CALDWELL'S TAKE CORNER CUBE MONDAY: Raw matches, Batista vs. fake cop, E! report on steroids issue, Bret Hart book review Jan 14, 2008 - 6:10:08 PM

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Updated throughout the day from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.

Updated Monday, January 14

6:10 p.m. Tonight's Raw will feature Ric Flair vs. William Regal in another retirement match for Flair. This comes two weeks before Flair's scheduled retirement match against MVP at the Royal Rumble. Also on the show, Shawn Michaels will be in a Royal Rumble qualifying match. The opponent has not been named yet.

- Not-so-funny story of the day goes to Batista, who was pulled over by a person apparently pretending to be an undercover officer after the Jan. 5 house show in Canton, Ohio. The story goes that the "officer" stopped Batista with a flashing red light, then asked for Batista's driver's license. Batista became suspicious when the "officer" didn't have police equipment that would indicate he's a cop. Story link

- E! has a story on the steroids probe that revealed big-name celebrities linked to the New York state attorney general's investigation into online pharmacy distribution. Mary G. Blige, Timbaland, 50 Cent, and Tyler Perry are among the big names linked to the steroid investigation.

One of the key distributors referenced in E!'s article is osteopath Gary Brandwein, who operated an online pharmacy out of his Boca Raton, Fla. office. He allegedly sold supplies of steroids, HGH, and testosterone to Chris Benoit prior to Benoit's death. After his operation was shut down, Brandwein pleaded not guilty to six counts of felony drug charges in New York state.

Hopefully, this news will shed light on the pressures facing entertainers, and not just athletes. When the drug issues in pro wrestling reached mainstream audiences this past summer during the Chris Benoit coverage, everyday people continually questioned why drug testing matters in pro wrestling if the match outcomes are predetermined, unlike in sports, where the games are presumably not scripted. (I say "presumably" because the officiating in the Colts vs. Chargers game yesterday was ridiculously one-sided for the Colts.)

In any event, what mainstream people have to get beyond is the idea that the steroid issue is only about home run records and big muscles. The real story is competition for roster spots, concert dates, main event matches, etc. Thousands of people were probably unbelievably confused when Mary J. Blige's name popped up on this new list. But, she's not in sports, and she doesn't have huge muscles, and she's not trying to break a record. What's going on?!

It's the competition to stay younger than the next thirty-something entertainer. It's the competition to get the endorsement deal. That's what people have to understand after being misled by mainstream reporting on steroids in sports. I remember one random person posting a comment on a drug testing story during the Benoit coverage this past summer. The sarcastic statement went something like, "But wrestling is entertainment, so I guess we should start testing movie stars and musicians?" And my immediate answer was, "Yes!"

Now that some well-known celebrity entertainers have appeared on the Signature Pharmacy list, it should open more eyes to the "why" behind steroid and HGH use. The real story isn't about huge muscles, but competition for roster spots, recovery time, and a more youthful money-drawing image.

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Bret Hart book review - Part 2 of book

A few weeks ago, I tackled part 1 of Bret Hart's autobiography. Today, I'm tackling part 2. The timeline is February 1985 - June 1993 (the first King of the Ring on PPV). There was plenty that happened during this timeline, as Bret details his struggles to break through as a legit main eventer, to keep his relatives and marriage alive, and not to fall prey to the same party habits in WWF that were consuming and killing his fellow wrestlers.

The content in part 2 is great because it contains Bret's philosophies on the wrestling business intertwined with the wrestling stories. There are many times in the book when Bret tells a story, then offers a paragraph of philosophy that you have to take notes on when reading. Otherwise, you're missing plenty of great ideas on understanding more about the business. It's not just a book, but an educational resource.

Something I didn't pay much attention to until part 2 is how Bret revisits his thoughts on specific events, but often times doesn't explain when he revised his thoughts. When recounting stories, he sometimes writes his revised thoughts as an aside in the middle of a sentence. He might be in the middle of describing a story, then casually toss out ", which I regret" when describing a poor choice he made. The question is when that introspective thought came from. At the time? A few weeks later? A current regret when revisiting and writing the story for the book?

It's not clear in every instance, but the narrative flows so well that it's unnecessary for the book to be chopped into paragraphs of "story, italicized reflections, story, repeat" like so many other books. It's a challenge at times to pick apart Bret's thoughts and see where his past and current thoughts intersect, but the challenge isn't a distraction from following the stories and reading the philosophical commentary.

Often times over the past two+ years since I wrote the Bret Hart DVD review in the Torch Newsletter, I've been asked if I'd change any of the critiques I made on Bret's DVD. After reading through the first half of Bret's book, there are some critiques I would soften, but others that have been reinforced. I'll detail those in a second, but I have a much better understanding of where Bret is coming from on the things I critiqued him on.

One of the critiques I had in the DVD review was Bret taking credit for Davey Boy Smith's IC Title victory at Summerslam 1992 at Wembley Stadium. I thought that was one of the instances where Bret came across selfish on the DVD. In the book, though, Bret details how much of a complete screw-up Davey was leading to that match; how Bret laid out the entire match beforehand, then Davey forgot everything, and Bret captained the match to its epic conclusion. It was one of the many times Bret details his attempts to keep Davey, Dynamite Kid, and his brothers in line so they wouldn't self-destruct.

One of the critiques I had in the DVD review that was strongly reinforced by Bret's book was how he used his wrestling image to win favor in the court of public opinion. When I wrote the DVD review, I had countless emails from Bret fans who didn't appreciate anything negative written about Bret. Every single one of those emails (and I read all of them) was something to the effect of... "I met Bret in xyz city and he signed my replica belt" or "I'm a huge fan of Bret and I can't believe you wrote xyz about him".

After reviewing part 1, I received emails from Bret fans who are having a tough time dealing with the reality that Bret cheated on his wife and was a recreational drug user throughout his career. It's a tough pill to swallow for fans who loved the Bret Hart image, but didn't know about the person behind the shades. Is Bret a bad guy? Not at all. I commend him for being open in the book about his misgivings on the road. He's practically a saint compared to the rest of his colleagues at the time.

The problem is that fans have to be able to separate the character from the person. It's tough because pro wrestling puts on the façade of the show being real, which can conflict fans when they're asked to suspend disbelief for a certain period of time and believe in wrestlers such as Bret Hart. There is no separation of character from person on TV.

Bret was a master of motivating and empowering his ultra-loyal fanbase. They loved the character. They loved the image. Now, I'm hearing from fans who have read Bret's book that they're not sure how to feel. It's almost like that first moment when you realize wrestling isn't real. It's a fight or flight situation. Do you quit watching because you know the secrets? Or, do you appreciate what you thought was real as a great art form of scripted entertainment?

For a lot of Bret fans, it's a wake-up call that every wrestler is prone to the same mistakes and conflicts on the lonely road. Do fans turn against Bret for his actions? Or, do they support him for being honest as a tool for future wrestlers and fans to learn from his mistakes? I hope fans will see that Bret's honesty is a good tool for fans, wrestlers, and even parents. I don't believe Bret should be ripped for his misgivings, as there are numerous asides so far that I've read in the book where Bret acknowledges his mistakes and regrets the errors in judgment. Bret's book isn't just an educational resource about wrestling, but also about life.

Bret went through a lot of stuff personally and professionally during this '85 to '93 timeline. He saw the demise of his own hero, Dynamite Kid. He went through a troubled episode where Dynamite threatened to kill the entire Hart family. Bret's wife at the time, Julie, would have driven any man to the brink of insanity. In WWF, his struggles were magnified by the political games and broken promises from Vince McMahon. While his colleagues were shaking his hand and telling him he's the greatest in the ring, McMahon kept putting the brakes on the promised main event opportunities.

It wasn't until Vince's hands were tied in the early '90s during the steroid distribution scandal that Vince went with Bret as champion. All that work. All that sweat in the ring. All the broken bones. The missed dates at home. The holidays on the road away from family. OK, Bret, business is screwed, so now it's your turn.

The closing few chapters of part 2 detail Bret's first title reign in 1992 until WrestleMania IX in 1993. There, he was caught in the middle of a classic Hogan vs. Vince battle, with Vince eventually putting the WWF Title back on Hogan at Mania in the silliest title switch imaginable that I still laugh at when I watch on tape.

Vince and Hogan both seemed to be lying about what led to the title switch, and Bret didn't know who to believe. On pg. 320, Bret writes, "I wanted to know which of my supposed friends was lying to me." As Bret found out, there are no real friends when dealing with people in the wrestling business. Just empty promises. And with all that weighing on him, it carried over to his personal life where his struggles were magnified as he dealt with drugs, loneliness, and family problems.

I'll take a look at Part 3 in a few weeks when I complete that section, including a look at the evolution of Bret's relationships with Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels.

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