If I remembered that date off the top of my head, I’d be a much better fan than I am. No, this is why we have Wikipedia. The date is nothing important, but the angle kicked off on WWE’s Monday Night Raw was what caught her eye and caused her to pay a little more attention, give a little more credence to the shows at which she usually just rolled her eyes. My wife claims that she has to fall asleep on the couch for a couple hours before going to bed, or else she won’t be able to get to sleep. So our nightly ritual typically consist of watching something we both care about until she’s about to crash, and then I put on something that I like that she considers background noise – and wrestling very often fit that bill. But that night in June, she was apparently more awake than usual…
I’ve been a pro wrestling fan off and on for most of my life, with a particular upswing in the last couple years – having a DVR made a huge difference in that respect. The WWE’s product has had its ups and downs over the last couple of years, but the past year has seen a couple angles started that showed real promise of opening the concept up to newer audiences – not all superheroes and goofy real-life cartoons. What CM Punk is doing right now on and off WWE TV is a great example – a little more realism, making the whole saga a little more relatable.
On June 7, 2010, Raw seemed to be business as usual – they were in the middle of the dreadful guest host gimmick, and this particular night was “Viewer’s Choice” night, making everything that much worse. (Side note: I’m all for giving fans what they want, but shows like this prove that some people just don’t know what’s good for them). Anytime Morgan was awake while watching wrestling, she typically gave a running commentary of just how goofy it was – not that I can blame her for it. For the first hour and fifty minutes of Raw, it was clear this was not going to be the night to change Morgan’s mind about wrestling.
The John Cena/CM Punk main event had her attention a bit more – Punk’s good for that, even at the tail end of the dying Straight Edge Society gimmick. But just as Raw went into their 11 PM overrun, something happened that even made her sit up and take notice. The debut of Nexus, led by Wade Barrett, was unique and special because it wasn’t something that WWE often allowed people to see on TV. Individual characters were always fair game, including the onscreen version of Vince of McMahon, but taking shots at the company or the product wasn’t something you’d normally see. So when the former NXT participants came down to the ring, decimated the company’s poster boy in John Cena, and then proceeded to tear the ring and ringside area apart… that was new.
One of the most telling points for me was when they tore off the mat to reveal the plywood that makes up the ring surface – I don’t think that’s something that most people realize. With the acceptance that pro wrestling is fake/fixed/planned/etc., I think a lot of people expect that the ring is a giant mattress of some kind to make sure the performers don’t get hurt. So seeing plywood laid on a steel frame was probably an eye opener to some people – my wife included – and if nothing else earned the performers a bit more respect.
The biggest impact from the segment was that it was produced in a very unique way: there was no commentary, and no one on the microphone. The cameras were picking up everything that was going on, but the performers were not playing to the mounted camera side of the ring like they will in a match – most shots had something going on in the background. They involved people who wouldn’t normally get that into the action – ring announcer Justin Roberts, commentators, cameramen and producers, referees. And the icing on the cake – the crowd shots. Starting with the attack on Cena, but escalating as Nexus tore down the set, you could tell that people in the crowd weren’t really sure what was going on, but they knew this was not a normal Raw event they were at.
The thing about most pro wrestling fans that I’ve met, myself included, is that we know it’s fixed. And the WWE has stopped trying to sell it as a legitimate sport, branding themselves “sports entertainment.” But that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed – did knowing that Lost was fiction and not a documentary get in the way of people liking the show? The typical question I’ve heard is that people would rather watch MMA or boxing because “at least that’s real.” And if that’s what you’re into, enjoy it. I personally don’t really like people getting the crap beaten out of them when it’s “real.” I also enjoy the storytelling aspect of wrestling. Granted, there have been a lot – A LOT – of crap stories over the years, but every so often they find one that hits home, reenergizes the fan base, and maybe even grabs them some new fans.
Common consensus is that WWE dropped the ball with the Nexus storyline – it jumped the shark right around the time that Cena was “fired,” because that stretches the line of plausibility just a little too much. Now just over a year since their debut, Nexus has basically disbanded, and included only one of the original members of the group at the time of its demise. WWE missed a huge opportunity to launch Wade Barrett, the original mouthpiece of the group, into superstardom. Even the addition of the CM Punk could only stretch out the inevitable demise, and the group’s final death knell came from Punk picking up his much more exciting current storyline. But the promise of what WWE put together on that night made it the most exciting storyline they’d had in years. It came out of nowhere, immediately thrust eight brand new talents into the spotlight (something WWE has always been extremely hesitant to do with new talent), and took a direction that no fans could have expected. That first night – and honestly, most of the first couple months – had fantastic execution that just fell apart by the end.
After the Nexus angle petered out, my wife continued a quiet transformation. She was awake a bit longer into Raw. She’d make comments about performers she liked watching – Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, CM Punk. I could show her clips of ridiculous spots from matches (the Randy Orton-Evan Bourne RKO clip was a personal favorite), and she appreciated them in a way I don’t think she had considered before. And then came the most recent turning point, one month ago when CM Punk sat down on the entrance ramp in Las Vegas and delivered one of the best promos anyone has ever given. While it’s completely awesome in its own right, it shared a bit with the Nexus angle in that it was completely unexpected, unlike anything the company had done recently, and carried a much more realistic tone than most other storylines. For the first time, she wanted to see what happened next. She wanted to watch Raw the next week. We even threw around the idea of ordering the Money In The Bank pay per view - but really, WWE? $55? Really?
The first step is admitting you have a problem.
Time will tell how the current Punk angle plays out, or if what comes next will hold her interest, but I think it speaks well of the current state of the WWE product that they were able to hook a new fan who prior to the new direction had no real interest whatsoever. I’m sure that she’s not the only one, either.
On a recent episode of ESPN’s BS Report with Bill Simmons, CM Punk talked about the current state of pro wrestling: “A lot of people are embarrassed about pro wrestling. I don’t think anybody needs to be. My goal is to make this shit cool again.” I admit to being one of those people, but seriously, what’s the point? Anyone who is going to nitpick your interests and hobbies surely has one of their own equally deserving. So well done, CM Punk. I don’t know if wrestling can once again be classified as “cool” yet, but you once again have my outward support.
No comments:
Post a Comment