What Chyna’s Death Taught Us As Wrestling Fans

Hi, I’m Justin Watry. You may remember me from such classic columns as March 2012’s “WWE WrestleMania 28: Sheamus Should Defeat Daniel Bryan in Less Than a Minute” and October 2015’s “WWE NXT: Bobby Roode, You’re Next.”

Before getting started, my buddy Matt is looking to raise money and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis, so please take a second out of your day to check out all the information here:

http://fightcf.cff.org/site/TR/GreatStrides/38_Gateway_St_Louis?px=2424373&pg=personal&fr_id=4925

I made my donation two weeks ago (the deadline is late May). You should too.

Reader Feedback

AG Awesome: The anticipation for next weeks major “Watry Reveal” is already killing me!! Could he be retiring from the IWC columnist world? Could he be giving up on watching wrestling altogether? Could he be sharing what he ate for lunch? Stay tuned folks!

1. I’m not retiring from anything.

2. I’m not going to stop watching wrestling, unless it is for three months during the summer if CBS’ Big Brother would ever cast me for a future season! Hello?

3. I rarely eat lunch, so nope – no meal updates either! Sorry.

Hirnklops: Is it just me, or is Reigns good after all? Since WrestleMania, he added a Layer of cockyness to his Act, and suddenly, hes ten times more interesting than before… He can be really entertaining, outside of his matches. Keep this up, WWE!

He’s always been entertaining. From his days in The Shield to his big Survivor Series performance a few years ago to his Royal Rumble eliminations record to the stuff with The Wyatts (and Bray alone) to his Brock Lesnar/WrestleMania 31 feud all the way to his last 12 months on top of the card. He proved it once again at WWE Payback 2016. No complaints from me.

MattyMez: He said at the start of the article he made a donation to his friend who is raising money for cystic fibrosis, so your comparison is bang on the money

This was in reply to a ridiculously ignorant remark from vegasdonk (fitting name) last week.

Not only am I attempting to help out a friend raise money this month, that is in addition to donating money to multiple other charities – something I do every year (anonymously might I add). Never a reason for me to announce that or anything, but the topic came up in the comment section, and it was worth a reply. Yet, you (using the word in a broad sense here to nobody in particular) are fooling around the comment section wasting time bashing me as usual…for whatever reason this time. Good for you. Congrats.

That is why I am laying down a challenge:

I will stop writing columns on 411mania for a full month if my friend Matt raises more than $100 during the next week and you all donate to help battle cystic fibrosis.

The link is above the reader feedback section. It’s right there for all to see. To readers to wrestlers online to staff to anybody else, this is an open forum for everybody! Share the link, spam it on Twtter and Facebook. Go right ahead. Whether it is one large donation of 100 bucks or a ton of smaller donations throughout the week – every little bit helps.

One hundred dollars donated in the next seven days.

You want me gone for the next four weeks AND want to do something productive at the same time? Donate to a nice charity.

I WILL be back next week either way with a column and an update on the progress made. If more than 100 dollars was added to his fundraiser in the past seven days, I will thank you all in a short post and then enjoy a four week vacation from 411mania. If not, thank you for continuing to read my columns. The choice is yours…

Backstory

Last week, I posted the following:

“Next week may be a bit of a ‘personal’ column for yours truly. I highly recommend truly giving it a chance and keeping an open mind. The death of Chyna has got me thinking about my wrestling fandom and future as well, so please give my column next week a read. You won’t want to miss it…”

Let’s get to it.

In late 2013, WWE announced that RAW was returning to Green Bay, Wisconsin. That is a bit of a drive for me, but I go to watch the Packers every season and have gone to see Raw there in the past. Not THAT big of a deal but definitely out of the way.

I decided not to go because of the above reasons and really, I have been to a ton of wrestling shows over the years. WWE was not exactly on fire at the time, so the incentive to go…barely existed. Of course, as life has it, during the lead up to the show, things started to get good. Really good. Suddenly, out of the blue, Brock Lesnar was confirmed for the Raw taping. Then it was rumored that The Undertaker was returning for his WrestleMania XXX story line as well!

Oh, and Hulk Hogan was also on his way back to WWE and would return in Green Bay, Wisconsin the night after Elimination Chamber 2014. Needless to say, I was hyped up and NOW had many reasons to attend the historic taping (WWE Network also launched that day).

Except tickets had sold out at that point.

Poof. Gone. Over.

I had my chance and blew it.

Sure enough, The Hulkster made his triumphant return to the company, the WWE Network launched, and Brock Lesnar had his showdown with The Undertaker all in Green Bay that night…

…and I missed it.

That is not the only example.

Moving quickly to a non-wrestling subject, I have a close family member who LOVED Prince. I did too (going to his concert years ago). He was the man and had a lot of hit songs I still listen to on my iPod every single week. In my opinion, his Super Bowl halftime show is, by far, the best ever and will never be topped. Lucky for my close family member, she was going to Minnesota some weeks back to the Mall of America.

It was never a part of the plan or on the itinerary of locations to stop at, but Paisley Park is in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That is Prince Central for any diehard fan. As most of you probably guessed by now, she did NOT end up stopping by.

“Next time.”

“Next time.”

There is always a next time, isn’t there?

Prince died on April 21st, 2016.

There won’t be a ‘next time’ to go see Prince.

A reader posted something similar in the comment section recently about not going to a Motorhead show. Next time, next time next time…then Lemmy passed away.

This was tweeted to me before WWE Payback 2016:

@JustinWatry on the fence about attending. RAW in my hometown tomorrow. Tonight will decide it.

— Dylan Creighton (@DylanJames_77) May 1, 2016

He told me the next day he would not be attending RAW. I supported his decision and the reason why…but what if? What if Randy Orton made a big hometown return that got the pop of the century or something? What if Rumor #45,983,401 on Finn Balor showing up on Raw was actually true? What if AJ Styles demanded an immediate rematch against Roman Reigns and won the WWE World Title in an emotional moment in St. Louis that night? What if?

Yeah, the show ended up being your run of the mill three hour show, but that is hindsight – something we are not always afforded in life.

I don’t know why this next story has stuck with me through the years, but there were constant rumors of a feud between Umaga and The Undertaker. Ever since the Samoan Bulldozer arrived on the scene the night after WrestleMania 22, it was reported. WWE wanted to do a big Taker/Umaga feud. Every few weeks/months, there was some kind of an update.

It was set to be down the road obviously, but I know I was interested. Surely, it would produce some solid bouts and an interesting build up. Yet, every time the subject came up, WWE would push the feud to the end of the line.

“After this feud…”

“In a few months…”

“Not this pay-per-view but maybe in a bit…”

Then right as Umaga was done feuding with CM Punk on the Smackdown brand (where Taker was), guess what? Umaga failed yet another Wellness test, was released and died months later. Even as rumors persisted he would be brought back to WWE, it was not meant to be. They passed up countless shows to run Umaga and Taker, always assuming it could be done at any point in time.

Not true.

Some fans say the same for Sting/Taker, Hulk Hogan/Stone Cold, or even the big WM battle between John Cena and Taker.

The phrase “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone” seems fitting here. However, it is more than that. Chyna was JUST in Milwaukee. One of her final appearances was the annual Blizzard Brawl show for GLCW. I wrote about it two weeks ago, but my buddy and I decided to attend just for her…only to not end up going. Next time, next time, next time.

Yeah, next time.

The moral of this story is to appreciate the wrestling you have and the opportunity to enjoy it. You think the fans of Lowell, Massachusetts had much of an incentive to see a Thursday night NXT live event? They went and witnessed the big Samoa Joe title victory over Finn Balor. You think fans knew how massive it meant to see The Ultimate Warrior on Raw the night after WM30? Or when Chyna was at a recent autograph signing?

Without getting all sappy and using cliches, don’t take all of this great fun for granted. If there is a RAW show coming to town soon, do everything in your power to attend. If there is a Smackdown show coming to town soon, go against your better judgment of treating it like a throwaway show and actually try to attend! Same with autograph signings, meets and greets, shows, whatever. These guys and gals make all the sacrifices in the world for our enjoyment. The least we can do is give some kind of support back to them before it is too late, and you regret it forever.

You are not promised a ‘next time’ in life…

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