, I feel as though I’ve dropped at the doorstep of what the late Robert Anton Wilson dubbed Chapel Perilous. I’m simply transferring that attitude to my work effort somewhat.

I’ve seen people in this business wrack their brains figuring out a way to elevate their status within it via emulation and imitation and quite often, to no avail. That wouldn’t have worked anyway. I’ve seen emotional meltdowns due in part to a sense of entitlement for just ‘being there’ and not really applying too much of themselves. In other words, people expecting to be rewarded for doing absolutely nothing and getting pissed about it. I just kept studying, reading, traveling and watching. This business is getting the people and credibility it deserves at the moment like everything else and it will not change unless the people within start making changes of their own.

I’ve taken the time to pull The National Wrestling Alliance - the Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling off my bookshelf for the second time in 4 months and read it again, and reminded myself of the fact that which came before me is the same as it is right now. That’s right, the NWA didn’t just come out of someone’s arse, it came from a collective of businessmen - let me say that again - BUSINESSMEN who wanted to make order out of chaos, and in order for them to have done that, there had to be a chaos to create the National Wrestling Alliance, so guess what, that meant that there was always an independent circuit around, but it was never acknowledged. Why? Because the men involved in the Trust were not just businessmen, but they were also promoters who wanted to run an establishment that recognized an undisputed Heavyweight world champion. Sound familiar? It should…

Even 60 - 70 years ago, there were probably as many versions of world championships as there are now, if not less since there weren’t so many people. The men who made up the Trust wanted to clear up some of the confusion by agreeing upon the representatives, the venues and the like, and for that to happen, they needed money, which was pooled together for the effort. Oh yeah, having some connections in the press and in other key areas didn’t hurt, either…

Without dragging this out, The point I wanted to make here is that the difference between now and then was that the promoters who weren’t involved in putting the NWA together didn’t think it was possible - the attempts made prior went sour mostly due to self interest and promoters who were too emotional to run on such a scale, and you can see that crab-in-a-barrel mentality to this day. Even the media which supported the wrestling game has become a weak voice in the wilderness, so credibilty is becoming harder and harder to come by, at least here in the States. The generation of wrestlers today have the advantage of not having the grueling schedule of our forefathers to bring up their game, but that’s few and far between. Having the ECW for your influence is fine, but don’t think imitating them will evoke even the younger gods. That short era was the result of shrewd planning, possibly dumb luck and very capable people who were hungry, and if you read Hardcore History, you find out that a lot of guys are still owed money that they more than likely will not see.

Even Bobby Heenan mentioned in his  book about the chances of getting rich in wrestling; you traveled from town to town putting your body on the line for little to no money at all. I recall Johnny Valiant in Seaside Heights, NJ last March, with the boys in the back listening as he was telling a small crowd about living out of his suitcase and the backseat of of a car if you couldn’t get a room. Nowadays, most of the boys have full-time jobs. I’m personally a Missing Class employee - that means I’m not making enough to be Middle Class (although that wouldn’t be true 15 years ago) and I make too much to be Working Poor, but I could easily slip into that category - but yet and still I book my own flights to Europe. Why? Because of the slight technicality of never being put on television, so therefore I have lack the credibility that’s warranted for that sort of thing, so that tells me that collectively, the independent circuit has some growing up to do if it wants to be taken seriously.

What does all of that have to do with me and changes? Everything. It means somebody has to make the statement and make it stick some kind of way. It means promoters need to really start promoting or get out of the game if they don’t have the financial backing, or find someone who can help them in other ways. It means that they’ll have to start acting like the businessmen that they claim they are. It means that the wrestlers have to start being more professional as well. Start picking up your game, and make people believe again, because thanks to Vince, not everyone takes us seriously anymore. We need to step our game up and leave the brand name crap to the Mainstream. We need to get hungry again. I’ve been in for 10 years, and I’m still starving. Vince has run his thing for 20 plus years and he’s bloated from living off a few carcasses. Anyone else here hungry?

– Redd

9/1/08

[...] Original post by jerzy [...]