Friday, September 9, 2011

Repost from Fair to Flair: I Enjoy Wrestling

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 don't normally do this, but this column is one I feel very strongly about. It's why I watch wrestling. It was posted at Fair to Flair first, and again, if you're not subscribing to posts and podcasts from FtF, what are you doing with your life? Seriously. Anyway, here's the article in full:
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.