FanPost

Recalling "The Question" & How Blockbuster Showed Me "The Answer"

In the summer of 1996, I was 12 years old and on the verge of hitting it big. On that particular sunny day, I was about to fulfill a years long dream and finally step up to the Big Leagues. For the first time in my young life, I was about to enter a place so wonderful, so unimaginably glorious, that I had previously thought it was unobtainable. I was about to walk through the doors of a Blockbuster.....That's right. A Blockbuster. The now essentially defunct movie rental store, aka, the greatest company in the history of the world. At least as far as I am concerned. Believe it or not, this relic of the 90's and early 2000's had a more profound influence and effect on my life than any school, church, or business establishment ever has. Looking back on it, it amazes me just how much I owe to that big, blue building.......

Look, I already know what you are thinking and it probably sounds something like this: "WTF are you talking about Tylander? How can an overpriced video rental store have more of an effect on your life than a school or a church? You must be a fucking idiot or something....I'm outta here....." Honestly, if that is indeed what is running through your mind at the moment, I don't blame you. It sounds pretty damn stupid. But please, before you dismiss this as nothing more than the ramblings of a very pathetic man with an unhealthy obsession with an out of business video rental chain, let me explain.

In order to understand my desire to experience what seems to be such a trivial thing, one must understand a little bit of my upbringing, or more specifically, the location of my upbringing. I was raised in the country. And I'm not talking about the type of country that is a couple miles out of the city or the suburbs. I'm talking about the kind of country that takes you down the back roads, through the hollers, past the lakes, and deep into the West Virginia hills. This isn't your normal "lets get out of the city and take the kids to see granny this weekend" type of spot in the country. Oh no, sirree, not even close....This was the type of country where just a slight flurry of Mountaineer wind would cause even the bravest of city slickers to swear to the good lord above that they just heard the strum of a banjo and the cackle of a malevolent redneck, thus inevitably causing our urban visitors to quiver and flee back to whatever cement metropolis they dared venture out of. I'm talking about country so deep that it was truly frightening to the uninitiated.

Needless to say, modern facilities and technology were not readily available in this little slice of God's country. Things like cable TV, cellular phones, city water, children that didn't scare the shit out of you, speedy access to medical aid (Snake bit? Yeah, your fucked.....), and automatic vehicles were all just things "those pussy city folk' couldn't live without. In these backwoods, you were far more likely to see an 8 year old on horseback carrying a high powered rifle than you were to see a kid on a bike. Going on horseback was the more effective way of travel for us anyway....That alone should tell you all you need to know about the environment. Not exactly modern......I did, however, at the very least, have a crappy, busted up TV in my bedroom that could pick up FOX 11 and not much else. Looking back on it though, that one channel is all I needed because it started me on the path to something I may have never even known existed if I didn't have it. It was in these years, sitting on my bed watching old 80's movies on FOX 11 that I was first exposed to "The Question."

Anyone born at least a few years before the 1990's can remember "The Question" because it had been asked for countless years before they were even born. It was a simple query, and yet, no one had ever had an answer for it; only opinions. "The Question" was always the same but always different at the same time and it went like this: Who would win in a fight? A boxer or a wrestler? A Kung Fu fighter or a karate expert? A street fighter or a Shaolin monk? A taekwondo practitioner or a catch-as-catch-can grappler? The variables were basically endless. Everyone wanted to know, but no one really knew how to find out. It's not like there was a tournament for such things.......Therefore, due to a lack of other more credible options, many looked to Hollywood for the answer.

Martial Arts movies had been popularized by Bruce Lee in the 1970's, but it wasn't until the 80's rolled around that Hollywood began to branch out into several different genres of martial arts movies that would drive "The Question" deep into the minds of the youth of that time. The Rocky franchise had begun in the 70's, but was still widely popular at the turn of the decade, giving boxing a solid representative in cinema. Amateur wrestling was the focus of the film "Vision Quest", the story of a high school wrestler hell bent on defeating the top grappler in his state. The Karate Kid franchise had children performing Crane Kicks across the nation and signing up for Karate classes in strip malls from coast to coast. The 1989 film "Best of the Best" concentrated on international taekwondo competitions. Never before had so many martial arts been visible in mainstream American pop culture and never before had "The Question" been as popular a riddle as it had become then. After watching many of these films, children of a certain age would argue endlessly about the advantages and disadvantages of certain styles and would ultimately come to their own individual conclusions. Amusingly, these conclusions were usually based on whatever respective martial art a particular child competed in, which would inevitably raise the stakes and intensity of these childhood debates.

I, of course, was no different. After witnessing the Jean Claude Van Dam classics "Bloodsport," "Kickboxer," and "Lionheart" I was thoroughly convinced that JCVD's spin kick heavy style was the answer to any problem that could possibly be encountered during hand-to-hand combat, but how could I ever prove it without learning and displaying the same skills myself? Even in my youth, I knew I wouldn't be able to acquire such skills being stuck in nowhere West Virginia, so I began to feverishly search out and study all of the films listed above along with many others like The American Ninja Movies, "37 Ninjas," countless foreign Kung Fu movies, all things Chuck Norris, and whatever else was available on FOX 11 and the highly limited local video stores in the small town closest to my home. After exhausting myself by watching many of these films countless times, I moved onto studying the professional wrestling promotions of the day (Remember, I was very young when this was happening. Pro wrestling was still real to me, so therefore fair game, imo.) Basically, if I thought I could watch or learn something about fighting from a particular medium, fiction or otherwise, like many children of the day, I had to have it.

I became so obsessed with "The Question" that I blew through all of my resources in relatively quick fashion and soon had no method of discovering more. The internet was still in its infancy, and even if it had not been, my technologically impaired father would have seen no use in it. Monthly subscriptions to Black Belt magazine and other publications were also a hard sell with my father. He would allow me to purchase one from the newsstand from time to time, but each were expected to last me months before another would be purchased. They never made it more than a few hours before they were read cover-to-cover. Still, though, even with all of the information packed inside, "The Question" still held strong and no amount of pleading with my father would ever get him to break from his policies. The tyrant......Did he not realize that I still didn't know who the best fighters were? I still didn't have my answer to "The Question."

Years of begging to be enrolled in Karate classes also fell on deaf ears. A violent, older cousin of mine had taken classes before I became interested and had proceeded to inflict large amounts of punishment on the children living in his neighborhood. Because of this, I was forced to suffer for his sins and was adamantly barred from martial arts training (I am STILL pissed about that Jason!!! All you had to do was not kick Chaddy Campbell in the face, but ya just had to fuck it up for everybody, didn't ya.......) I was nearly on the verge of reaching starvation level when it came to martial arts when something amazing happened.

In 1996, my mother, who had split from my father years earlier, moved from her then rural home to a much more urban era, at least for West Virginian standards. My younger brother and I were sent to stay with her at least every other week. For the first time in our lives, we would be able to escape the country and all of its limitations on a consistent and extended basis. My first thoughts, of course, were of a certain video store I had only ever seen commercials for on my beat up bedroom TV. I had always wished to scour its shelves for any new martial arts film I had yet to lay my young eyes on, but had been resigned to the fact that I would likely never have the opportunity to do so until I had left the ever watchful eye and iron fist of my father, a day that still seemed to be an eternity away. But now, with my mother in an area populated with more than just trees, rednecks, and stifled aspirations, I had my chance. I was finally going to get to go to Blockbuster. "The Question" was still not answered for me. I had research to do, and that was the place to do it.

On the first night of the first day of our first visit at our mother's new home, I finally crossed the threshold of Blockbuster, and nothing would ever be the same again. The options seemed so limitless that I didn't even know where to begin. All I knew was that I needed to find something new. Something I had yet to scour over 15 times before. There had to be something in this treasure trove, and I was going to find it. After exploring for several minutes, I did just that.

The Special Interest section may have been the most beautiful thing I had seen in all of my 12 years. It was littered with professional wrestling PPV's, shows I had obviously never seen or even heard of due to my time in rural deep freeze. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I had hit that jackpot.....But then I noticed something different. Something I had never seen or heard of before. Looking back now, I have no idea how it had escaped me. Surely, my magazines had mentioned this, but somehow I had missed it. At that time, though, I still had no idea what I was looking at. It was something called The Ultimate Fighting Championship 6. Was this a pro wrestling organization I had never heard of? It had to be.....What else could it be? The only thing I was sure of at the time was that it was coming home with me. That and Summerslam '95. I would compare them and see which was better. My evening was set. Blockbuster had delivered. I wouldn't know how true that was, though, until I made it home to my mother's house.

Upon returning home, I immediately set out to view my new discovery before moving on to Summerslam. Little did I know that I would never get that far. I popped in UFC 6, pressed play, and proceeded to have my young mind blown right through the wall. The previous person to rent the tape had failed to completely rewind it, so I came in during the entrance of a man I will never forget for as long as I live. The first MMA fighter I ever knowingly laid eyes upon was a man by the name of Pat Smith. He was a kickboxer, something I immediately latched onto because of my love for the JCVD film. I continued to watch in absolute amazement as he entered an 8-sided cage that looked like it was also out of an 80's movie. This wrestling organization was awesome.......They wrestled in a cage, not a ring. Badass......His opponent, Rudyard Moncayo, soon entered the cage clad in nothing but black pants, a stark contrast to Smith's white singlet. "Moncayo must be the bad guy," I thought. "I hope he loses." I would get my wish and so much more.....

Finally, after both men had prepared themselves, the referee, some unknown guy named Big John McCarthy, whoever that was, initiated the action. What happened next was beyond unexpected to me. Pat Smith proceeded to run across the ring and front kick his opponent straight to the mat and then beat on him for around 1 minute before beginning to choke the man. And then suddenly, it was over......I had no idea what I had just seen. This was wrestling? I needed to see more. I rewound the tape back to the first match. It last only a little bit longer before one of the competitors was defeated. The next only slightly longer than the first, once again ending due to strikes. "What is this?" I wondered. It was amazing. I needed more. Two more fights, two more quick, violent finishes. I was beginning to grasp what I was witnessing and I couldn't believe it. It was too good to be real. It couldn't be real......No way.....And yet here it was.

This was a tournament, just like in "Bloodsport," "Enter the Dragon," and "Kickboxer" except these weren't actors falling down for JCVD's spin kicks. The movies I had adored were being reproduced in real life and they were doing it all inside a freaking cage!?! These were real martial artists in a real tournament, each representing their own disciipline......This was it.....this was the answer to "The Question." These guys weren't pretending to answer "The Question;" They were answering it. I couldn't believe it. I had been looking for this for years, and here it was, finally in my possession. And there were more!!!! They had been doing them for years without my knowledge, able to escape my view because of my lack of exposure to anything outside of what I could find in my tiny hometown. It was exhilarating. Fiction was not suppose to become reality in such a drastic manner. But it had,

The next day I rented the first UFC. The day after that I rented the second UFC, and so on and so on until I had watched them all. Then I watched them all again. And again. And then again. I learned names like Royce Gracie,Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Tank Abbott, Oleg Taktarov, Paul Varleans. and Kimo. I saw techniques and disciplines I had never heard of or respected and watched them revolutionize what the human race knew about hand-to-hand combat. In later years I would be introduced to more great stars like Maurice Smith, Mark Coleman,Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Bas Rutten, Frank Shamrock, and Pat Miletich, all of whom would help add even more layers to what has become a brand new martial art.

This new form doesn't compete with others so much as it absorbs them. It is a style that is no style, but at the same time is every style that has ever been created. It is an art form that is so diverse and multifaceted that it took centuries for human beings to even begin to formulate, and yet has only taken a handful of generations to master. Mixed Martial Arts, the world's newest form of hand-to-hand combat, has changed how all of us view fighting. At the beginning of my generation, combat sports were dominated by "The Question." The new generation, however, will never have to ask that question. Now, thanks to the generations that came before them, all future generations will be born in the era of ""The Answer." They will be born in the era of Mixed Martial Arts.



FanPosts are user-generated content that do not reflect the editorial opinions of MMAmania.com nor its staff.