Well, where to start. Professional wrestling is a weird world, but the basic premise is not too dissimilar to most superhero-based fiction. The good is faced with huge odds and eventually finds a way to overcome evil, to overcome bigotry, to overcome narrow-mindedness and abusive ways of the bad. It is the main story that young people must always believe in, true or not; good triumphs over evil. In 2003, Booker T was a red-hot babyface in WWE. With the crowd firmly behind him, he was embroiled in a program with Triple H that built to a match for the World Heavyweight Championship. It was a story of a man overcoming immense difficulty to truly make it. The tough times were addressed by our hero, and in many ways the story was told very well up to this point. Everyone and their dog wanted Booker T to achieve his goal and stand on top of the mountain. The evil in this story was portrayed by Triple H, widely regarded as a talented performer who nonetheless was almost constantly in the right place at the right time, or with the right person at the right time. The snob who became the accepted rebel who became the face of this most corporate company. He was the champion, not because he won the belt, but because like a lot of things it was handed to him. Literally, handed to him, Then the racism started. It is well documented, and has been documented often by commentators more talented and valid than I, but looking back it truly beggars belief. References to 'people like you', telling Booker to dance for his entertainment, Hunter throwing a dollar at Booker and more created nothing more than a vile, racially motivated story. Still, Booker had to win at the big event, right? The history of WrestleMania shows us that good more often stands tall, that it is a night where heroes are made. This was WWE's chance to correct some of this awful story, to complete Booker's path to redemption and glory. Instead, what we got was Triple H winning clean, in the middle of the ring. Not only that, but he won after hitting the Pedigree and taking a whole twenty-three seconds to make the pin. That was it. Throughout this article I've often mentioned a 'bad taste in the mouth'. Some thirteen years later, the chunks of rotten meat that represent this story are still sensed by the taste buds of professional wrestling fans.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
