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Archive for April, 2009

I’ve never been a fan of Mickey Rourke, nor am I a fan of many wrestling-themed movies, because so few ever even come close to getting it right. That’s where The Wrestler surprised me. Rourke’s performance was superior to the absolute best moments of Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, while director Darren Aronofsky adroitly captures the mood and atmosphere of pro wrestling.

Of course, I’m not talking about life in WWE here; I’m talking about this small, one-state promotions that are basically the talent farms for the big guys like WWE, TNA and the mid-majors. These are also the places where burned-out talent goes to die, and that’s the sort of character Rourke portrays.

While many comparisons have been made between Rourke’s Randy “The Ram” Robinson and the careers of Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair, the image I kept getting in my head was that of Shawn Michaels, since that’s the sort of wrestler Rourke would fit in with better. And his fate is as sad as any suffered by the victims of Mesothelioma.

Anyway, the movie was terrific… something I don’t often say about wrestling movies. But this one could have been lifted straight out of Have A Nice Day by Mick Foley.

It’s not often that I stray outside the WWE to talk about other aspects of professional wrestling, but I had to mention how much I enjoy the app known as Wrestler on Facebook. You can build your own wrestler, purchase moves, train, join a tag-team as well as a stable, and just generally do a lot of matches.

In the early going, it’s frustrating because it’s hard to win when you only have a half-dozen moves and everyone else has twenty. But it’s a trial by fire that soon fades from memory. Sure, it’s not as fun as a series of European cruises, but it’s a whole lot less expensive, too.

The WWE’s Backlash PPV offered up three title matches and three new champs this past weekend; set your conversion rate optimization to calculate the odds of that, bucko!

On the ECW front, Christian became the new title-holder, while the WWE title was put around Randy Orton’s waist and Edge defeated John Cena to take the World Heavyweight title back to SmackDown. It was a turbulent night, as a result, and indicates the WWE is a bit unhappy with the status quo they’d stuck with through last month’s WrestleMania.

Time for some new champs and new storylines in the wake of the Draft, apparently.

Not everyone can succeed in professional wrestling. In fact, out of the entire nation, the WWE employs only about six to 10 divas at any one time. Even if you include other promotions, you’re talking about less than 100 job opportunities, and fierce competition for every single spot.

So it’s good to consider a back-up career, you aspiring divas-to-be! That’s where St. Xavier’s Masters in Nursing program is a much better bet. The job opportunities for nurses are far more numerous, and the careers far more rewarding in the long run. The clinical nurse leader degree offered by St. Xavier’s means you’ll be highly trained, able to meet the dynamic and ever-changing needs of employers in this field.

The degree offers the convenience of online training with the discipline of some on-campus experience, and with St. Xavier’s, you know you’re receiving your training in the field from accomplished and highly professional staff. The MS Nursing degree is a great way to enter an in-demand career field, whether you aspire to WWE Diva-hood or not!

For my money, the best roster move coming out of the recent WWE Draft is the move that shifted Chris Jericho from Raw to SmackDown. While some folks could see this as a demotion for Jericho, the truth is that Jericho has very nearly been the WWE’s most valuable player over the past year, providing the most “match of the year” candidate matches of anyone on a WWE roster, except perhaps for Shawn Michaels, his feud partner throughout most of 2008.

Truth is, Smackdown has been a worst of WWE’s three weekly broadcasts for some time now, but with Jericho now on Smackdown, that has the potential to change; he immediately becomes the most important member of the SmackDown roster and could easily carry the top title with honor, though to be honest, he doesn’t need it to enhance his drawing power.

While commercials hawking Fenphedra have often been more entertaining on Friday night than Smackdown’s main event matches, that now has a chance to change.