Hey guys, TJ here doing a little writing from the road to WrestleMania!!! So as you have probably noticed here at the pink and black attack, we have been kinda MIA, just wanted to send a quick apology as we all have been busy back in Canada tending to some family issues. All is well in Calgary, but it was good to get up there and spend some time with my friends and the people I consider family.
After Nattie's dad, my future father-in-law, made his appearance on RAW and questioned our alliances here in the WWE, it really made each of us take a step back and really consider where we are, and where we are headed. Needless to say, we had a long talk with pretty much the whole family, and now that everyone has had a chance to make their points, it seems like the Shawn Michaels situation is cleared up. How crazy is it that even as relative newcomers to the big time, here we are appearing at WM25 in a tag team title match!!! We all are extremely grateful for this opportunity, and regardless of the outcome just know that this match is one you do NOT want to miss. The work we have been able to do with the John Morrison, Joey Nebraska, and that other guy have done wonders for us in a very short amount of time. I can only imagine that the tag team division here in the E is about to have an extended run as a focal point of our shows, and to hold the titles will mean even that much more!
So the three of us are actually driving down to Texas and we cannot wait to get involved in some of the work up to the big day. We have not had a chance to work any of the house shows in Texas, but I am sure we will have some dates in the next day or two, nost likely get some work in with Chavo or Rey...keep a look out here for details. Also, I am pretty sure we will be at fan axxess signing autographs and taking pictures for anyone that wants to get some face time with the best young tag team in the WWE! The nerves of performing at WrestleMania haven't kicked in just yet, although I am sure they will come on rather quickly as the day draws closer...I can say, while we were home we had a chance to talk to Bret and Jim about the spectacle that is WM and how they dealt with the nerves, which really helped! We even brought back some tapes of their WM matches, and I think DH and I are going to sit and watch through them to see if we can bring back some memories of the Hart Foundation's WrestleMania history.
Somehow I got stuck in the back seat with DH driving, and unfortuantely that means Nattie has control of the radio...and don't tell her I said this, but her taste in music SUCKS!!!
I must say, I cannot wait until we get to Houston...I love traveling and seeing the country, but this trip has been nothing but lakes and corn...pretty boring if you ask me. Not to mention, I haven't really had the chance to talk to any of the guys lately and it will be good to catch up with them and get back to the normal banter we are used to. The few times I have had the chance to text one of the guys it was usually late or they were at a show, so we didnt really get to chat. All is good though, I hear from Jeff that Assassin is still a virgin and he shot me a text to let me know Arkham Asylum rawks (his word, not mine). It also seems like the guys are excited about the annual release of our polygoned clones for the Playstation and XBox, although the feelings about whether or not THQ did a good job of putting the game together seem to be mixed.
So DH just asked why I was writing a book in the backseat, told him I was blogging...he and Natalya say hello to everyone...oh lord, I hope she doesn't read it now that she knows I am writing one, she will KILL ME and probably cut off my beautiful hair! Anyways, it is time to stop and get some grub so we will catch up with you guys soon, much sooner now that we are going to be back in the loop!
Controversial and Joey Nebraska seem to go hand-in-hand. But ‘controversial’ appears to have become a dirty word. People hear ‘controversial’ and they automatically assume controversy means lies. But this isn’t the case. Just because something is controversial, doesn’t take away any of its legitimacy.
Ever since The Opium Den was pulled before it ever even aired, for being “too controversial”, and since ECW on Sci-Fi got scrapped, the Narcotic Nightmare & MNM have been largely without a voice – the Parents Television Council placing pressure on US Network & MyNetwork TV executives to get WWE to reduce our on-screen air time and edit our segments. For too long we have had to endure censorship bordering on suppression. (yes kids, this is the legacy ‘cool’ Michael Shane has left us with).
But there’s some things you cannot edit, censor or hold down, and Joey Nebraska is one of them! So using the medium of the internet, I bring to you, the WWE Universe, MNM 2009’s first on-line dirt sheet – and our topic of discussion this week – DH Smith & the Hart Triology.
Harry, last week on RAW – in only your second televised appearance, you had the audacity to call me out. But you didn’t just start a war of words – you went down the ‘personal’ path, bringing my personal life into my business.
Lets start with the facts, with what you did get right – I AM Canadian by birth… but that is where the truth ends. Had you of dug a little deeper, you may have uncovered more of my story.
My parents were separated when I was still young, and I spent my holidays travelling between Canada & the States. My father was well-to-do. My mother, although the picture of respectability, was, with all due respect, never an intellect. She was vulnerable. Although their divorce appeared civilized on the outside, behind closed doors it was bitter. My father’s mistress fell pregnant soon after the split, and his allegiances and focus changed. We were very much his ‘other’ family, whilst his attention turned to his new brood. Despite being young, I was fully aware of my mother’s delicate and fragile state of mind, so I made the choice to put further distance between myself and my father, by moving permanently to Stateside to be by my mother’s side. It is a decision I resented her for. And one, which despite our animosity towards each other, strangely drew me & my father closer together. Our relationship was not a loving one, yet a strong one.
As a result, I spent term time with my mother, and was educated in Boston, MA. Ever since I can remember I was brought up an American, in America. My father, of dual nationality himself, never challenged this. My nationality seemed more of an issue to the playground bullies, already full of ammunition for the ‘single-parent’ kid, then it ever did to me. As I grew older, I learned about my Canadian roots, but I always considered myself to be American. It was not until later again, until I came to travel the world in pursuit of my dream to become a professional wrestler, travelling to overseas shores, such as Mexico & Japan, when I came to apply for a passport, that my nationality would again become an issue. You see, all my life, my nationality has been more about other people, than it ever has about me. Nationality doesn’t define me, it doesn’t define anybody! Nationality is just a branding device. A tool deployed by prejudice bigots, or more than likely, brain-dead patriots.
That said… I am not without objection to Canada. Canada has, afterall, helped sodomize the business I love – Pro-AMERICAN-Wrestling.
There’s no point denying it. Quite simply – you people need to get over it. It was over a decade ago – and without it, the WWE and wrestling itself would never have got to the heights that it did. It defined and helped spawned an era. An era which in turn captivated the minds of youthful America – of minds like me. Got me addicted. Got me hooked. And which turned me into a fan, and then a wrestler. Wrestling needed Montreal. But what seemed at first like a gift, has turned into a curse.
I am sick of hearing about Montreal. SICK! Everybody knows that Bret screwed Bret. His ego, his own sense of self gratification wouldn’t allow him to drop the belt under anything than his own conditions. He got what he deserved. WCW sucked. He sucked in WCW. And WCW failed. Where is Bret Hart now? But still, it goes on.
Everytime the WWE rolls in Canada, they can’t help but remind us. But they do not benefit us or themselves. They will openly boo the person portraying the good guy, Shawn Michaels. And openly cheer the person portraying the bad guy, JUST because he happens to be Canadian. Well, I’m sorry, but on my way to the top, to the big league, I jobbed a thousand times in my own hometown, busting a gut to do what I love. Hell, I’d go right out there now and do it again if it was right for business. It isn’t disrespect, it’s part of a story.
My second issue with Canada, is it’s loveaffair, it’s affinity with everything Hart. It’s delusion at the Hart Dungeon and it’s worth in today’s scene. And today we have the last three surviving students, the final three graduates from Grampa Stu’s basement: Harry Smith, TJ Wilson & Natayla Neidhart on our active roster. Yes, there's an Elisabeth Fritzl joke in there somewhere.
Now I don’t just talk to all Canadians, but to Harry Smith directly himself:
Perhaps the biggest insult of all, is your blinkered and blinded view on the Hart Family Dungeon, and the fact that you disregard and disrespect any Canadian athlete who succeeds in this business, who ISN’T a product of Fuhrer Stu’s famed academy. And that’s the point.
For every Canadian wrestler who busts their gut trying to make it and fails, you can bet your ass there’s a Hart, or part of their extensive family, willing and waiting just to pussyfoot into the next available generic tactical technician role in any number of backward wrestling promotions across the score. The list of wrestlers who have been buried as a direct result of having no connections with the Harts is vast and plentiful, but I’ll mention just a few:
Sean Morley – better known to most people as ‘Val Venis’. A great and talented wrestler – but when it came down to it, he was lumbered a lousy, one trick-pony gimmick which amused fans for all of 1998 before it got tedious and later forgotten. Sean has my respect because he didn’t feel the need to play up his heritage. He never felt that it mattered what his nationality was, and therefore never made it a forefront of his persona. Had Sean trained under the tutelage of Stu Hart, I have no doubt we would never have seen Val Venis. I also believe Sean Morley would be a former World Champion, remembered for being a brilliant worker. But ultimately, on the downside, we would also have had the fact that he was Canadian shoved down our throats week-in, week-out, and the Harts taking all the glory of his success. Sean didn’t sell-out. As a result he was less successful in the squared circle, and walked away less well-off financially. But he did it as a matter of principle. He did things his way.
But he’s not alone. There are more. Chris Jericho – the Liontamer. Y2J. One of the biggest personalities this business has ever seen – openly, and accurately dismissed his leg of training in the Dungeon as a waste of time – a rip-off in fact. No more than a tick-box fast track to pretentious, hollow success – a Fool’s Gold medal. I think there’s no coincidence that Jericho happens to be a larger-than-life, in-your-face, charismatic, loud and eccentric entertainer who saw the Hart Dungeon as a joke. Jericho is the ying to their yang. Jericho embodies everything that a Hart is not – individual. Unique. Funny. Compelling.
I could go on – Lance Storm. Another son of Canadian wrestling lost in the void. And another who had nothing but a damning verdict on the actual legitimacy of Stu Hart’s Dungeon. A man who, I might add, now runs his own very successful wrestling training academy.
Lance Storm – surely a guy you can sympathize with and relate too, Harry. A man with an abundance of talent, but no charisma. No character. A man who, if you were unfortunate enough to be stuck in a conversation with, would send you to sleep through the sheer boredom of his one-dimensional, robotic personality. A man who was stuck with a shitty gimmick, and although he had the ability to stand amongst World Champions, ultimately chose the dignified option of walking away himself before he became just another joke in the history of Canadian professional wrestling.
I didn’t enrol in the Dungeon, not because I wasn’t talented enough, but because I was smart enough to see the Dungeon for what it truly was. Because I wanted to make it in my own right. To prove that to be the best you don’t just have to jump on the bandwagon of an institution that lives off its past reputation. I didn’t enrol at the Dungeon because I wanted to be my own man. I didn’t enrol at the Dungeon because this business does not need another star with the Sharpshooter as a finisher. I didn’t enrol at the Dungeon because Stu Hart is a senile dictator, too disillusioned by his own freakshow family and own sense of self-importance that he and his understudies have lost touch with modern wrestling. And I didn’t enrol at the Dungeon, because graduating from the Dungeon is not a gift, but a curse.
Take a look. The evidence is there for all to see. I won’t mention names – we are all, regrettably, all too familiar with the events and tragedies that seem to emanate from Calgary, Alberta. (Surely the most evil place on the planet, it could be argued – Austrians take note).
I have never denied my Canadian roots, but I will support and defend my American allegiance to the hills! But quite frankly, I’m not Joey Nebraska ‘the’ Canadian, neither I am Joey Nebraska ‘the’ American – I am simply Joey Nebraska ‘WRESTLER’! And my actions will speak louder and resonate around this industry for decades to come than any patriotic, borderline racist talk ever will. And perhaps that’s something the Hart Dynasty, and Canadian wrestling fans, need to take a long, hard look at.
Hey guys TJ here, just sitting in the locker room down here in Birmingham…what a night! I’m not gonna lie to any of you, it is quite surreal for DH, Nattie, and myself to be doing what we are doing right now. You wouldn’t think that would be the case, what with Nattie and DH being second generation superstars here I the WWE. David would be the first to tell you though, last week when we were standing tall in that ring with Shawn Michaels…I mean really no one thought that would ever happen.
One thing I can tell you is what you saw tonight from David was real, he did not take kindly to what John had to say about Owen Hart. You all know how sad a day it was when Owen lost his life, it really hit the family hard, as you could probably tell by the David’s reaction to it. Looks like he will get to take some of that aggression out on Johnny boys ex-Canadian buddy on Smackdown, I can’t wait for that! Oh yeah, and he is gonna pull something out of his bag of tricks…nothing major, but what can I say the Hart family does it right!
Being involved with one of the most iconic families in wrestling history is actually much tougher than you guys out there might think. What you see on TV is great, but you wouldn’t believe the work we have to put in, earning respect around here is tough…it definitely doesn’t just come with a name. Speaking of, I don’t want any emails from the fans asking if we are going to join Legacy. We got our hands full with that trio of B-list movie stars to deal with right now.
Man, I didn’t even have a match tonight and I am beat…the traveling from Tampa to New York, back to Tampa, and then to Birmingham alone has started to take its toll. None the less, big things going on for The Hart Dynasty right now…you see my girl Natalya tonight, quite impressive out there isn’t she? Which reminds me, I definitely need to keep my tabs on her when Michael Shane is around, never know if he is gonna look for another locker room fling. He is a good guy and all, well when he isn’t finger painting with blood at least.
All in all it was a pretty good night…I think Nat, David, and myself are gonna meet up with some of the other guys for a drink or two. Doubt I for one will make it too much longer though, I think we are going to try to make a stop into some of our old stomping grounds down here in the south before we head to Tampa to make an FCW appearance. Don’t worry though, we will keep the updates coming, giving the fans of the pink and black a glimpse into our worlds. Feel free to email questions for any of us, and send us any pictures you may have taken if you were at any of the shows. I can’t guarantee we will answer all of the emails, but we will try! Get at you guys soon…gotta run, Teddy is calling…usually never a good thing when he is calling this late.