Shining a Spotlight 11.27.08: Shooting Down Beliefs

Posted by Michael Weyer on 11.27.2008

A review of the new book Shoot First...and Ask Questions Later and how it shows exposure to the business changing "smart" fans' attitudes.

Well, like everyone else, surprised at the Survivor Series results. Nice to see Cena on top again as the guy has proven himself as a champion and should make for some nice feuds. Edge's return was well done and the idea of him and Jeff going at it for the title is excellent and should make for great money so overall, a good push toward Mania.


I hadn't expected to be doing another book review so soon but this newest volume does deserve attention. It's always intriguing to see a book by someone who's gotten closer to the business from the outside and even more when said person sees their view of things changed. That's what makes Shoot First…and Ask Questions Later (ECW Press, $19.95) a nice read. James Guttman is the creator of the site World Wrestling Insanity and wrote a book of the same name in 2006. I reviewed it then, noting how Guttman raised good points but was seriously down on WWE and those running it. However, Guttman not only acknowledges that in this new book but illustrates how we as fans can often be unaware of the real impact of the business.

The big change that's occurred between now and then is Guttman has begun a show where he conducts radio interviews with various stars, both current and new. As such, he's been able to see behind the curtain more than others and it's made him realize how some of his long-held ideas on the industry are everything from skewered to downright incorrect. That's held by the introduction by Tom Pritchard where he talks about how annoying it is to be ripped into by fans who don't know the full story and that makes him enjoy Guttman more.

Guttman makes this attitude clear in the first chapter as he begins to talk about how in 2005, when he wrote the first book, he was so sure he understood the business. But after conducting the interviews and learning more and more about the behind the scenes goings-on, he realized he was nowhere near as "smart" as he thought he was.

It's something that really gets to me having just read Scott Keith's book. My long-standing beef with Keith is that the man has no real connections to wrestling but acts like he's the absolute authority with full knowledge of the truth behind everything. Guttman had a bit of that attitude in his first book. He did make some nice observations, like how wrestling unions are doomed to fail because wrestlers can never do a full-on strike. However, that was contrasted by the fact a full third of the book was ripping into HHH's tenure as champion on RAW where he cut the legs out of everyone who could challenge him.

But as I said before, Guttman's attitude has changed as he's talked to people who have opened his eyes to how things really work backstage. It illustrates how so many "smart" fans online claim to be knowledgeable but aren't and it's a great point. After all, for years it was claimed as absolute fact (even written in books) that Erich Bischoff came up with the Team Challenge Series and was booking stuff in the AWA. But the AWA DVD in 2006 makes it clear that Verne Gagne loved his company too much to let anyone else take the reins (which was a key reason he went out of business).

That's what Guttman is illustrating, that he was basing too much of his past opinions on second-hand stories and gossip without knowing the full truth and that's what he wanted to show with his Radio Free Insanity. He uses as an example Kevin Nash who was one of his first subjects and Guttman seems to admire how the man just uses his natural charm for his wrestling character. He says that despite all the harm Kevin did to WCW, he never set out to destroy his own company but truly thought he was doing the right thing and having fun too. Guttman also acknowledges how talking to Nash for only a few minutes lets you see why promoters are willing to let him run with a show as the man just has an amazing charisma about him.

This leads to Guttman admitting that some of his guests can have rather…unique opinions. For example, Tito Santana claims that in 1992, he was going to be considered for the WWF title to increase attendance in Mexico and South America and says that at least he has his family and Bret doesn't. Jacques Rogeau doesn't have a high opinion of Bret either, claiming that Bret just made people look bad in the ring by out-wrestling them and that Bret put way too much emphasis on how matches looked rather than story-telling or making money. That's agreed by Bad News Allen, who Guttman interviewed only weeks before his death who shared some great stories like how Roddy Piper really is a bigot and that just came out in their feud. Throughout the book, Guttman will quote several people making the surprising statement that Hulk Hogan has actually done more to make workers look good than nearly any other performer. Meanwhile, people will make comments about Ric Flair that seem to gel with my own feelings of the man as being more damaging than some will admit.

Guttman shares how he selects guests and an intriguing bit on how the WWE Hall of Fame really does mean a lot to those inducted while a lot of folks not in think of it as a joke. He then adds a great analysis of how the reason so few wrestlers today know how to properly tell a story in their matches is because they've never been trained that way, that a lot of opportunities for them to learn are gone, not as many venues to get their breaks at. But before you paint Guttman as a guy who moans over the loss of "the good old days," he'll come out and say that the territories were always going to fall with or without Vince. It's a point I've always held to myself, tastes in entertainment were changing all over through the 1980's and wrestling was not immune. If it wasn't Vince, it would have been someone else and as Guttman says "if you believe the territories would have survived if only Vince had stayed away, you probably also believe 8-track tapes would have survived if only Sony hadn't introduced the Walkman."

The book goes on a bit over how Southern wrestlers, especially old-timers, have their own unique outlook on the business and how it feels interviewing people ranging from true legends to Playboy models. A nice chapter highlights Eric Bischoff and Tod Gordon, two men Guttman truly respects. Indeed, he actually puts over Gordon as being more instrumental to the early success of ECW than Paul Heyman was. I do still argue with the idea that (as Guttman says) WCW would still be around if they'd found another network after TNT cancelled "Nitro" but do agree that Bischoff gave Vince the good kick needed to jump-start things in the late ‘90's. Guttman links them with Vince Russo as he does bring up the point that if Russo wasn't the key to WWF's success, why have they been doing poorer shows in the time he left? Having talked to so many who worked with WCW, Guttman figures the whole structure of the place just wasn't right for Russo as they stifled creativity and ignored potential money-making gimmicks. I do find it odd for Guttman to skip over Russo's troublesome TNA tenure and think he's going overboard a bit on how much of a genius the guy was but it is intriguing reading the comparisons between Russo, Bischoff and Gordon, each of whom felt passionate about the business in different ways.

Guttman spends a lot of time explaining how his radio show works, admitting it was started for money and detailing how he sets up the data files and such. He acknowledges the glitches like when he did a terrific interview with Scott Steiner only to realize after it was over he'd forgotten to hit "record." There's also talk on the technical stuff like how he edits things and does his best to keep the show on time and clean as he can while not stifling the subjects. There's nice bits like Koko B Ware on how he doesn't mind being seen as a guy living in the past and the story of his interview with Ole Anderson is worth the price of the entire book alone with Ole throwing in a bizarre math lesson and some insulting comments toward Guttman in. Guttman also shares some nice stories like reuniting Demolition Ax and Smash on the air, tracking down Damien Demento and learning the surprisingly emotional truth behind Ahmed Johnson's exit from wrestling.

The stories continue with his discussion of Bobby Heenan, the wild antics of Scott Steiner, DDP on his WWF run, Jerry Lawler cracking jokes left and right and more. Guttman discusses his interview style in which he tries not to attack people but invites them in, astonished at how easily so many will speak openly once they get going. Guttman does recognize how some guys will spin things to their advantage and doesn't always believe them but doesn't go out of his way to openly correct stories that contradict popular opinion. Guttman says that he's quickly learned doing the show that so many stories IWC people eat up as utter truth are either severely overblown or just outright lies. He connects it to an interview he did with former WWE commentator Sean Mooney who said he hated doing "news" as it was just spin and doesn't really miss the business and Guttman says that so much of the "truth" fans know is far different than reality.

A key example is his interview with Sid Vicious where Sid gives a completely different take on Chris Benoit and his friends' leaving WCW in 2000 than what's always been said. According to Sid, Benoit, Guerrero and the others were tying to lead a union that would push out Kevin Sullivan and bring back Russo, who was planning to give them all a run at the top. So putting the title on Benoit didn't mean much as Sid argues Benoit really wasn't set for the run at the top at that time and it was after he was given the belt that management fired them all as a message to the locker room. Yes, that's pretty much the total opposite of what's long been reported but Guttman didn't correct him on it because, for all Guttman knew, Sid was telling the truth. As he says, there are a lot of stories and different versions in the locker room and it's hard to figure out the truth.

As you can expect, Guttman devotes an entire chapter to discussing Benoit and the fallout. While he never had Benoit on as a guest, Guttman has that old shock of many that a man so highly respected by most of the wrestling fandom could be capable of doing the business he loved such irreparable harm. Guttman tries to offer the old "separate the man from the character" argument, saying that the best thing a rookie can do is study tapes of Benoit which appears to ignore the fact that a lot of the mental damage the man had was due to his all-too-real ring style. The chapter includes excerpts from an interview with Kevin Sullivan a month before the tragedy where Sullivan actually claims he wanted to push Benoit in 2000 and losing all of them was a real blow. As you can expect, Guttman goes into the media blitz afterward where he thought McMahon got a raw deal from the press as Benoit is the only person responsible for all of this. He also nails Marc Mero for his list of dead workers that includes those whose deaths had nothing to do with drugs or business stuff. The whole thing illustrates for Guttman, and the reader, how you can barely trust actual news organizations so why are fans so easy to totally buy something they read online from a third-person source?

When he discusses an interview with Jesse Ventura, Guttman nicely points out how politics have become like wrestling, scripted reality for the masses. Guttman enjoys Ventura as his eyes were opened to the business through his commentary for WWF. True, Ventura has gotten in trouble for speaking his true opinion so openly on everything from gay rights to 9/11 but that's part of his appeal and makes him a great guest. He had no real kind words for Hogan but Guttman points out what he does with all his guests: Agree or not with what they say but at least respect them for saying it.

The last written chapter has Guttman making excellent points on the entire wrestling fandom mentality. He says the "smart fan" factor has gotten out of hand, fans are way too easy to believe anything they read online, especially when a lot of wrestlers and promoters will actually use that. Just look at the Jeff Hardy story on Sunday and how a lot of folks really bought it at first because of his history. "Everyone gets worked," Guttman says and damn if he's not right. It's the nature of the beast and if you go ahead and believe everything on the IWC as absolute truth, well, that's damn foolish. After all, since Benoit's death, we've learned the man was nowhere near the choir boy folks thought he was when he was alive. There is no black and white in wrestling, just a lot of gray.

"I've learned it's not all about me." That statement says volumes about Guttman's growth as a writer about the business. Reading Scott Keith, you get the sense Keith thinks the real tragedy of wrestling is that he's lost so much faith in it but Guttman recognizes he's not that important in the scheme of things. He brings up how he had lost so much faith at the time he wrote his first book but bounced back as he's understood things better. In that first book, he trashed Bob Holly for his hard-nosed tactics with rookies but now says he understands that with so many egos about, you need someone who can keep them in line and sometimes they have to be tough to do it. Another surprising discovery for Guttman is that while wrestling fans may adore history, most actual wrestlers not only don't know the order of WWE champions for the last decade but don't really care. They live for the now and the future, not the past, that's the fan's job.

The biggest change for Guttman is his realization that Vince does care about his workers and wants to treat them well. He acknowledges that's a big shift from his first book but he says that in virtually every interview with a WWE person, they have undying respect for Vince. It's not butt-kissing as half of those guys will trash HHH and Stephanie but everyone says Vince truly cares for those working under him and while he can be ruthless in business, he has surprising heart. Indeed, if WWE is so bad, how is it you never hear guys talk warm feelings of their times in WCW or TNA? Guttman also points out how Vince, like so many, revels in the misconceptions about himself and uses that. While Vince is no saint, Guttman wonderfully points out that blaming him for every single evil and ill of the entire industry is just ridiculous.

Guttman shares a few more stories of some of his interviews with nice stuff like Mae Young planning to wrestle Stephanie's daughter on her 100th birthday and Corporal Kirchner answering Guttman's phone when he was being reported dead. The last thirty pages of the book are all excerpts from interviews with wrestlers on their favorite people to work with and who they'd like to have worked with. At the end, Guttman sums up how this has all been a unique experience, that's it's changed his thinking on wrestling as a whole and that "I can do a thousand more interviews and still never be able to figure out professional wrestling. And that's why I love it."

The book is a great look at how being exposed to the inner workings of the business can change so much of your outlook on it. Guttman illustrates how there are no hidden meanings behind things, no vast conspiracies, just people trying to do their jobs like you or me. Only difference is their job is in the public eye where thousands of outsiders are ready to pick them apart for doing something they can't. The book is also good at explaining how you can't believe so many outside stories as even those who were there have differing opinions on what "the truth" is. More importantly, it's a great look at the business from a more inside view than others.

Guttman's words really ring with me as I've done my best not to be judgmental but have failed at times. It's the reason a lot of my spotlights have been retrospectives as I recognize my opinions of things can be skewered. We all have our different view of wrestling, different likes and dislikes so it's tough to write with real authority. As I pointed out with Scott Keith, that man acts like he speaks for the vast majority of the fan base and will report his own opinions as absolute fact. Guttman admits much the same but does recognize he doesn't know nearly as much as he thought he did and that the wrestling world is far more complicated than most fans think. The stories he tells from other wrestlers are fun but at the end, the truly good story is Guttman's own, how the eyes of a "smart" were opened and realized he wasn't that smart after all. It's a nice read for a lot of us in the IWC and makes you realize you shouldn't be shooting your mouth off without knowing the full facts.


Also around 411mania:

Truth B Told has an intriguing thing on a promotion run by a black man

The Fink tries to book Christian's return

Chin talks the Importance of diversity in wrestling styles

The Bard discusses Wrestling as art

Evolution Schematic discusses the Hardy Boys

Against the Grain discusses Johnny Devine

For the Record talks about Razor Ramon as a possible WWF champion









Don't forget Column of Honor, Triple Threat, 3 R's, Fact or Fiction, Ask 411 and all the rest.


Next week I look at the glory days of the IC title. A Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. For this week, the spotlight is off.