Read my blog [Archive] - Boxing Forum

Royal Burnell

06-17-2007, 12:25 PM

from the blog....

Some folks call Ken Shamrock a legend. I call him horsewater; green tit-milk. He’s a jerk and we all know it. But did you also know he was a secret agent?

Born Kenneth Wayne Kilpatrick on February 11, 1964, this puddle of sour, wet animal-shit would grow up to become one of the most prolific mixed-martial-arts fighters in the history of this pseudo-sport. He would also evolve into a raging and gaping asshole the likes of which the industry has never seen.

Your inexperiances shows through your colorful language. Now, I'm not going to throw stones. I've done my share of swearing as well, but the difference between you and me is that I do it to make certain areas important and not overlooked.

As toward the later part, what are you trying to accomplish by exposing the full name of Ken Shamrock? Everybody knows his name isn't Shamrock and everybody knows that the Shamrocks aren't brothers.

We dwelve further on.

Now, back to Big Bastard Wayne. In the mid-90’s, MMA was in its infancy (roughly the same age that Ken Shamrock was shucked like a foul-shaped piece of corn, into the bowels of foster care). It had yet to hit its stride, Stateside, at least, and needed a compass to guide it.

In short, it was looking for an identity. Any intellectual property, any form of ENTERTAINMENT needs an audience, and audiences are comprised of demographics.

The UFC needed to look around both the SPORTS and ENTERTAINMENT worlds to see what it could see, steal what it could steal, and gleam all the luster it could from each, respective cube.

Sure, there was Royce Gracie, but he was as dull as a middle school janitor’s sex life. Bastard Wayne had the look. More importantly, he had the training.

I got to ask you a question. Who do you think thought up the UFC? Some guys in W. Burbank? No. The general idea behind the UFC at the time was to promote Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. It was supposed to be a PPV informercial to promote the Gracie fighting style. They did it by way of modified Gracie Challenge rules. There wasn't supposed to be more of these. Ken was just a pleasant surprise.

Having trained as a PRO-WRESTLER under the tutelage of Buzz Sawyer and Nelson Royal in 1988, Kenny-Ken-Ken was the perfect barometer to send back to work as an undercover agent for the fledging world of MMA.

He had tested all the waters, drank from all the sacred chalices; trained as a pro-wrestler in the U.S., performed as one in Japan (Universal Wrestling and Fujiwara Gumi), competed in the UFC when it still didn’t know exactly what the **** it was; more of a turn of the century Carny-Act than a true showcase of mixed martial arts, AND he gave brilliant handjobs in dark alleys while whimpering hither and thither about being an unloved orphan.

This is where your research really lacks. While Pro-wrestling is now bewildering even pro-wrestling fans (thanks a lot Vince), Back in the day, it was a viable martial art called Catch As Catch Can wrestling. Catch started out as a servival technique for Carny wrestlers to protect themselves from opponents who didn't want to fight fair. It then developed into it's own competitive martial art style around the begining of the 20th Century and became a fail safe venture for martial artists who exceled in grappling to make a decent living. Several US presidents were also well versed in Catch as well, including Teddy Roosevelt, who was not only technically the first Mixed Martial Artist, but he also created the first MMA hybrid form known as Gutterfighting and had it taught to our military.

You also forget that there isn't many avenues for martial artists to succeed finacially, back in the day, unless you had a face for movies, your only options were The Olympics, motivational speaking or pro wrestling. That was it. A lot of martial artists like Gene LeBell, Allen James Coage, Hossein Ali Vaziri, Don Frye, Sylvester Turkay, Shawn Hair, Saytoru Sayama, Oleg Prudius, Kurt Angle and even Brock Lesnar did pro-wrestle because they couldn't sustain an income based on their talents. Nowadays, MMA is giving these guys an opportunity to showcase themselves instead of reading bad script and keep a schedule that would turn even the most fit gentalman into a raving junky. It wouldn't be surprising that someone with a martial arts background would make the transition.

Next time, read before you open your mouth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_wrestling
http://scientificwrestling.com/