In the face of months of procrastination, daydreaming, and general moping, I made a promise to myself that in the the final week of operation of the store I would be writing, making progress on scripts, doing something productive. So of course, the week was spent watching Botchamania videos and rekindling my obsession with professional wrestling. In this latest bout of interest I have become more familiar with the unseen figures and actions of the business, the bookers and the writers, the creative teams and the workings of the industry from when it began and how it has begrudgingly evolved over time.
One thing still remains clear after watching several shoot interviews with Jim Cornette, a hilarious and intelligent, but nevertheless stubborn individual: wrestling is still trying to be the con it once was. Insiders still maintain the use of terms like "marks", "kayfabe", "heel" and "face", and Jim himself gets VERY concerned when a writer brings in an angle that pushes the realm of possibility, bringing the truth of the con to the public mind.
Here's my concern: the truth is already known, has been for decades now. When I was a kid, I recall it still being a touchy subject but with the advent of the Internet and the information explosion if you try to tell someone wrestling is real their reaction will depend entirely on their kindness but most likely will end with their laughing you out of their lives, and if you try to tell someone wrestling is fake, you can expect a dead stare, the best reaction to trite information.
I do find the wrestling community fascinating for its variety of opinions on this matter, but I've yet to find a wrestling insider that shares my opinion on the direction the industry should go. Let me preface this by saying I don't think major promotions should do this with their current talent, specifically the WWE and ROH. I don't think it would make a difference for TNA, considering their reputation and the quality of their programming. These promotions has invested a great deal of time and money into their wrestlers, building their characters and their believability. They've set up a hierarchy among them, a "who's the strongest" list, they've got their kayfabe laid out perfectly and to suddenly change direction now would be a serious risk that most likely would fail. Considering the amount of money the WWE pulls in a year, never mind their current decline in the PG era, it would be foolish for them to follow the advice I am now submitting.
Wrestling, you see, is like Santa Claus, and America is only now reaching its teens, when its parents have decided to tell it that it isn't real. That was the 80's and 90's, essentially, when enough things went wrong on enough TVs to make the doubt unavoidable. Now when a person is forced to confront the truth about Santa, there are many immediate reactions but only two lasting ones. One reaction is to dismiss the legend altogether, to take umbrage with the lies of tradition and never take part in it again. the other reaction is to remember the happiness that lie brought and perpetuate it with flair, gusto, and, most importantly, imagination. So the question is: do you want a world with no Santa? Or do you want a world with a Santa Claus that drives a Zonda in the sky and shoots presents into chimneys with a Rocket-Propelled Present launcher?
Wrestling's lie has long been apparent, we've accepted it and moved on, but sadly a large portion of humanity has chosen to take umbrage with tradition and try to eliminate wrestling from the sphere completely, and I find that to be a tragic decision. Now that we know it isn't an actual competition, now that we know to and immediately suspend our disbelief, we can take it to the next level, we can really start to apply imagination, we can take the spectacle, the illusion, to new heights, we can finally make it genuine theatrics, story-telling. We can create ultimate badasses, intense stories, we can make it a legitimate art form and make all the snobs that felt snubbed stand up and weep as they watch us bask in the happiness they left behind.
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