The firing of Serena Deeb and the state of kayfabe in 2010
by David Bixenspan on Aug 25, 2010 8:46 PM EDT
in WWE
Email
Print
Much of the talk coming out of WWE's firing of Serena Deeb (allegedly for drinking in public, and maybe more) has centered around whether or not behaving in a way contrary to company storylines in public in 2010 was an offense that should lead to termination.
In this case, I don't think it was a bad thing to do. She had been warned about it both privately and publicly "ribbed on the square" via a TV segment with her character at a bar. If she wanted to drink, she still could have done so away from fans. It's one thing to break kayfabe in the context of media interviews and whatnot, but slapping people in the face this way is a bit much.
That said, it goes against WWE's standard talking points about how they're action adventure blah blah, not that rasslin stuff. If "[they] make movies," then why should they care if the actors act like the opposite of their characters? Blah blah WWE Films if Patricia Clarkson played a character who didn't drink etc.
It's hypocritical of WWE, but their actions were pretty ok.
What does everybody else think?
23 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
If they really did
release her for the reasons they are stating then I’m okay with it. Kayfabe needs to make a serious comeback. I don’t mean in the wrestling sense, I mean in the character sense.
Forget it Donny, you're out of your element.
CagesideSeats.com
I'm just going to miss her - period.
She was truly coming into her own as the character and I was looking forward to seeing a woman who could really wrestle in the Diva’s division.
This is a reasonable excuse for firing her but I think ’whistler may be right about this being a decent cover up for the truth that will be revealed later.
by FighterHayabusa on Aug 26, 2010 12:12 AM EDT reply actions
I think it’s legit and I agree with it. She was a peripheral part of the angle and the only thing she pretty much needed to do to maintain the angle was to…stay straight. She’s still pretty young and might get her job back down the road if she shows some maturity. After the Mickie James thing, people are going to make a big deal out of female releases for a while, but this one just seems straightforward to me.
http://www.instrength.com
How hard is it
to not go out and get drunk? Hell, she could have got drunk at a hotel and avoided this. Seems odd.
Forget it Donny, you're out of your element.
CagesideSeats.com
She's 24, and everyone else is allowed to go out
Immaturity is a definite possibility here.
http://www.instrength.com
Good call.
I’ve always wondered how difficult it may or may not be for some of these guys to remain in character. You hear stories all the time about how some guys get a gimmick and then live it all the time.
Forget it Donny, you're out of your element.
CagesideSeats.com
Who said kayfabe was dead
It amuses me to no end how the WWE goes to great lengths to avoid saying the words wrestling or wrestler, but the “sports entertainers” have to stay in character all the time. Somewhere Bill Watts is laughing at all of this.
All the straight edge punks I know wear suits. Heel Chris Jericho gets arrested for being drunk in public with babyface Gregory “Hurricane” Helms, but goes unpunished. Bret Hart breaks kayfabe in the Canadian media in appearances ostensibly to hype his return to the ring against his hated enemy Vince McMahon. Need I go on. WWE attempting to keep kayfabe alive in 2010 would be quaint if it wasn’t riddled with such overt inconsistencies.
She broke the edge, have CM Punk turn on her.
Punk gets extra heel heat, especially if she’s beaten so badly she’s off TV for several weeks. In reality they could suspend her, but have her come back in a face turn.
Agreed
Serena knew ahead of time that she would become a focal point of the SES and would eventually break up the group with her and Punk becoming a heel couple. All she had to do was follow instructions until the SES angle was over.
Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...
I'm just saying how they could have spun this
WWE is so inflexible these days that if Plan A fails, there is no Plan B, they just drop everything and hope the audience forgets and isn’t aware of continuity. Only the morons Luke Thomas likes to speak of will do this.
If they’re going to release stars and real reasons are given, then there is absolutely ZERO point in having story lines any more.
Now we’re left with CM Punk with no explanation of where Serena is, which does nothing to help this angle’s development. Before punishing Serena it would have been better to boost Punk in the process. Hell, they could have legit sent Serena to rehab if it was needed and wove that into a story with Punk not forgiving her and being a major a-hole about it.
I don’t agree with this. Over 90% of the WWE crowd doesn’t follow the net and backstage stuff, therefore they don’t care about any of that stuff. A storyline reason will be used, and the fans won’t think twice about it. These aren’t morons, they’re simply people that don’t care about the politics of the business and watch to be entertained. . A public company giving a public reason for a release doesn’t affect any of this.
http://www.instrength.com
I’ll try to clarify.
- Only morons are oblivious to continuity and a wrestler vanishing without a trace. This is just based on what’s presented to them on TV. What I’m saying is WWE is treating it’s audience like morons if they expect for one second not one of them will ask themselves “Hey, where’d that guy / girl go?”.
- Now, although you claim over “90%” of the WWE crowd doesn’t follow the net and backstage stuff (wherever that percentage comes from), I’m specifically talking about WWE.com. Not their corporate site, but their main site, which does have official press releases on the termination of wrestler employment / contracts (even if it’s the vague, generic “Come to terms on release, wish them the best of luck in the future” spiel.
WWE.com in the last quarter has been ranked 1,079 in the world for traffic. Out of every website in existence, that is where WWE.com ranks with the usual suspects of Google, Facebook and Youtube making the Top 3. If you look at UFC for comparison UFC.com in the last quarter has been ranked 2,449.
WWE.com is heavily used by its fanbase so there’s a good possibility they’ll become aware of Serena’s release.
- WWE only writes characters out of storylines when the performer is injured and needs time off for surgery. They don’t do anything remotely like this if they’re firing performers for whatever reason, possibly because they’re afraid they won’t play ball and help the company out. Back in the day this wasn’t a problem since wrestling used to have their own ‘Policemen’ who would sort out trouble makers either in the ring or backstage but now WWE is a publicly traded company they can’t be associated with this shady way of dealing with talent. And of course in Serena’s case, being a woman, just a hint of physical harm would get them a lawsuit.
I have no idea why you don’t think they’ll give a storyline reason for her disappearance. They clearly will. It won’t be a case of “where’d they go?” They say, in storyline terms, where she’s gone. They almost always do. I don’t know why you think they just ignore people that have been fired with no explanation. Daniel Bryan is the perfect example of them tying loose ends after he got dumped.
I’m also not sure why you’re making a mountain out of a molehill in terms of them announcing it on their website. Even if a portion of the fans do become aware of it…so what? Saying that there’s no reason to have storylines when the truth comes out is ridiculous to me. Does that mean every TV show that loses a cast member should just lie about why they’re not on the show anymore? It’s TV. People put way too much into what kayfabe means nowadays.
http://www.instrength.com
- Many believe what happened with Danielson was a work. It’s not like they would have lost any money or ratings if they got rid of him, so why bring him back?
- Even in this post kayfabe world of wrestling, wrestlers are not treated or expected to behave the same as actors. Actors don’t appear twice a week on TV and 3 times a week in house shows doing live events and only have a partial script to run with. When actors are interviewed or make appearances outside of their films or shows, they don’t appear as the characters they play. When the Undertaker gets interviewed or makes an appearance, it’s not as Mark Calaway. He may not be fully into the character of the Undertaker, but the caption on screen says ‘The Undertaker’ and he’s referred to as ‘The Undertaker’ even outside of wrestling. Serena was handled the same way as Megan Fox when she got kicked off Transformers 3, but it’s not the same industry and it shouldn’t have been handled the same way.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
