Sunday Thoughts

Early yesterday morning I logged onto 411Mania and discovered that Andrew "Test" Martin had been found dead in his home at the age of 34. I was shocked and saddened to hear that another wrestler whom I had been a fan of in my youth had passed away. To be honest, Test kind of lost me with the Scott Steiner feud in 2003 and his 2006 return to ECW didn't set the world on fire, but in my younger, more innocent "mark" days, I liked Test quite a bit. There was a transition period in my life when I went from liking professional wrestling to loving it and having it become my main entertainment interest. A big part of the hook that pulled me in was Test's romance with Stephanie McMahon, and the match he had against Shane at Summerslam 1999 for the right to be with her. If I were to go back and watch the match now, I might not be as impressed with it, but at the time I thought it was dramatic storytelling at it's finest. Later on when Stephanie dumped Test for Triple H, I was begging for Test to get some revenge. It never quite panned out, but it was a joy to see Test squash William Regal for the European Championship. From there, I kept waiting for Test to get elevated to the main event, and that never happened either. A lot of people like to blame Test's lack of ability for this, but I would point out that there were times when Test was legitimately on fire with the fans and had the WWF taken advantage of that instead of putting him on the backburner, Test could have been a big deal. I feel the same way about Shelton Benjamin more often than not these days.

There has been a lot of debating lately over the announcement that Koko B. Ware is going to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. I can definitely see both sides of the argument. Those that support this induction will say that Ware was ahead of his time, a memorable character, and consistently over with the fans. Detractors will point out that he was a glorified jobber, an average worker, and never held any major titles or was a top draw. It is pleasing to me that the WWE Hall of Fame is taken so seriously these days, because when it was first brought back in 2004, the attitude I saw across the IWC was that it was a joke. The induction of Pete Rose that year didn't help, though I do buy the explanation that the HOF has a celebrity wing and that the induction of a celebrity isn't treated with the same importance as when true wrestling legends get inducted. In the end, I do not mind the induction of Ware as he is someone that a lot of people do remember and he was a popular character in an age when wrestling was incredibly hot. Induction Ware does open the door to possible future inductions of other midcarders from the past ten years that some people may not consider worthy either. Think about it, guys like Val Venis, D'Lo Brown, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, Goldust, and The Godfather were popular midcarders during the Attitude Era and all held the Intercontinental Championship. I can see it being spun by WWE that these guys could get in some day, why not, since Koko B. Ware is in? Ultimately, I see the Hall of Fame as a nice chance to remember the stars of yesterday and give them a moment for their hard work in front of an audience of their peers. The Hall of Fame didn't mean anything to me until I started witnessing how touched many of the inductees were. That's what it's really about, I'm not worried about protecting it from any "unworthy" additions.