Shining a Spotlight 12.01.11: Cynical Minds

Sure many were sharing my move this week in doing massive Christmas shopping, taking advantage of good deals early and all that. I also took time out to enjoy The Muppets, a great funny movie in an old-school style. An interesting theme is how the Muppets are supposedly out of place and forgotten in a more cynical era today but eventually win the people over. It got me to thinking on how people reacted to the Muppets appearing on “RAW” a few weeks back and then to thinking more on how we as wrestling fans tend to be a bit too cynical for our own good.

Changing Tastes

It’s no secret these are hard times and that tends to kill a lot of hope in people. Yet, I still sense how some folks can be wrapped up in cynicism a bit too much to enjoy things. When the Muppets appeared on RAW a few weeks back, I was thrown by the number of dirt sheet writers complaining about how stupid it was for “the wrestlers to talk to the Muppets like they’re real people.” Hello? That’s what you do with the Muppets, you don’t try to be “cool” and show them as being puppets, you just go with it. I’ve read a lot of stars saying they know the Muppets aren’t real but when they start acting, you can’t help but be treat them like they are. If anyone can go along with something like that, it’s wrestlers.

People tend to be a bit cynical as they get older, a bit more jaded. It sort of hit me when the backlash against the last Indiana Jones movie. Yes, it was flawed but I didn’t feel it deserved the massive hate from so many. One thing that struck me was complaints over the scene where Indy escapes an atomic bomb blast by hiding in a lead-lined fridge. It was a goofy moment to be sure but people moaned and complained so much about it being unrealistic. Really? In a movie series full of such things as the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant unleashing spirits, a guy alive for minutes after having his heart ripped out of his chest and our hero falling out of an airplane in an inflatable raft, down an icy mountain, into a river with no injury whatsoever, that’s completely out of the realm of reality? It’s the same way with Star Wars, sure the prequels weren’t as good as the first trilogy but come on, even an uber-fan like me acknowledges the first films have just as many plot holes, bad dialogue and wooden acting, just smaller budget.

Now, those are geek-flavored properties and as a geek, I can tell you we can be rather…demanding of stuff we care about. But it is true as well that some parts of culture seem to be getting a bit darker. The recent reboot of DC Comics seems to be going a bit too far trying to be “edgy” to capture new readers, risking alienating all the old ones who followed a somewhat brighter tone all these years. Marvel has been pretty much like that for a while, assuming fans want something a bit darker. The sad thing is, they may be a bit right.

A lot of us in the IWC tend to have been around for a while in terms of watching wrestling. Not just from the “Attitude” era but watching since the ‘80’s or so. We’ve seen the ups and downs, remember the “old days” of the territories and such before WWE took over. So we tend to look down at the current product a bit too much and measure it by our own experiences and judgments. I’m guilty of it, bitching about the death of the “slow build” and all that and how fans just don’t connect as well. But then I remember something so many of us forget, which is that wrestling isn’t just catering to us anymore, it’s to a whole new generation with new tastes.

My nephews are twelve and nine. They adore Star Wars as much as I do with games, books, action figures, the works. They don’t divide into “new vs old” or “good vs bad,” they see it as one grand saga. The same with the Indiana Jones movies, it’s all filled with goofy stuff for them but that’s why they love it. I get that DC feels new fans are intimidated too much by the years of past history they’d need to know in order to jump onto a comic so think that starting over is a smart move. This is a generation of Twitter, text messaging, kids used to getting information much faster and expecting stuff quicker so it makes sense that wrestling may be adapting to it by pushing things faster than they once did. The “slow build” pretty much start dying out when WCW and WWF began scheduling a PPV every single month, not as much time to plan for a payoff. That means changes for booking.

That also means changes for workers too. There’s been complaints about WWE forcing guys to work “main event style” and all that but doing the exact same matches is nothing new (Hell, Flair got away with it for years). But it’s also a reaction to the fact that guys get injured easily pulling major moves and that can play havoc for a company. There’s also how guys get pushes after little build-up, trying to elevate them before they’re ready. Yet fans will see this as reason to complain far too much and faith in a company to build up more tends to be lower than ever before.

Mentality

Look, I’ve been as guilty as everyone else of that feeling too. I’ve felt the knee-jerk reactions to various angles and stuff as well, I get how folks can get so upset about these things. But I try to balance that out with some knowledge of facts. Maybe I tend to be cynical about TNA but that’s because there’s been literally a dozen times that they’ll put on some great stuff and look ready to take off only to follow it with months of some of the most horrible programming and booking imaginable. WWE can often be not much better but oddly, I’ve sort of made peace with that, expecting them to let me down after so many years. Yet, every now and then, they can surprise me with some really good stuff that reminds me why I enjoy wrestling still.

The divisions among fandom, especially in the IWC, make it harder to keep such judgments clear. To use the Star Wars example again, I don’t mind the fact there are a lot of people who hate the prequels, that’s their right. What I hate is this whole elitist mentality that if you don’t loathe them with a passion, you can’t be a “real” fan. We get that in wrestling all the time, I’ve felt the slams of folks who claim “everyone” hates Cena and such. And I’ve been on the opposite side, thinking I’m with the majority in some cases. Go on about HHH/Taker being some sort of five-star classic but I’ll hold to my opinion that it was a major disappointment. Maybe that’s my own cynicism showing but then, I’ve been upbeat about some things other in the IWC are majorly down on (like Cena’s ability as a worker and champ). Yet far too many guys in the IWC feel they speak for the majority of all fans and that adds to hard divisions.

Indeed, you can argue the rise of the Internet has led to much of this cynicism in wrestling. Having so much of the backstage moves and personalities of wrestlers be flashed across our screens changed the outlook fans had on the business. I truly believe that if the Internet had existed back in the ‘80’s and stories of Hogan and Flair’s spotlight hogging and political moves were commonplace, our appreciation of them would be a lot different. It’s also given rise to far too many snap judgments of things and knee-jerk reactions that plaque the IWC. This in turns, adds to a lot of cynicism for fans which makes it harder for folks to appreciate wrestling for what it is. They use the example of Star Wars and such to elevate their childhood delights to sheer perfection and thus go with the idea of “this is so much worse today,” ignoring the tiny fact that to younger fans, this isn’t all that bad.

Listen, wrestling has always had ups and downs, periods where things were bad and such. I’ve been watching for nearly thirty years now, I understand that. And the “good old days” had their share of bad booking and dumb moments as well, we just appreciated it differently as kids. Maybe it’s true, we grow more cynical as we lose that growing up but there’s no need to be overwhelmed by it. I admit to being as guilty as anyone, often going into “Oh, God, what now?” when I see some “surprise booking” news. Maybe I’m down a bit on TNA but then, I remember how they keep letting me down with stuff and that goes for WWE too. Given how often wrestling can drive you crazy, it’s understandable why fans tend to be downcast and not hopeful for its future.

And yet, there’s something about wrestling that pulls you in, at your heart and you can’t resist. You just need to remember why you started enjoying it in the first place. You don’t have to turn your brain off but you can let yourself be a bit more open to things. As much as I rant about TNA, I still watch and appreciate when they do stuff that has great promise and the same with WWE. Even when we’re down on it, the business can still surprise you and please you, despite all the cynicism you might have in it. We’ll be down on it but we’ll keep watching so maybe it’s best to do so with an open mind. It’s sure to disappoint us but being so cynical about it all the time doesn’t make you a “smart” fan, just a bitter one and there’s enough of that in the business already.

For this week, the spotlight is off.