Stop Lying To Me, Babyfaces: Or Why WWE Heels Always Win

Whether it's Triple H pontificating about the value of hard work or The Miz describing, in minute detail, how meaningless the Intercontinental Championship was on Dean Ambrose's shoulder, heels consistently make accurate and even inspired observations about life and their opponents. Heels tend to speak with confidence and certainty, and, more often than not, they're proven right. They say they're going to win and they win. They lose, and they talk their way out of it through snarky humor or they immediately retaliate (demonstrating cunning, resiliency, and decisiveness). Or they vanish off television for months after their loss, and so their loss is forgotten.

The Anatomy Of WWE Backstage Segments

I haven't watched a full episode of RAW in over three months.

I catch up by way of clips on Twitter and I skim through Hulu's already abridged version. I spend most of my time perusing the promos, the skits, and whatever vignettes there may be, cramming the broad strokes of the larger narratives so that I might be able to pass whatever WWE-quiz comes my way. Altogether, after also checking up on SmackDown, I've condensed my WWE-viewership into about thirty minutes a week (unless there's a pay-per-view and then that duration naturally increases).

The result is that I'm a much happier human being, and I'm probably a lot easier to be around. I don't obsess about booking decisions. I don't bicker with anyone online. I don't care about anyone's criticism of my criticisms. The imagined judgements of some phantom "real pro-wrestling fan" have vacated my mind, replaced with a sense of peace and the ability to interact with pro-wrestling in a healthier way on my own terms.

WORK OF WRESTLING - EP79 - MISSY KEEN

While I spend most of my time these days writing arts criticism related to professional wrestling, at heart I'm a fiction-writer. That's what I've done my whole life, and that's what I'll continue to do long after I've written or said my last word on pro-wrestling. While I love the writing process itself, I am not enamored with the "literary world".

Readings, wine-tastings, workshops, conferences, literary-networking, talking about books, waiting six months for a response...all of it interests me a lot less than working on something and then sharing it directly with you free of charge.

WORK OF WRESTLING - EP78 - RICOCHET vs WILL OSPREAY

This week on The Work of Wrestling podcast I weigh in on the recent "controversial" match between Ricochet and Will Ospreay in New Japan Pro-Wrestling which sparked a debate in the wrestling community; do synchronized acrobatics undermine the credibility of wrestling?

Is this match pro-wrestling at all?

INSANE CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING: YOU WILL KNOW THEIR NAME

"Here we, here we, here we fucking go!"

With these words, Glasgow-based independent pro-wrestling promotion ICW declares itself to the world. This is more than a chant.

This is a battle-cry

THE RAW REVIEW

RAW REVIEWSTim KailDecember 1, 2015the raw review, professional wrestling, pro wrestling podcast, pro wrestling blog, tim kail, podcast, work of wrestling, work of wrestling podcast, vince mcmahon, triple h, indy wrestling

DEAN AMBROSE & ROMAN REIGNS: THE TEAM WE NEED

Lately, SmackDown has existed as background noise in my house.

This has less to do with the quality of the show and more to do with the fact that Raw’s three-hours saturates the viewer. By the time SmackDown comes around to HuluPlus on Saturday, I’ve already seen a minimum of four hours of WWE “content” (usually more as a result of perusing the WWE Network and YouTube). There is no other television-narrative I devote that much time to. Every other show I watch is either twenty minutes a week or forty minutes a week. Like most, I occasionally binge-watch a show, but such shows are always focused on the same characters or the same, consistent narratives. The WWE has yet to catch on to the viewing patterns of today’s generation, and the fact that more and more audiences are responding to psychologically driven, serial narratives with relatable characters in interesting situations.

The Writings