Monday Nights in the Squared Circle May 15, 2006
Posted by Matt in random.Tags: college, wcw, wrestling
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Originally posted 5/15/06
The college years seem to be an important, memorable time for nearly everyone. My own 4.5 years at Harding were filled with many of the same things as others – love, learning, self-discovery, and professional wrestling.
In 1996, when I started my University years, wrestling had never before held much interest for me. Sure, I knew about the big stars from the 80’s like Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, but it was something that we never really got into. The mid-90’s, though, was a watershed time in the history of pro wrestling – you could even call in a Renaissance of sorts – marked by the emergence of Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling of which I became a religious fan for the next 4 or so years.
The cause of this resurgence in popularity can easily be attributed to the New World Order – a supergroup of past stars that seemingly gave into the dark side – which rampaged through the other WCW stars and quickly rose to prominence. The group was started by Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, but quickly increased in size with additions like “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Nobody seemed to able to stand up to the “evil” NWO until Sting – wearing makeup lifted directly from “The Crow” and carrying a baseball bat – made his triumphant comeback. Over the next few years there were some great moments and some that just made you shake your head at how bad they were. The whole thing is little more than a big, violent soap opera for men, but, also like a soap opera, it was usually fun to watch and highly addictive. Here are a few moments – both great and heart-breaking – that epitomize my past love of this “sport.”
- Watching Sting drop from the ceiling week after week to single-handedly fight off the entire NWO and save whatever poor guy they were beating on. Then his winning of the Heavyweight Title from Hogan at Starrcade.
- When Scott Steiner turned on his brother Rick and joined the NWO
- Bill Goldberg’s remarkable undefeated run through everyone and his winning of the Heavyweight Title from Hogan.
- Anytime Ric Flair, my all-time favorite, came out to wrestle or even just to talk. Sure he was a flabby chested old man, but nobody could withstand the powerful figure four leglock.
- Rey Mysterio’s high flying antics and the way that WCW embraced Mexico’s Lucha Libre style of acrobatic wrestling.
There were also some really bad moments that probably helped speed up the demise of the WCW…
- Goldberg’s defeat and then the subsquent handing over of the title to Hogan. When Kevin Nash defeated the seemingly unstoppable Goldberg (with the help of Scott Hall and a taser) that set okay with me, but then the next night on Nitro when Nash laid down and handed the belt to Hogan, I was not happy.
- I never liked the way they incorporated people from outside of the wrestling world. Does anybody remember KISS’ live performance and the subsequent KISS wrestler, or the time that David Arquette won the Heavyweight title, or the tag team match of Hogan/Dennis Rodman vs. Diamond Dallas Page/Karl Malone, or when Chucky the killer doll was stalking Rick Steiner?
- They were terribly guilty of taking good ideas, like the NWO, and exploiting them for far too long. Does anybody remember the LWO?
- Letting people like Scott Steiner, who talks like a Special Olympics athlete with roid rage, ramble on in seemingly endless addresses to other wrestlers and fans.
Overall, though, my experience with pro wrestling was a good one, but it’s hard for me to fathom now that I used to spend as much as five hours a week watching the stuff. I know that some of you, my wonderful readers, also used to be fans and I’d like to hear about some of your memories, both good and bad, about the countless nights of watching “Sports Entertainment.”
Say No to Buffets! May 14, 2006
Posted by Matt in Attempts at Humor.Tags: gay marriage, gluttony, hypocrisy
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Originally Posted 5/14/06
After much thought and deliberation, I’ve decided that it’s time for the true children of God in our Christian nation to join together and fight this epidemic of depravity sweeping our great land.
Phil 3:18-19
18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
Titus 1:12-16
12Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” 13This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. 15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
As a Christian and an American, I demand that we stand together to stop this evil of all evils, we must keep fat people from the all-you-can-eat buffets! I propose that we all contact our Congresspeople and demand that they pass legislation to keep these gluttons out of our restaurants, church potlucks, etc. We must do this to protect our children! Who knows, they may look upon these sinners and decide that lifestyle looks “fun” and then it’s a slippery slope to becoming a 400 pound hell-bound bohemoth!
Are buffets and potluck wrong in themselves? Of course not! God set love feasts (i.e. potlucks) for His people, but the devil has twisted this institution of God and turned it into a pit of sin! We must stand up and fight to return our nation back to it’s God-fearing roots!
P.S. Gay marriage is wrong, too!
And the Band Played On… May 6, 2006
Posted by Matt in Reminiscence.Tags: band, Bush, Everclear, high school, May Day, Nirvana
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Originally posted 5/6/06
Given the time of year it is, the other day I was doing a bit of reminiscing about May Day at Beebe High School – particularly about a certain band that performed there ten years ago.
Being a lover of all kinds of music, one of the things I most wanted to accomplish in my young life was to play in a band – and possibly even play in front of people. Well, during the spring of ‘96 – my senior year – that dream was finally realized. A good month or so before that special day four of us – Michael, Andy, Dustin, and I – decided that we were finally going to do it – we were going to perform in front of the entire high school.
We ran into a few problems at first, namely Dustin was the only one of the four of us with much musical talent at all. Andy, who had played drums in the school band through about 9th grade or so, borrowed a drum set from someone, I did a crash course in bass guitar, and Michael bravely took on the singing duties, despite his obvious lack of ability. The weeks leading up to our big performance was one of the most fun times I had during all of my high school years. We tons of practice hours during that time, rehearsing the few songs we could actually play well enough that we wouldn’t feel to embarassed to do in front of a few hundred of our peers, until we finally felt confident enough to step out on that gym floor…
As people filed into the gym that day, we opened with a little instrumental section of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Today,” which amounted to Dustin noodling around on his guitar while the rest of us tried to make it look like we knew what we were doing. Once everyone got seated, the grand show began…
We played three songs that day – the only three we really felt comfortable enough to play in public – Everclear’s “Santa Monica”, Nirvana’s “About a Girl”, and ended with Bush’s “Little Things.” At the time everything seemed great, it’s really not until we watched the video later that we realized just how bad we sounded. But that really didn’t matter because we had finally done something that we had talked about for years – we started a little band and got to play in front of people.
To this day, when I’m around Andy we still joke about this and talk about how much fun we had during those weeks leading up to the “concert.” It’s one of those things I won’t forget…
Viva America! May 1, 2006
Posted by Matt in Christian Beliefs, politics.Tags: Bible, illegal immigrants, politics
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Originally posted 5/1/06
All over our nation today, hundreds of thousands of immigrants – many “illegal” – marched in a dynamic show of solidarity – shutting down farms, plants, and other businesses all across the land. The illegal immigration issue, which many on the white supremacist side of the Republican party have grasped on to, is one that decent Americans on both sides of the political aisle need to stand up for. George Bush has even done his part to stick up for immigrants, rather than making them felons and either throwing them into overcrowded prisons or putting them on concentration camp-style buses to send them back across the border.
I’m not sure what the best plan is yet. I think we can all agree that we need tighter border security, but not to the point of dehumaninzing others. I don’t want to make poor immigrant families just trying to feed their children into criminals, but I’m not neccessarily in support of instant amnesty for everyone either. Maybe Bush’s guest worker plan is the best one, at least for now. We can continue allowing those that already live within our borders to stay here, but not grant them the rights of citizenship (voting, etc.) until they have earned them. I don’t think they should be allowed to partake in government services like unemployment, welfare, etc., but I do think that we should offer them health care in our public clinics if they need need it (then again I’m in favor of socializing all medical care – but that’s another post for another day). I believe that we have the obligation to feed them if needed, but not neccessarily through our government. I believe in housing the homeless and taking care of the needy.
What is the Biblical answer to immigration?
Ex 22:21 “And you shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Lev 19:9-10 “Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you reap the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the need and for the stranger.”
Lev. 19:33-34 “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
Deut 24:17-22 “You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan nor take a widow’s garment in pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again, it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and for the widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.”
I think that’s pretty cut and dry concerning this issue…
