The Wrestling Bard 8.03.08: The Great Illusion

Posted by Aaron Hubbard on 08.03.2008

The Wrestling Bard analyzes the meaning and imporance of something the IWC has helped destroy: Kayfabe.

IMPORTANT: Before you read this column, make sure you've read my column from last week and from two weeks ago, as they are all part of a series that I'm doing, and this is the end of that series. Trust me; it will make a lot more sense if you know what I've been talking about for the last few weeks. Happy reading!

Welcome to the Wrestling Bard, featuring the delayed by one-week analysis on Kayfabe and why it's important. I just came off my biggest week on this site, as my Y2-Joker column got top billing last weekend, much to my surprise. After nearly quitting my job two months ago, it's nice to know that I made the right decision. There's something that's very rewarding about seeing a website that I've followed for four years be headlined by something I wrote. I felt like CM Punk when he won the World Title. I never thought I'd get there, and I did, and I celebrated it. It may not seem like a big deal, but for me, it's a reward of nearly two years of trying to get a job on here, getting a job, and trying to be worthy of that job. Sorry to ramble, but thanks to those in power for letting me have my moment in the sun.

I would like to address two things. First is DG's comment (nice to have him back)*:

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

Don't write stuff like that. Be proud of your work and don't make excuses for any deficiencies you think it might have. And if you're not up to writing, don't do that either. But writing a whole column and then saying it sucks at the end isn't very respectful of your readers' time.

No disrespect meant if anybody else agreed with him. Some people were also commenting about how "That was you on writer's block?" and the like. It's kind of a weird situation. For the whole week, I was trying to write about Kayfabe, but I couldn't get my head around it. I wrote two half-columns on it and hated both of them. I couldn't get my head around the subject, and that's what I meant about having writer's block. So it got to Friday, I couldn't write about Kayfabe and do it justice, mostly because my mind was on Batman. I had a thought about how Jericho was like the Joker, and went from there, and then the whole rant about how we are unfair to those who entertained us came out. So, I guess you could say that column was done in a blog style, and I didn't like it because it wasn't what I wanted to talk about. After reading it the next day, and editing the typos, I really did like it. It's kind of the sensation of being upset that something you got wasn't what you wanted, but the thing you did get turned out to be just as good if not better.

Secondly, I'd like to address this comment, from Kris :

This was a great column. We should appreciate the sacrifices that wrestlers make. I admire all of them, regardless of their shortcomings. However...

To be able to enjoy the pay-off to many storylines, we are forced to pay a considerable amount of money. The experience of a wrestling fan today is far different than the experience 20 years ago. Those fans weren't pressured to fork out $40 per month to see a world title match.

Other sports are free to watch. If we watch a poorly contested game, we haven't lost anything. However, if a pay-per-view comes off as awful, we will still owe McMahon $40.

The consequence of that is simple: if wrestling promotions are going to expect so much out of us, we are going to expect something special from them.

If wrestling lessened their pay-per-views, or did away with them completely, then the culture might change. But until then, paying fans have a right to be frustrated if they feel they are being ripped off by substandard performances.

That's what happens when money is thrown in to the mix.

First of all, thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you share my mindset on appreciating all wrestlers.

I COMPLETELY agree with you. Money is a difficult thing, and when you throw it into something, it gets messed up. I personally think PPV's cost about $10-15 too much for what you get. I'd only charge about $25 for most PPVs, $35 for the Rumble, Summer Slam, Survivor Series, maybe Night of Champions, and $45 for Wrestlemania. Alas, I'm not in charge, so that's too bad. My personal opinion: Wait for the DVDs on everything except the big four or any card that looks really, really good or has a match you're just dying to see. Money screws up everything.

In an interesting side note, I remember an article in a RAW magazine about five years ago where the Hurricane compared wrestlers to superheroes and super villains (Brock Lesnar = The Incredible Hulk, Triple H = Lex Luther, etc.). Who was Chris Jericho? The Joker.

And to celebrate the excellent superhero movies this year:



*: That was completely sincere and not sarcastic in any way. As those who have followed me from the beginning, that may be surprising. Yes, DG gets on my nerves sometimes. Usually because he's right.

A Not-So-Quick (And Barely Wrestling Related) Note

So I read that a lot of people are complaining about the Saturday Night's Main Event card. To me, it doesn't look that bad, but it's not "great" by any stretch of the imagination, although sometimes things that don't look good on paper can turn out great, i.e. Batista vs. the Undertaker. And sometimes things that look good on paper don't work out so well, i.e. Mr. Perfect vs. Shawn Michaels, although personally, I never thought that would be good, since both men, especially Hennig, are at their best getting beat up. It's like trying to make two positive magnets stick to each other, it really doesn't work that well. Anyway…

Regardless of the show's quality, I think we're forgetting the important thing here. This event is meant to help raise awareness for autism. To me, this hits home. When I was a child, I was (falsely) diagnosed with this, and I've seen firsthand the type of things that autistic children have to go through. There's therapy sessions, doctor's appointments, medicine that turns people into zombies, warnings to stay away from television and video games, and the stigma of being unintelligent and a social retard. While I am a bit socially inept, it's mostly from my arrogance, and most people can tell that straight away. But if I tell people that I was diagnosed with autism, I get strange looks and people judge me on a mental condition instead of my character and my soul. To the doctors that "take care" of these kids, they are treated as nothing more than robots, unable to survive on their own and labeled as failures before their lives get a chance. Their spirits are broken by a label they have no control over, and society shuns them.

I do have Asbergers Syndrome, which is similar in some ways to autism. It means I have a high learning curve and a natural curiosity. In layman's terms, I went to those "gifted classes" in high school. But it also gives me a superiority complex, a stubborn streak that makes it difficult for me to value others thoughts. I want facts, not opinions. I don't like that about me, and I've had to fight it my entire life. Most doctors don't describe it a mental illness, but as a personality disorder, which means my personality is retarded. Go figure. (People with Asbergers also tend to be obsessive with things, like comic books, puzzles, toylines, TV shows, members of the opposite sex, environments, schedules, books, movies, and professional wrestling. We have a hard time letting go of things. Sound like me?)

Anyway, enough about me. I just want you to know that autism is treated very poorly, and the fact that the WWE is working to promote awareness of it is more important than the card. The more people who are aware of autism, the more money and research will be put into it, which will lead to better treatments. Perhaps one day, we will see those with mental and personality disorders as people. Probably the same day when there's only one "race" and that's mankind. Just remember that the WWE is helping us get to that day. And that's not a good thing, that's a GREAT thing.

"You can call this the New World Order of wrestling, Brother!"

The year was 1996. The month was July. Shawn Michaels was the WWF Champion, but I had no idea who he was, since my older brother was a loyal WCW fan. He had been since the first match he ever saw, where Sting defeated Big Van Vader for the World Title. I was only six years old at the time, and so naturally, I was a huge Hulk Hogan mark, since he was "the good guy". We didn't have the money to watch PPV at the time, so I didn't get to see Bash at the Beach. So going into the July 8 Nitro, the only thing on my mind was that I hoped that Luger, Savage and Sting had beaten those dastardly Outsiders and whoever their mystery partner was.

That Nitro started in spectacular fashion, as Rey Mysterio defeated Dean Malenko to win his first of many Cruiserweight Championships. Despite the fact that it was an exciting match and was for a title, the announcers focused more on the "horrible, despicable acts from last night". Naturally, I assumed the Outsiders had won by nefarious means, but I wasn't that worried. Even though I was a mark, I knew about exaggeration in the business. After all, one of my first memories of wrestling was watching Undertaker's entrance in a match against Mankind during one of the rare instances when I got to watch the competition. If that isn't enough to make you question the "reality" of wrestling, even as a kid, I don't know what is. So I figured that these terrible deeds the commentators were talking about were just part of the storyline, and really weren't horrible.

So you can probably imagine my shock when those events were revealed. Hulk Hogan had turned his back on WCW and joined the Outsiders, forming "the New World Order of wrestling". More importantly to a kindergarten kid from Kansas, Hulk Hogan became a bad guy. And I'm just going to be brutally honest here. I cried. I really cried, because my hero was a bad guy. I was one of those little Hulkamanaics that believed Hulk Hogan was the ultimate good in the universe. Now he told me that he only did that for the money (which, to a large extent, was true, although I do believe that Hogan has a soft spot in his heart for kids), and I was heartbroken. So heartbroken in fact, that my Mom banned wrestling from our house, and (with few exceptions), I didn't see any wrestling until 2001. Then the whole HLA thing happened a year later and BAM! No wrestling for Aaron until just before WrestleMania XIX.

Two things about my wrestling fandom make me desperate to protect it. One is this: I honestly cannot remember NOT being a wrestling fan. It wasn't something I stumbled into. I was in pre-school when my older brother introduced me to it. I've been watching wrestling for as long as I've been watching television. It's a BIG part of my life. And the other reason is that it was taken away from me for a long time, and I don't want to lose it. Naturally, I don't cry about heel turns anymore, and my Mom is very supportive of my hobby/obsession/addiction/whatever. But it took a long time to get to that point, and that's why I won't stand by and let others ruin something that I, truly, love.

The Great Illusion

Another thing happened in 1996. Ashish started writing his columns and it eventually evolved into 411mania, a website that covers every aspect of pop culture. To me, it's really humorous seeing Wrestling on the same site that covers movies, music, sports, and even politics. Why does wrestling deserve its own section? Couldn't it simply be classified under sports or movies/TV? What's so special about it? Why does Ashish's e-mail address have a wrestler in it and not a musician, an actor, or some sports hero?

Professional wrestling is THE most unique form of entertainment in existence. It is equal parts athletic showcase, soap opera, morality play, and fantasy novel. But even though it was made up of other forms of media, it has combined them in such a way as too separate itself from everything else. You can't compare it to MMA, because it's not a sport, though it is athletic. It's not a typical TV Drama, because wrestling makes stars, not the other way around. If a wrestler is fired, retired, or he dies, the business will move on, often stronger than before. A wrestler is just a cog in the big machine, valuable, but ultimately interchangeable. There is no off season in this business. The stories are told continuously, and everything that happens matters because it in some away affects future events.

Maybe you've noticed I like to write matches out, which some call fantasy booking, but I think of it more as what Macho Man Randy Savage does. I'm scripting the match. There is often no back story, which can be a big hindrance in telling stories in the match itself, although I've learned to do it well enough over years of practice. It's hard to write storylines without pre-established characters. People talk about character development as if it's easy, but if you've tried to write a novel or a script for a play, you know that it is really hard to come up with a character. Even worse, once you have the characters made, you have to make the world the character lives in seem real to those seeing it. They have to identify with the characters. A hero or villain without a back story is really uninteresting. What would Batman be if his parents hadn't been murdered? He would be a muscled up guy in tights beating up the bad guys. Sound familiar?

Usually, the best stories create themselves. Take the X-Men for example. Stan Lee wants to make a group of superheroes, but he's already used cosmic rays for the Fantastic 4, gamma rays for the Incredible Hulk, and radioactive spiders for Spider-Man. To avoid redundancy, he has to come up with a new, unique solution as to the origin of their powers. He says, "What if they are just BORN that way?" Thus, the idea of mutants is born, which is based on a real thing, mutation and evolution (insert your own joke here). And because these people are born different, "normal" people hate them. Why are we so ready to accept that mutants are despised by humans? Because the story wrote itself. Stan came up with an idea, and it branched off from there, and the world of the X-Men was fleshed out, had depth, and even though it had people with superpowers in it, was believable.

This is the Great Illusion of storytelling. A well-built story is set in a world that is also well-built, so that you don't even think about the story as fake. A good story you read, a great story you experience. If a story is good enough, you will experience it, you will become emotionally attached to it, and you will believe it. Even fantasy can seem real if it is done well enough. See such examples as the Dark Knight or the Michaels-Jericho feud for examples of great storytelling. They are both believable, but we know they are fantasy. Yet somehow, we can forget.

Now, let me replace "storytelling" with "Kayfabe", and "forgetting that it's fantasy" with "marking out". Does it make more sense? The goal of wrestling is to convince its fans, the majority of which at least know that it is predetermined, even if they don't look up results on the internet, that what they are watching is real, if only for a brief moment. If wrestling is done right, whether it's a great story or a great wrestling match, even the staunchest critic will forget to hand out a star rating and will come out of their seat and cheer. The goal of wrestling is to turn the "smarts" into marks. In other words, Kayfabe is what wrestling is about. It's the grand illusion. It's what a wrestling fan should live for. And though I know it's just fantasy, when I put in a DVD, I forget. Do you?

So WHY is Kayfabe so important?

The answer is simply this: Kayfabe is everything that professional wrestling is supposed to be about. It's about making us stop thinking and overanalyzing and just getting lost in the beauty of something that is very special. Professional wrestling is the most unique form of entertainment in the world, and because it is unique, it deserves fans that can experience what it trying to do. Yes, money plays a huge part in it, but money is made because people are looking for something that will suspend their belief. When wrestling is done right, there are no "smarks", there are only marks.

I've talked about the importance of keeping the mark in "smart mark" and about appreciating the work of all wrestlers, regardless of "talent", based on their intentions. As long as someone is trying their best, I have no problem with them. When you take away all the stuff that we "know" about wrestling, all the bookings, all the politics, all the steroids, everything that makes it ugly, when you stop being a "smart" fan, and just start being a fan, wrestling has so much more meaning. In a way of coming full circle for this "anti-smark" series, let me go back to the analogy of a fan falling in love wrestling and a man falling in love with a woman. Remember, when a man truly loves a woman, it is because he fully knows her, both the good and the bad, and though he is not ignorant to the fact that she has faults, those faults do not define her to him. When he sees her, he sees all of the positives first. I truly consider wrestling a passion, a love affair with a very unique part of my life. I really, truly love it.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs…It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

That's how I treat wrestling and wrestlers. I protect it from the naysayers, and always hope and trust that wrestling will not fail me. And it has certainly persevered, though countless bad booking decisions and terrible matches, through periods of forced separation, through knowledge of the dark side, and even through horrific events like the Benoit Family tragedy, my love for wrestling, and clearly yours, endures. I do not hold wrestling guilty for the bad things, because the good has always outweighed the bad. It might be ignorant, blind love in some people's eyes, but that is how I love wrestling. In other words: I believe in Kayfabe. It's still real to ME, darn it!