Die Hard, WWE and Christmas
Tis the weekend before Christmas, and here I sit at my laptop, waiting for the latest episode of How I Met Your Mother to load. It's a typical Saturday afternoon, where I'm wondering how long I can last before I decide to hit the sack for an afternoon nap. I shouldn't say I've gotten nothing accomplished this morning. I'm basically on track to finish the November/December update for Shelf Life. I'm hoping I can get up after the impending nap, grab my gifts out of the closet (or "Entertainment Library" as I like to call it) and wrap them while I watch my favourite Christmas movie...Wait for it...
DIE HARD!!!
What? It is too a Christmas movie! The plot summary, according to IMDB goes something like this "New York cop John McClane flies to Los Angeles on Christmas eve to spend the holidays with his family. He arrives at the Nakatomi corp. building for his wife's office party. International terrorists take over the building and hold every one as hostage to steel $600 million of bonds from the vaults of the building. Now its up to McCLane to face the terrorists and save his wife and the other hostages."
And let's face it, I'd rather sit and watch explosions and gunfire than some sappy, melodramatic weeper where a grizzled old f*rt realizes he has a heart of gold when he helps some orphans and learns the true meaning of Christmas.
Now maybe I'm just an old f*rt who needs to realize he has a heart of gold but if you want to know the true meaning of Christmas in the 21st Century, go to the mall and watch people give each other the finger and exchange F-words because one beat the other one out for a parking spot.
But it's night like I'm totally against traditional Christmas televison. After I finish cracking jokes as my Mom watches Cops (who had their traditional "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Christmas episode last week - three guesses as to what Ho! stands for when it comes to Cops), I'll be checking out the WWE Tribute to the Troops Special.
Again...it is both a Christmas show and, seeing as this is the fourth or fifth time this has happened, it is a tradition.
What's that you say? You've never heard of this before? What is "Tribute to the Troops"? Okay, ever since 9/11, the WWE has gone to Iraq (except for 2002 when they went to Afghanistan) to perform for the U.S. Servicemen and women stationed there.
That's right. Evil, soul-less money-grubbing Vince McMahon and his circus of roided-up fake wrasslers actually do something that could, if one were to be generous, be construed as a positive thing. They do travel all the way to Iraq to give these soldiers a little entertainment at a time when they must feel the seperation from their families the most.
Wait? The WWE doing something positive? No!!!! How did that happen? :)
Of course, because it is a positive thing, no one ever hears about this outside of WWE circles. Everyone else is too busy waiting for someone to OD. So busy in fact that they don't really even go for the obvious "McMahon is just prostituting U.S. servicemen and women as a way to get ratings!"
Vince McMahon may not be a saint, but he's doing something good. He's even not afraid to make the trek himself. Yeah, maybe he's thinking about ratings and public image helping WWE stock, but I'd like to imagine he has a lot of respect for the men and women who serve his country, (WWE Service Personnel get in free to all WWE events.) And Tribute to the Troops is just his way of giving back.
Well, I'm off for that nap. Until next time...yes, this is the shiznit, watch the f*ckin' road!
