Hello, my name is Richard. A quick intro – I’m 25, have been watching wrestling since I was about 6 years old, and am a massive nerd in regards to it. I watch every week, read the usual websites and magazines, and have lots of DVDs, podcasts, shoot interviews etc.
Having said this – I do not use the following terms : ‘mark’, ‘smart mark’ , ‘E-C-Dub’ ,’This is awesome’, ‘The Boys’ (in reference to the wrestlers) etc. Why? Because, to be honest, I find it a wee bit embarrassing. Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not embarrassed of being a wrestling fan, merely of some of the jargon that goes with it. And also, because deep down, way down in the 6-10 year old in me, I wish I still had my innocence when it comes to wrestling. I shall explain.
When was the last time you were genuinely excited by something that happened in wrestling? Either something you didn’t know was going to happen (by avoiding spoilers etc, but more on that later) or by something you just didn’t see happening at all? Something which you, and Lord help me for saying this – ‘Marked out for’? Off the top of my head (and this is purely off the top of my head so please if there are glaring omissions I apologise), I recall 3 from the last couple of years:
1) CM Punk Cashes in MITB on Jeff Hardy, Extreme Rules 2009: Whilst some had foreseen Punk’s heel turn from the moment he won his 2nd straight MITB at Wrestlemania 25, there was still something very exciting about the strains of Machinehead (it is them who do his song, right?) blasting out as Hardy was about to be interviewed by JR following his titanic ladder match victory over Edge (Hey, perhaps the fact that JR was going to interview him gave it away somewhat). Maybe it’s because I am such a massive fan of Punk, but I did actually get out of my seat and shout ‘YES!’ when it happened, something which hadn’t happened in a long while….
2) Jack Swagger wins MITB, Wrestlemania 26, 2010 – I don’t think anybody saw this coming did they? Hands up if you did, and if you have a hand up, I don’t believe you. Many thought this was Drew McIntyre’s night to shine, so it was an absolute delight to see the All American American grab the briefcase after what seemed like an hour of him trying to grab it. Again, I am a massive Swagger fan so this probably helped, but the shock of it all only helped to increase the thrill of the young Oklahoman grabbing the coveted briefcase.
3) Nexus arrive – Raw, 2010 – NOBODY saw this one coming, and it was probably the freshest, most exciting thing to happen to Raw since Edge won his first world title. I don’t think we need to discuss how the angle went afterwards, but boy, THAT is how you kick off a new faction.
Since writing those first 3 I have also remembered Cena returning as number 30 and winning the Royal Rumble in 2008, which should probably go in as well. Ho hum.
The reason why I listed those is that they are so few and far between in modern wrestling . And a reason I think that is because of what I call ‘The Burden of Knowledge’. Let me go into more detail…
Wasn’t wrestling a more thrilling thing when you didn’t know all the ins and outs of what’s going on backstage? When you thought your favourite could actually win without knowing of ‘Glass ceilings’, ‘politics’ or ‘pushes’? When you didn’t know who was sleeping with the bosses daughter, or who was going to serve a suspension for failing a Wellness Policy?
Whilst the internet brought us many great things (I shall not list them here, you make your own mind up), it has slightly tainted some things – Spoilers appear everywhere for TV shows, albums leak before release dates (mainly not in their finished forms), films etc pop up. I don’t need to tell you all of this – most of us have accessed these things at one point or another (and if you have – naughty you). But the wrestling business as a whole has been changed by the invention of the world wide web – and it has its plus points and its negative points.
For example: How good would it have been for Christian to have ran in and cost Jeff Hardy the title against Edge at the 2009 Rumble? A lot better than Matt’s swerve turn, that’s for sure. But no, Vince changed his plans when he storyline had leaked. I hope whoever leaked that storyline is pleased with themselves – you ruined the E&C reunion dammit! New signings – we all know when to expect someone to debut now, which is a shame. Spoilers appear for pre-taped shows, meaning that Smackdown is skipped more often than not. We know who has ‘heat’ backstage, or who is being ‘de-pushed’. I could go on.
On the positive side though – I love shoot interviews. I could (and would like to) write lengthy columns about Shoot Interviews. I love to listen to them, and especially hear wrestlers burying each other or burning bridges. It’s the gossipy weasel inside of me I suppose. I read Power Slam every month, as well as scouring the sites daily such as this fine site. I crave information and love finding out all the gossip. I love how WWE approach their DVDs with the assumption that we know it’s ‘entertainment’ so we don’t get too much BS (Note I said ‘too much BS’, revisionist history is a WWE speciality).
I suppose you might be thinking now, ‘He’s a bit of a hypocrite writing all that and then writing a column about it’, but hear me out. It’s not that I don’t want to find out these things – if I did I would avoid the internet. But it’s indicative of the society we live in – we crave to know what’s going to happen, and our short attention spans means we need instant gratification. Hence why you see angles getting rushed, short title reigns etc etc.
That being said, I doubt there are too many people who wouldn’t mind a return to the way we were – when we knew nothing and were in awe of what we saw. When we didn’t know that The Bushwhackers were ‘lousy workers’, or the Warlord ‘was on the juice’. When we saw our favourites win a belt, without knowing it was coming a few months prior. In this day and age, when you get to a certain point in your life you lose the blinkers and see it for what it really is. But maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing if we kept them on a little while longer.
Hope you enjoyed the read, all feedback appreciated. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC-ZoraCq0I[/youtube]
