I enjoy HOSS FIGHTS too. Hell, I think I enjoy HOSS FIGHTS a little too much, but NO ONE ASKED YOU GAWD. Photo Credit: WWE.com |
I do not watch wrestling out of habit. I don’t watch it because I’ve posted at an Internet message board for the last 9-12 years regularly dedicated to the art form and feel the need to watch because everyone else there does. I don’t watch it out of duty. I don’t watch it because I don’t want to be left out when the “next big thing” happens and it’s suddenly cool again. I don’t watch it to make fun of it. I don’t watch it so that I can bitch about it. I don’t watch it because I want to post on blogs, Twitter or message boards how I could do it better.
No, I watch wrestling because I enjoy it.
I like tuning in Mondays and watching RAW. Sure, some weeks may be better than others, but generally, I like watching what WWE puts forward. I like that I can see matches—good quality matches even—take place on free television. I very much appreciate that The Miz, R-Truth, Dolph Ziggler and especially CM Punk are given live microphones. I get goosebumps at the false finishes, and I laugh heartily when Santino goofs after the match. I like getting into my DVR and watching Smackdown for many of the same reasons. Just substitute some names for others, and add in a hefty portion of Daniel Bryan getting to wrestle in prolonged matches week in and week out.
I like spending my money on independent wrestling tickets and DVDs as well. I like seeing the different personalities perform with different restraints than what they’d have if they were in WWE. I like the color, the excitement, the high-energy and the DIY atmosphere that each event has. I look forward to going to the arenas. I get giddy when I see someone who has something about them that translates to being a WWE wrestler, and just the same I get excited when someone who used to be in WWE comes down to the indies and mixes it up with the native talent.
I enjoy interacting with wrestlers and following them on Twitter. I like reading their blogs and watching their videos on Youtube or what have you. I want to see their fan pictures and I want to take fan pictures with them. I buy their merchandise because I want to show my appreciation to them for what they do. I play their video games and have participated in e-feds because it’s fun to pretend what it’d be like to be in a medium of entertainment that I dig so much.
Finally, I write about it because I like it so much. Because I enjoy watching wrestling so much, I want to be able to pay tribute to it in the only way that I can, by writing words about it. Whether it’s in response to something I like or that I don’t like about what’s going on inside of it, I want to capture my feelings for it in tangible, legible form. Everything I do on this blog and on the other two blogs I write is out of a deep respect and appreciation for this artform that has evolved over the last 150 years.
Quite honestly, I don’t see how it can be any other way. I don’t know how anyone can spend a single moment of their time watching something they don’t enjoy. Wrestling on whatever level is wholly a recreational pastime. You don’t have to watch it. You don’t have to comment on it. You don’t have to associate with it. So if it doesn’t make you happy on a fundamentally spiritual level, then why waste any time on it?
The moment I stop enjoying wrestling will be the moment I stop watching. I hope this is never the case, because when wrestling is good, or even when it’s just okay, it can provide such a wonderful world of vicarious entertainment. But the fact is that I do enjoy it, so that’s why I watch.
And if you watch for any other reason while not enjoying it? I think you need to rethink your priorities.