It isn't wrestling, it's a show about wrestling
"We love watching people grow, change, struggle. Good people, bad people, we don't care - we want to see it, man. And we need entertainment and we need it now. And when you watch wrestling, that's what you get. Now, don't get me wrong: a lot of wrestling? Sucks. But when it's good, it's fucking great. Wrestling is melodrama, wrestling is mythology, wrestling is action, wrestling is comic books. The only thing wrestling isn't, is wrestling."
--> Max Landis, Wrestling Isn't Wrestling
It's been a long, long time since I've talked about Sting. Four years almost to the very day, in fact. That's because I've not had a lot to say: I praised the internal consistency of character (unusual for pro wrestling), I bemoaned his stubborn refusal to go to WWE (born, I felt, of ignorance and hubris), I stopped following his career. And while, yeah, I totally marked out when he finally did join WWE last November, it wasn't enough to break through my malaise with the product and warrant the event being recorded here (harsh, but true).
Then WWE made it clear Sting's first opponent would be Triple H, a performer... a man... for whom my respect has grown, astronomically, of late. And then I saw this indescribably amazing short film by Max Landis, the guy I've quoted at the top of this entry, that uses Triple H's long, internally consistent character history to explain why pro wrestling is so fucking cool. (Side note: Max Landis favourited the gushing praise tweet I sent out about said video, which caused no small amount of marking out within this house. But I digress.)
Which is why it's now clear to me I'm about to see the character who always stayed true to his morals, no matter the cost, and was rightly hailed for it by fans go up against the character whose selfish, insecurity-driven obsessions drove him to take shortcuts in order to obtain and retain power, no matter who he had to betray, and was rightly excoriated for it by fans. At WrestleMania, it's about more than WCW versues WWE... more than "vigilante" versus "king"... it's about two consistently portrayed, ideologically-opposed characters going to war.
So I'm excited about WrestleMania for the first time since the card was announced. And even if every other match is the drizzling shits (of which there seems to be real potential), at least there'll be one bout that's melodrama, mythology, action, comic books. And I plan to enjoy the hell out of it.
Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF
--> Max Landis, Wrestling Isn't Wrestling
It's been a long, long time since I've talked about Sting. Four years almost to the very day, in fact. That's because I've not had a lot to say: I praised the internal consistency of character (unusual for pro wrestling), I bemoaned his stubborn refusal to go to WWE (born, I felt, of ignorance and hubris), I stopped following his career. And while, yeah, I totally marked out when he finally did join WWE last November, it wasn't enough to break through my malaise with the product and warrant the event being recorded here (harsh, but true).
Then WWE made it clear Sting's first opponent would be Triple H, a performer... a man... for whom my respect has grown, astronomically, of late. And then I saw this indescribably amazing short film by Max Landis, the guy I've quoted at the top of this entry, that uses Triple H's long, internally consistent character history to explain why pro wrestling is so fucking cool. (Side note: Max Landis favourited the gushing praise tweet I sent out about said video, which caused no small amount of marking out within this house. But I digress.)
Which is why it's now clear to me I'm about to see the character who always stayed true to his morals, no matter the cost, and was rightly hailed for it by fans go up against the character whose selfish, insecurity-driven obsessions drove him to take shortcuts in order to obtain and retain power, no matter who he had to betray, and was rightly excoriated for it by fans. At WrestleMania, it's about more than WCW versues WWE... more than "vigilante" versus "king"... it's about two consistently portrayed, ideologically-opposed characters going to war.
So I'm excited about WrestleMania for the first time since the card was announced. And even if every other match is the drizzling shits (of which there seems to be real potential), at least there'll be one bout that's melodrama, mythology, action, comic books. And I plan to enjoy the hell out of it.
Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF