The Wrestling Bard 7.26.08: Y2-Joker

Posted by Aaron Hubbard on 07.26.2008

With all the hype in the last week over the Dark Knight, I noticed a few surprising similarities between Heath Ledger’s Joker and Chris Jericho. I also thought about what Chris Jericho means when he says that wrestling fans don’t deserve to be saved.

Welcome to the Wrestling Bard. I know I said this week would be about Kayfabe. Unfortunately, my week has had very little to do with wrestling, and therefore, I'm suffering from writer's block. Because I really care about Kayfabe, I want to do it justice, so I'm not going to write about it in a week where I can't get my mind focused on it. Just a warning: this column isn't going to be an epic one, although perhaps it will shed some light on a few things.

Why do I have writer's block? Two reasons: First of all, I got my Transmetal Tarantulas in the mail this week, the start of my Transformers collection, and I've been having a fantastic time playing with him. I can't even count how many times I've transformed him in the last three days. Second, and this is more universal, is that this week has been Batman week. I've watched Batman Begins twice, and I saw the Dark Knight twice. This is certainly the best movie I've seen all year, beating Iron Man by a considerable margin. Hopefully everyone has seen it by now, but if you haven't, GO! Stop reading my column and go see the movie. It's a masterpiece! (And I don't mean Chris Masters either.)

I did manage to catch RAW this week, which was a fairly good show that I enjoyed a lot. The one segment that stuck out to me was Chris Jericho's promo. I've been a huge fan of his promo work forever, but he's taking a whole new direction with his serious promos instead of just his hilarious roasts of the rest of the WWE roster. If anybody is a little shaky over the details of that promo, let me remind you.



Now let me tell you why this promo is so great. The reason is this. Chris Jericho is right. We don't deserve to be saved. Forget the fact that we are dishonest people and just get down to what we are. We are wrestling fans, and worse yet, we are the type of wrestling fans that are obsessed with match quality. The fans of wrestling want to see faster pacing, stiffer strikes, cooler moves, sicker weapon shots, and scarier high spots. Our bloodlust inspires the men and women of pro wrestling to push themselves to a level that they shouldn't. Jericho is telling us the blatant truth, and naturally we don't want to hear it. The best villains are the ones that have a bit of truth to their ideas. They have to believe they are right, and if on some level they are, it is even better.

You know who this reminds me of? The Joker. In the Dark Knight, Joker tells us the blatant truth that no man is perfect, that we are all corruptible on some level, that we are all have weaknesses and the capacity for great evil. He isn't really as psychotic as he seems. Joker has found a cause, a good one at that, which he believes in so strongly that he is willing to die to prove it. Granted, this cause is anarchy and corruption, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. He embraced the evil that he is trying to make others aware of, so it's hard to see his cause as heroic. But he does make people aware that they have darkness in them. While Joker may want people to embrace that darkness, if we choose to reject it, than he has taught us a valuable lesson indeed. And this is exactly what Jericho is doing. It's hard to take a guy talking about how we are immoral seriously when he beat Shawn within an inch of his life (Kayfabe), but he has a good point.

As non-fans are so quick to tell us, professional wrestling is "fake". I have never allowed anyone to get away with saying this, and I doubt any of you would either. Because we know the sacrifices these men and women take to entertain us. We know about the physical, mental, and emotional toll this business takes on its practitioners. Sure, pro wrestling is scripted, but we will never let an ignorant person say that it's fake.

The fact that we would never allow non-fans to get away with that line of thinking makes it even sadder that we adhere to it ourselves. We justify our bloodlust by saying that these men and women know the risks they are taking, and they "know how to fall". But don't we know the sacrifices they make? Don't' we remember the physical, mental and emotional toll that wrestling takes on these men and women who live their lives to entertain us?

Think about Shawn Michaels. Chris Jericho was right that we inspired Shawn to wrestle the style he wrestles, and he has paid the price for our blind lust with multiple knee injuries and a back injury that nearly ended his career. And Shawn isn't even a daredevil by today's standards. Think about Rey Mysterio. The man has too many knee injuries to count, yet he continues to wrestle the insane luchador style, because that's what we expect of him. Think about Kurt Angle. The man is a walking pharmacy, a man who is held together by painkillers and a stubborn need to prove that he is the best wrestler in the world, both to himself and to us. Or think about Chris Benoit. We inspired him to wrestle a style that we loved. But this style led to multiple concussions, and eventually to the murder of two innocents. When you take the time to think about what being a wrestling fan does to the wrestlers, it becomes more and more obvious that we are a sick group of people. We demand far too much of the men and women who are just trying to entertain us. And we are never happy. Bret Hart has said that wrestling fans are like spoiled children: "they want something different". We always want something more exciting, and more exciting generally means more dangerous. And rarely do we take a second glance at what is going on in the grand scheme of things. Our selfishness combines with the selflessness of the wrestlers to make a beast that ruins the lives of those who serve it.

I'm not saying that being a wrestling fan is bad. If I believed that, I wouldn't be writing on this site. I just think we need to remember that what is good for us is often bad for the wrestlers. We need to learn to be content with what we have, and stop pushing wrestlers to extremes they shouldn't go. How many wrestlers have to die before we learn to appreciate what they do while they are still alive? Is it possible to appreciate the sacrifices of those who try to entertain us, whether they have the talent of Chris Benoit or the talent of Gene Snitsky? Can we stop putting so much focus on match quality, and just let the wrestlers wrestle to the best of their ability without trashing them because they aren't as good as someone else? I don't' really know.

It is okay for us to want wrestlers to perform to the best of their ability, but it is unfair of us to want them to go beyond their comfort zone night-in and night-out. Wrestlers should try to have the best match possible, but they should go about that in a safe manner. There's a reason that the Dynamite Kid is paralyzed and Hulk Hogan has a huge house. Hulk Hogan lengthened his career by treating wrestling as a business, and he was successful. He recognized that he wasn't the same kind of athlete that Ric Flair was, so he did what he was good at, and when the time came to deliver a good match, he delivered in spades. Ric Flair knew he could wrestle sixty minutes over and over again because he was in spectacular condition, but he didn't try to take huge bumps or work a pace that would exhaust him. Bret Hart knew he could work a fast pace, but was willing to slow it down for longer matches, and he was one of the safest workers ever. These three men are pinnacles of success and of how the business should be done.

But even these three who were smart about the way the wrestled haven't been immune to the ill effects of wrestling. Hogan is divorced and faced legal problems because he took steroids. Ric Flair was on the road all the time and partied hard, and now he has strained relationships with his family and has financial trouble, because he spent most of the money he made. And Bret Hart's career was cut short with an errant kick from Goldberg that gave him a severe concussion. And all three men have lost friends and in Bret's case family members because of wrestling. And these are the guys who were smart.

Does anyone know about Tito Santana? Tito was a guy who worked hard to have a good match, was willing to put others over, and was a successful mid-card guy. His humility, his work ethic, and his charisma have made Tito one of the most beloved figures in all of wrestling. But Tito also had the sense to save his money and invest for the future. He is happily retired, very comfortable, and has shown no ill effects from his career. And according to Shawn Michaels, Tito was able to maintain good relationships with his family, and said that all wrestlers wanted "the Tito thing". I hope in the future we see a lot more Tito Santana's and a lot fewer Dynamite Kids.

I want you to seriously question yourself, as a wrestling fan. Are you one who always complains about how the wrestlers aren't doing a "good enough job" entertaining you? If you are, change that belief, because it is cold and heartless, and wrestlers deserve more than that from their fans. Their careers are a labor of love, love for the business and love for the fans. If they are willing to put themselves at risk for our entertainment, than we should be willing to be content for their safety.

So Yeah...That's My Column...Yep...That's It.
Okay, so I know that was a bit lackluster, but I hope you enjoyed it. To make up for it...here's a treat. A match between Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada that many consider to be the best ever.









All credit to MrWrestlingFan, who I am suscribed to, so I feel no guilt on posting that.

Match Analysis: Well that was pretty much awesome. I don't have a whole lot to say other than that was just brilliant. Probably the best singles match in AJPW history. I prefer the 1995 tag-team match with Kobashi and Taue thrown in, but this is a fantastic match. *****+

Well there you have it. Sorry about my lack of content, hopefully I'll be back in a wrestling mood next week.