Hardtime #94: The Peanut Gallery (ECW)
Submitted by RIPbossman on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 8:40 PM EST





Hardtime #94: The Peanut Gallery (ECW)

In the LOP columns forum, there is a tournament going on right now called ECW 3, or Extreme Column Writing 3. Every six months or so they have this contest, and it is open to columns forum members and main pagers alike. They pair you up against someone in a tournament, give both of you the same column topic, and people can vote for who they think wrote the better column. The person with more votes moves on to the next round. There’s a lot of good writing being posted right now in the columns forum, so if you have not done so, I would recommend checking it out.

I am currently in this tournament. I have just been given the topic of “The art of commentary.” Here is the column that I wrote for the tournament.

If you have any feedback for this column, you may send it to david12345575@yahoo.com You might not get a response (but I've been pretty good about responding to most of my emails lately), but I do promise to read every piece of feedback that I get.

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(Good luck to my opponent, The Diplomat.)

When almost any sport is aired on television, there is usually commentating to go with it. And even though professional wrestling is only a half sport (imo), it is no exception to this. A wrestling announce team may seem like little more than a peanut gallery to some, but having a play by play man and a color commentator calling matches and segments has been a staple of professional wrestling for decades. The ring, title belts, steel chairs, and the like are all just as common as commentary when you’re watching professional wrestling on television. On the surface, it really doesn’t seem like announcing really would have that big of an effect on the product. So one has to wonder, why exactly do they even spend so much time on having commentary? Why do they put such a large emphasis on what the announcers say?

Why is it that when people are sitting in the announcers’ booth wearing a head set, they are secretly being told many different things about what it is they are to say and how to say it? Why is it that for Wrestlemania 22, Joey Styles was not allowed to call the Raw matches (save for the Edge/Mick Foley match), and Jim Ross was appointed to take his place? Why was it that big of a deal to bring in another commentator? We have to face facts, people. There is a whole other side to this business that we just don’t know that much about. The management, writers, and wrestlers all know more than we do. And if there is such a large emphasis put on the commentary, then it must be for a very good and legitimate reason. But what exactly is that reason?

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that people feel they need to be more educated about the product they are watching, and live commentary is a very beneficial way of giving it to them. Maybe it has to do with how people almost always want to learn more about something that they are interested in, and while reading books and doing their own research may be suitable, it is far easier to have someone else explain things to you, especially when they are explaining things to you during the show itself. Could this really be the reason that the wrestling industry has place such a high value on the announce teams? Let’s take a closer look at the matter.

In life people have what is called a thirst for knowledge. They are always asking questions such as “Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?”. It’s only natural. When you watch the news, and you find out that a local bank got robbed, the first thing that comes to your mind is “ Who did it? How did they do it?”, and the only reason you don’t ask any of the other aforementioned questions is because they are already answered for you or they are obvious to answer. People don’t just sit back and say “Oh look, my neighbor was just killed. I guess I couldn’t care less about finding out who did it, why they did it…”.

When someone watches wrestling, the questions that go through their mind are no different. If a wrestling fan wants to know the name of a wrestling move, the commentators will give it to them. If someone wants to know the relevant personal background of a wrestler, the commentators will usually give it to them. If someone would like to know how many titles a wrestler previously held, who they used to feud with, what kind of character they have, and whatever other kinds of relevant questions the viewer may have, the commentator will usually answer them over time. That is, as long as revealing the information will not hurt the product. For example, John Cena actually grew up in a rich town, but that will never be said on tv because it would hurt Cena’s character of being a street thug.

Take for example the feud between Gregory Helms and Matt Hardy in recent months on Smackdown. In August, Matt Hardy and Gregory Helms had a match together, and Matt Hardy won cleanly. The next week, Hardy had a match with Mr. Kennedy, and Helms interfered. This lead to a long lasting feud between the two wrestlers. To someone who would have been watching Smackdown without commentating, they would have simply thought that Helms was angry for losing a match to Matt, and wanted to get back at him. They did no in depth promos to promote this feud. But with the commentating team doing their job, they revealed that they grew up together, and have always had an intense rivalry with each other.

Perhaps this is the reason that the sport of kings places such a high importance on the announcers. Does it all really have to do with the fact that people have a desire to learn more in life, and this applies to wrestling fans just as much as anyone else? Or is it due to something else, in part and possibly in whole? Could it be because most people usually like to have the comfort of knowing they are watching the product with someone else? Is it because most people will often times get a further sense of enjoyment and ease by knowing they are witnessing the product with another person, and commentating helps to provide this?

Any time a business runs a promotion, and they are giving away tickets to an event as a prize, they will always give away a minimum of two tickets to a person. Why is that? As you all probably know, it’s because people generally want to go to events with another person. You might feel that going to an event with another person is only a luxury for a person, because no one literally NEEDS to go to movies, concerts, baseball games, etc. with another person. But really, why is it then that most people don’t go to these kinds of places by themselves? Most people feel it’s a border line necessity to go to events with at least one other person. They enjoy having a conversation with the other person about what they are watching. But beyond that, they just enjoy the fact that they are there with someone else. It’s the feeling of knowing that you’re not alone that comforts people.

When someone watches a sporting event on television, they can get that same feeling of company through the commentating. I’m not saying that commentating can take the place of watching the show with another person. But while a person might not think that commentating can really make a person feel more comfortable and at ease, I would say to think again. It’s not the same as having someone to interact with, but you have about half of the equation already there in that you can listen to everything they are saying. About a year ago I was watching a match on the then new Bret Hart dvd. The match was Bret Hart vs. Ted Dibiase. It took place at a house show, and was taped without any commentating.

The match itself was great. Bret Hart played an excellent face, and Dibiase played an even better heel. There was great action, great psychology, and just all around had the total package you could ask for in a wrestling match, with the glaring exception of the commentating. It was as if there was no one else watching the match but me. I got the same feeling I would get if I went to go see a movie by myself. It was uncomfortable, eerie, odd, and awkward all at the same time. When I was in high school, I knew some kids who were big wrestling fans and used to watch Japanese Death Match tapes that had no commentating on them. They expressed the same aforementioned feelings that I had for the Bret Hart match I talked about.

Could this really be the answer to the question I posed at the beginning of the column? Is it really all because most human beings have a need for companionship, and for people that are wrestling fans, there is a need for commentary to make them feel like they are watching the product with someone? This could very well be the answer we are looking for, but maybe there is something else to this. How is this for an idea: Is it possible that the matches and segments can seem to be better than they really are due to positive commentating, and that the fans can be influence in other ways as well? Let’s check this idea out.

To explain this, I will first tell a story of when I was working at a grocery store a few years ago. I had worked as a stock person at a store over a summer, and when I started college, I had to take time off from working. When I came back over the winter break, I found out that they already hired someone to fill my position, and quite frankly, he was better than I was. I got demoted to being the store facer. It’s considered to be the lowliest job in the store, simply because it is very easy and requires little to no skill. The job consists of pulling the two front items on the shelf forward, and doing that for every different product in the store. It simply made the store look a little nicer.

I didn’t think this job was all that special or important, really. But my manager would often times be asking me to come in on days I had off, and would ask me to stay extra hours. He wouldn’t ask this of people who were cashiers and stock workers. Why would he ask the person with the seemingly most unimportant job in the store to come in on their day off? One day I finally asked a question similar to this to my manager, and he told me that while the job didn’t seem all that important, it made a huge difference to the customers, whether the customers knew it or not. He said people will judge the store’s professionalism by its presentation. If the shelves look to be in good condition with everything lined up nicely, then many people will want to shop there, regardless of how poor the quality, selection, and the prices of the products are.

This whole concept just may apply to commentating for professional wrestling. Commentating has the power to influence viewers. If the promoters want a certain wrestler that may not be able to get over with the fans on their own merits, a commentator can influence viewers into thinking that the wrestler actually is as interesting as the company wants him to be. Take for example Matt Hardy. A lot of people used to see Matt Hardy as someone who will never break through the mid card and make it into the main event scene. But due to JBL constantly saying positive things about Matt Hardy, people probably have started to think that Matt really does have serious potential. I know I have. When I used to watch William Regal wrestle, I was bored to tears watching him. He is a very sound technical wrestler, but has little charisma, and you already know he’s more than likely going to lose every time he wrestles. But in recent months, JBL has made me actually care about Regal’s matches. With constant comments of “I’ve never seen him better” and “he can be as brutal as anyone (paraphrased)” I’ve actually been interested when he wrestles..

They can make wrestling fans get excited about feuds. People aren’t always independent thinkers, and may be easily swayed into getting caught up in hype. When I saw ECW’s Living Dangerously ’99, I was not a regular ECW viewer. I did not know who a lot of the wrestlers were, and did not know many of the storylines. But when they showed a video package of Sabu and Taz’s feud with each other, the commentating hooked me into getting excited for the match later that evening. “They have ECW’s most intense rivalry. The homicidal, suicidal, genocidal, death defying Sabu against the human suplex machine, Taz.”. Without the commentating, I would be have been left to make my own judgments of the wrestlers based on the video highlights, and may not have been as excited for the match as I was.

You may or may not be asking yourself a question about all of this. That question is this: if commentating is so important to the wrestling industry, why is it possible that so many people can go to live events, not hear any commentary, and probably enjoy the event more than someone just watching on tv who has the luxury of hearing commentary? This may seem obvious to a lot of you, but some of you may not understand this. The truth is that the thrill of being up close to the wrestlers and seeing the action live greatly overshadows the benefits of commentating. However, to a lot of people, live events are only thrilling because they previously listened to commentary on television. They understand who the characters are, what storylines are going on, an so forth. The last time I went to an independent show, I hated it. I was being introduced to the characters and storylines for the first time, and without commentating to help sell it, I couldn’t get into it.

There’s no denying that commentating has become a huge staple of the wrestling industry. When a wrestling promoter is organizing their wrestling promotion, they don’t just choose any shmuck or Joe Shmoe to do the job. Why is it that the wrestling business feels commentators are so important? It could be because they have a desire to know more about the wrestlers and feuds that are going on, and commentary easily provides that. Maybe it’s because it makes people feel like they have a little bit of company while they are watching the show, and it prevents the viewer from having the awkward and eerie feeling they would otherwise have without commentating. Or it could very well be because commentary, when done right, has the potential to influence viewers in thinking the way the promotion wants them to think about their product. At live events, commentating may not be necessary (if you’re already familiar with the product), but there’s no denying that when it comes to the wrestling television programming, the commentating team does more than just act as a peanut gallery.

If you have any feedback for this column, you may send it to david12345575@yahoo.com You might not get a response (but I've been pretty good about responding to most of my emails lately), but I do promise to read every piece of feedback that I get.

And remember to take a trip over to the columns forum to check out the ECW tournament. There’s a lot of good writers there, and the ECW tournament is only bringing out the best in them.

Thanks for reading.









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