Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Reading Between The Ropes. Many wrestlers in the WWE are underrated and under-used. Many talents are forced to lose to wrestlers that are in no way, shape or form, in their league as an athlete. We all have our opinions on who are the top athletes in the wrestling industry, and we all feel injustice if one of those talents is not given the success and exposure they deserve. One wrestler whose name often crops up in the category of under-utilised talent who deserves far greater success than they’re achieving is Christian. For a couple of years now fans have often stated that Christian was not getting the pushes and titles he deserved. Presumably, Jay Reso felt the same and, this week, decided to act upon said feelings.
Yes, Christian has left the WWE and those who follow him closely will have mixed feelings on the news. It is worth pointing out before I get in to the meat of this issue that I am a huge fan of Jason Reso and I feel that he definitely deserved to achieve far greater things than he did in the WWE. He is a solid performer and he rarely, if at all, has a bad match or lets anyone down when he steps through those ropes to compete.
So, why the mixed feelings? Well, many people often complain and talk a lot about what they will do. Many people bemoan their predicament. However, few people DO something about it. In fact, you can narrow that down to many people in the wrestling world – no, the WWE, bemoan their predicament. They should be winning more matches, gaining those pushes and winning those title belts. The fact is that you usually hear this from guys who have been released by the WWE. The wrestler will then come out and state that they were unhappy with their treatment and they felt they deserved a bigger push as a superstar. I don’t need to give examples, there’s plenty out there to discover.
My point is that these people didn’t do something about it. I don’t blame them for not doing so. It takes a lot to walk out of a secure job with a healthy salary. A well-paid job is a dream for most people, and many of those in the upper tier of pay hierarchies are happy in their job for that very reason. However, those who are unhappy rarely do something about it because they realise that financial security is a very comforting and reassuring thing in our life and that, if we should one day find it, it would take a great deal for us to walk away from it.
The list of wrestlers that have talked a lot about doing something or complained about their treatment after being released makes Christian’s stance all the more remarkable. The last time I saw a stance like this was from Spanky when he left the WWE due to the treatment he received at the hands of the folks down at Titan. Since then Spanky has returned to the company, effectively making Christian’s decision to walk out on his job the only case in recent memory of a wrestler standing up for what he believes in and sticking true to his principles. It remains to be seen if he will one day return to the company, but, for now, Mr. Reso is an anomaly.
The legions of fans Christian has (and, make no mistake, there are legions) that have always suggested that he is far better than just a mid-carder who is there to put over other athletes in the midst of a push will be delighted that he has stood up to his employers and, effectively, stuck his two fingers up to the bastards. He has done what no one has had the balls to do. Again, this is not a knock at others who haven’t walked out of their jobs because I understand that they have families to support, but one can only admire Reso for realising that he is better than all of this, and that he deserves to give himself a better existence than being the man to lie down for others all the time. Talking to Christian fans, the decision Reso has made this week has only endeared himself more to his army of followers for being a man of principles and not, in essence, being a “slave to the wage.”
However, for his followers there is a down side to Christian’s decision to quit. His fans will miss not seeing his face on their TV screens each and every week, and the ounce of hope that they may have had for him to one day get his chance to shine in the WWE main event spotlight is effectively over. Should Christian someday come back to the WWE one would imagine that Mcmahon would not easily forget Christian’s decision on October 31st, 2005. Mcmahon may forgive, but he’ll never forget. One would imagine that Christian would probably end up in an even worse predicament in the WWE should he ever return. There hero is not out of the limelight and out of the biggest wrestling company in North America. The down side is that a great wrestler is no longer getting paid the top dollar by the big gun, like he deserves.
But there’s little to worry about. Christian, based on reports, is in a healthy situation financially, and the money in the indies is far greater nowadays than it was in the past. TNA also offers a chance at still being in relative limelight, and it looks as if the spotlight will only continue to grow on TNA over the next few months now they are entering more and more home on a weekly basis. The indies are also closely followed by more fans today, and access to indie shows is getting easier and easier. It is far more common for an indie wrestler to still be a well recognised star these days than it ever was in the past. Sure, the WWE offers exposure like no one else in the business today, you can’t deny that, but not being in the WWE does not shut the door on press coverage or access to a wrestler like it did in the couple of years after WCW collapsed.
So, Christian finds himself out of a job, but surely not out of suitors and definitely not out of admirers for his decision. TNA will surely try and snap up Reso, and ROH will definitely offer him some dates in the not so distant future. I have said a lot of negative things about TNA in the past, but one thing I can be assured of is that they will not let a talent like Reso go to waste like the WWE did. And ROH? Well, they’re the easily the best company in North America today and they know talent when they see it and will be knocking down Reso’s door immediately.
WWE had their chance to capitalise on Christian’s mammoth popularity this summer, but they killed it, choosing to let it pass by. Jason Reso, it seems, is not about to let his career pass by. He decided to do something about it, and that I have nothing but admiration for.
Until next time,
Mitchell L. Gadd
