Professional Wrestling: Blurring The Line

*The subject of this post has an extensive range of unique terms.  For the benefit of readers who might not be familiar with them, here is a list of unique terms used in this post and their definitions.

• Bumps:  Impacts absorbed by performers, the term “taking bumps” is often used.

• Faction:  A storyline group of performers who act as a team.

• Gimmick:  A character type, or distinctive aspect of a character, inhabited by a performer.

• Mid-Card:  The matches in an event that take place after the preliminaries and before the main events.

• Promo:  A spoken word segment, either live or pre-recorded, given by a performer to promote themself and/or an upcoming match or event.

• Push:  When a performer gets put into high-visibility storylines and events in order to boost their popularity and/or success.

• Tag Team:  A team of at least two performers that compete in matches together.

It has been disparagingly called a soap opera for Rednecks, and dismissed by many as fake low-brow entertainment.  But, even its harshest critics have to recognize that it has demonstrated a remarkable longevity and has become an extremely viable global business and entertainment market.  I am talking about Professional Wrestling.

Specifically describing performers in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) company, Adam Copeland, better known as “Edge” to wrestling fans, described professional wrestlers as “part gypsy, part circus, part actor, part writer, part athlete.”  He further elaborated “...all of that thrown into one pot, mixed up, and you burp out a wrestler”.  Professional Wrestling has become a business, and entertainment venue all its own and without peer that is celebrated all over the world while regularly selling out arenas in every continent.  But, it wasn’t always this way.

Early History

An English style of wrestling where competitors attempt to defeat their opponent by pinning them or making them submit, known as Catch Wrestling, originated in the 1800s and became a popular spectator sport.  Catch Wrestling matches became a popular attraction at traveling carnivals in the United States.  These matches would sometimes last for over an hour, and were very taxing to the wrestlers who would have to perform on a daily basis.  In an effort to make the matches more exciting and enable them to perform with more regularity, the wrestlers began choreographing their matches and planning the results beforehand.  Thus, Professional Wrestling was born and completely separated from Olympic-style wrestling during the 1920s.

It wasn’t long before this new form of entertainment was popular enough to no longer need carnivals to promote it and organizations completely devoted to Professional Wrestling were established.  The promotions were known as territories and were unique to specific geographical areas.  Each territory would perform in a local area and have performers signed to them in a similar fashion to a professional athlete being signed to a specific team.  This was the law of the land until 1983 when an ambitious promoter named Vince McMahon, having recently taken control of his late father’s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) promotion, decided to consolidate various wrestlers from different Territories and take the show on the road.

At about this time Cable TV came into existence.  Vince McMahon and other promoters were quick to take advantage of this new medium and began broadcasting their shows to a wider audience.  At this time the spectacle aspect of the medium also became fleshed out with wrestlers cutting *promos, and storylines being portrayed on programming to incorporate more dramatic elements into the presentation and shows.

My Viewing History

My own story with Professional Wrestling begins in mid to late 1989 when I started watching WWF on TV when my Dad was stationed near Ogden, Utah.  My budding fandom was also aided by a local video rental place that would get VHS tapes of the Pay-Per-View events shortly after they aired.  This was also during a boom period known in the history of Professional Wrestling as the Golden Era, where its popularity was skyrocketing in the wake of Wrestlemania 5.  I remember that a big draw for me was the eclectic cast of characters I saw on the show each time I tuned in.

Some of my favorite characters in that early period of viewing included performers such as Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, a dynamic wrestler whose *gimmick consisted of him defeating opponents with a sleeper hold and then giving them a bad haircut after the match.  I also remember liking The Ultimate Warrior, the cartoonish *tag team The Bushwhackers, the explosive and dynamic *tag team The Rockers, and the brutally awesome Legion of Doom (AKA The Road Warriors).

My family moved pretty frequently and as my routines would be offset some things wouldn’t carry over, my Pro Wrestling viewing was one of these.  I resumed watching Pro Wrestling during a period of time when that industry was going through something called The Monday Night Wars.  This period was a great time to be a fan of Pro Wrestling as the WWF and its rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) were engaged in a weekly ratings war with each promotion trying to one-up the other.

During this time I would go back and forth between the two with luminaries such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker (who I had watched in my earlier viewing period), and great *tag teams like The Hardyz and The Dudley Boys keeping me interested in the WWF.  Meanwhile, an Italian-American street fighter known as Big Vito, the legendary Cruiserweight division, and the force of nature known as Goldberg had me also watching WCW.

The World Wrestling Federation eventually prevailed in the Monday Night Wars by purchasing its competition and rebranding itself as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and continues to be the global leader in what Vince McMahon described as “Sports Entertainment”.

Why I Love It

I have always loved stories and storytelling.  Regardless of the format, whether it be books, movies, on a stage, audio or whatever else, I love stories and am always happy to find a kind that holds my interest and in which I can get immersed.  Pro Wrestlers, wIth their huge personalities and abilities in the squared circle, was like watching a living comic book when I was a kid.  When I got back into it as a teenager, and then on into adulthood, it became probably the most unique, and certainly one of the most absorbing, forms of storytelling of which I am aware.  It is also a form of storytelling in which I can’t help but get absorbed.

A main reason why I am into Professional Wrestling is simply because it fascinates me.  It is a form of live theater that knows no limit of time or place.  The ring is like a stage, but the stories told therein, through the magic of television and related technologies, transcend well beyond those four ropes.  Some people are surprised to learn that I like Pro Wrestling and often ask me why, or how, I can like it.  Probably the biggest factor in that is that I know of no other entertainment medium that blurs the line between real and pretend more than Professional Wrestling.

The best single example of this that I can show people is a legendary match between the Hall of Fame wrestlers Mick Foley (then wrestling under the moniker “Mankind”) and Mark Calloway (better known as “The Undertaker”) that took place in June of 1998.  The *bumps that the two of them, especially Foley, took have crossed into the realm of myth and even a seasoned viewer like me will have a hard time telling which parts of that match were planned and when Foley and Calloway are winging it.

Another aspect that fascinates me about Pro Wrestling is when reality mingles with a story that is being told in the programming.  A couple of examples of this involve two of my favorite Pro Wrestlers.

Drew McIntyre

Andrew Galloway, who performs under the moniker of Drew McIntyre, came into WWE in late 2007 and was immediately, many thought hastily, given a huge *push as Vince McMahon’s “chosen one” to be the future of the company.  After meandering in the *mid-card, he eventually was given the buffoonish gimmick of being a member of a delusional trio who played air guitar while delusionally thinking they were a band.  He was released from the company (fired) while in this *gimmick.

Over the next few years he performed in house shows (non-televised) for independent wrestling companies.  While he did this, he was improving his physique and his skills.  Eventually, a noticeably improved Drew McIntyre was signed to WWE’s developmental promotion NXT and dominated while showing huge improvements from his previous stint with the company.

After returning, McIntyre smoothly, rather than hastily, transitioned into the main event scene of the company.  This new *push culminated in him winning a major event known as the Royal Rumble and main eventing a WrestleMania event, the equivalent of the Super Bowl or World Series in Professional Wrestling.  The promotion for this event revolved around McIntyre making a comeback and finally fulfilling the potential that he had been touted as having when he first joined the company, which mirrored real life.  He would become the WWE Champion.

Cody Rhodes

Possibly the most revered performer of the time period before the WWF expanded (known as the Territory era) was a man named Virgil Runnels who performed under the moniker “Dusty Rhodes”.  Runnels was a champion in different promotions, winning the top prize in every one in which he performed…except for one.  While he had a few stints in the WWF he never won that promotion’s title.  On one occasion he defeated the champion and held the title belt triumphantly over his head while standing on top of the middle ropes in a corner of the ring only to have the belt taken away from him and be informed that due to a technicality he got the victory but not the title.

Virgil Runnels had two sons who became Professional Wrestlers.  The older son, Dustin, had *mid-card success in both WCW, performing as Dustin Runnels or Rhodes, and WWF where he performed under the moniker of Goldust.  The younger son, Cody, was a State Wrestling Champion in High School and yearned to follow in his father’s footsteps and win the lone title his father had never held.  When their dad was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Dustin and Cody gave the introductory speech.  Based on his athletic background and rousing speech, Cody Rhodes was offered the chance to join WWE.

Cody was initially teamed with a *faction called The Legacy that consisted of him and some other multi-generation performers.  Eventually, he was put into a *tag team with his half-brother Dustin and given the strange *gimmick of “Stardust”, an arrangement that Cody would later describe his efforts to make the most out of as trying to “...make chicken salad out of chicken shit”.  Eventually, Cody could see the writing on the wall that he was not going to go past the *mid-card and left WWE.

With the idea of starting a company to bring the greatest independent professional wrestlers in the world under a single banner, Cody Rhodes co-founded the wrestling company All Elite Wrestling (AEW).  AEW became the first significant competition WWE had faced since WCW went out of business in 2001.  Cody Rhodes was successful in AEW as a performer and in a behind the scenes role, but legitimately felt that he had unfinished business in WWE.

He returned to WWE intent on “finishing the story”.  The line between reality and fantasy was so blurred at this point that it was almost nonexistent.  Cody Rhodes went through a lengthy process in order to finish the story.  In a moment that transcended Pro Wrestling, he did just that.

What Makes A Legend

Professional wrestlers are an impressive blend of creative people and athletes who need to be skilled at a high echelon in both areas.  Their athleticism needs to be top notch, and if they want to succeed then their skills on the microphone (cutting *promos) will need to be at the same level.  Every performer will also need to inhabit a persona, sometimes even multiple ones in the course of a career.  Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has said that in Pro Wrestling the performers need to balance who they really are with an amped-up version of their own personality if they want to be convincing.

As I have been writing this and thinking about my own experiences with Pro Wrestling and the impact it has had on me, I have been wondering what makes a legend in that business.  Lots of people can have success in it, but very few achieve legendary status.  I thought of innovation being a factor.  How did someone change the business, or a particular aspect of it?  How are they thought of today?  I also thought of achievements as a factor.  How many championships did they win, in how many events did they perform or main event?

But, in thinking about it I personally believe that what makes a legend in the business of Professional Wrestling, for me as a fan, is the feelings that the performers create in us.  Naysayers can argue that Pro Wrestling is fake and that it’s pointless drivel, but I don’t feel that way.  Any TV show or movie can provide a temporary escape.  But when I watch Pro Wrestling, knowing that the performers I see are putting parts of themselves, their personalities, their own real stories, and their blood, sweat, and tears into what I am witnessing makes it mean something more.

I am well aware that it is a show, but I am also aware that most of (I say “most of” to single out morons like Logan Paul who get on simply by being celebrities) the people performing it are very real and have paid their dues to get where they are.  They have all had setbacks, they have all made sacrifices, they have doubtless all had moments when they thought of giving up.  But as they put themselves out there it tells me, and others, that anything is possible, and their achievements inspire others to create their own.

They tell their stories with their words and actions, not completely real yet not completely pretend.  They do what they love, and become epic characters in their own stories.  The legends to me are the ones who inspire others to dream, as they fulfill their own, and who make those who get to watch them perform and triumph, consider their own struggles and obstacles they need to overcome and think “I can do this”.