Well, here we are, once again. My monthly blog post. Unfortunately, I let time get away from me, and did not meet my goal of doing at least one post a month, so I guess this month gets a bonus entry to make up for it. For this first post, I will be talking about one of my favorite subjects…wrestling.
A fellow by the name of Max Landis (son of director John Landis) recently released a video entitled “Wrestling isn't Wrestling,” and it is the most amazing, accurate defense for people who love and enjoy wrestling that I have ever seen. I am more proud now than I ever have been to be a fan. So...if you have ever wondered for yourself why people like me love wrestling so much, or if you just want to watch a hilarious video, you should take 25 minutes and check it out here. Unless you are not fond of extremely colorful language. If that is the case, I have summarized the video's message below.
Now, when people that I know find out that I love pro wrestling, the first thing I always almost hear, once the other person stops laughing at me, is:
“Uh….you do know it’s fake….right?”
“You know it’s not real, don’t you?”
Of course I know it isn't real. In fact, people who feel the need to tell you that wrestling isn't real clearly don’t watch wrestling or have never watched wrestling at all. But to be honest, it’s more real than any other tv show out there. This show does not in any way pretend to be an athletic competition. It’s a tv show about a wrestling show. Each week, live, death defying stunts are performed in front of millions of people. In fact, pro wrestling has more in common with Game of Thrones than it does with the UFC.
The show also features an array of eccentric, larger than life characters, including an undead wizard, a leprechaun, and an evil group of male cheerleaders. And if you follow one of these characters all the way from when they debut until now, you can see that this format allows for the telling of interesting, diverse, and compelling stories.
Our imagination is our greatest gift, and also can be our greatest curse, because we are bored all of the time. When you are sitting alone playing on your phone, it’s because you are bored. We, as humans, are constantly craving melodrama and fiction. That’s what Lord of the Rings is! That’s what Phantom of the Opera is! That’s what Goodfellas is! The human capacity for empathy through imagination is why we have stories. And that is what fiction does for us! It gives us a sort of simulator for bigger stories and even bigger emotions!
A lot of wrestlers are great characters….in fiction. And that is what we want. That is what we need. From Long John Silver, to Perseus, to Neo, to Walter White. We love watching people grow, change, and struggle. It doesn't matter if they are good people or bad people, we don’t really care. We need entertainment and we need it now. And when you watch wrestling, that’s exactly what you are getting. An elaborate work of fiction.
There is a a lot of things in wrestling that sucks. But when its good, its great! Wrestling is melodrama, mythology, action, comic books, and so much more. But the one thing that wrestling isn’t….is wrestling.
