Thread: Jim Cornette / Mick Foley
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Old 08-09-2017, 02:11 AM   #197
Mr. Nerfect
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by #BrotherVito DELETED View Post
I don't see why that would be an appropriate response. There have been about 50,000 different movies and TV shows that have depicted fighting that wasn't really fighting. Wrestling is fake and scripted just like 95% of things you can watch on TV.

I remember people getting all butthurt a decade or so ago when the sports-entertainment branding got stronger and WWE self-described itself as an action soap opera. But it's the fucking truth and it is for all of wrestling. There are characters, storylines, and staged conflict. Whether it's presented as serious or funny - these elements are still there. It just so happens that the people involved are way, way more athletically gifted than the average actor.

Just about everybody I know watched wrestling in the late 90s/early 00s. Many lapsed away because they felt they "outgrew" it and they were a part of the "it's fake and gay" crowd. Trying to present the product as legitimate will never bring those people back because they've already figured out that Santa is not real.

But presenting wrestling in a more open way actually gives them and new fans the message that - hey guys - it's just like any other fucking TV show. Except in this TV show you're encouraged to participate, and that makes it unlike anything else you can watch.
People don't think of wrestling as a television show like any other. They just don't. That's why they are so butt-hurt about it being fake. I get your mentality and where you are coming from, but it's never worked before, and I'm pretty sure it won't ever work.

There is an ironic relationship people have with television, and many papers have been written about it. Reality television is usually the focus, but I'm sure you can do it about wrestling too. It doesn't work the way you are describing. When it comes to reality television, people generally cover their shame-watching with the label of "ironic." You've probably heard people say this about The Bachelor, Big Brother, or whatever the fuck. Shows that don't bother to try and honor this desire for there to be some sort of ironic/genuine relationship are fucked. If it's too fake, people see through it and don't feel they can have the genuine investment worth using the ironic cover for.

This is a thing. It's called "The Irony Bribe" or something like that. I get you might not be making an argument for comedy wrestling, and might be instead arguing just against the super-serial stuff, but that irony is already there in that the business is exposed. And this is where I'd begin to repeat myself -- that would be truly going meta, etc.

Something that aims to be bad is quite a juvenile, immature, unpolished and uncreative approach to challenging any sort of established trope anyway. The "so bad it's good" argument really only works for guilty pleasures and things that were sincerely trying to be good. Trying to write something bad artistically is 15 year old boy syndrome. You're much better off trying to make something good about something bad. You don't want your message itself to be bad. That's just bad.
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