Moral Ambiguity In Professional Wrestling

Is amoral art immoral?

That’s the question I keep asking myself as I consider the implications of a professional wrestling that no longer asserts good is good and bad is bad, but rather that we live in a morally ambiguous world where people simply make choices and then live with the consequences. Amorality is being neither moral nor immoral, it is showing no concern in the rightness or wrongness of something. In art, that means the author doesn’t pass judgment on the characters, but merely presents them as they are, allowing the audience to judge. Such is the moral philosophy of many modern dramas and comedies in this Golden Age of Television. From Tony Soprano to Walter White to Don Draper to Daenerys Targaryen to Barry Berkman to Kendall Roy to many more, the amoral perspective these television shows have on their leads sidesteps the traditional moral binary of good versus evil for a more fluid interpretation of the universe.

Professional Wrestling Is Good For My Mental Health

For the past few months, I’ve been watching Monday Night Raw, AEW Dynamite, and Friday Night SmackDown every week. It’s been fun, and reminiscent of the early days of my pro-wrestling fandom where I watched totally devoted. Establishing this routine has made it easier to get through the work-week. Each day, I remind myself that wrestling awaits and it helps the next handful of hours pass a little quicker.

My favorite of the bunch is Dynamite. It’s the most inventive and naturalistic, featuring a fantastic cast of colorful characters. There’s the super serious sort like Jon Moxley and Hangman Adam Page and the hilarious sort like Orange Cassidy and The Best Friends. Unlike WWE-television, Dynamite has an actually funny sense of humor - that is to say comedy in AEW is genuinely amusing and not cringe-inducing. Dynamite also features wrestling matches with stories rather than wrestling matches as time-filler.

The Rock Got Me Through My Teens

The Rock is my favorite wrestler. I’ve come to this conclusion after much deliberation. He’s on a short list alongside CM Punk, Bret Hart, Sami Zayn, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Mick Foley. It’s not hard to figure out why The Rock is my favorite. His ascent to WWF super stardom (and beyond) perfectly coincided with my adolescence. In those precious and impressionable years, he provided a respite from turmoil and angst. I would look forward to Raw and SmackDown every week in intense anticipation of what he might say and on whom he might layeth the smacketh down. Every new catchphrase was a significant event. Every gesture or subtle motion of his body was worthy of imitation.

Why We Love Professional Wrestling

“You know it’s fake, right?”

Most pro-wrestling fans have heard this question in some form at some point in their lives. They’ve worked up the courage to admit they’re a pro-wrestling fan and then they’re met with peculiar stares, snorts of laughter, or the dreaded f-word, “fake”.

On behalf of all wrestling fans allow me to answer…yes! We know it’s fake!

As I’ve matured as a wrestling fan the less interested I’ve become in “regular people’s” opinions of it (or me). If someone judges me negatively, even slightly, for loving professional wrestling then it is I who feel bad for them - not the other way around. The issue of pro-wrestling’s fakeness is not a problem for professional wrestling fans. We do not attend WrestleMania and feel deceived when we notice a softly delivered punch. We’re not confused when a wrestler climbs to the top rope to spring through the air and come crashing down on their opponent. And we’re not convinced the bad guy is evil and the good guy is good. We understand what we’re watching. We “get it”.

EDITORIALSTim KailNovember 21, 2022wwe, aew, Chris jericho, sami zayn, professional wrestling, professional wrestling blog

THE REALITY OF WRESTLING OR: WHY EVERYTHING IS FAKE

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.

WOW - EP136 - G1 Climax 27 - NJPW

Raw Improvements In The New Era

The WWE has embarked upon its self-proclaimed "New Era".

The past two months, this idea has taken concrete form in a strict separation between the shows Monday Night Raw & SmackDown Live (separate rosters, brand-specific stories, brand-specific championships, and brand-specific divisions), a renewed focus on the significance of earning a Championship opportunity or victory, showcasing talent that might typically be underutilized, new General Managers in the form of Daniel Bryan for SmackDown & Mick Foley for RAW, and a variety of structural and aesthetic changes to both shows. It is an experiment still in its infancy, and like many experiments it results in some successes and some failures.

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 Architects of the Attitude Era: A Retrospective on Steve Austin vs Dude Love

The Attitude Era wasn't great because it was raunchy, sleazy, blood-soaked, extreme, and testosterone-fueled. In fact, all those segments, matches, and angles from The Attitude Era that weren't good were the ones that could be easily reduced to a set of trendy adjectives.

The assertion many modern professional wrestling fans make is that The Attitude Era was "so much better" than today's TV-PG Era, without offering a worthwhile explanation as to why. This noisy group of armchair critics likes to cite "Better promos", "getting color", "more interesting characters", "cooler stables", and "better angles" as adequate precedent. Working alongside that lack of an explanation is the unavoidably revisionist history that comes with nostalgia. Moments of time that were distinct, perhaps entirely unrelated, get lumped together and cataloged as the same event; Shawn Michaels chopping his crotch, Triple H sitting on a cannon, Chyna giving low blows, The Rock raising an eyebrow, Steve Austin stunning Vince McMahon, and Mick Foley falling off a cell.

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