:: Gazmission

Welcome to the 4th edition of Gazmission written for Wrestling Envy by Gary Griffiths.

After a long absence Gazmission finally returns! The best damn columnist is back..

Well it looks like I’m back doesn’t it, over a year out of the business and I return for a new column in a new year. If your looking for my opinion on ‘what went down on Raw’ or my reasons on how WCW should improve, then you’ve come to the wrong place. From the start of my tenure as a columnist all that time ago, I guaranteed myself that I would never once construct a column with them outlines. In other words what you will get is a page of writing that is different from any other column out there, and the only guidelines to follow are that it’ll be on the wild and wacky world of Pro Wrestling….


The Backstage rise of 'The Game'

Now if I was to say to you, Who has the most pull backstage?
Im guessing you, like me would say, Stone Cold and most of all HHH. And you’d be right. Triple H is the man backstage, he has done something to please Vince, and this unfortunately may result in ol Roman Nose weasling his way in to the main event of WrestleMania X-seven. Don’t get me wrong, I like HHH as much as the next wrestling fan, but I, Like most others have my heart set on a Rock – Austin main event, and the inclusion of the Game would upset the wrestling driven section of my brain. But let’s get back on track here, Trips backstage power. Now with power, you become confident and in the end develop an ego, luckily although HHH has the power he has not yet developed an ego too big backstage. But lets track back here and try to concentrate on the reason why, oh why The Game has this power. The reason my wrestling loving friend goes back as far as 1995. HHH had only just entered the WWF, and had relatively zroo friends, yep The Game was a 1 player game, a loner a nobody. That is until he was befriended by the rising star back then, Shawn Michaels. Although HBK is easily my favourite of all time, no question, I have to admit The Icon could be a troublemaker backstage. When it came to egos HBK’s had to rival Hogans (That was joke, No one, and I mean NO ONE can match Hogans!!!) HBK and the rest of his clique took in Trip with open arms. And after months, he was one of the guys, and along with the rest of the Clique made the WWF locker room a very unhappy place to be. But one by one the Clique left the WWF  and in the end all that was left was Hunter. Now here there is no doubting that Trip turned himself into a top class performer, and also in late 1998 was known as a man that would job with ease to other wrestlers. But HHH learned the hard way (back in the curtain call incident) that you have to get on the boss’s side to get to the top, and that he did, HHH soon became buds with Vince. And in turn had the power to often only job to the wrestlers he felt nesccasairy which in actual fact is a very wise method, that The Rock also empoys. But lets give the Game a break, compared to Austin he is as giving in terms of jobbing as Chris Benoit. And at the end of the day Triple H didn’t get this power by being nasty to other wrestlers, he got this by being a top quality performer, and the best heel in the business.


Egos

We all have egos you know, but most people refer to it as having ‘to much pride’. Wrestling is a place full of over sized egos. And it is well documented who the wrestlers with these egos are, Hulk, Austin, and Vince. Now here I will review each man and give my ego rating, five stars if they have a MASSIVE ego, and just one star if they have an ego, but can do the right thing for the business. So to kick things of, we have the invincible Hulk Hogan…

Hulk Hogan

Now let’s start with the WWF theme music for are patriotic friend.
“If you hurt my friends then you hurt my pride”
This is a line from the theme music, and to sum up Hogan, lets just change them words a little.
“If I job to you, then you hurt my pride”
Ahhh, that’s better, Hulk is legendary for not jobbing to other wrestlers, and at the same time not doing the ‘right’ thing for the business. A prime example of this is King of the Ring 1993. Hogan in a terribl way had won the World Title of Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX. And was booked to face, and in the end lose the belt to Bret Hart at KOTR. But Hogan was having none of it, for reasons beyond are knowledge Hogan blatantly refused to lose to the Hitman, and instead chose Yokozuna as the man to beat him for the belt. And in a sign of things to come in the career of Bret Hart, he didn’t have the honour of winning the world title of a man with an ego. Hogan later in his career would many times display this selfish attitude, and never lose matches for the good of the business, and this is why Hogan gets a high rating for a big ego.

Ego Rating = ***** 5!!!!!


Stone Cold Steve Austin

Austin hasn’t always been like this you know, and I for one can’t blame him at all for not being willing to job very much. Lets just put it this way, You have achieved almost everything you can in the business, you come back for one final Hurrah and you are expected to lose?!? I don’t think so. You will expoect to be given the best final years you can, and that involves winning for the good of your character, and that’s exactly what Austin has decided. So lets hold are beer cans up to Austin and say:
“Good luck Steve, I give you permission to never job, and therefore end your career in match winning fashion…..Oh Hell Yeah!”

Ego Rating = ***


Vincent Kennedy McMahon

Now Vince has an ego, there is no doubting that and there are many, many examples of this, but lets just pick out two. Number one has got to be the Montreal incident. Vince sensing that Hart had way too much power, more than him in fact, blatantly screwed The HitMan. Now Vince proved to all here, you never ever cross the boss. The next prime example of his pride is his complete ego trip which led to him winning the world title in Spetember 1999. He won the Title when there was really no need, just for the satisfaction of it. The evil genius probabaly loved every minute of the adulation he received as he stood in the squared circle that night and hoisted the belt high above his head.

Ego rating = ****


……..I hope you have enjoyed my fist column back after a long abscence, If you don’t think that this column was up to par, well Im sorry, as I get more and more used to writing them again they should improve. But until next time,  Enjoy your Wrestling.

• If you agree, disagree, or generally want to talk about this column, please get in touch with Gary Griffiths by clicking HERE.