Anyone who knows me can vouch for the fact that I love Professional Wrestling a lot. It is a constitutive part of my life and has been that way for the past 11 years. I'm so obsessed with it that I get a lot of weird dreams sometimes. Travelling in an airplane with "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, for instance. I don't remember much of it but I do remember shouting "Wooo!" along with him until the Air hostess came right down to our seats to shut us up. I know, surreal, that is the word you're searching for. Here are some more weirder aspects of my life: I enact famous promos when no one's watching. I try wrestling moves on my pillows just because I don't have a younger sibling to try them on. And everytime someone ruffles my feathers, I get tempted to give them the finger and hit them with a Stone Cold stunner, before dousing them in beer.
That's how crazily I love Prowrestling!
Now, why do I like it so much? What's the big deal about it?
The answer to that is the same as what you would get if you ask a Cinephile why they like movies so much. It's pretty simple: It's an art! For those who understand it, Prowrestling is an art. For those who don't, it'll always seem like a bunch of men without pants fighting for a damn belt (Yeah, I've seen that meme!).
Wrestling has to be viewed the way we see movies; with a certain 'suspension of disbelief'. Because when you strip it all away, ProWrestling is just a real-time fiction that involves athleticism, drama, soap opera and theatricality. Once a person is ready to grasp it, the ProWrestling world will come to life in their eyes.
So, am I saying it's all fake? No. Fake isn't the right word for it.
It is scripted and staged, yes. The wrestlers aren't exactly enemies. Yes, there are heroes (faces) and villains (heels) in ProWrestling. But, like movie stars, they're just coworkers working together to tell a story through their athleticism and gimmicks. The victories, championships and defeats are predetermined to help develop a compelling storyline. But what they do really does hurt. The moves, punches and kicks are done after years of training and experience, to make sure it doesn't seriously injure the wrestler on the receiving end. Yet, most of them hurt. The wrestlers go through a lot of pain. A simple mistake or an accident could lead to serious injury and in some cases, death too. Wrestlers have been forced to retire because of injuries, they've been relegated to wheelchairs for the rest of their lives and so on. As the legendary Diamond Dallas Page said it, "This stuff hurts like hell". Also, they travel a lot to different places and different shows to perform. Many wrestlers rarely get time to spend with their family. Unlike movies, they can't retake a scene if they make a mistake. If they mess up, the entire world is watching them.
So, putting it all together, it's incredibly hard to be a Prowrestler if you sit and think about it. You've to maintain your character, perform in front of several people, experience a lot of pain and tell a story. It's harder than you can imagine.
That is why it's an art. Just like Ballet or Music concert or Drama, it's a performance!
Once I realised that, I started appreciating the little things. Just to name a few, I started admiring the way Rey Mysterio moved in the ring, the way The Undertaker maintained his character, the way The Rock talked on the microphone, the way Chris Jericho managed to reinvent himself several times over the past 2 decades and the way Shawn Michaels sold his opponent's moves. And each time, I valued these nuances of ProWrestling, I fell in love with the artform all over again.
One another fact I appreciate about ProWrestling is that it has something for everyone. You wanna see a huge monster of a man lift trucks? You've got Braun Strowman. You wanna see an MMA fighter beat the living crap out of his opponents? You've got Brock Lesnar. You wanna see a satanic, supernatural human come alive everytime someone buries/burns him? You've got The Undertaker. You wanna see a badass dude drink beer and rebel against his tyrannical boss? You've got Stone Cold Steve Austin. You wanna see men hit each other with glass, light tubes, thumbtacks, kendo sticks and tables? You've got the entire roster of ECW. You wanna see a guy fly in the air and do some athletic moves? You've got Ricochet, Will Ospreay, Rey Mysterio and so on. You wanna see a complex mixture of ProWrestling and Japanese hard hitting martial arts? You've got New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Or if you just wanna simply see a wrestler purely wrestle? You've got Daniel Bryan, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle etc.
I can keep going on and on and on about this.
The bottomline is that I've learned to treasure the aspects of ProWrestling in a way I've never treasured anything before. Seeing wrestlers perform puts a smile on my face. It is a fictional world I escape into whenever the real world doesn't treat me nicely. There are villains I can hate, heroes I can cheer, comedies I can laugh to, songs I can sing along to and so on. Prowrestling has pulled me out of deep depression more times than I could count. And it still keeps doing that to me.
Furthermore, it has taught me a lot of life lessons.The Undertaker taught me to never say die and rise back up everytime someone puts you down. Jeff Hardy taught me that making mistakes in life is natural and what matters is how you bounce back from it. Rey Mysterio taught me never to underestimate someone based on their physical appearance. Triple H and Shawn Michaels taught me what friendship is all about. AJ Lee taught me that you don't have to let stereotypes define who you are. The Rock taught me that even if you've got nothing in life right now, you can still achieve success someday. John Cena taught me to never give up. And recently, Edge taught me that life gives you second chances! And the list doesn't end here...
In short, ProWrestling defined the person I am today. It is a part of my life and will always continue to be so!
I'll cap it all up with my favorite quote by the great Paul Heyman:
"Wrestling is an art form! I don't worry about those who don't get it; I worry about satisfying those who do."
No comments:
Post a Comment