Category Archives: Perspective

Cracking the Mega-Star Code:

I’m sure I’m not the only one that has noticed that since ”Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Rock we haven’t had any more mega-stars birthed by WWE. I’m curious why this is the case. Indulge me a bit here and think back to the atmosphere in the WWE around the time just before Austin began catching on. Think back, do you remember it? Nitro was the hot new thing and WCW was destroying WWE in the ratings each week. Even though Nitro was the hotter show with more viewers, I still waited in anticipation each week to see what Raw was going to come up with to try to get their audience back. This created an intense situation where literally anything could happen and we were guaranteed that at least SOMETHING major or novel would happen each week during the two-hour broadcast. This made for “can’t miss TV” and was a lot of fun to watch and talk about.

The Monday Night War was truly just that….a war. Just like in the history of any country in the world, when war happens the economy is jumpstarted. WWE was literally shocked out of their complacency as if they were being defibrillated back to into consciousness. Each and every week WWE was trying their absolute hardest to make something, anything stick. They turned their volume up to an 11 and put on the most controversial, entertaining, and memorable shows possible. With the WWE machine consistently running harder than it ever had run before, it was only a matter of time until it struck gold. In this case, the “gold” was Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. Now, I’m not saying that Austin and The Rock were inevitabilities. I’m saying that when you pour enough gasoline on a fire, that it’s a safe bet that something is eventually going to explode….and explode they did. Just in the nick of time to save the day, here come two mega-stars that would attract the attention of the NWO fans and bring them back to RAW to stay.

When people ask me “When is the next mega-star going to emerge?” I always say the same thing. The next mega-star will emerge when WWE starts running itself like it did during the war. Reliance on production value was never an option for WWE back in the 90s as TV was nowhere near what it has become today. Today we are in a “Golden Age of Television” where breath-taking ring entrances, cutting edge attire, eye-popping pyrotechnics, glamorous special effects, mesmerizing LED displays, and state-of-the-art equipment are seemingly more important than finding the next break-through mega-star to lead the company into the 2020s. The nostalgia bucket is pretty much empty at this point so I’m guessing that the Performance Center and NXT will be where the next mega-star is born. The WWE knows how important home-grown talent is and so far they have done an amazing job at taking guys off the street and making them superstars. The true test, however, is taking superstars and making them mega-stars….a formula that WWE (or anyone else really) has yet to crack. My belief is simple, run the WWE machine on overdrive again for as long as possible and just keep throwing fresh new scenarios and angles at the crowd until one or more really sticks. Let’s be honest here, all WWE needs is one true mega star to emerge and things can be not only back to the level of The Monday Night Wars, but even beyond that level since that era’s production value was nowhere near what is available today.

WWE Mattel Action Figures Update:

If you are an avid collector of WWE action figures like I am, you will enjoy my latest facebook video where I feature all of the latest and greatest Elite and Basic Mattel figures as well as the old Hasbro figures. I went to Columbus Farmers Market this past Sunday morning to visit my friend Will’s pro wrestling figure stand and check out all of his inventory. It’s a light hearted, enjoyable video where I introduce all of the figures, I hope you’ll find it entertaining and informative. You can view the video using this link:

In other wrestling figure news, WWE Mattel Elite Series 45 has finally shipped to RingsideCollectibles.com. The six figure series consists of “The Narcissist” Lex Luger, Seth Rollins (In his white SummerSlam 2015 attire), Roman Reigns, Lord Steven Regal, and The Dudley Boyz. These are some really sharp-looking figures and are certainly must haves for any serious collector. In my opinion, Luger’s robe alone makes his figure worth the money.

A Squash Match is not just pairs of identical pumpkins:

If you grew up watching wrestling like I did, then you are familiar with the old Saturday morning Superstars TV show the WWE used to produce. Superstars, along with All American Wrestling, Wrestling Spotlight, Prime Time Wrestling and LiveWire all featured squash matches as around 80% of their weekly content. The same can be said of WCW Main Event and Saturday Night. What was the purpose of these “Squash Matches”, why were they so important, and why did they stop?

A squash match is simply a match where a known member of the roster faces off with someone who is unknown and usually doesn’t even get a televised ring entrance. The phrase “Already in the ring” was usually used by the ring announcer before introducing the opponent in one of these matches. Probably some of the most well-known squash matches came at the hands of Bill Goldberg on WCW Nitro back in the 90s. Week after week Goldberg would destroy some local wannabe wrestler and add another tick mark on the wall that caused his undefeated streak to skyrocket. Even though no one in their right mind thought any of these guys had a chance of actually beating Goldberg, the fans still went nuts every time. Squash matches help wrestlers build up some momentum so when they finally do face a reputable opponent, it makes the match that much more anticipated and important. I have to ask the question of without squash matches would there have even been a Bill Goldberg? For that matter, would there have been an X-PAC?

Recently, RAW has brought the squash matches back to our TV screens each week. Braun Strowman and Nia Jax have both been benefitting from weekly squash matches. They are both being built up as monsters that dominate their opponents week after week and need to be taken very seriously by other roster members. I thoroughly enjoy watching these matches on Raw and find them so refreshing. I was really surprised to see that Bo Dallas was also given a squash match last week on RAW. This shattered my belief that squash matches were only being brought back for Braun and Nia as a tool to get them over. Now I’m beginning to think that the RAW brand has brought them back as a permanent fixture, and this really makes me happy.

The fact that only RAW, and not SmackDown Live, has brought squash matches back to television really shows the viewers that the two brands really do have two separate creative teams. The brand split is not a work after all, its legitimate. That makes me feel all warm inside that the two brands are actually going to compete for the viewer’s attention. I see it as a win/win scenario for the fans.

Before I go on to my next topic, I want to say that enhancement talent from yesteryear are ultimately responsible for getting the superstars over. Guys like Iron Mike Sharpe, Tony DeVito, Barry O, Johnny K-9, Steve Lombardi, Barry Horowitz, and Sam Houston did the superstars favors by letting them beat them so fast so they could gain momentum and credibility with the fans. The squash match talent are truly the unsung heroes of professional wrestling and they deserve to be recognized as the selfless, professionals that they really are. I actually feel that Tony DeVito is THE most underappreciatd and underrated pro wrestler in the history of the sport. That man is a class act and is willing to help out anyone who truly has a passion for pro wrestling. In my pro wrestling career, my matches for Ring of Honor against him and his partner HC Loc were some of my favorite matches I’ve ever been a part of. I learned a ton from seeing how a veteran like DeVito carried himself backstage, how he operated in the ring, and his mindset while calling the matches. From all of us here I’d like to say THANK YOU to the enhancement talent of yesteryear for all that you’ve given to the wrestling business, you are appreciated and loved by everyone who is smart enough to realize just how profound your contribution to this sport was.

Tag Team Revolution Addendum:

I need to add something to last week’s article about the topic of a Tag Team Revolution being a real possibility. I failed to include one of the tag teams currently in the forefront of SmackDown Live, The USOs. Somehow their paragraph was cut off of the final copy I sent in for publishing so I’m including it here:

The USOs (Jimmy and Jey): Another team on the main roster that is bona fide wrestling royalty. Samoan Dynasty members, The USOs are identical twin brothers who have good size and speed and are believable to inflict pain on any roster member. If you’ve seen Total Divas on the E! Network, you know just how funny and down to Earth the USOs really are. I wish WWE could find a way to make their real-life personas bleed through into their on-air characters. The WWE has done a lot in the past to give them the rub from their superstar family members such as their father, Rikishi and their cousin, The Rock. I’m not sure it is enough though; I think the brothers need more TV time in order to really endear their personalities to the world. Notice I have only talked about their personas, that’s because their wrestling ability is top-notch and they are an extremely cohesive unit. Other than being a bit smaller in stature, these guys are the third incarnation of the Wild Samoan tag team. Like The Headshrinkers before them, I see a long future for this team.

Thanks again for reading and if you wish to send me feedback or if you have a topic you’d like me to cover in a future column, you can do so via the following:

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JohnnyKashmere

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Via Email: JohnnyKashmere@hotmail.com

My name is Missy Morrison, I was born in Fort Lauderdale,Florida and grew up living in Port Charlotte,Florida for 15 years before moving up to Delaware County, Pennslyvania. When I was younger and still living in Florida,I never thought about the lifestyle choices that you begin to make when you start to become an adult. All I ever worried about was playing games like man hunt at night with my neighborhood friends and I remember chasing the ice cream truck every day on my bicycle! I have always had a passion for music especially when I was a kid, but I was dealing with severe depression and anxiety growing up as a child. I had such bad anxiety to the point where I couldn’t even order food at any food stand or restaurant that I came in contact with because I was terrified of talking to people. My anxiety was that bad.

As a child you could say I was an ugly duckling, I was forced to wear braces, glasses, and HORRIBLE case of acne. I was made fun of in middle school all the time by the bullies.The bullies favorite jokes where to call me pizza face, four eyes and train tracks. It became so bad that I ended up starting to cut myself and I turned to my radio whenever I got depressed or anxious. I would listen to my rock music and my heavy metal!.

When I moved up here to Pennsylvania I was 15 going on 16 years old and I was getting ready to start my freshman year of high school at a place where I didn’t know one single person.I was the new girl and I was completely terrified to the point where I didn’t even want to go to any of my classes, let alone school for that matter.I started hanging with my cousin, who is older than me and was at the stage in his life where all he did was party and get wild.I later became Friends with a good amount of people who were all probably about 4 or 5 years older than me; which led to me partying more often with my cousin and another group of friends which led me to getting into drugs

In the beginning, It wasn’t bad, I would do stuff here and there and it didn’t seem like a lot. It came to the point where I started doing drugs almost every single day to the point where if I missed a dosage I’d go into immediate withdrawal and to me thats where my well being went down hill! I now needed to have something every day or I would get sick and that withdrawal was the most horrible,intense,disgusting, soul draining, sickening feelings that I have ever experienced in my entire life!

Slowly becoming a drug addict was not part of my plan in life.When I was younger I had thought that I was invincible and I never thought that this would of never happened to me. My addiction had became so bad that I was stealing and lying to my family.I became the biggest liar that anyone in my family had ever seen.I didn’t care about my loved ones or my friends, let alone myself! I plummeted towards the lowest point in my life and hit rock bottom and all I could do everyday was pray to God asking him to help me be strong and to find the strength to beat this disease.

I then met a man through a mutual friend, his Name was Eddie and we started dating in 2012, It didn’t take long into our relationship that he figured out just how bad of a drug addict I really was ( I had lied to him when he first asked me if I was a drug user ) I decided not to lie or sugar coat anything in this brief history of my life-story, I treated this poor man like absolute shit to the point where him and his niece brittany gave me an ultimatum…. I either would go to rehab or I would be evicted from the house that we were living in. I was terrified of the thought of going to rehab but after serious contemplation, I caved in and I ended up going to Mirmont rehab.Making the decision to check into a treatment center saved my life as I would probably be dead right now!! I ended up staying in rehab for about 2 weeks, the rehab wanted me to stay for another week or so but I wasn’t having it so I ended up checking myself out of rehab and of course all the counselors that worked there told me I wouldn’t last 5 hours on the streets before I would start getting high again. However, I just knew in my heart that I was done with drugs and that I wanted to have my soul back.

Thankfully,I’ve been clean now for 2 and a half years! You want to know what my passion is? My passion is to be able to be a great, strong-minded, positive example for not only myself but for others that are still dealing with this terrible disease! I had to retrain my way of thinking and my way of dealing with certain things and certain actions ! It took a good amount of time and will power for me to be able to be where I’m at today. I’m telling every reader out there that is or has a family member still dealing with this disease, You can conquer this and be an amazing,strong ,ambitious person. My passion in life is to help others in need and to be there and do good for those who may need a helping hand ! I know in my heart that as long as I continue to do good deeds for others and be a positive example for my peers, my elders and the young children. My mind,body,and soul will be at peace knowing that I have become the change that I wish to see in the world.