Breaking The Walls Down - Is There A Right Answer?
Submitted by Chris Dailey on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 at 1:46 PM EST



Breaking The Walls Down



Hello all and welcome back to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. I lost my job last week and I’ve been in a bit of a funk. I apologize for the lack of a column last week, but I was hit with the fact that I would not qualify for unemployment until next month and I lost control. Regardless, I apologize. As I was typing this very column, I have been offered a job and I have taken it. So, once again, I am gainfully employed. The minority that think I don’t care are mistaken and will find that out. Those that appreciate my columns, stick with me, I’ll be around as long as they let me. With that in mind, let’s hit up Bits and Pieces.



Bits and Pieces



I didn’t get a chance to see the PPV on Sunday, but I will be seeing it tonight. I can’t wait to see the Hell In A Cell match. Moreover, I really want to see Randy Orton vs. Shelton Benjamin.

I’ll say this for Shelton Benjamin, he continues to impress me. He’s very fluidic in the ring and seems as smooth as silk as he transitions from one move to the other. A one-time tag team specialist is starting to rematerialize in front of us as a serious, legitimate, singles wrestler. I think we should all sit back and enjoy this.

So, Hogan is making the headlines again. I’m not sure if I should be happy or not for him. He’s applying his trademark at hockey games now. Well, if there is a lockout next year, I guess he’ll have to find another way to get in front of the camera. Let’s just hope he doesn’t try and do a duet with his daughter.

The NWA-Australia has had its second show. Go to http://www.nwaaustralia.com to check out the results. It is my hope that the tapes/DVDs somehow make it stateside, as I would love to see these matches.

To be honest, I am definitely looking forward to the Benoit vs. Edge feud. I am hoping this feud will add a desperately needed change to the RAW main-event spot. Benoit is a very, very worthy champion, but he needs valid stimulating challengers. Kane has name recognition, but with his past, he simply seems destined to dwell in the low main event spotlight.

Brock Lesnar has been said to look impressive for his Vikings tryout. But, he supposedly is going to be a major project. My opinion is if he makes it to a team, he’ll be bored sitting on the sidelines. Brock needs the spotlight and unless he gets some playing time, I think we’ll see him reunite quicker with the WWE than many think.

And now, onto the column.



Is There A Right Answer?



*Please note: While I won’t profess that the following quoted sentences are word for word of the exact conversation, they are reasonable facsimiles of the conversations I have been in. I took a plethora of conversations and condensed them into a more palatable form.

“Hey Chris,” says a former co-worker named Jim.

“Morning, Jim, how are you doing today.” I respond with a smile.

“Not bad.” He replies.

“What brings you around to my cube of the woods?” I ask with a joking expression.

A questioning look begins to furrow his brow. “Jim,” I say “you’re looking like you’re troubled, what’s up?”

A questioning look is supplanted with a chuckle and one question, which on the outside is simplistically astringent (but because I know the guy, it’s more jovial than acerbic), “I flipped through the channels last night and came across professional wrestling. The one guy with the shaved head threw a punch, and I use the phrase ‘threw a punch’ with a grain of salt in this case, and the guy on the receiving end wasn’t even close to the guy’s fist, but he half-leaped into the air and then flew over the ring ropes. Basically, I guess, my question is: What do you see in that junk?”

I sit there and I realize what’s coming. In fact, at one time, I welcomed it; I reveled in it. This was a chance to “defend or refute” my love of the sport. This was my chance to defend the likes of Ric Flair, Harley Race, Bret Hart, Triple H, and others. This was my chance to “educate people on the realness of the fakeness of professional wrestling”. And, often times it would lead to group gatherings at my cube for discussions about professional wrestling. But, for some reason as the years have gone by and the business has become more exposed, I’ve felt a twinge of angst when I’m asked this question. Why would I feel anxious (or even better, apprehensive) about answering this question? Because, it seems that with the sovereignty of information provided by both the media and the Internet, everyone seems to have become an expert in the realm of professional wrestling.

Somehow, inevitably it comes up at work that I enjoy professional wrestling. And, somehow, it comes up that I am a column writer for (in my humble opinion) the best professional wrestling site on the Internet. This, then somehow leads into a fifteen-minute discussion encompassing several people in the surrounding cubes and offices (including supervisors and managers) about my “insight” or “expert” knowledge in the professional wrestling world. When I assure them that I am no expert and I simply write a column trying to point out certain themes or genres happening in or around the professional wrestling world, I get a strange look.

That’s right folks, strange, blank looks. When I begin to answer the question about the phantom punch that knocks a wrestler over the top rope without even hitting him, I set in motion a wheel that ostensibly never ends. As esoteric as it may be, the fact remains, reality exists in professional wreslting, but the masses do not understand the reality behind the reality they see on TV. Sell, bump, kayfabe, heat, and job are unknown words that are meaningless to the masses of the uneducated.

Often times when I’m speaking on the necessity of a person hitting someone else with a chair or selling a punch, people begin to notice that I take the discussion out of the immediacy of the professional wrestling ring and begin to show the encompassing world that is professional wrestling. And, what I’m not immediately ready for (no matter how often I am in these conversations) is the actual interest in what occurs outside the ring. Often times I am told that the perceived notion is that all of the wrestlers are actually friends in the back and they all go out for drinks at the end of the night. But, when I give them information that contradicts what they’ve been told since they were kids, they’re not so willing to accept it.

When I begin to explain that some wrestlers may be “stiff” to other wrestlers in the ring or outside the ring because of an issue they have in “real life” most people are left with their jaw dropped. When I conveyed the actual extreme dislike between two perennial favorites in Hulk Hogan and “The Macho Man” Randy Savage, most people couldn’t believe it. The truth was hard for them to accept. When I would convey stories of ego and misplaced pride, often times it seemed as if I was talking to children who were first being taught the history of the world. Remember, people don’t easily accept change.

“You’re kidding, he actually stabbed him with a pair of scissors?”

“You mean to tell me that he actually took all those chair shots to the head and the chair wasn’t a flimsy piece of metal?”

“Come on, those are blood caplets their using. They’re not really bleeding. . . are they?”

All of these questions I’ve heard and more.

When I explain the reality behind the fakeness, they are not sure of the necessity of it. All of a sudden professional wrestling has gone from a form of “mindless entertainment” into “mindless entertainment that entertains notions of extreme violence and sadism”. Were you ready for that, the word sadism? I know I certainly wasn’t when I began these discussions in the work place.

Then I thought about it and deflected the question. “While in the most stringent form of the word, yes, I suppose sadism does apply. But, let me ask you this, will professional wrestling attract as large a fan base with the preconceived notion that they will simply throw each other off the ropes, execute several moves, and then defeat their opponent? Would this really attract the following that professional wrestling has attracted currently? Moreover, what drives ratings, action, violence, and sex, right? Sex may sell, but that method is simply a vessel for the larger product: action and violence.”

Now while these types of conversations tend to be quite involved and lengthy, one point remains clear, is there a right answer? To be honest, I’m not sure. After thinking for a long time on these conversations and trying to distinguish the one definitive answer that could sway their opinion, I found none. Inevitably the conversation always ends with both sides agreeing that they have their likes and dislikes and that it’s our inalienable right to enjoy what we like so long as that joy does not break any laws (either religious or state law). Honestly, I feel that is the best answer to the situation. Agree to disagree. I’m curious to see how many of you have been involved in these kinds of situations. It doesn’t matter if it was in a professional atmosphere or a more relaxed atmosphere. How did you handle it? I’m curious to see if anyone has had one definitive rebuttal to the dreaded question that has single-handedly either quieted the person or swayed him or her to enjoy professional wrestling on some level.

Well, that will do it for this week. I hope all of you have a safe and happy week. Summer is almost here and, of course, I’m loving it. And, as always, join me as I try to “educate people on the realness of the fakeness of professional wrestling”©.



Later,
Chris Dailey








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