Greetings.
I recently had as a guest on my Hart Beat Radio show, Kyle Klingman, the director of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Waterloo, Iowa and host of the popular “On the Mat” podcast. Kyle relates that the mission of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame is: to preserve wrestling’s long and glorious history, to recognize excellence and to inspire future generations of wrestling fans.
As a means of perpetuating wrestling’s past and honoring those who made our sport so great, the hall of fame has chosen to honor iconic pro wrestling stars, such as Danny Hodge, Lou Thesz, Jack Briscoe and Kurt Angle, among others, all of whom had superlative amateur wrestling careers before they went on to superstardom in pro wrestling.
As well, the Iowa hall of fame has also seen fit to honor, in the builder’s category, legendary promoters, such as: my father, Leroy McGuirk, Bob Geigel, Dory Funk Sr. and Verne Gagne, all of whom were adamant that amateur wrestling serve as a fundamental building block for success in pro wrestling.
Being recognized by the Iowa hall of fame remains one of the most prestigious honors in our sport – because it not only entails being recognized by legitimate icons like Dan Gable and others, who have dedicated their lives to wrestling, but isn’t based on politics and other artificial aspects.
While the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and the WWE aren’t necessarily on the same page, so to speak, as far as their approach to wrestling goes, Kyle, nonetheless, informs me that he’s appreciative of the WWE’s recognition and support for his organization. This year, for example, he relates that the WWE dispatched tag team champion and former University of Iowa amateur champ, Big E. Langston, to participate in the Iowa hall of fame induction ceremonies – which resonated extremely well with the fans in attendance.
While I applaud the WWE for choosing to support the Iowa hall of fame, I, nonetheless, find that their support of the Iowa hall of fame tends to come across as hollow and hypocritical, given that, in the past few decades the WWE has gone out of its way to minimize the legitimate elements of our sport and has shamelessly seen declare that wrestling is entertainment, not sport, and to accentuate and emphasize the sleazy, illegitimate aspects, by: pushing guys who don’t know a wrist lock from a wrist watch; resorting to excessive artificial additives, including way too many gimmick matches (such as Tables, Ladders and Chairs); excessive swerve finishes; tits and ass and assorted other illicit horse shit, which have been an affront to what old school, traditional wrestling was all about.
One of the most telling indications, I find, of the WWE’s hollow and hypocritical supposed initiative to support and honour legitimate wrestling has been in its cheapening of the perceived legitimacy of the world title. As most wrestling aficionados can attest, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) – which was the preeminent organization in our sport prior to the ascension of the WWF, always went to great lengths to have as their world champions guys like Lou Thesz, Dick Hutton, Pat O’Connor, the Funks and Jack Briscoe – all of whom had stellar amateur wrestling backgrounds before they embarked on their superlative professional careers. The same goes for the American Wrestling Alliance (AWA) – which also which had bona fide wrestlers, such as Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson as their champions, back in the day.
I might add that, back in the day, when Vince McMahon Sr. was running the WWWF, as it was called back then, things, they, too, had guys with legitimate wrestling backgrounds – such as Bob Backlund and the Iron Sheik (Khosrow Vaziri), as their world champions – all of which served to enhance the perceptible propriety of the world title – which was extremely important.
In the past few decades though, the WWE has, for whatever reason, all too often, seen fit to have, as their world champions, guys who had only marginal wrestling backgrounds, which has, in my estimation, only served to cheapen the cheapened the image and the aura of the world title and the wrestling business, in general.
In any case, I’m pleased to see that the WWE has seen fit to embrace and support the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and legitimate wrestling people like Dan Gable and Kyle Klingman, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as far as I’m concerned. I’d like to thrown down the gauntlet, to Vince, Hunter, Shane and whomever the hell else by challenging them to not only talk the talk, but to start walking the proverbial walk by endeavouring to get back to the basics and restore some semblance of legitimacy by cutting back on illicit, ill-conceived bullshit and not losing sight of the fact that the emphasis should be on WRESTLING and not so-called ENTERTAINMENT, which, in recent years, seems to have taken precedence.
In closing, I’d like to point out to Vince, Hunter and company that you should be honored and gratified that guys with legitimate backgrounds, such as Dan Gable and Kyle Klingman, continue to embrace and support the WWE. At the same time, though, you should respond, in kind, by striving to make the WWE worthy of their support – by endeavoring to raise the bar, yourselves. To my way of thinking, it would be “what’s best for business.”
In any case, I’ll look forward to catching up with you next time.
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