Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Reading Between The Ropes. The WWE has become increasingly concerned lately by the sales of magazines and the interest of their publications in print and on the web. In light of these concerns they have adopted a new approach to how news is reported on their website. Their style adopts a method which is less in tow with kayfabe, and more a wink to those who scour the web for the latest news.
Yet, it isn’t just on WWE.com that World Wrestling Entertainment have embraced the smart fan and let the mark be a mark. Case in point: The Edge and Lita wedding ceremony in which the WWE felt the need to play Matt Hardy’s theme music in order to fool fans. Who really was fooled? Well, everyone was, but in different ways, perhaps. The marks (oh, such a generic and vague name - not one I do care for) thought that Hardy was there to save the love of his life. The smarts (or smarks, as they’re sometimes known – grrr) felt Hardy was there to kick some ass. Yet more than anything, the music was a nod to the fans scouring the web. Those “in the know”.
Brock Lesnar’s negotiations with the WWE could easily have been saved for a huge shock on TV. A big surprise return. However, Vinnie Mac could use the buyrate a pre-advertised Lesnar appearance would make. He could do this with a simple announcement once the deal is finalised. Yet, and most interestingly, he chose to broadcast the negotiations over WWE.com. The deal is nowhere near being finalised (so the website says, and why should we disbelieve them in this current climate of “openness” between company and fans?) but the site is happy to freely admit that negotiations are in progress. If the deal breaks down one could be forgiven for thinking that the WWE could end up with custard on their face and a barrage of unhappy fans. However, in the WWE’s new “tell-tell” policy, it seems that they don’t fear any negative fallouts from their wheeling and dealings.
Scattered all over their website is the latest guys released. Sure, when a superstar was released in the past the website would always report it. However, now we have interviews with those released. We even have an interview with Stevie Richards talking about possibly being released. Other than that, we can engross ourselves in the story behind the Blue Meanie and JBL’s altercation from the ECW PPV. This is another example of a real-life issue being used in storylines. To those not “in the know”, the Blue Meanie could be attacking JBL simply because of the comments by JBL in the lead-up to the ECW PPV. However, those “in the know” or, more precisely, any one with a mouse and keyboard and Internet access, will realise this is a continuation of an altercation that left the Blue Meanie needed several stitches. Again, a move from kayfabe, a nod to the shoot and a tipping of the hat to the “smarts”.
But is this really a good move? I would support the WWE in the way they interview their stars before and after PPVs to talk about the rivalries and their PPV matches. Following Wrestlemania x-8 Kurt Angle and Kane sat down with WWE.com and exclaimed that they were “delighted with everything (about their match) except the finish.” It’s a risky business to start claiming you’re not happy with your own matches, or an aspect about them. WWE should surely do everything they can to shill their product. Yet that quirky quasi-nod to OOC elements was somewhat cheekily refreshing. Not too insulting, yet not too damaging to the business.
One could adopt the attitude of Ric Flair. For a long time now Flair has been adamant that fans know too much. If Flair were to hear even the most knowledgeable fan utter the words face or heel then he would glare at you as if you’ve pissed on his grave. “Those words are the words of an insider. They are business terms, not to be used by people outside of the business, not in the loop,” Flair once said in an interview over in the UK when asked about faces and heels. I wonder what Ric would make of the WWE’s break away from kayfabe.
Vince Russo adopted the idea when he took over the reigns of WCW’s creative team. Russo was of the mindset that every fan scoured the Internet day-in and day-out for whatever the latest juicy gossip was. Russo praised Bagwell in an interview upon coming in to the federation. So what does he do on TV? He has Bagwell talking about how “everybody knows” he’s in with management and in line for a push. Everybody knows? Say what? Upon losing a match on Nitro he grabbed the mic and exclaimed: “Did I go a good enough job for you Vince?”
Besides the fact that this did not apply for 90 percent of this audience, those who actually did scour the Internet for news actually thought that all of this was kind of lame. What on earth was the point? Yet Russo was not perturbed by the fact that the buyrates were tumbling (from a 0.52 to a 0.26 during Russo’s tenure). In yet another nod to those who supposedly know more about the business, yet another break from kayfabe was broadcast all over live television on Nitro. Picture this: Kidman’s walking backstage where he bumps in to Scotty Riggs and Buff Bagwell. Now, I’ll credit “The Death of WCW” book with the following transcript, which is lifted from R. D. Reynolds’s and Bryan Alvarez’s EXCELLENT book which I urge you all to buy:
Bagwell: “You’re pinning me? One, two, three?”
Riggs: “That’s the finish they gave me!”
They were planning out their wrestling match as if it were fake. We go to the movies to suspend our disbelief. We know it isn’t real (unless it’s a docu or based on real-life events) and we know that once the cameras stop rolling the director will direct and his actors will rehearse, and so on and so forth. However, we leave that at the door. We suspend our disbelief and get locked away in two hours of escapism. It’s the same for wrestling. We know that things are pre-planned, but we don’t expect to be told as such. In a movie we don’t expect to see the actors talk about what lines they’re given.
But fear not! Russo had us all swerved! Bagwell won that match after rolling up Riggs and refusing to let go. Boy, did they get one over on us! Those in the know - that, say, 10 percent - all thought this was a lame waste of time, while the rest of the audience had no clue as to what was going on.
Russo continued this trend with incidents like his shoot on Hogan at Bash at the Beach, which began as a work and turned in to a more scathing attack as he continued. At Halloween Havoc fans were confused again as kayfabe was broken. Hogan laid down for Sting as this was supposedly some elaborate way of showing who was meant to win, and what was really going to happen instead. If this sounds confusing, it’s because it was.
Perhaps the most blatant disregard of kayfabe from a wrestling company was – and this puts the WWE’s most recent use of it to utter shame – at the WCW New Blood Rising PPV. Yes, WCW… again. Yes, Russo… again. It was the man’s plan, you know. During the triple threat match between Steiner, Goldberg and Kevin Nash (yes, you know what I’m talking about), Goldberg is set up for the jackknife powerbomb, only to shove Nash away and balk at Russo and the duo in the ring. He stormed out of the match and out of the arena. The commentator’s were stunned. What on earth was this? Goldberg had broken script, they claimed. This wasn’t the plan, they claimed. Yes, they freely admitted that wrestling matches were pre-planned and mapped out. “If the powerbomb was indeed part of the design, then what are these two supposed to do… improvise?” claimed Schiavone. Utterly pathetic, is what I claimed.
The WWE hasn’t reached such insane levels of nodding to those “in the know”, or such an extreme move away from kayfabe and in to an insane world where wrestling is freely admitted to be fake by the industry itself. Such self-reflexivity can only do harm for the business.
Am I bastion of Flair’s beliefs? Or am I a believer in WCW’s supercalacrazy methods? Neither, is the answer. Heels, faces… the terms are common. Nearly everybody knows what they refer to, to the point where 8 year old kids are calling guys heels and faces, not goodies and baddies anymore. It’s just a natural evolution of the business or, more so, the fan of the business.
However, it is dangerous to begin moving away from kayfabe so much. The WWE has begun to increasingly cater for fans who scour the ‘net and, while they’ve not done anything overtly rash yet, they must be aware that telling fans too much information that deviates from what they are presenting on screen is a dangerous ploy. If fans are told contradictory information as to why things are occurring on TV when they scour the web, fans may begin to take the e the happenings on their TV screens every week with too much grain of salt. They may cease to care about what they see on the TV in favour of what they see on their monitor. The moment too many casual fans begin to trust what websites say over what athletes and commentators tell us on television each week is a moment a part of the innocence of pro wrestling is lost. At the moment the WWE are not breaking kayfabe, they are bending it. However, once it is broken, they may find difficulty in ever fixing it.
Until next time,
Mitchell L. Gadd
Copyright © 2005; TheWrestlingVoice.com & Douglas Nunnally.
All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer & Privacy Statement
| What Did You Think About WWE Backlash 2008? |
|
|