Wrestling - a defence

"There are people that think that wrestling is an ignoble sport. Wrestling is not a sport, it is a spectacle, and it is no more ignoble to attend a wrestled performance of Suffering than a performance of the sorrows of Arnolphe or Andromaque." - Roland Barthes

The other week, me and my housemate Matt decided to watch some wrestling. It's not something that either of us regularly do, and it's not something that I've done regularly since I was at secondary school. It's generally regarded as something a little immature to do, I guess largely because it's all overwhelmingly fake, and also because it's by and large a bit silly.

But should these be reasons to look down upon wrestling? There are plenty of other cultural forms that are both silly and fake, and yet are perceived as being more respectable and valid forms of entertainment, at least in the UK. Two of my favourite TV shows, Lost and Twin Peaks, were both at times absolutely ridiculous, and it was eventually obvious that the events of both series could not transpire in reality. Yet both were critically acclaimed, and the reaction I would get if I was to introduce myself to someone as a fan of Twin Peaks would be guaranteed to be more positive than if I was to announce myself as a follower of WWE.

Agent Cooper is felled by a chokeslam in this Falls Count Anywhere match

Watching the wrestling was as gloriously silly as I thought it would be. There is something very cathartic about watching overly muscly men with ridiculous names (Randy Orton? Dolph Ziggler? Fandango?) wearing glorious costume slapping each other silly. We especially enjoyed the dwarf dressed as a bull who managed to throw a dancing wrestler three times his size over the top rope. But was surprised me was that there was a match that I thought was actually awesome.

The match opened the show, and pitted fan-favourite Daniel Bryan against the relative newcomer Bray Wyatt. Bryan plays the perennial underdog, hard-working and technically gifted, who is constantly undermined by the wrestling powers that be for not fitting the traditional poster boy champion image. He has a large beard. Wyatt heads a sinister backwoods cult, with him stylised as the charismatic demagogue. He too has a large beard. Prior to this match, Bryan appeared to have been recruited to Wyatt's family, only to turn his back on him in spectacular fashion. This set them up for their clash. Below is a link to the promo puff to the fight:

So yes, it's very similar to the ridiculousness of the serial drama, or soap, only with a bit more poetic license for the characters. It's hard to see a cult being formed in Eastenders, though it would certainly make for more exciting story lines. The acting out of the story though is also coupled with impressive athleticism. Sure, it's not proper fighting, but it takes a lot of physical exertion in the same way that acrobatics and dancing do. I was ill last week and decided to rewatch a particularly memorable match from my teenhood on Youtube which you can view here should you be this way inclined. There's a lot of elaborate jumping off of things and into things. The violence is gloriously nonsensical, but the level of both the choreographing and improvisation has to be admired. The level of beardage isn't great, but a lot of the other hair is long.

Another thing that surprised me when me and Matt watched the wrestling was how the audience reacted to what it was watching. I've often considered the typical US wrestling fan to be quite the fool, being taken in completely by the spectacle and not recognising it as such. The audience that we witnessed was much more self-aware than that. On several occasions the audience would jeer a wrestler who was being portrayed as a good character, whilst cheering and getting behind wrestlers that were obviously intended to be bad guys. They would support whoever was embodying their character best and was engaging in the most exciting moves. This independence of thought was fascinating to observe, adding an entirely new slant to the action, and providing another element for the combatants to contend with and react to. From what I've read, the WWE have had to work their storylines around fan opinion, especially with the Internet as a platform for alternative ideas, with a great capacity for discussion.

Barthes was very interested in the workings of symbol within professional wrestling, and it is interesting to look at it as a gauge of US society. The cheering of the wrong wrestler, the establishment of the anti-hero, the true and criminal anti-hero is opposed to the workings of the ruling power that controls the stage he performs upon, could illustrate some degree of dissatisfaction with the workings of the ruling powers in society away from the performance. Indeed, the character of the criminal anti-hero is one that has grown in fascination for people significantly over the last couple of decades. You only have to look at the popularity of TV such as Dexter and video games such as Grand Theft Auto to see the magnetism that the criminal anti-hero possesses for the consumer. Contemporary trends in wrestling could be another example of this.

Alternatively, it could just be bad script-writing on the part of WWE, failing to create compelling morally good characters. In the end it doesn't really matter too much, so long as some elements of the spectacle remain exciting, because there's enjoyment to be had on many different levels with wrestling; the symbolism, the stories, the athleticism, and the violence. At the next event, the bearded cultists will be doing battle with a group of morally dubious vigilante types wearing security armour. Both groups have been characterised as bad guys. It sounds exciting, in the same way that a fight between Darth Vader and Darth Maul would be infinitely more exciting than a fight between Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. I think we'll be tuning in again.

Beards and animal masks - what's not to like?