How do I not understand wrestling today?
9th of April 2015
Anyone who has known me for a while is well aware how much I loved wrestling growing up. I was a machine on it. I knew the answer to most questions a wrestling junkie knows, at an early age. I remember starting to like wrestling around the time of Wrestlemania 3. Of course, it was Hulk Hogan that got me into it. I can't explain how he did, but he was always my favorite wrestler growing up.
However, as I got older, I started to take on more responsibilities (like everyone does while growing up). I had gotten my first job at the age of 15, and I started driving. Soon enough, college was around the corner. I still kept up on wrestling, but it was hard. I did it in different ways, whether it was asking friends what had happened, or I just caught the next week's episode. Keep in mind that this was around the time the Internet was still becoming popular.
Wrestling was always big in some way. Everyone knew the big names. In the 80s, everyone knew who Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant were. In the 90s, everyone knew who the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin were. Those names would carry over into the millennium. Today, no names really stick out like in the 80s and 90s. What changed the wrestling world forever was the Internet, and I'm not convinced it was for the good.
I still miss quite a bit of RAW because of work, so I have the Internet to help catch me up. Mark that as a plus. What I don't like is that the Internet has become a place for rumors to start. Even backstage antics that the public doesn't need to know about becomes public knowledge. I don't feel like the element of surprise is there anymore because everyone has to know before the show happens. What's the point of the show happening if someone, other than the wrestlers, know what's going to happen? I've always liked the element of surprise, but I also think the Attitude Era in WWE (then WWF) was bad for the industry as well. That took wrestling out of the sporty type entertainment that I felt it was meant to be and turned it into a circus. I'm sure that they did it to compete with an up and coming UFC, but UFC was a different product than wrestling. It still is. UFC never has weapons involved, and in that era of wrestling, it never showed the true effects of getting hit by a weapon. Rarely, someone was taken out on a stretcher or even given medical attention. In the UFC, medical officials are hovering all over.
What I really don't understand about wrestling is that when I want to talk like a fan about it, there's nobody to do that with. I've always got to hear about what's going on backstage, and what kills me is the ones that are talking about it have NEVER been backstage to ANY wrestling event at all. I have been backstage to some events, but I don't go talking about it. That's the code of the back (kayfabe). So those that talk about backstage stuff are either breaking kayfabe, don't know what they're talking about or both.
In my eyes, I see wrestling as another form of art. Not everyone sees that way, and I can respect that. However, let's not try to make it what it's not. It's entertainment for the fans, and it's passion for those that put the shows on (from the wrestlers themselves to the people who book the shows and sell the tickets, everyone). I feel that when we start to talk about it like we know what's going to happen, we take the art out of it. In today's words, spoiler alert. I understand why the wrestlers talk about it, but the fans?! Really?! Some may know what they're talking about, but a majority of them don't. However, leave the art in it, and just enjoy the show.
