I believe in professional wrestling.
Like any other storytelling medium, the theater of pro-wrestling can inspire, enlighten, and unite. The transcendent power of a pro-wrestling match is best comprehended by those viewers caught in The Moment of Pop - that instant where the onlooker forgets what they're watching is staged and is inspired to rise to their feet or sink into their seat.
In that millisecond of purity, all contrivance fades.
Read MoreThe WWE announced on Wednesday morning, May 25th that in addition to broadcasting SmackDown live, Tuesdays on the USA Network, that a brand split will once again take effect in its fictional universe. Raw & SmackDown will feature *insert press-release quote* "unique storylines with unique casts, writing teams etc".
There are a lot of obvious benefits to this creative direction. Not only does a switch to live presentation help revitalize the WWE's stagnant B-Show, a definitive split in an over-crowded roster means less repeat match-ups, less over-exposed, over-worked talent, and more creative focus (hopefully) committed to improving the quality of these proposed unique storylines. With each roster able to focus on one live television show a week (rather than two where wins and loses cancel each other out) there could be more room for the performers to establish their characters via backstage interviews, in-ring promos, and main event matches that represent the culmination of consistently promoted throughlines rather than last-minute, contrived hero/villain pairings.
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 best critique I can offer this week is that Sting should have been the guy to physically push the button on the trash compacter that destroyed Seth Rollins’ chocolate statue.
That's how horribly innocuous this RAW was (save the quality match between Sasha Banks & Paige).
The fact that Sting wasn’t the guy to push the button to destroy Seth’s statue snatches the power of that moment away from Sting. He had a nameless trash-henchman put the final exclamation point on the sentence he’d been writing all night. Any satisfaction the audience might experience at this climax is inevitably less than if Sting had jumped down and punched the button himself.
Read More“Sports Entertainment” is a much-maligned term among professional wrestling purist.
Growing up, I never thought much about the significance of the term.
It just seemed like the WWE’s way of distinguishing its brand of professional wrestling from others. I wasn’t aware of any malice behind the phrase or that “Sports Entertainment” presented itself as superior to the territory “wrasslin business” of old. I didn’t know that it was designed as a means of distancing the WWE from negative public perceptions, steroids scandals, and the like.
Read MoreI sit here before the computer trying my best to discover an entry point into this particular RAW REVIEW. I cannot come up with anything - other than being honest with you.
Monday Night Raw has become background noise for me.
That is both a reflection of the quality of the show of late and a reflection of my viewing habits.
Even when I focus on what I’m watching I can almost feel my consciousness flickering in and out of the show; the three hours blend together in an infinitely recycling loop of deja vu on top of deja vu, each scripted promo or strained attempt at self-referential humor occasionally inspiring a cringe. The show openly mocks itself and the show openly mocks the WWE's past. As a result, I can't help but feel mocked. Because I want to like RAW and I want to like the WWE's past.
Read MoreI’ve often thought the best compliment I can give a work of art is that it transports me back to a childlike place of magic and wonder.
We strive to achieve that “kid-again” feeling less because we’re terrified of our own mortality and more because we recognize the purity of a child’s experiences. The untainted mind seems to more fully appreciate and experience life. Art (a book, a film, a painting, a song, a wrestling match) that essentially wipes your insignificant, adult preoccupations away and restores you to that nirvana-like place of purity and joy could be considered a public service; that’s how important that cleansing process is to our lives and why we’ve built our culture around pleasant, inspiring, uplifting fictions. We need these brief excursions into a place where magic exists, where all conflicts inevitably resolve themselves, where love conquers all, and where human beings overcome the psychological traumas and the petty jealousies that plague them daily.
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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