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Everyone has that horrible wrestling angle or character that they love, despite how bad it sucked. Whether it was a masked Kevin Nash bypassing Dorothy, the Scarecrow, The Tin Man, and The Cowardly Lion to enter the ring as "Oz", Mike Shaw's flatulence at Bastion Booger, or the legendary Dungeon of Doom, everyone has seen horrible gimmicks that have remained at the forefront of their wrestling memories.
We've all witnessed bloopers, goofs, and mishaps that have turned what may have been a decent angle on paper into a goofy afterthought, like the Shockmaster's 1993 debut in WCW, falling through a wall with a a stormtrooper helmet wrapped in tin foil falling off.
For all the good in wrestling that hardcore and casual fans alike love and remember, there is also the bad, which leaves as lasting a memory as a five star encounter. But where to log all these tremendous events for future generations to remember, study, and learn from? Where to house all of these unique, horrible, amazing, and hilarious characters and incidents in one place? Well, that's the idea behind Wrestlecrap - the website.
The idea behind the concept of a site became a favorite among Internet fans, many of whom live to bitch about their fandom of wrestling as much as they love to watch it. The idea soon spawned a book by the same title, authored by Wrestlecrap creator RD Reynolds. The book was a fast selling immediate hit, showing that crap isn't just unique. It's universally loved by fans young and old.
With his second book in the writing stage now, I caught up with RD Reynolds to discuss the rise of the Wrestlecrap phenomenon, his own fandom, the success and history of his first book, future plans, and all the wonderfully horrible gimmicks that gave birth to this unique niche within the online wrestling world.
MIKE JOHNSON: How did the Wrestlecrap concept come together?
RD REYNOLDS: I had purchased a computer to do video editing work. This was in mid 1998, I believe. I was lead to believe that this computer, a Power Mac G3 266MHz, would enable me to do just that. And it did...if I wanted to do 30 second 320x240 files, which I didn't want to do. Therefore, I had to figure out something to do to justify having gone out and spent nearly $3,000 on the system (though, to be fair, I still use that system to this day - and am, in fact, answering your questions on it!). I decided to do a website, but didn't know exactly what to base it on. I loved two things: wrestling and videogames. Unfortunately, the web was flooded with both of those. So I was stumped. One night, I was watching Nitro with a friend of mine, and something stupid happened. To this day, I don't remember what it was, but my friend said, "That's the dumbest thing I ever saw!" And I replied, "You've never seen the Gobbeldy Gooker!" And then we talked about horrible gimmicks and characters for an hour - that's when I knew what the website would be.
JOHNSON: When did you first realize the website was a hit?
REYNOLDS: I remember looking at some early numbers with Merle Vincent, who co-founded the site with me, and saw we had 2000 visitors one month. I was blown away. I mentioned that to Merle, and he said that he was in a chat room earlier that day, and someone "recognized him" and thought that was really neat. I did too, although I never really consider the site a "hit" or whatever - it's just something I do. My only goal is to make people laugh, and if I do that to 2 people or 20,000, I consider the day a success.
JOHNSON: What is it about these horrible gimmicks that end up becoming immortal? Why do fans still think of Red Rooster before Terry Taylor or the Shark before John Tenta?
REYNOLDS: I think it's something that we are all there, all watching, and thinking, "Who in the hell thought THIS was a good idea?" I learned early in life that I always gravitated toward the worst of everything. I remember reading a Book of Lists that listed the worst movies of all time, and that John Wayne once starred as Genghis Kahn in a film. What the hell? Of course, we don't remember John Wayne as Genghis Kahn, but that's because he did so many other classic films. But some of these guys, like poor Terry Taylor, that was his chance to shine. And he had to do it as a chicken. Yikes!
JOHNSON: Didn't the site close at one point and then return? What was the story there?
REYNOLDS: The site shut down in 2001 I believe. It just got too expensive to host. I remember thinking how cool it was that it was getting so much attention, it was in magazines, people were raving about it on the net, the whole nine yards. Then I got a bill from my provider for something like $3,000 for one month. Since the site had no ads, no income, it was simply impossible to go on. I brought it back in a much more streamlined and I think smarter way, with just a couple of items a week, with old favorites and new material that a lot of folks are really enjoying. I know that having Blade Braxton doing Jobber of the Week has been a lot of fun for folks, and Madison Carter does outstanding work with the Weird World of Wrestling. So the Crap is back, but it's different, and the response has been very positive for the most part. I think people understand the issues of bandwidth these days.
JOHNSON: I'd imagine so.
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