I had a wrestling related dream the
other night. I was at college with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan and we
all lived together. I remember that the place was rather large and
Bryan was complaining about not getting a fair shot. So I called up
Vince McMahon and said that I would be willing to walk away from the
company if Bryan hadn't gotten a fair shot. Note that I had no idea
what my job was with the company. I woke up right as Mark Henry and
Bryan were to have a match.
I sat there, curled up in bed and
thought about what I would do with the company. If I had my choice,
my dream job would be head writer. I know that nearly everyone who
wouldn't cut it as an actual wrestler would choose writer or booker
the next best dream job with the WWE by default. But admittedly I
have a real aspiration for it. I am currently going to school for
film at a good university. One that pushes the independent filmmaking
route with a strong theoretical background. It isn't one of those
tech schools that simply put you on an accelerated course with no
direction.
My first films started out like every
other film student's work. To put this in perspective for non-film
students, nearly 95% (a rough estimate) of all film student work
contains one or more of the following: murder, suicide, hit-men,
cigarettes, drugs, sex, nudity, swearing, love, voice-overs etc. It
gets tedious viewing work after work that is nearly all the same. But
this is something that most film students go through. At least in my
experience, they start to branch out and think creative. They start
thinking of a message that they want to convey first instead of
coming up with a concept and then pasting whatever meaning they can
to it.
My first film was about a kid who
committed suicide and didn't know he was dead until he disappeared.
My second film was about a straight edge gang which was supposed to
mirror the yakuza. (I have been involved in the hardcore
straight-edge music scene since I was a teenage and am a fan of
yakuza films.) So my work was, admittedly, really shitty. Neither
piece is available and have been since destroyed.
However, I eventually matured and
started working on other stuff that was more personal. I am the type
of person to take whatever interests I have and start to critically
analyze the work. I've read more books and articles on media studies
and specific subjects (for example: The Interactive Narrative Logic of televised Pro-Wrestling) Thus, with this maturing I am left
asking the question that many “smart” wrestling fans ask
themselves. Why do I watch this?
What I really mean is “Why do I watch
the WWE?” To be quite honest, I think it is due to the availability
of it. I love Chikara and many independents, but I simply can't keep
up with them without spoilers. But when I think about this question,
Chikara founder Mike Quackenbush's words seem to resurface. In an AVClub interview, he said “I’ve often said that wrestling is art;
but for now, it seems consigned to remaining low art. It’s a male
soap opera. We’ve got to earn our place at the grown-up table.”
Much like gaming, another art medium
that I view as having real potential but is often viewed as
“low-brow”, I want to be able to defend pro-wrestling for the
best it can be. Unfortunately with WWE, and TNA which I don't watch
regularly, these best moments are few and far between.
So, I decided to start this blog. I
hope to find some sort of understanding in the art form that is
pro-wrestling through fantasy booking and perhaps some other critical
analysis. Part of this is also feeding into that dream job as head
writer for the WWE. With that being said, I want a real discussion
with these posts. I am an active member of /r/squaredcircle over on
Reddit and enjoy a lot of the real good discussion there. So if what
I say works or doesn't work, let me know. Send me suggestions and if
my ideas would garner a reaction. I enjoy hearing from people and
want to create an interesting dynamic here.
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