BROCK LESNAR: THE EPITOME OF "DUMB" LUCK
written by openly gay former WWE/WWF/WCW Pro Wrestler, Chris "Kanyon" Klucsarits www.myspace.com/chriskanyon
This coming Saturday night, Brock Lesnar once again proves the old adage: that it is better to be lucky than good. After a UFC career of only 2 fights (a quick submission tap out LOSS in a little over 1 minute to Frank Mir and a DECISION victory following an embarrassing show of poor sportsmanship and lack of class at the end of his fight with Heath Herring), Lesnar is "rewarded" by UFC President Dana White and the UFC with a title shot against Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
But this display of preferential treatment and apparent luck for Lesnar should come as no surprise to anyone who has closely followed Lesnar's professional career. Right out of college, despite having no love for and a minimal interest in Pro Wrestling, Lesnar was sought after and offered a contract by the "brains" behind the failed and embarrassing XFL and kingpin of the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE), Vince McMahon.
Vince seems to have a strange obsession with really big guys, often offering big muscle guys contracts regardless of their level of love for or lack of interest in Pro Wrestling. This list of guys includes former Olympic Heavyweight Weightlifter Mark Henry who is believed to have signed a 20 year, no cut, million dollar per year deal, although never really connecting with the WWE faithful, with the possible exception of when McMahon billed him as "Sexual Chocolate" and had him involved in a sexual affair with an 80 year old female wrestler, resulting in her giving birth to a human hand (that is not a misprint-an 80 year old female giving birth to a human hand).
Also in this list of really big men that McMahon was linked to is Nathan Jones, a former felon convicted of 8 armed robberies who was on Australia's most wanted list before getting caught. He was promoted heavily by McMahon during the time that I wrested with the WWE, and believe me, the wrestlers were none too happy to have this legit loose cannon in our locker room although McMahon, himself, seemed infatuated by the guy. Others on this list include The Ultimate Warrior, Mabel, Giant Gonzales, and many, many others, not the least of which is Brock Lesnar.
The problems with promoting these guys are many. Because they have no love or respect for Pro Wrestling, they also have no respect for their fellow Pro Wrestlers, often resulting in carelessness in the ring and injuries to their colleagues, including Mable almost collapsing my chest, Warrior injuring many, many opponents, and Lesnar breaking Bob Holly's neck, among others.
Plus, rarely do guys like this last long in Pro Wrestling. And along the way, Vince hurts other wrestler's standing with the fans as he sacrifices them to give these big guys wins. Then they leave him and the WWE after much work to get them popular with the fans. It happens over and over again and Vince NEVER learns.
And never has this been more apparent than with Lesnar. With no respect for Wrestlers or Wresting, Lesnar was promoted quickly and at the cost of many fan favorites and Legends. He was immediately given big wins over Jeff and Matt Hardy, destroying them along the way. He was then given wins over Rob Van Damn, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, The Undertaker (in one of his trademark matches: Hell in the Cell), was made King of the Ring, won the Royal Rumble, was given the WWE Championship 3 times and was put in a WrestleMania main event. And how does Lesnar thank the WWE, Vince McMahon, and all the wrestlers that let him beat them to help him get over? He quits.
And what's worse, after a failed attempt to get into the NFL (where it takes actual talent to succeed as opposed to guys like Vince McMahon and Dana White fawning over you), he enters the UFC, direct competition to the WWE for their Pay Per View dollars. Will Vince ever learn?
And, it couldn't come at a worse time for the WWE. Business is not great. As far as PPV buys go, the UFC is slowly dominating the WWE. From January 2008 thru August 2008, the UFC averaged 446,250 PPV buys vs. the WWE's 413,000. However, if you eliminate their March PPV's (where the WWE's showcase WestleMania got 1,058,000 buys) than the numbers are much more dominant for the UFC. Without the March PPV's included, the WWE averages 320,857 buys and the UFC averages 463,571, an average of almost 143,000 more buys per PPV. That is huge. And Vince single handedly created the UFC's top draw in Lesnar. Good job, McMahon.
And the biggest question of all remains unanswered. How does Lesnar continue to be so damn lucky? His public statements vary from offensive to ridiculous to covered-up by reporters to protect him from his own stupidity. And an intelligent businessman like Dana White still supports and promotes him.
During his failed attempt to enter the NFL he told one reporter, which was then reported by ESPN reporter, Wayne Drehs, ""I don't like gays. Write that down in your little notebook. I don't like gays."
Now, being the first ever nationally televised openly gay active pro wrestler (man, that is a mouthful…insert joke here), of course that statement from Lesnar bothers me. But I understand that many people, especially devout Bible followers, do not like gays. I understand and accept that. But when you are a public figure, and you have many young fans looking up to you and admiring you, I feel you have a responsibility to not promote hate and discrimination. And, I feel when you have a power position like Dana White, I feel you have a responsibility, regardless of how much money someone can make you, to not promote someone who publicly promotes hate and discrimination.
Now, because of being born gay and raised Catholic along with many other factors, I have had a ton of therapy over the past 4+ years. And thru therapy you are somewhat forced to look at and establish a system of beliefs and morals. And I am no exception.
My most basic and fundamental belief is this: "do whatever you want as long as you do not harm a soul (including your own)." However, what may, at times, trump that belief is this: (stolen from Spiderman) "With great power comes great responsibility. And with greater power comes greater responsibility."
Unfortunately for me, these 2 core beliefs sometimes conflict with each other. For example, the war in Iraq. As one of the most powerful countries, if not the most powerful country in the world, we have many responsibilities. So when a dictator like Saddam Hussein rules the way he did, I tend to lean toward the belief that the U.S. had a responsibility to do something. But does that include invading a country that really did nothing to us, remove their government and start a war with a cost of over 4,000 American lives and by some estimates 500,000 to 1,000,000 innocent Iraq Civilian lives? Saddam was horrible, but had he been left in power would that many people have been killed under his rule over the last few years or for the remainder of his rule had he not been removed? Tough questions.
But I digress. Thanks to Vince McMahon's strong admiration for large men and Dana White's strong admiration for large pay per view buy rates, Brock Lesnar has become famous (although far from a "household name" as Brock himself claimed in a recent interview…maybe within the MMA and Pro Wrestling world he is a "household name," but outside of that, he is barely famous …Brock has been a very arrogant guy ever since I met him, and I would imagine way before that.). And with his fame, he has some power. And with that power, I believe comes some responsibility.
And I deeply believe part of that responsibility is to be aware of the affect your words have on the children who look up to you. And although his words, ""I don't like gays. Write that down in your little notebook. I don't like gays," may not seem that harsh, it almost assuredly would seem more harsh had the reporters been more forthcoming with his complete statement. But as has become common with Brock, he was given favored treatment by the reporters who witnessed his outburst, and he was protected.
The way the incident was reported is as follows. After a female fan approached Brock and told him that her male friend thought that Brock was "kinda cute," the reporter described his reaction in this way: " "Yeah?" the former pro wrestler said, his voice growing louder, his eyes getting bigger. "Well you tell that ..."
To print what Brock Lesnar said might make even John Rocker blush. But after his curse-laden outburst, he turned to a nearby reporter and explained, "I don't like gays. Write that down in your little notebook. I don't like gays.""
For those of you who do not know who John Rocker is, he is a former Atlanta Braves relief pitcher. While at his peak as Atlanta's closer he was heavily criticized for making statements that were viewed as racist, anti-gay, and sexist. Speaking about New York City, Rocker told Sports Illustrated in January 2000, "It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the 7 Train (ironically the same train I, Chris "Kanyon" Klucsarits, will be living 2 blocks from a week from now) to the ballpark, looking like you're riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing."
In addition he went on to add "The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?"
During this same interview (which was conducted while driving to a speaking engagement in Atlanta), he spat on a Georgia State Road 400 toll machine and mocked Asian women. Additionally, he referred to then-teammate Randall Simon who is black, as being a "fat monkey."
Now can you imagine what Brock must have said if the reporter who witnessed his words believes that what he said was something that would make a despicable human being like John Rocker blush? Once again, dumb luck. I really believe Lesnar was incredibly fortunate that the reporter decided to not report what Brock said in its entirety.
But back to what WAS reported. Imagine a 10 year old boy, born gay, but hiding this fact from all his friends who often call the least popular boys in school "fags" and "queers." Picture this boy hiding his true self from his abusive father who often yells at the TV and "those faggot left wing liberals" while his frightened, submissive mother agrees with his dad. Imagine this boy listening to his Catholic priest every Sunday from the Altar talking about how the Bible says that the feelings that he is having, but has no control over is an "abomination" and that he is doomed to hell, yet that same priest, right after mass inappropriately touches the boy while he doffs his altar boy garb.
Now picture this boy looking for a role model. And he finds one of the biggest and toughest that he can, someone he wishes he could be. And this boy finds solace in imagining that he is this big tough wrestler, this big tough fighter.
And then he hears his idol say that he doesn't like people like him.
He loses the little bit of relief and the escape that he was experiencing. Perhaps he loses all hope. Perhaps he does the unimaginable and ends it all, and no one will ever know why. And Brock will never be aware of the harm he has done. The many lives he may have destroyed.
And I am sure many will say that this is a far fetched scenario. That this could never happen. But I was never promoted or "pushed" like Brock was. I was never given wins over Hulk Hogan or the Rock or the Undertaker. I was never put in a WrestleMania main event. And yet I have gotten an incredible amount of mail telling me how I have affected and changed some people's lives, and in one letter, how I saved one.
If I, a relatively small star compared to Brock, have affected, changed and saved lives, I can only imagine the affect Brock and what he has said has affected people. It scares me. But it also inspires me. It inspires me to take the small amount of power and influence that I have been fortunate enough to receive thru my 15 year wrestling career, my exposure on the Howard Stern show, The Advocate and Out magazines, Outsports.com, the Logo television channel and my relationship with GLADD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), and attempt to use that power and influence to carry out what I feel is my responsibility: to try and right this "wrong" committed by Brock Lesnar.
Again, I feel with power comes responsibility. I feel a responsibility to give Lesnar the opportunity to right this wrong. I am moving to NYC this week. There, in NYC, I have in the past met with GLADD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). I will be contacting them to see if they have some forum where Lesnar can denounce his hateful statements, perhaps a PSA (Public Service Announcement).
If they do offer him an opportunity to modify and/or apologize for his statements, I really hope for his sake and for the sake of the UFC and their sponsors, that Brock accepts their invitation. I know GLADD has gotten very aggressive with other sponsors of big companies, and if truth be told, I love the UFC and I do admire and respect Dana White, and ultimately I really don't want to see him or the UFC hurt financially. But I am unwilling to continue the preferential treatment Lesnar has become accustomed to. Not this time.
Now before everyone accuses me of hating Lesnar, let me clear the record. I do not hate him. If anything, I feel bad for him. First of all, I really do believe Randy Couture will be handing him his 2nd UFC loss in 3 fights this coming Saturday. Second of all, I feel bad for him because truth be told, he is really a pretty dumb guy. In my time in the WWE/WWF, I did not spend much time with Lesnar. I was closeted at the time so he freely used terms like "faggot," "fucking queers," and other anti-gay remarks while he was around me. So I just avoided him as much as I could. But as I usually find, hatred is often bred from stupidity, and I really feel Brock is just not a very bright guy, so it is hard to dislike him….it is much easier to pity him, even with all his "dumb" luck and preferential treatment from guys like McMahon and Dana White.
But I really don't want to end this article with any indication that I hate or dislike Brock. And I don't want to end it with a threat that GLADD may be coming after Brock, the UFC and Dana White. So I searched long and hard for something that Lesnar has said that I agree with. And I finally found it. Brock recently did an interview with www.prommaradio.com . And about 65/66 minutes into the interview Brock made the following comments:
"I find it funny how stupid people can be….it just goes to show you there's a lot of stupid people out there."
See Brock, even 2 people as different as you and I (you, a big tough anti-gay fighter, and me a sensitive, fired "homo") can agree on some things. I also believe that "there's a lot of stupid people out there." As a matter of fact, I will be watching one this Saturday, hopefully getting beaten up by Randy Couture. And, I would wish you luck in that fight, Brock, but my guess is you wont need it. You see, my guess is this: win, lose or draw on Saturday, Brock, your preferential treatment will continue… and your string of "dumb" luck will continue as well. But then again, sometimes we lose to the least likely of our foes….and as usual, in this case, only time will tell.
References:
http://www.cagepotato.com/2008/11/04/brock-lesnar-racial-profiling-victim/
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1830855
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1830855
www.espn.com
http://www.pwmania.com/newsarticle.php?page=225399871
www.myspace.com/chriskanyon
www.myspace.com/aykanyon
www.prommaradio.com
http://jbotter.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/ufc-89-preview-and-predictions/
http://prommaradio.com/?p=103