Suffering, Defeat, and Justice: Why You Should Care About Pro Wrestling

I don’t believe there is one way of viewing wrestling which is “correct,” rather that the ways in which wrestling fans engage with their hobby have become insular to a degree which blinds them to its original joys. Professional wrestling is a competitive pursuit just not in the way that most members of the public think of it. It is undoubtedly compelling to view the performers from the perspective of what they are actually doing, rather than what they are simulating. Being able to see the talents and skills that are not always apparent to the untrained eye in the transitions, reversals, and aerial moves is highly satisfying. It is, however, a mistake to reject the core of what professional wrestling has always been: visual escapism, good vs. evil, revenge fantasies, the empowering of the powerless.

Hulk Hogan

A large part of the problem in allowing the general public to see how many layers of artistry, athletic skill, and comedic chops there are in wrestling is with its inability to discuss itself. Do WWE and TNA really consider themselves proper TV shows? Then why are the wrestlers, performers, and management so phobic of criticism, even more than the most cantankerous Hollywood pets? With the possible exception of the video game industry, there is no area in entertainment where the audience is so lowly considered and their opinions so openly degraded by the very lot they are financially and personally supporting. “Huh huh you’re not in the business kid!”

Kevin Nash once fatuously asked, “If you weren’t a chef, would you go into the kitchen afterwards and tell him how to cook the meal?” This seems to be the prevalent attitude of those in the wrestling business. That the world is filled with talented literary, movie, music, and—yes, food critics—who may not be able excel personally in the areas which they criticize, seems to have passed Big Daddy Cool by. As it does almost every wrestler. This has done immense harm to the standard of discussion around wrestling.

This is almost certainly an aftereffect of the covert nature of kayfabe and the resentment in having to divulge—or being found out, pick one—the inner workings to “outsiders.” The standard of wrestling journalism is, of course, appalling. Alternating between a backstage toilet bowl catalogue and sub-YouTube comment live blogging guffaws, add in a litany of linguistically inept souls, and you have every wrestling site ever.

This is, from as best I can see, caused by the relationship that wrestling has to sport. The connection between Mixed Martial Arts and wrestling is now talked about before anything else. I understand the historical and practical reasons for this—similar fanbase, similarly physical spectacles, etc.—but while previously denigrated “childish” forms such as the comic book and the science fiction movie have all made some considerable stab at examination of the art form, wrestling has been satisfied to retain its identity as a flaccid imitation of the real thing.

When Chris Jericho compared wrestling to two jazz players improvising together, he hit upon something of depth which has not been explored by any wrestling outlet seriously. I fear that this is due to the general lack of talent, knowledge, and perspective which plagues most of the wrestling publications, and certainly those within the business itself.

While comic books have many parallels with pro wrestling, I think the great martial arts movies of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung are its closest artistic relations. That Jackie Chan performs his own stunts has long been common knowledge and has been a selling point of his movies for many years. It is still a fairly remarkable thing when you examine it. When Jackie Chan fell to crack his skull open in (Armour of God), the fact that the film had a script and the scenes were blocked out meant nothing to the man who very nearly died, or to the audience with the care to notice.

The artistry of Jackie Chan has nothing to do with whether the film is “real” or not. It is reality within a creative framework. Great magicians also have this skill. No sane person believes that a magician is capable of subverting the natural order. So why then would anyone be entertained by watching a magic show? Perhaps because it is not the act itself but the way in which it is performed. How did they fool me? Why did I want them to fool me?

Wrestling can be a beautiful, vicious thing. It deserves criticism of a higher quality. It deserves wider recognition. It also deserves an awareness from those involved within it that if “we” are to acquire polemicists, critics, and historians on par with the other “childish” arts, then Professional Wrestling has to decide what it is and what it really wants to be. Playing with the notion that Raw’s brother in crime is first House or SNL is fine, if you follow through on the implications. Stop pretending as if you are inured from all critical thought. Stop pretending as if only those who work in a ring have a right to voice an opinion on your product. Start comparing yourself to the real standards of writing and composition on television today.

I love wrestling. It is not just what happens inside the ring, in spite of what some say. Wrestling is everything you see on the show and every skill that it takes to be popular. Hulk Hogan is one of the best ever, like it or not. The Ultimate Warrior “got over” by running to the ring. I’m all for heavily involved, conceptual story arcs which involve manipulating the norms of what a wrestling show usually involves. One day I want to see real writing talent work on a wrestling show. I’m also for hour long matches with no commentary.

The most important thing is to be adventurous, to continue to push out and evolve the form and what people understand pro wrestling to be. Stop denigrating your past, and your history just to court a mainstream acceptance which may never come. The way people are shown why wrestling is great is not by presenting them with half-baked, derivative riffs on topics that SNL did five years ago. If you are going to compare yourself to every other entertainment show, then do it honestly. But there is a reason why the people come to your shows, rather than stay at home and watch CSI. And I think it is something essential that is in pro wrestling.

As that old fellow Barthes said:

“What is displayed for the public is the great spectacle of Suffering, Defeat, and Justice. Wrestling presents man’s suffering with all the amplification of tragic masks.”

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