Apart from last week’s RAW REVIEW, the past seven episodes of WWE’s flagship series have all inspired the following question in me, “How am I going to write about this?”
The thought doesn’t come about due to tiredness or hesitation from the work required. I look forward to writing this column immensely. Along with The Work of Wrestling podcast, it gets me through the week, serving as a pleasant beacon in the nine-to-five fog.
Read MoreThis week’s RAW, right from the start, demonstrated the value of deviation.
One of the most consistent and entirely accurate constructive criticisms leveled at WWE’s three-hour broadcast is that the show adheres to its formula at the expense of offering unpredictable, exciting content for its regular viewers. This is a good constructive criticism that comes from respectable minds and respectful fans - not just from an angry internet contingent who behaves like an unruly, spoiled child. The people who offer this criticism are sympathetic to the difficulties of creating a massive “Sports Entertainment” spectacle like Monday Night Raw; they simply want the show to be as watchable as possible.
Read MoreThe purpose of The Work of Wrestling is, first and foremost, to prove the artistic merit of professional wrestling by dissecting the narratives and the subtleties of the craft. Pro-wrestling isn’t a legitimate sport. It’s a form of theater. As such, it naturally demands more than top ten lists, rumors, dirt, predictions, impressions, and click-bait.
Read MoreA vicious little game is often played by the WWE and the WWE fans.
The WWE excuses dissatisfying episodes of Monday Night Raw or cliffhanger conclusions as “slow-burns”, chastising the fans for not having the patience to wait for the payoff while the fans, so dissatisfied with so many different aspects of the flagship product, wield their hatred like an oversized, flaming long-sword, attacking anything and everything without regard for the real enemies of progress and good television. The result is that the WWE often makes the slow-burn argument or the "it's three hours of television" argument at the expense of addressing valid criticisms, and the fans go on slashing with their IWC Twitter-sword of hate at the expense of addressing valid criticisms.
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