Watching TNA's re-boot, it's been very noticeable how they've embraced 'the reality era' in wrestling. A definite effort has been made to place their show within the real world. So far Mike Tenay has hosted sit-down interviews with both Magnus and Kenny King. In both cases, the interviewees adopted the same strategy, delivering a mixture of comments in character combined with reflections on the real-life journeys both men have embarked on as professional wrestlers. In truth, it's not too difficult to tell where the boundaries between the two men's actual life stories and the boasting of the fictional characters lie, but these have still been revealing segments that are a damn site more interesting than the scripted 'interviews' trotted out by certain WWE talents recently (no names need to be mentioned....). Elsewhere, Lashley has addressed MVP using his real name, Hassan, and the commentary team have dropped references to other wrestling companies, showing that they see themselves as part of a wider overall industry. Josh Matthews has even been caught using insider terms, like 'audible' (i.e. loud spot-calling), while the mic's on.
WWE, of course, created the reality era when it green-lighted C M Punk's legendary pipebomb promo. In seven minutes, a stunned Raw audience witnessed something it had never heard before. This was a distinctly tweenerish heel promo that insulted the audience but chimed with the IWC with its complaints about the staleness of the WWE product and its failure to build new stars. By self-consciously breaking the fourth-wall and even including a shout-out to a short-lived WWE star using (gasp!) his indie name of Colt Cabana, he drew gasps from a crowd used to an extremely insular product.
Punk is long gone (and indeed burned several bridges with a shocking tell-all exposé on a podcast hosted by Cabana himself) and it seems WWE have rolled this back a bit. Sure, you might still hear the odd real-life reference, like Bray Wyatt taunting Dean Ambrose over his genuinely tough childhood in Cincinnati. Yet this feels strictly incidental. Ultimately, WWE takes place in a thoroughly unrealistic bubble, known as the 'WWE Universe'. It's a land where no other serious promotions exist, a land where there is no wrestling, just 'sports entertainment', and where a leading monster heel flies into tapings every week from his home in far-off Moscow without suffering any jet-lag at all.
This bubble is hermetically sealed, although complications occur once you get to NXT, where outside promotions are actually mentioned (understandable, given the Japanese back-stories of Hideo Itami, Finn Balor and Adrian Neville). However, NXT is outside the WWE Universe, and should be seen as an indie promotion that just happens to exist under the overall WWE umbrella. It's a little tricky.
But what's this? Recent editions of Raw have trailed the Stone Cold podcast which happens on the Network straight after Raw ends, and has featured candid interviews in which Austin has asked both Vince and HHH tough questions and got straight answers. This features content about 'booking decisions' and backstage discussions about who is wanting to grab that mythical brass ring. In short, the kayfabe nature of wrestling, which Raw largely upholds, goes out the window as soon as Raw ends and the Network takes over.
Essentially, in different ways, both companies are doing something very similar here. They are saying that in the internet age, they understand that everyone knows wrestling is scripted and pre-determined. The days when 'Apter mags' like Pro-Wrestling Illustrated pretended that all feuds were real now seem quaint. The game is up for kayfabe. Many complain that this has drained the fun out of the game, and the child-like innocence has been lost forever as magazines like FSM, blogs like this and endless dirtshirt sites all reveal that the reason Roman Reigns is set for the main event of Wrestlemania is that Vince likes him a lot. It's not down to wrestling ability.
I understand this thinking, but can't help feeling it's not quite that simple. Yes, you can say an era passed as soon as Vince admitted that wrestling was fixed after the Montreal Screwjob, but in truth, you could work it out for yourself. When I was a kid watching British wrestling on Saturday afternoons, there was a true monstrous heel named Giant Haystacks, a king-size bully who terrorised babyfaces like Big Daddy. My 11-year-old self saw him as the embodiment of evil. But the more I watched wrestling the more I realised that if he really was that unhinged and violent, no-one would ever agree to face him in the ring. I didn't yet know the phrase 'unsafe working environment' but realised that this was a situation no amount of money could persuade me to enter. Did this detract from my enjoyment? Not one bit. I still bought into the matches, but realised afterwards it was all just entertainment. In reality, Giant Haystacks was Martin Ruane, a devout Catholic whose moral code meant he often refused to wrestle on the Sabbath.
I've heard the complaint that wrestling should try to compete more with multi-layered TV shows like Breaking Bad or Game Of Thrones. This is perhaps asking a bit too much. After all, we're living through a clear golden age of American television that started with The Sopranos and The Wire, and a humble wrestling show might struggle to attain those levels of narrative heights. Nonetheless, I think this complaint has a grain of truth. The problem with most modern wrestling is that it rarely bothers to offer any compelling narratives. Daniel Bryan's triumph at Wrestlemania XXX worked so well because it was based on a long-running story of a talented yet average-looking guy getting held down and finally triumphing because of innate ability and a hell of a lot of heart. I have rarely felt so elated after watching a wrestling match, but this is a big exception to the usual rule.
Likewise, the one storyline I'm fixated on in 2015 is the continuing saga of Rockstar Spud and Ethan Carter III. Unusally for TNA, they haven't rushed this one at all. Spud's face-turn has been a slow-burner, as the easily-led Brummie has finally realised that EC3 cannot be trusted. The latter has now employed the large-framed Tyrus (a latterday Haystacks?) as his willing henchman in an attempt to destroy Spud's spirit. However, Spud is fighting back with the help of Mandrews, the Welshman who won British Bootcamp last year. Mandrews has an array of great high-flying moves and wants to fight for the right cause. So far EC3's evil machinations have dominated, but everyone involved has played their part perfectly. It's simple, old-school booking and it works. On Sunday night, I wanted to hit EC3 over the head with an umbrella like old ladies at a 70s British show. Despite being aware that I was watching an actor perform a role, I still hated him so much, because his performance was so despicably good.
The death of kayfabe is not a problem so long as good stories are told in the ring, and this is the true problem. It's not happening enough, as too many matches have minimal or no build, particularly in WWE. But just as I can simultaneously applaud James Gandolfini's performance and be appalled at Tony Soprano's actions, I understand that Michael Hutter is doing a great job at being bad in the role of EC3. I hope he never turns face.
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