Friday, July 06, 2007

WWF (not the wildlife thingy)

Came across this article about pro-wrestlers dying young the other day, in lieu of the murder-suicide case of Chris Benoit. In case you haven't the foggiest due to total disinterest in wrestling (hehehe), it's last month's bizarre case where a 40 y.o wrestler strangled his wife and smothered his child, then committed suicide, for reasons not fully known yet. But apparently his personal physician has been charged with improperly dispensing drugs.

Anyway, according to the article, aside from the odd accident or health-related deaths, most of the others involve drug abuse and intoxification. And no wonder too, since most of them will already have been on steroids for years and years just to get those bulging biceps and bulging everything lah. I guess there's just that much abuse that the body can take, before it (body and mind) begin to crumble. Sayangnya, such fine physical specimens *hmmm*

Actually, aku dah lama sangat tak follow wrestling ni. Dulu, menjangkit minat dari Abah, masa in the 1980s and early 1990s, aku tengok wrestling because it was still a fair sports. Masa tu tengok WWF (World Wrestling Federation) yang ada Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Ultimate Warrior, The Rock (dia ni jadi pelakon lepas pencen wrestling kan?), Stone Cold, Mick Foley (mamat ni patah riuk dah satu badan, tapi tak serik dok bergasak lagi), Rick Flair, Junkyard Dog, Bret Hart to name a few. Aku minat ngan Ultimate Warrior, walaupun badan tak berapa besar, tapi the proportions cun dan dia punya 'comeback power' best betul heheh. Masa tu tau jugak la terms & nama positions and maneuvers wrestling, tapi now dah lupa ah.

Later on mulalah keluar karektor yang pelik-pelik, cam The Undertaker, dan yang guna gimik cam Jake The Snake yang selalu bawa karung guni isi ular sawa. Yang perangai bodoh alang pun ada gak, cam Bushwhackers yang kepala gondol dan apakenama yang selalu bawak kayu 2by4 tu. Yang bagak nak mampus pun ada, Andre the Giant. Also tag teams, yang baik cam Owen Hart & British Bulldog, the Hart Foundation (yang aku nyampah ngan managernya si Jimmy Hart tu) dan team jahat cam Demolition.

Around mid 1990s aku dah hilang minat sebab tengok wrestling macam tengok teater. Kadang-kadang lebih banyak bercakap dari bermain (bergasak?). Game pun dah dibuat-buat, berlakon jatuh la, banyak drama! Masa ada DrLove tu lagi la aku nyampah tengok muka pink dia tu yang tak habis-habis nak provoke the good wrestlers. Lagipun masa tu aku kat uni, tengok tv kat common room, manalah nak ada geng tengok wrestling :-)

Rasanya around this time jugak they start to have female wrestlers and/or managers. I remember beautiful and soft Elizabeth, dia selalu accompany Macho Man, kalau tak silap, tapi lepas tu beralih cinta pada Lex Luger (eh betul ke ni? tak brapa sure). And Sherri... ha yang ni garang sket hehe. Tapi diorang ni macam accessories je la, sometimes jadik barang rebutan antara male wrestlers. Tulah, banyak drama dari sports, kan?

Masa tu, yang seronok tengok wrestling ni ngan arwah nenek aku, sebab dia punya running commentary spontan giler hehehe. She'll wince when someone gets hit, "adoiii!", and cheers the good guys on with "ha pukul dia.. ha..ha.. pukul..!" Alamak, dun get me wrong, she was a very sweet timid old lady, tapi kekadang over excited hehehe :-) Lagi satu yang aku rasa kelakar, bila yang menang tu badan bagak sangat ataupun jenis shape yang tak brapa ada pinggang, so bila dah menang Title Belt tu, tak muat pakai plak belt tu so sangkut kat bahu je hehehe.

Anyway, reading the article, baru aku perasan banyak nama yang aku familiar dulu tu, rupanya dah goal. Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr.Perfect, Big Boss Man, Hercules, Chris Adams, Yokozuna with his rambut jepun, Ravishing Rick Rude with his rotating hips (huhuhuuu), Owen Hart (nice guy), semuanya mati sebelum umur 50, mostly on drugs and alchohol.

I wonder what happened to the rest of 'em? About the only one yang paling gah is Jesse Ventura, who was elected as Governor of Minnesota some time back. Mungkin yang lain tu pun dah pencen, dan macam bapak aku, dok umah jaga cucu :-)

4 comments:

Dade Ghost said...

Jie yg aku ingat Killer Kowalski (entah betul tidak ejaan dia)?? Dah mati kot dia.... specialty dia menebuk perut orang dengan tangan dia....

P/S: Kamu dah baca ke meme aku tu???

Dr. Shaikh Mohd Saifuddeen said...

Ler, minat wrestling rupanya dia. *lari takut kena piledriver Jie... kekekekek...

Anyway, Andre the Giant, Elizabeth (yg accompany Macho Man) dan Davey-Boy Smith (one half of British Bulldogs) pun dah mati dah. Tak silap semuanya drug overdosed.

Yang mana yang masih alive and probably kicking, ramai yang jadi pelakon. The Rock we all know. Macho Man Randy Savage appeared as a wrestler in Spider-Man (the first movie). A few others acted in B-movies.

JIE said...

Salaam DG,

Tak ingat plak Kowalski tu, tapi tebuk perut orang tu kira brutal abih!

Dah baca meme, ternganga aku ngan jawapan tertentu hahaha :-)

JIE said...

Salaam Kelana,

Laa, minat wrestling ke hehehe :-)

Tulahnya keje depa ni kesian sebenarnya, masa badan sihat oklah ada income, bila dah tua ke sakit ke, susah dah nak carik keje, kut dapat berlakon B-movie pun dah cukup baik kan. Agaknya yg overdose tu, mungkin depressed kot...