Last Sunday, I went over to my friend DMan’s and watched Wrestlemania XXVII (as he and I have watched Wrestlemania together since Wrestlemania XIV). Our gaming buddy Steve also came over as he said that his son (“Mr. 9”) had questions about pro wrestling and what better way to get them answered but by jumping feet first into The (other) Grandaddy Of Them All?
Some backstory: I’ve been watching wrestling since I was a little kid. Born outside of Detroit, my mom would take me on occasion to “The Joe” (Joe Louis Arena) to watch the WWF in the very last days of “the territories”. WCW never went up there. The NWA never went up there. Memphis? WCCW? Forget about it. My friends only knew about Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, and Abdullah the Butcher by reputation and the Apter magazines until we all got cable and could watch WTBS on Saturday night.
For us, it was similar to discussions about Star Wars but so-much-more-limited in scope. It was, instead, a discussion about whether this guy could beat up that guy. Could the Junk Yard Dog defeat “Handsome” Harley Race? Could The Killer Bees defeat The Hart Foundation? Could Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff beat Hulk Hogan? (Boy, that last one broke my heart, I tell you what.)
But, for us, it was never really about wrestling being “real” or “fake”. It was a weird tension. We knew it was not particularly real insofar as we knew that they weren’t trying to actually injure each other even if they were using a ring bell to hit their opponent in the throat, but it irritated us to have that pointed out to us while we were discussing Randy “Macho Man” Savage’s match with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat. Much like discussing the minutae of Star Wars, the reality within the unreality was more interesting and nuanced than any mere “you know it’s not real, right?” question indicated the asker was capable of understanding.
Last year, we discussed Empire of Illusion on the main site and had a minor discussion about pro wrestling.
The Undertaker won. Of course he won. He’s a force of nature.
Well, in the next match, we sort of let slip that the guys in the ring were being scripted. Mr. 9 was alarmed. “What? You mean they’re not really fighting?”
All of us in the room grew really quiet. Steve chuckled and said, “I’m sorry, buddy” and we all laughed. Mr. 9 was flabbergasted. He asked “well, is it real anywhere?” I made a joke about Lucha Libre and we quickly discussed MMA but it came out that, no, wrestling was… sigh… fake.
I tried to explain it like this: “imagine watching Avatar and seeing Aang get squashed flat in the second show. Splat. Pretty depressing, right? Well, this is just like that. Instead of seeing real stuff, we’re watching those guys tell us a story.”
And, by the end of the night, he was watching and cheering again.
So I’m going to see if I can dig up an Undertaker poster for him.
One of the reasons it is rewarding to spend time around children is that you see how being intelligent and perceptive is way less than half the battle. There’s self-control and emotional maturity and the ability to read non-verbal cues and having a sense not merely of what is “real” and what is “fake” but how to respond appropriately to the real and the fake.
Pro wrestling seems like the most semiotically complicated arena for him to practice that last skill.
(While thinking about the previous sentence, I did a little googling and was reminded that the leadoff essay in Barthes’ Mythologies was The World of Wrestling.)
What is thus displayed for the public is the great spectacle of Suffering, Defeat, and Justice.
After a glass of wine, I’ve compared wrestling to church. After two or three, to the Mystery Plays.
There is so much in this world that doesn’t work out the way that it should (to the point where it’s downright rare to see the team you’re rooting for go all the way) that it surprises me that Pro Wrestling isn’t doing well enough to sustain as many businesses as it did in the days of the territories.
Perhaps the many, many missteps made by the WWE/WWF in the last decade and the many, many more made by WCW before being absorbed have much to do with that…
Or, maybe, it’s the acknowledgment of the existence of kayfabe in the first place. (There’s an entire series of essays dealing with *THAT*.)
I think it’s also safe to say that he knows the deal with Santa Claus, but isn’t sure if he wants to trade in a fantasy that has worked out WONDERFULLY so far for a truth that might not deliver.
Either that, or he’s trying to let me down gently.
I remember feeling both of those things at once, once.
I have always found it strange how ‘Professional’ wreslting somehow is diminished by being fake. Reality TV is fairly new, but even that has not taken over the airwave to the exclusion of every thing else. Look at all the scripted TV show out their. Why do people not dismiss them for being fake? Did it bother you that Jack Bauer was not really getting the crap kicked out of him on every show or did you cheer less when he kicked some butt? These characters are playing their roles as if they are real, just like the wrestlers. Somehow people seem to see a difference between show like 24 and wrestling though and feel wrestling is dimished because of it being fake. Not sure what the reason is. Maybe because there was a time in many people’s lives where they thought it WAS real and then learning that it was not felt like a betrayal. Kinda like there is no Santa Claus as mentionded by Steve.
In the end I view wrestling as a male soap opera and look forward to interesting plots and cool inring moves that make you wonder how they can pull that off, without hurting themselves or their opponent.