Story Lines 9.10.06: Heartbreak & Triumph
Posted by Mike Hamflett on 09.10.2006
If Shawn Michaels can drop the ball and pick it back up again, so can I!
'You've got to get yourself together, now you're stuck in a moment, and you can't get out of it. Don't say that later would be better, now you're stuck in a moment, and you can't get out of it."
Opening my brand new column with some empty lyrics from a sycophantic Irish pop campaigner was not always in the plans. However, it's not all U2 love round these parts.
Hello, I'm Mike Hamflett, and I've been here before. About a year ago I wrote a column called Stuck in a Moment, which discussed famous moments in our favourite form of entertainment. After about ten weeks or so, and on the verge of breaking in to a Roundtable, 3Rs or some other multi-columnist delight, I stopped posting columns. Internet difficulties walked hand in hand with University-based struggles, and ultimately, I lost a spot so many people would kill to have. I was no longer a 411 Columnist.
1 year later and things are different. Uni done and dusted and writing as a hobby, not a chore, plus a brand new column concept that I hope will catch fire with you guys. Larry was keen, and for that matter, pretty cool about bringing me back following the aforementioned shitting on I partook in. I look forward to fitting right back in here, no more one year breaks.
So at three paragraphs in, I think I'll pull my head out of my own hole and get on with what I'm here to do. I talked about a new concept above, and this seems the only appropriate way to explain...
Prologue
Some time in 1998, Mick Foley sat back and thought about his career. A rollercoaster of exhilarating ups and devastating downs, with a stroke of his typically unkempt beard, he contemplated the many stories, experiences, and life lessons he had encountered on his lengthy time in one of the world's most tumultuous businesses.
It was while contemplating these thoughts that he decided it was time to make good on a head full of twisted tales, sordid details, and with his own personal touch, a slice of genuinely funny charm. Armed not with a computer but hundreds of pads and pens, he set about committing each and every word to paper, partly to remember it, and partly hoping that one day someone would get a kick out of his endless scribbles. Not for the first time in his career, Mick Foley accidentally changed everything.
From early 1997 through to the autumn 1999 release date of ‘Have a Nice Day, A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks', the wrestling business had changed beyond recognition. A much noted shift in style came in the way that both the WWF and WCW had tried to introduce ECW's idea of blurring reality and fantasy to the point where they could both co-exist without much thought from the fans. An episode of Raw would find very real hated enemies Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels ripping each other apart, spewing venom that was as legit as it could get. In the segment after that, an angry black guy would pretend to lead a militant gang of thugs in a war against some angry white bikers and some Puerto Rican playboys in daft battles over who were the best at…well, whatever they wanted to be the best at. One as honest and truthful as the cameras could possibly allow, the other a simple wrestling angle playing on stereotypes and assumptions not legal since the 60s. The detachment between the two was huge, but the show somehow managed to contain both. Legends hailed it a deathblow, but salivating fans desperate for an ‘in' were gnawing their own arms off for more.
So when Mick Foley's debut offering hit shelves, it should have been no surprise that it was an absolute mega hit. By allowing fans the full inside story of one man's career, and in that giving away road stories, realities of the characters we only knew by their TV personas, and the author's own view on the angles that shaped our opinion of him, the book made gripping reading. Due to its sheer size and the quality of the writing, the business got a boost, as wrestling and its fans were shown to be not that stupid after all. And the rest was history.
Wrestling books have been a seller's market since then. Christ, Duke ‘The Dumpster' Drosse could probably shift a few thousand if he promoted it right. Some are awesome, some are great, and some are not so great. What stays the same is the inability so many of us have to resist them. Who knows what amazing story or fact could come out about how much that guy hated that guy? Or how that guy was doing so many drugs when he was in that cage match. The intrigue is too damn enticing.
So thanks to Mick Foley for kick-starting a wonderful genre that survives and thrives to this day, and also thanks for the whole concept leading to a multitude of columns! With Story Lines, I hope to dissect some of the best books out there. Some old, some new, some wildly popular, some not so much. I'll try to analyse the difference they made, or could make, and how things may have changed since then. All in one munchable book review. 411's more likeable Dean Douglas perhaps? Believe me, ‘Have a Nice Day..' will be got back to for full review in due course, but for my first column, I have chosen a book that many would call the showstopper. Some would refer to it, as an icon. Some would class it as the main event. You got it…
Heartbreak and Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story
Subject: The Ghost-written Autobiography of ‘ol HBK, Shawn Michaels. Release Date: November 2005
Now, I'd like to say that I picked this book due to the current relevance of something or other happening on Raw that is relevant to the subject at hand, but quite frankly, that would be a big lie. The truth is, I felt like this HAD to be the first column, because without it, there would be no column altogether. Sure, I'll read most wrestling books, but somehow, this book got me back IN to reading them. Not just skim-reading the best bits or thumbing through a chapter that looks interesting in a bookshop. No, from the first words onwards, I couldn't put it down. I'd be in work and excited about the journey home where I could pick up where I'd just left off. I'd skip the PS2 for a good read, and take a little extra longer on the shitter, squeezing out a little more crap for a little more wordage.
And to be perfectly honest, I didn't think it would. As of recent times, the WWE Books releases have been well…somewhat dry. Seeing it as the cash cow it is, a multitude of works have come down the pike, some most definitely better than others. Gone was the consistency of the first two Foley books, and the marvellous storytelling of a superstar who DESERVED the book treatment. Too many young guys with bad ghost-writers were knocking out low-rent 500 pagers talking about how much they loved The McMahon's and ‘paying their dues' in OVW or whatever. I felt the overuse of the printed word had sucked the life out of it altogether. Heartbreak and Triumph pulled me aside and gave me a whole new faith. Something which, ironically enough is dealt with by our subject in a rather deep fashion.
As a wrestling fan, it's pretty impossible not to totally give in to this book. Michaels recounts his sides of some of the most famous moments and matches in the history of the business. See, that's the benefit of a guy like HBK bringing out a book. There's so much mileage from everything he says, no matter what your opinion on him is, that it's too good to not investigate. Of course, it would make it all the more harder if you're against him in the first place, but I still maintain there's a hell of a lot to learn from any of his tales.
The difficulty with reading about Shawn Michaels - as told by Shawn Michaels - is, you have to either go all in or fold early. I think it's fair to assume most fans adore Shawn the worker, the wrestler, the Ric Flair in long tights. But many many people hate Shawn Michaels the man, a known backstage politician, a pain in the ass to be around, and more than anything else, the guy that put the screws to Bret Hart. So how does Michaels get around that to get Steve Smartmark involved? Well, actually, he doesn't.
And that's what makes the whole thing so compelling. Only at one point - in response to a rumour that after watching Undertaker angrily tape his fists, Michaels stopped whining about dropping the gold to Austin at Wrestlemania XIV – does he come out and label a story as total crap. Feel free to correct at will, but for a man who has developed a really nasty level of hate from some sides, that's a lot of things he's admitting to have done. And whaddya know, he really does.
But, and this is the big but. He has the ability to both apologise, AND justify his actions at the time. Some perfect examples: Saying that The Clique holding up a house show until Vince personally flew out WASN'T unreasonable because they CARED about the business enough to protest. Saying that, yeah, he wanted out of The Rockers to be a big singles star, and knew he had to shake long-time partner Marty Jannetty off. But big deal right? Everybody wants to be World Champion, and Marty had hit the skids, so tough shit. Imagine all the tales you heard about Shawn Michaels, then imagine HIM telling the tales, with a start, middle and end, right from the horse's mouth. Utterly mouth-watering, and constantly interesting.
That leads me on to another outstanding aspect of this book. What differs in HBK's career to many is how he hit his big skids/religious rebirth AFTER his career. What this means is about twenty solid chapters with work story after work story, all killer no filler. It's his life, that's how it happened. Well, that's how he says it did anyway.
That's actually another great thing about Heartbreak & Triumph. On so many issues, Michaels has never commented in attempt to defend himself or criminalise who he considers the real shithead in the situation. But given free reign to let loose, he can give his side, and maybe help the reader find a middle ground. I certainly didn't feel any closer to knowing what REALLY went on at the time, but after so much bitching and moaning at HBK, it was good to hear some of it from his end. Unsurprisingly, the extensive coverage of Montreal features a lot of this.
Of course after all the action, you reach the 1998-2002 period, which deals mainly with his largely hidden addiction to pain pills. I say largely hidden, only in that he was hardly ever on TV, and it's amazing to think now that for a good while, Shawn Michaels was a forgotten man with yet another demon he couldn't crack. I don't wanna ruin the ending, but God comes along and saves the day, basically. Ending with an enjoyable, revelatory, and at times, warmly light-hearted look at his time 2002 and onwards, the book closes with the reader at about mid-2005, shortly before the Hulk Hogan feud, which is a great shame for I feel there would have been a great chapter there. Maybe the paperback release will cover that.
For Shawn Michaels fans, every page will be a joy. For wrestling completists, the book is vital. Thanks to his honesty (or bullshit, depending on where you sit), the whole book rolls along steadily and unflinching, until it reaches its natural, and satisfying conclusion. Restore your faith in wrestling autobiographies; Heartbreak & Triumph is a must.
Shorthand
Worst Bit: It's picking holes, but his childhood is somewhat boring. It picks up when he hits teen years, but despite obviously being a necessary part of the tale, it holds less enjoyment than all that follows it.
Best Bit: The lengthy analysis of his first WWF Title run. The unmatched highs, the devastating lows, and the real reasoning behind simultaneously being the biggest jerk and the best worker in the business bar none.
Buy It, Borrow It, Bin It: Buy It. It's a re-reader, and a good source of reference for so many of the industry-changing moments he was involved in.
