There are many reasons to lament the changes that have happened in the wrestling business in the past few decades, but there are some things we should all be glad to see let go. In the wake of Axl Rotten’s death, former ECW star Nova went on Facebook to praise the current generation of wrestlers for letting the eschewing the old ways of the wrestling business in favor of video games and other, much safer vices. The movement from bar fights to Mario Cart has as much to do with the change in our journalistic culture as anything. TMZ is always lurking, especially if you’re a WWE star. But the truth is the video game tournaments hosted by Xavier Woods and the like are keeping wrestlers out of trouble and away from the dangers that continue to take a toll on the heroes of the past.
I enjoy the wild stories of Johnny Valentine, Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, and the Freebirds as much as anyone. But I am glad that so many of today’s stars have chosen to be a little wiser with their leisure and travel time. Hopefully the coming decades will give us more old wrestlers telling stories and fewer “gone too soon” headlines.
Outlaw Ben Wood was not a native of Louisville, but like many pro wrestling hopefuls in the last two decades, he relocated to the River City to train at OVW in hopes of being noticed by WWE. Wood came in with Mike “Nova” Bucci and a few other East Coast wrestlers and stayed quite a while. He caught the eye of the WWE and even got a tryout offer, but injuries caught up to the promising talent and he eventually had to hang up the boots.
