FanPost

My Argument for tweeners.




There are two kinds of people in this world. People who play it safe and people who take risks. There are countless cliches that try to legitimize both mindsets. "Fortune favors the bold", is a common phrase to encourage people to be courageous and daring. "If it ain`t broke don`t fix it", is said by the more conservative type, people who believe that things have been done a certain way, and changing them now would be foolish. Its a very interesting debate. Do you hold your cards, and walk with the money? or do you go all in and try to double it at the risk of losing it all?

Now, trying to compare this morale conundrum to the booking of a scripted sport with men in tights, would be not only ridiculous, but over dramatic. That is exactly what I plan to do today. I would like to make my case for a radical change in the way professional wrestling is presented to us. These ideas will seem drastic and radical to anyone who doesn`t like to take risks, who believe in leaving well enough alone. Well open your mind, and get adventurous, because I would like to talk about the way our favorite wrestling characters are booked, and why the current format, should be a product of the past.

Before we see were we going, we need to know were we`ve been. If you have watched even 5 minutes of pro wrestling in your lifetime, then you understand how it works. A protagonist (The face) is being foiled by the Antagonist ( The Heel). The Heel will always win by cheating, and will use underhanded tactics to steal one from our hero. The hero garners our support by telling us how awesome our city is, how loud we cheer, how were the best crowd hes ever seen. The heel draws hatred (Heat), the exact opposite way. Our children are ugly, our sports team is going to loose, and we are no more than fat, stupid idiots, who have traits of whatever stereotype is associated with people from our city. This makes us want to see the bad guy defeated, and the good guy win. This is why its frustrating to see the villain steal a victory, and then gloat around and rubbing it in our face. This is called the Face/Heel booking structure, and it has been the tried and true method for pro wrestling success for 50 plus years.

Now heres where this went south. Around the late 90`s to the early 2000`s, our culture changed quite a bit, or in the media at least. The days of traditional storytelling were becoming sort of passe. People wanted reality TV. People wanted things like "Survivor", they wanted to watch real people, doing real things, in their real lives. The idea of a "story arc" was dead. If you could just get raw emotion and unpredictability, then why would we want to watch something that was predictable and forced? Pro Wrestling is both predictable and forced. People started tuning out. They had watched long enough, were they knew what was up. No matter how many times our hero was screwed over, in the end, he would overcome the odds and save the day. Thats boring. WWE needed to change and fast. I believe someone once said "Adapt or Perish".

WWE did not adapt. This was for 1 reason and 1 reason only. Old timers didn`t get it. If you were a booker back in the day, the good guy V.S. Bad guy story, wrote your check and put food on your table every week. Thats how it was. To change it now, and to present people with characters that were more complex than just "Good" or "Bad" was completely out of the question. The business operated a certain way, and nobody was gonna change it. And nobody did.

There are still so many people, on this very site, that see it the old timers way. That recycling the same story over and over, is the safe, most time tested formula for booking success. I need to prove you wrong because you are wrong. The days of "Good v Evil" are long over. America, and most other places in the world, love characters. The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, The Wolf Of Wall Street, I could go on and on. The reason these shows have absolutely dominated TV and film for the past few years, is because they are based around characters that seem like real people. They are written like human beings. Flawed, human beings, with real internal conflicts, and real problems that the viewer has to make their own decision about. That is damn good TV right there. There are no bad guys in the walking dead. Sure theres zombies, but thats a product of nature. The living people are the focus. Some of them are more likable than others sure, but even the ones who do bad things, have a clear motivation.

This does not mean I`m against having exaggerated, fun characters in wrestling, not at all. I enjoy bad news barret to death, I love Damien Sandow and his costumes. I just want it as far away from the main event as possible. Why do I have to be told who to cheer for? I`m not a child, I`m not stupid, I have a mind of my own. This also doesn`t mean I want there to be no conflict either. Seth Rollins is a great example. Rollins is the bad guy here, no doubt. But its done in a way were he had a clear motivation. He wanted to go out on his own. He wanted to adapt. That is so much better than "Hes just an asshole". This would make wrestling completely unpredictable. I would have my eyes glued to every match if the winner was ever in doubt. But I know 1 of two things is going to happen. The babyface is going to win, or he is going to lose because the heel cheated. That is awful TV, and I could give a flying fuck if it worked really well when Hulkamania was running wild, its 2014, and the shit is corny, and downright offensive to my intelligence.

I want 2 huge personalities, 2 badass motherfuckers, to step into the ring and clash. If theres only 1 true badass, and another coward, I`m not satisfied to see the Coward get his comeuppance because I know it isn`t real. Hell, I enjoyed the Rock/Cena feud just because of this. Because love them or hate them, they are unmistakable Icons, and them fighting felt like a big deal. Thats all you need. Have a locker room full of guys who wanna kick someones ass, and leave it up to the viewer to decide who to cheer for. It will flesh itself out. The Miami Heat is hated by most of the sports world. They haven`t done anything Wrong exactly, but the refs cater to them, and Lebron overacts. Nobody scripted that. It came naturally. Don`t force it and You will be fine

I know I haven`t convinced everyone, and I know that theres gonna be people who tell me I`m wrong, but I feel this is the future. I would be much more into it, but I want to gear from all of you. Tell me what you think.

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