a classmate and neighbor named Aaron Able in the courtyard of my apartment complex after

Transcription

1 Darnell Willison Hedges EMDA March 2017 Final Essay: Being a Mark I am a die hard professional wrestling fan. When I was nine years old I was playing with a classmate and neighbor named Aaron Able in the courtyard of my apartment complex after school when he abruptly said that he needed to run home. When I asked why, he told me Smackdown is on, I want to see what s happening! I had no idea what he was talking about and I went over to his apartment in the neighboring complex. He turned on the television and I saw John Bradshaw Layfield talking in the ring, explaining why he had to turn on his longtime tag team partner Ron Simmons, accompanied by a dramatic video package of their break up. I didn t know why but I didn t like this guy, and I wanted to see him get his ass kicked. That s the moment everything else stopped mattering to me. I just had to keep watching. I began watching every week and I loved everything about it from the characters to the spectacle. It didn t take long for me to figure out that it was more entertainment than sport, but my obsession got exponentially worse with time. I bought every magazine I could find, every tape I could find, every toy I could find, even that God awful John Cena rap album that came out in I wish I could say that the obsession waned but here I am at 21 years old and I love it more than ever. To this day, I watch whenever it s live, I read the wrestling dirt sheets, attend whatever show I can, speak in the lingo (usually by accident), listen to podcasts, and slip in and out of wrestler impersonations whenever I m bored and alone. I would seem legitimately crazy if it wasn t for the fact that there are thousands of people just like me scattered across the land. They look like

2 your mailman, your pastor, even your neighbor, but know that when you pass us on the street, we

3 secretly are fantasizing about hitting you with a Stone Cold Stunner and then start trash talking. We are never easy to spot but our fandom is on the level of the worst Dr. Who and College Football fans. There s a trend that s present in any fandom but especially in the wrestling fandom, if you re into it, you re REALLY into it, and if you re not, you just don t get it. Though I remember when I decided I liked it, I never knew exactly why. It was the first thing I gravitated towards and the only thing I ve be as passionate about since is music. The wrestling community is made up of Marks (Fans who buy into what is being sold as if it were real) and Smarks ( Smart Marks, fans who are aware of the inner workings but suspend disbelief and actively participate with the product) and although professional wrestling has acquired a negative connotation throughout the years, the culture is not unlike any other fandom that a lot of people participate in. Like every fandom we have our Symbols, our Cosplayable Characters, Recognizable Colors, Factions, and Catchphrases/Quotes. Wrestling is about characters, storytelling, and emotion and by that a lot of fans develop attachments to certain wrestlers, and once that attachment is formed then the investment feels personal. The easiest way to represent yourself as a fan is using symbols. Most popular wrestlers of the last 25 years had a distinguishing logo or hand symbol that often gets represented somewhere in the mainstream. From the now iconic (Thanks Kendall Jenner) NWO logo and tshirt, to Stone Cold Steve Austin raising his middle fingers, to the OK symbol that John Cena raises into the air every time he enters the ring, it is worn as a symbol of identity for the performer but as a symbol of pride for the fan. My guy is a Canadian wrestler named Kenny Omega, who currently wrestles in Japan and is currently the one of the most successful foreign

4 wrestlers Japan has ever had. Before he does his signature running knee he signals it by making

5 the shape of a gun with his thumb and index finger and pointing it at his opponent. In a wrestling context, all you have to do is shape your fingers like a gun and fans immediately know that you re referencing Kenny Omega. Eight year old kid waving their hand in front of their face? Must be a John Cena fan. Showing off your favorite wrestlers symbol is met with pride, usually because of how much we tend to identify with our favorite wrestlers. The John Cena fan wants to look and feel like John Cena just as much I want to look and feel like Kenny Omega. When symbols aren t enough, some fans go all out and dress up like their favorite wrestlers. With wrestling being about larger than life characters, the ones that break into mainstream have outfits that are exclusive to their character and dramatic. Randy Savage had his colorful jackets, hat, and boots, John Cena has his equally colorful (but far less cool) t shirts and signature jean shorts, Stone Cold wrestled every match sporting a black vest, goatee, and knee brace. Attending wrestling conventions and live shows always has its fair share of fans who like to dress head to toe like their favorite wrestlers, past or present. The Undertaker and Sasha Banks are two of the most cosplayed wrestlers for males and females respectively, and despite being very different characters, both of their popularity can be attributed to their distinguishable and elaborate outfits. Kenny Omega is distinguished by his long trench coat, aviators, and curly black hair with the grey highlight on the front. His costume was inspired loosely by the Terminator but has since spawned his own imitators. Even though I ve never fully dressed up as a wrestler, I do occasionally incorporate some aspect of their style, like Mick Foley s trademark Red Flannel or Chris Jericho s tight black jeans and black jacket. As I ve said it s not just about representing that wrestler but also wanting to feel like that wrestler. In the same vain as symbols and costumes, popular wrestlers tend to have a

6 distinguishing color theme across their attire and merchandise that fans adopt. Hulk Hogan was

7 red and yellow, Bret Hart was pink and black, and the Undertaker was all black. This could arguably be the easiest way to identify a fan in a wrestling context because even if you can t make out the symbol, or really see the costume, you can always at least make out the colors. Nobody wears Red and Yellow to a live show unless they re a Hulk Hogan fan and that fan can be spotted no matter how far away they are sitting. Going back to the early days of modern professional wrestling when the sport made the transition from legitimate to illegitimate due to its perception of being boring, the earliest identifier of character was that the guy you were supposed to like wore white and the guy you were supposed to dislike wore black. Colors make impressions on us and in wrestling it plays a fundamental role in establishing characters. It s human nature to gravitate towards the like minded, however for some reason once we re around each other then we start competing. A Yankees fan doesn t care that him and the Red Sox fan both like baseball, he only hates him for being a Red Sox fan. Wrestling is the same. Before the World Wrestling Federation expansion in 1984, wrestling was localized and territorial. Fans of one organization were often unaware of other organizations and characters were simple and straight forward, and fans would cheer the good guys and boo the bad guys. When Vince McMahon took the WWF national, he began buying out these smaller organizations and absorbing their top wrestlers, and in no time the WWF was the biggest of the few remaining wrestling organizations in the country. Once Vince had his pool of talent, he reinvented them with new characters and put a spotlight on them. Though wrestling was achieving new heights, the prototypical character dynamic started to shift. There were still Good Guys and Bad Guys, but the characters became so dynamic that they would develop a following regardless of their status as a good guy or bad guy. It was around this time that fans would really start attaching themselves to wrestlers and fans started competing with one another. If you were a

8 Hulk Hogan Fan, you didn t like Ultimate Warrior Fans, if you were a Bret Hart Fan, you didn t like Shawn Michaels fans. These character based allegiances will always exist in professional wrestling but in the late 80s, fans were starting to compete on a more macro level with fans starting to form attachments to organizations. If you were a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) or World Championship Wrestling (WCW) fan, you didn t like WWF fans and vice versa. Going into the 90s WCW was closing in on WWF in ratings and the two companies engaged in a ratings war. At this point the focus of the fans was supporting their company and not necessarily just their favorite wrestlers. Wrestling was changing around culture and as the content became more edgy and alternative to keep up with the mainstream, it would hit another boom not unlike the expansion in 1984 so this it was this competition between organizations and fans that made professional wrestling must watch television in through the late 90s. However, in 2001 Vince McMahon would buy and close his competition, WCW and that fan dynamic came to a screeching halt. Fans started attaching themselves to specific wrestlers again and the WWF (to be renamed WWE in 2002) went back to a more conventional, good guy versus bad guy, storytelling which it has remined since with only a few characters being able to transcend that dynamic. A good character in professional wrestling must have a good catchphrase and there s nothing a fan loves to do more than quote their favorite wrestlers catchphrase. From Macho Man s Oooooh Yeah! to The Rock s If you smell what The Rock is cooking, a wrestler must be as good of a talker as he is an athlete and nothing cements a character like a good catchphrase. Though it s unknown who the first wrestler to start incorporating catchphrases was, it was in the 80s when more mainstream wrestlers starting incorporating catchphrases, from Rick Flair s Woooo! to Hulk Hogan telling you to Eat Your Vitamins and Say Your Prayers, it became a

9 way for wrestlers to start standing out from one another when wrestling was starting to focus on creating larger than life characters. Going into the 90s catchphrases became more and more popular and your typical weekly wrestling show was riddled with wrestlers essentially filling in words around their catchphrases for their segments. This was at the height of the WWF/WCW ratings war and both companies had incredibly deep rosters. This time is looked at very fondly by fans because it was a time where every wrestler had a connection with the fan base and catchphrases played a very big role in that. With crowded rosters and limited TV time, a catchphrase was the easiest way for wrestlers to stand out from one another and virtually everybody had one. To this day catchphrases play a big role in defining a character though wrestlers of the last 10 years have become less dependent on catchphrases. Since professional wrestling is an interactive form of entertainment, the audience will usually say the catchphrase along with the wrestler or chant it during their matches which not only reinforces that connection with the audience but also helps shape that wrestlers perception to the viewer watching on television. A wrestler with charisma and a good catchphrase is always endeared by the fans, and will often be imitated in wrestling settings. Wrestling encourages fan participation and at live events and conventions, which tend to draw the most passionate fans, tend to have very vocal fans who will simply shout the catchphrase of their favorite wrestler. A catchphrase can almost become a battle cry and a symbol of pride for fans. We shout them when our favorites are losing to will them to a victory, we shout them at fans of rival wrestlers or wrestlers we don t like to demonstrate our allegiance, and sometimes we just mutter them under our breath in the shower because it is just so damn catchy. Either way, a catchphrase can be make or break for a wrestler with a bad one painting you like a shmuck and a good one setting you up for stardom, and so

10 long as wrestling has a focus on character there will always be wrestlers shouting catchphrases at each other, and That s The Bottom Line, Because Stone Cold Said So [applause]. I will never be a Brony or a Potterhead but if they love their thing as much as I love wrestling than I truly get it. Pride and Passion can be found in any fandom, and competition is an inherent byproduct, but fandom is about enjoying what you love with others who enjoy it too and I d be surprised if most people didn t have something that brings that out of them. Professional Wrestling is no different. I ve stayed up late arguing with somebody on the internet over who was a better wrestler, I ve cursed at my TV drunk over the outcome of a match, and I ve spent more time than I want to admit imagining scenarios in which I win the WWE Championship. I will forever appear slightly crazy but I can t help myself, I am a wrestling fan.