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I've just finished watching the video provided by pwinsider.com involving Jake Roberts and the Fire Storm Wrestling promotion from their show on 9/12 in Lakewood, Ohio. I found myself mulling over writing an article or not about this as I knew I had something to say but I just wasn't sure what until I sat down to the old PC and began writing this...
I couldn't figure out why the footage bothered me so much. It's not like we haven't seen this before. Ahmed Johnson doing shoot interviews. The Warrior getting into verbal sparring matches at speaking engagements, other vet wrestlers not exactly doing the "PC" thing at independent shows after their career ran down. We've seen it all before, so why did this stick out...and then I realized...
You see, I now live in Wisconsin, but I grew up near the Cleveland area in Ohio. I went to non-other than Lakewood High School...that's when it hit me. This incident happened in my old home town. I saw the streets when the video went outside and though there wasn't anything exactly standing out to make me recall exactly the street or place I was looking at, it was Lakewood for sure. Because Lakewood had a energy to it, a certain stylized look to it. To many of you, it may just be another suburban crap-hole...to me it was home.
Lakewood was where The Lakewood Ranger football team beat St. Edwards on any given Friday night and where Eds beat us at everything else (okay, they beat us a lot at football too but who's counting after 10 plus years being out of high school). Lakewood is where I kissed my first girlfriend, raised the most hell, got with my first rock band, flipped off my first school Principal (but not the only one), had a party that would rival those of P. Diddy, and put 10 cheer leaders in a Ford Probe (2 on each other in the passenger seat, 3 in the back, 3 on top of those, two standing up out of the roof, yes it is possible) just so they could get to our Friday night game on time, ignore me since I was playing drums instead of wide receiver, and watch as the running back took them all "home".
Lakewood is a place that rivals no other in my heart.
That said, watching the video wasn't just about some town I came from. It was very much about wrestling and Jake Roberts. You see, I learned about wrestling when I lived in that town. It is now as it was then, my escape, my fantasy, my favorite thing to do on any given night. WATCH WWE!!! But more importantly than the wrestling was the man who brought me in...JAKE THE SNAKE ROBERTS.
Jake Roberts was my favorite wrestler. I had always liked wrestling before he came on the scene, but it wasn't until Jake/The Undertaker/Paul Bearer and The Ultimate one did their thing that got me forever hooked. Jake could speak about nothing for five hours and I would have listened because I would have been made to think it was important. That was the beauty of Jake, he told you in one sentence what you HAD to know, what he needed to say to SELL you, but he instead did it with finesse and integrity and grace and gave us ten minutes more just for the sheer heck of it. Then he went in the ring and showed us why he's one of the greatest in-ring performers of our time.
So when I saw this video I felt a strange lump in my heart, because my town and my childhood idol had been crushed in one fowl swoop. I know nothing about the promotion that hired Jake for this nights festivities, so I have no ill will unless we find out one thing:
If it was a work.
Could it have been?
Watch that video again and tell me Jake couldn't have been doing that as an angle. He is that good of an actor and speaker. Especially after JT lightening or whatever left like he did and some other guy came out from the back. Would a guy come to the ring and go off like that? Where were the security guys? where were other wrestlers? Jake allowed Jerry Lawler to use personal info and his demons to sell an angle before- he didn't like it - but he did it, so why couldn't this have been that? I'm sure the awesome staff at PWInsider will crack this case wide open, but until they do I hope it was a horrible angle that this indy promotion just didn't think through.
If it isn't than I feel sorry for all those fans and all those wrestlers in the back who had to deal with this Jake Roberts. I hate to see this stuff at wrestling show, big screen or small indy alike. It should not enter our business. What is really a problem is that if it was a work then it was really poor decision making. I think Indy circuits are important but to end a show on an angle like that to a crowd of people who may never see the promotion again is silly and not needed in this day and age. Do what they want to see, have Jake come out and throw the DDT or even have him put over the rookie...either way it would be better than this mess. The bottom line is he remains my favorite of all time. Even with all the crap going on during the "match" at this show, it felt good to hear "DDT, DDT, DDT!" If this wasn't a work than all I can hope is that wrestling, fans, and Jake Roberts get to a better place than they are now.
You can reach Joel at www.myspace.com/joelcroyle
