Not Just Your Average Mark (or How I learned To Stop Caring and Love Pro-Wrestling)

I came late to the world of pro-wrestling. While I certainly watched it and enjoyed as a youngster as I got older the shame of liking it became too much and I convinced myself that it was stupid and put it behind me. I was, in reality, lying to myself as I would find myself watching one program or another of it weekly. But I never really fully enjoyed it. I found it relied too heavily on hoacky angles and lame characters. It wasn't until I started working with a man by the name of Glen Salter (a sort of culture guru for me) that I was shown the light and truly embraced my love of the sport. Glen showed me that wrestling wasn't all WWF or the, then recently, defunct WCW. I was shown the glories the were ECW, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, AWA, the insanity and brutality of Japanese feds like FMW and New Japan and amazing new small federations known as Ring Of Honor and Combat Zone Wrestling, both of which this year received increased profile by the prominent role they played in the film The Wrestler. And yes: I know it is staged, and yes: I can see the homoerotic qualities of it but I also see that it is amazingly fun to watch. And recently Fucked Up has received, what is in my opinion, the ultimate honor: OUR SONG "GENERATION" IS BEING USED AS ENTRANCE. The wrestler the American Dragon Bryan Danielson, arguably: the greatest wrestler alive, now enters the ring to "Generation". How insane is that? He enters here at about the 30 second mark but watch the whole match it is amazing.