01-11-2003, 11:29 PM
This is from Dave Scherer from 1 wrestling.com. Cut and pasted to avoid everyone from the annoying popups of linking it.
Quote:BOB HOLLY SHOWS HE IS A REAL LIFE CLUELESS PUTZ
by Dave Scherer Updated: 1/11/2003 12:04:59 PM
Back in the days of ECW, Stevie Richards played a character that was called a "clueless putz" by announcer Joey Styles. As the name suggested, Richards was pretty much of a nimrod who was annoying and didn't have any real grasp of reality. As it turns out, WWE also has one of those characters on their roster. The sad part is, Bob Holly isn't playing any kind of role. In reality, he is just an angry, nasty, egotistical, arrogant man who has obviously aged, but never grown up. Always one to walk the WWE locker rooms expounding on what a real life tough guy he is, Holly went on WWE's Tough Enough III this past week on MTV and showed that the maturation process that envelops most adults as they leave their teenage days behind has been completely lost on him. You see, Bob Holly is the classical high school bully, the one who picks on the smaller, weaker, less worldly kids because he knows that they will never fight back. It feeds his ego and makes him believe he is the tough guy he likes to present himself as. This past Thursday, Bob Holly showed his true character to the nation and what they saw wasn't at all pretty, and it certainly didn't reflect well on WWE.
WWE.com has an interview online with Bob Holly that was done yesterday morning. In it, he talks about the beating he laid on Tough Enough contestant Matt on this week's episode. If you were expecting a remorseful response, you will be disappointed. In verbiage that is typical of why people on sports teams haze their younger, greener counterparts, Holly said this. "As far as Tough Enough III goes, I've never seen a bigger bunch of crybabies in all my life. I'm serious. Matt gets on there and says I disrespected him? I don't have to respect somebody I don't know (and have never been in the ring with). He was crying over a black eye and bruises on his chest from when I chopped him. This isn't ballet. People are going to get black eyes and busted lips. I don't know how many times I've had those in my career."
Of course, what Holly fails to mentions is that the shots he has taken in his career were errant blows (and in some cases retaliation for him working too stiff and/or not selling another guy's work). What he did to Matt was the product of an agenda he had. He obviously decided that he would go into the ring and pound the snot out of the kid. That became pretty clear when WWE.com quoted him as saying, "They made a mockery about what I did on Tough Enough III. They should be embarrassed. I'm not sorry for what I did. I don't regret what I did. (When) Bob Holly is coming; I'm coming to be Bob Holly. I'm not going to change for anybody."
That's so impressive Bob. So when a kid expects you to come into the ring and work a match with him, and protect him (just as he has been taught), you know you have an unsuspecting rube and you pound the crap out of him. Wonderful.
Perhaps the funniest thing, in a sad, "this guy is so deluded" kind of way, was when he said, " The only thing I do is hurt people's pride. I don't hurt people physically. I just hurt their pride." Some people are really just too stupid to live, and Bob Holly has shown that he can be their leader.
So, in the end, I can't see how anyone can make a case for what Holly did. He was completely and totally wrong, and no one can convince me otherwise. I fully understand that some people in the business may want to defend what Holly did as being "old school". You see, coming up in many wrestling dojos around the country, the trainer often beat the snot out of the student. Some legitimately believed, misguidedly in my opinion, that it was a necessary part of a wrestler's training to have the tar beaten out of him, for no perceptible reason. Other trainers were simply sadists who liked to beat up the young guys who were paying them. Whatever their reason, the fact of the matter is that the wrestling business is a tough one, and it will teach its young all of the hard lessons, and then some, at points along the way. The practice of mauling young students is antiquated and has no place in the business today. It doesn't "teach" anything other than there are nasty, bitter people in the business and you know what? The aspiring students will learn that, without getting mugged, soon enough.
About the only positive that came out of this for Matt was that he "gained the respect" of the others by taking the beating and then shaking Holly's hand afterward. If that was me, I would have probably been in the hospital because I would have spit in his face instead. Yes, I would have known that it would have ended my dream of becoming a wrestler but by that point I would have realized that if being in wrestling meant dealing with people like Bob Holly, it's something I would want no part of anyway. That's the way to teach Bob.