Culture Multi-national pro wrestling Mike Quong (David Lam) I'm so glad that professional wrestling today is showcasing talent on a global scale. Many years ago, you'd only find a handful of non-American wrestlers. Nine times out of ten, these foreign fanatics played the heel. Some exam- ples of this were the Rougeau and Vachon families. Everyone who has been following the WWF. for.at least the last nine years knows about the drastic changes made to the career of Jacques Rouge. A man who at one time teamed with his brother Raymond as “The Fabulous Rougeaus.” Later on, Rouge donned the RCMP uniform using the alias of “The Mountie.” As this character, Rougeau held the Intercontinental Title for less than 48 hours before being defeated by Rowdy Roddy Piper. Later on that summer, he was engaged in a heated feud with The Big Bossman over who was the real law enforcement officer in the WWF. Rougeau lost to The Bossman at Summerslam 1992 and was forced to spend one night in jail. Many years later, Rougeau returned to tag with Pierre Oulette to form the team of “The Quebecers.” Pierre Oulette is the same guy who donned the eye-patch a couple of years later to become the infamous pirate, Jean-Pierre LaFitte. In actuality, he had apparently lost his eye, so that eye-patch was legitimate. Nowadays, at least one quarter of the wrestlers on the roster in the WWF and WCW are not American. What's really great about all of this is the fact that the foreign boys aren't always the hated heels. In the WWF, guys like Val Venis, Kurrgan and Golga are all fan favourites and all hail from the great white north. Other Cana- dian stars are Test, Gangrel, Edge, Christian, Owen Hart, Ti- ger Ali Singh and Luna. In the WCW, the story isn't really the same. Only Chris Benoit is a real fan favourite, whereas all the other Canadian stars are heels—tike Chris Jericho and Bret Hart. Other countries are also represented in the interna- tional scene. In the WWF there’s Steven Regal, The Giant Silva, Taka Michinoku and Papi Chulo. As you can see, the talent from Europe isn't the reason why the WWF introduced the European Title. As a matter of fact, the only European Champion in history that hails from Europe is Davey-Boy Smith. Mind you, you could count D- Lo Brown in that field since during his two European Title reigns, he moved all over Europe claiming he was representing the entire continent. In the WCW, there’s about twenty luchadors formerly represent- ing the Latino World Order, including Eddie and Chavo Guerrero, along with a host of stars hailing from Europe. It’s unfortunate that Eric Bischoff doesn’t realize there could be a giant feud between all European wrestlers to find out who reigns supreme among Europeans. Guys like Alex Wright, Norman Smiley, Davey- Boy Smith, Fit Finlay and Rowdy Roddy Piper. I can see a feud between Alex Wright and Fit Finlay since Finlay is actu- ally the one who ended Alex Wright's father’s career by in- juring him. Wright could start a feud with Finlay seeking re- venge for his father’s honour. Blast takes off Jen Swanston Every time a Brendan Fraser movie comes out, the slap- stick stupidity of it seems to ensure not only a poor quality movie, but also a flop. However, Fraser seems to have the ability to pick scripts that successfully showcase his comedic abilities. Fraser plays Adam Weber, a boy who grew up in a bomb shelter under the streets of LA because his father (Christopher Walken) thought that a nuclear bomb had been dropped. Thirty-five years after the doors locked, Adam goes up to the surface to get supplies. He meets Eve (Alicia Silverstone) and enlists her help. What follows is a lighthearted comedy and a love story. The general plot, while not unique in any way, is livened up by fairly good writing and decent acting. The jokes are not high tech, yet are funny and endearing. In the end the movie accom- plishes what fewer and fewer movies do these days: it entertains and takes you out of the movie theatre and into Honey, what’s that smell? the lives of the characters. If you have the chance catch Blast from the Past, it would make a great date movie, or just an all round good night out. PG-13 ***1/2 Payback doesn't pay Jen Swanston Being betrayed, shot five times in the chest, and left for dead doesn't stop Porter from coming back to get what's his. For $70,000 (US of course), Porter (Mel Gibson) comes to the scene of the crime for his money. Gibson's action flicks are usually fun and have a point of some kind, no matter how insignificant. Unfortu- nately, Payback doesn't. While the explosions were spectacu- lar and the characters sur- vived things your average Navy SEAL would have nightmares about, the plot and the acting were a bit off. The characters Gibson plays tend to be mavericks, loose screws without any- thing to lose; yet they triumph in the end. Porter does come back against all odds to reclaim his stolen money—money that he, his wife Lynn (Deborah Kara Unger) and partner Val (Gregg Henry) stole from a Chinese gang. But it seems that Porter doesn’t just want to get the money and pay back the man who betrayed him. Mainly, he wants to take his anger out on the world in general. The only thing Porter seems to care about, except for his money, is Rosie (Maria Bello) a high-class hooker that Porter used to drive for. Payback seems just to be the body in which as much violence as possible can be delivered in a 100 minute time period. 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