|
From TheSmartMarks.com Wrestling Intro
I was watching the Shawn Michaels DVD this week. Specifically, a match of his from the AWA, from 1986. One thing that really struck me can be seen in this screenshot (apart from the bright orange arse.)
This couple are at least in their 40s, and chose to sit in the front row at a wrestling event. They specifically decided that they wanted to go and see professional wrestling, and paid extra money to sit at the front. Of course, they could simply have been comped tickets by Verne Gagne, but either way, they wound up watching wrestling. By the end of the match, a lot of the crowd are REALLY getting into it. Genuine emotion. Genuinely wanting Shawn Michaels to get the hot tag Marty. That was almost twenty years ago, and things have drastically changed. Everyone knows wrestling is "fake" (while I know that strictly speaking it isn't fake, it is pre-determined etc, but fake is as easy a word as any to use). Apart from the young and the stupid, we all know that they aren�t really fighting. Twenty years ago, that was not the case. Sure, there were people that were �smart�, but a lot of the audience were definitely not. The Honky Tonk Man
The Honky Tonk man was an incredible champion. He held the Intercontinental title for 14 consecutive months over 1987-1988, and didn�t deserve any of his victories. His entire matches consisted of him getting the crap kicked out of him (and he sold for anyone and everyone), before retaining the belt by underhand means. The crowd heat that he got for this was INSANE, and he played the role perfectly � everyone wanted him to lose the title, or preferably die. On the first �Saturday Night�s Main Event� (headlined by the Hogan / Andre rematch, which saw Andre win the title thanks to �Evil Twin� Earl Hebner), Honky took on Randy Savage. Savage beat the crap out of Honky for the most part, but Honky regained the advantage thanks to the Coolest Person In The Universe:
His manager Jimmy Hart The match ended with Savage, but not Honky, rolling back into the ring to beat a 10 count, leaving Savage winner, but Honky champion. Wrestlemania 4 saw Honky taking on Brutus Beefcake, and to really prove a point I made earlier � HTM sold EVERYTHING that Brutus threw at him. The story of the match was pretty much �Beefcake is the better man, so he must win�, which is the same as every other HTM match. Brutus hits his devastating finisher on HTM, the brutal �sleeperhold�, but Jimmy nails the referee with his microphone and draws the disqualification. See � there was ALWAYS a way for him to retain the belt. (Apart from Summerslam �88, where �mystery opponent� The Ultimate Warrior squashed him in seconds to end the title reign) The point I am making here is that his �pussy heel� act worked, and it got over BIG TIME. His gimmick only took off the way it did because people were genuinely emotionally involved in the angle. It would never work today because far too many people are �smart� to wrestling. Being a fluke champion doesn�t add heat to the champion, it takes it away.
Everyone should be aware of what a disaster Chris Jericho�s Undisputed Championship reign was. He was booked pretty much in the same way as the Honky Tonk Man � every match should be the one where he loses the title, but he manages to retain it by some underhand means. The intention was obviously to play up the sneaky, whiny heel part of Jericho�s character, but a big mistake was made: Instead of having him cheat because he can, he�s cheating because he has to. That reign, where he picked up pretty much no deserved victories, did nothing for his credibility. Apart from making him look like a joke, and not worthy of being in the main event, WWE went nowhere with it � he didn�t bust out a big win to prove that he is The Man~!, but went on to job to Triple H, in two PPV matches. So why did Honky work, while Jericho didn�t? Firstly, Honky was a FANTASTIC heel. I�m not taking anything away from Jericho here, because he is equally fantastic, but Honky was genuinely hated. The fans generally didn�t realise that Honky was a character, and that the match was rigged to end the way it did. Because of that, they were much more into things. A quick analogy: Who is the �worse� person: The Washington Sniper or the sniper in Phone Booth? (name withheld for those who haven�t seen it yet) The Washington Sniper is a real person, with real emotions and shit, and genuinely wanted to kill people. The Phone Booth sniper was just a character � someone pretending to want to kill. You should all know that Chris Jericho isn�t 100% like his character � that would be ridiculous. Yet that distinction wasn�t as widely made in 1988. The role of the internet should be pretty evident here. For the first time EVER, it is possible for someone in England, America, Australia, India etc etc etc to talk together in pretty much real time. I�m typing this from a computer in England, yet within seconds of finishing it, someone in America can be reading it. The speed that information and ideas can be exchanged led to a resurgence in the wrestling fan community. No longer were magazines required to find out the latest news, you can go to any one of 100 sites and see the same story copy and pasted. The point I am making is that it is incredibly easy to find out that wrestling isn�t �real�, and also what is going to be happening on Raw. It is incredibly easy to be a �smart mark.� I believe that there are three types of wrestling fan: Firstly, there�s those who believe what they see on TV. Marks. That don�t know wrestling is a work. I�d estimate that they form a pretty small proportion of wrestling fans, and are probably children. Secondly, the main proportion of wrestling fans are the ones that know it is fake but don�t know about all the backstage stuff. By this, I mean they were surprised by the announcement of Vince vs. Undertaker, don�t know about Triple H and Steph, or about the politics behind pushes. Thirdly, are the �Smart Marks�. These are 12 year olds in their parent�s basement, that don�t know anything about wrestling. They know that wrestling is worked, and know how things are faked � i.e. how wrestlers support each other when doing a suplex. Sure, that was a basic example, but you should get the drift. They also �know� what happens backstage � (I put �know� in quotes because without being there, nobody truly knows what happens. However, enough similar stories are leaked that it is possible to have an idea of what happens.) WWE is in a difficult position, because essentially they are writing TV for three groups of people. Booking exclusively for one group will alienate another, so they really have to balance things out. Vince Russo tried booking shows for smart fans, with spectacularly disappointing results � since you had to have read the dirtsheets to truly understand things, things went right over the heads of every one else. On the other hand though, if WWE attempted to make wrestling �real� again, it wouldn�t work. They�ve gone too far into the realms of sports-ENTERTAINMENT (as opposed to SPORTS-entertainment; a subtle but important difference) to go back. Shows like �Tough Enough� and, well, everyone from the WCW announce team to Mick Foley admitting that wrestling is �fake� have pushed things to the limit. There should always be an element of suspension of disbelief (by this, I mean that even though you know it is fake � who cares?) Wrestling pushes this to the absolute limit, and on more than one occasion has completely shattered it.
Doesn�t that image say more than enough? Wrestling has moved on in some areas, yet in some it is stuck back in the past, still. The Rock �n� Roll Express tag team formula is still used in pretty much every tag team match. You know how it goes � one half of the face team gets beaten down by the heels, and can�t make the tag. The heels will cheat to keep him away from his partner, choke him with the tag rope, not tag when swapping over. Sometimes the face will make the tag, but the referee doesn�t see it and won�t let it stand. Eventually the tag will be made, and both members of the heel team will be beaten down by the fresh face. This formula was championed in the 1980s by Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, the Rock �n� Roll Express. Admittedly, it works, and gets incredible amounts of heat on the match, but now it is overplayed to the point of irritation. When a tag is missed by the referee, it�s not engrossing, or exciting. It�s a pain in the ass, because it�s predictable. The referee will stop the fresh face from entering the ring, or push them back to their corner. The heels take this opportunity to cheat some more, and continue the beating, dragging it out more. It�s just another sign of how things have changed. Would it kill them to do something different? To freshen things up? There�s also the stupidity of referee bumps, but I�ve spoken about that enough before. Treating all the fans like retards doesn�t work, and assuming that everyone knows the backstage stuff doesn�t work. So what can they do? They created their own �backstage�. The backstage where all the goofy segments happen, with assaults, plotting, making friends and more. It�s a fantastic idea, as it allows for much more storyline development and for things to happen more naturally. Of course, in WWE�s own way, they managed to make it so over the top and ridiculous that it falls into the category of �insulting intelligence.� Never mind though. Wrestling should be treated like magic. Everybody knows that it is impossible for this wally to put his arm through glass, or to read minds. Yet it is still bloody impressive to see him do it.
By the same token, it�s obvious that The Big Show helps Brock Lesnar during an F5, but it doesn�t stop it being any less impressive. Everyone knows that magic doesn�t exist, and that sleight of hand can account for a lot of tricks, yet they still flock to it, and get involved. Yet wrestling is derided for being fake? I�ll leave you with a story from Percival �Paul Bearer� Pringle, who is allowing me to post it here, as long as I link to his website. Click here to be taken to PercyPringle.com. I think it shows quite well just how times have changed.
PercyPringle.com Outro The caption contest returns!
E-mail your entries, along with any comments on the column (please do send comments - there's nothing crapper than writing a column and getting few replies) to the address below. Nik [email protected] © Copyright by TheSmartMarks.com |
