Mark Twain is famously quoted as saying 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.' There's also some quotes out there about being trite and hacky as well, but I'm not going to waste time Googling those. Clearly Twain's talking about that will to win in face of steep odds. In the WWE, they're fond of creating a hero that's muscular, beyond belief in the ring as far as power is concerned, and putting him up against fellow gargantuans because someone dressed like Godzilla scared the living hell out of Vince when he was a toddler. Seriously, though, go take a look at Hogan's rant from his pre-match interview with Mean Gene from Wrestlemania IV, also known as 'The Wrestlemania Tournament That's Probably Still Going On Because OH MY GOD IT TOOK FOREVER'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77aLI1FOdXw At about the two minute mark, Hogan talks about destroying the Trump Plaza in his fight with Andre. I mean, Hulkster is in rare form there, rescuing Donald Trump because he forsakes his worldly possessions and materialistic drives for the holy righteousness of Hulkamania. The ironic blasphemy then proceeded to turn Hulkster orange and made his hair fall out. That means, to Vince, that only the massive guys are going to be on top fighting even more massive guys because his fans expect that whoever the toughest fighter in the world in the heavyweight class is going to be the biggest guy out there -- or rather, a mark is going to believe that. In this day and age, I know personally only one mark over the age of 12, and that's my friend's grandmother, who still hates Charles Robinson because he's from the WCW and 'always fast counts the good guys'. At any rate, the WWE needs to start showing that a game plan can beat any opponent in the ring. They've got Brock Lesnar, a legitimate MMA champ, who has legitimately been out-wrestled by smaller men in musculature. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uufclkwGDhI Nobody watching Mir and Lesnar at the outset would have guessed Mir could beat Lesnar so quickly with such a basic leg submission, but that is why MMA is consistently watched with such fervor. Anything can happen. Lending legitimacy to the work being done is important. Lesnar was still dominant for the majority of his run in UFC, gaining both submission and TKO victories against Mir, and a host of other fighters -- so it wasn't just that Lesnar can't back up his physique in the ring with actual skill, it's just that Mir had a gameplan, and shut him down. This boils down to the Superstars' in-ring work. Because as Batista shows, you can have a great physique, but you go into a ring against a guy like Alberto Del Rio, you know which guy ACTUALLY knows more about wrestling almost immediately. And when you book against what everyone knows almost immediately without Batista cheating or Del Rio making an error that gives the lumbering ox an opening (as in the Lesnar/Couture fight) -- Del Rio is the likely winner. Which brings me to the next matter on my list.
Dan has taken a chairshot to the face from Ballz Mahoney. He grew up in Tampa, mere blocks from the Sportatorium, watching wrestling and taking it all in. He's a writer, and a professional illustrator.
