Lance Storm is done w/TNA (a great read)

[Ben Jacobs]

I figured I'd post this as I continue to work on results as something for all of you to discuss if you'd like. (in hopes of helping to pass the time)

This is an article from Lance Storm's wesite, (Lance is one of my favorite wrestlers btw, I got to meet him like two years ago) I personally think this is a great read and Lance makes some really great points... was wondering what your opinions on it are...

www.stormwrestling.com/040610.html

Let the discussion begin!

[Doug Gavelon]

Man...that's some powerful sh*t.

Okay, two areas of thought on this one. First off, yes, concussions in all sports lead to a terrible conclusion. Being a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I've seen Mike Webster evaporate to nothing once his career went down the tubes due to concussions as well as Justin Strelzcyk suffer from a terrible concussion, get hooked on pills, lose his mind, wind up in a high speed pursuit down the wrong way of the interstate and collide with a gas tanker. And that's just the guys in Pittsburgh. It's happened, to a degree, with every team.

As for wrestling, that brings me to point number 2: if you're a wrestler and you take an unprotected chairshot to the head, you're either being paid a huge amount to put your health at risk, not being trained right (as was the case with Maven when he took one at the 2002 Royal Rumble) or you're too stupid to care. Despite his "meathead" look, Rob Terry seems like a smart enough guy that he wouldn't take such a chairshot on his own. Which means, you've got Easy-E and the other Vince whispering in his ear to take the shot and how it'll improve his career.

What's bad is that it isn't like this was an isolated incident. I remember Jesse Neal taking one just as bad only a few months ago. Of course, it just rolled off everyone's back because we're so used to it. I mean, think about it: the guys have lost so much over the past 15 years when it comes to friends but we, as fans, have lost just as much when it comes to both idolization and innocence. We've gone from being shocked to our cores when a death happens to reading about it and saying "well, that figures."

Quite frankly, we're all to blame. The promoters (especially the "brain trust" of TNA) love to put their guys through hell to prove their toughness, the boys who are still young will do anything they can to prove themselves and we fans are just sitting back as silent observers. If anything's to change, it'll take a concerted effort by all three branches to do it. If we fans are upset enough to take a stand on it then we need to convey that outrage to the boys and convince them that it's okay to say no to the promoters' demands.

Lance Storm listed 41 names in that article and that only included the people he knew. Owen was absent (it was a freak accident but so was Chris Candido's ordeal). It's not just possible but a certainty that the list will reach 100 soon enough if drastic change isn't implemnted across the board.

[Cot'N]

I watched a shoot interview with Raven a couple of years ago where he explained chairshots for a few minutes. He talked about a night in the original ECW. He said the match before him had two young guys that were up and coming. Their match had 17 chairshots. The next match was between Raven and Taz, when they had 4 light chairshots, 2 a piece. He said people barely remembered the 17 chairshots because they weren't sold right. He said people remembered the 4 of theirs because they sold them better.

I don't think chairshots are the problem, I think it's like was said with Maven, it's whether BOTH wrestlers are trained right with them.

A chairshot can be done with very little impact and still made to look and sound real.

I admit that I'm a spot man when it comes to wrestling. I mark out for great moves by guys Amazing Red, Angle, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, and fail to believe guys like Cena, Batista. Cena sucks at selling moves. Hogan always sucked at selling moves. That's why people have to have 17 chairshots over 4. That's why a chairshot to Rob Terry's head, rather than back was needed. Guys like Cena who can't sell a chairshot ruined it for the rest of them.