AAHHHH….WHAT A RUSH!!!! Sorry to steal a line from a legendary team of the past, but there is really no other way to describe it! It felt so good to get back in the ring again, and there are so many exciting things happening in the WWE right now. I can imagine all of you out there were excited to see the pink and black attack on TV again.
I will tell you what guys, I hope you are liking the work between us and MNM as much as we are. It is a joy to be able to get in the ring with guys that can elevate your performance as well. Tonight was a great example, Joey and I don’t exactly have styles that would mesh well, but we definitely made it work and that is a credit to my counterparts ability to work well in many situations. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not getting all buddy buddy with those overly conceited guys, and Joey Nebraska is someone that is definitely not a part of the Hart Dynasty bandwagon, as evidenced by his long-winded rant in the Universe a few weeks back…but when it comes to what goes down in the ring, I will gladly work with those guys any day. Trust me, it’s only going to get more exciting from here on out. Not only in the ring, but man John, Joey, and yeah even Mike…okay maybe not Mike are bringing out the best in us all over the place, its all good though because we have some things we definitely need to say in return to their below the belt jabs tonight.
The tag team division is getting ready to explode here in the WWE, and I can speak for TJ when I say I am damn glad we are going to be major players in making that happen. There are quite a few teams chasing that gold around the waists of MNM and we for one are not going to stop until we claim those straps as our own. That’s our promise to you!
And wouldn’t ya know it, rumors are flying that Jim Neidhart is going to making an appearance at Saturday Night Main Event…Nattie doesn’t seem to want to let us in on the scoop though, which is typical of her. Canadian women are quite stubborn I tell ya. None the less, make sure you guys tune into SNME to what goes down when and if The Anvil shows up!
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.