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| Joseph Park, a good guy's good guy Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com |
Look at the people positioned as good guys in Impact Wrestling over its history. Why were we supposed to root for them? Samoa Joe won all the time, which okay, people love to hop on a bandwagon, right? What reason was there to like Kurt Angle other than "uh, he used to wrestle for the other guys?" When AJ Styles was positioned as a top hero in 2009-10, it was as an insufferable whiner. Even recently, despite the fact that the company had improved in providing a balance of heroes and villains, I wasn't all too compelled to root for a guy who yelled real loud and spilled beer all over the place like a bargain basement Steve Austin. Now, obviously, James Storm might have appealed to a different crowd, which I think is an improvement. However, a good babyface has something that is universally appealing, right?
I think last night, the company proved that they have finally gotten that universal appeal down with two absolutely powerful soliloquies from two vastly different characters.
The first came from Joseph Park. The innately charming and disarmingly innocent lawyer (talk about a paradox) turned wrestler came out in his track suit and ran down his entire journey to that date. He was earnest in his voice, and his sheepishness came off as more endearing than anything. Here's this guy who entered Impact just to look for his brother, and ended up being dragged into this war with a biker gang. He's grown so much, and I don't think the people watching haven't noticed it.
The second was a stark contrast to Park's coy greenhorn character. Bully Ray is gruff, grizzled, rude, and crude. He's a guy that if you met him on the street, you'd turn around and walk the other way. However, he's radiated a lot of that same earnestness and honesty in character ever since he begged Sting to trust him to fight off Aces and Eights back before Bound for Glory. It's a classic, flawed anti-hero. The man wears his aggression and weakness in his ring name, but even if he's ornery and a bit predatory, he cares about things.
Say what you want about Brooke Hogan as the center of a love angle in wrestling. Say what you want about her involvement in a wrestling company at all. But hot damn, Bully Ray appears to care about her, especially last night when he used her as inspiration to summon dragon breath and lay waste to every single one of the bikers who ruined their big day last week. I'm pretty sure the only people who couldn't get behind that are Ayn Rand and Darren Rovell, and that's only because their circuitry doesn't allow them to feel human love.
In a company where my allegiances were always to the villains who ended up being the most entertaining pricks (like Kazarian and Christopher Daniels, who still look like they're the only ones having fun at their jobs), I finally have actual, real life protagonists not only worthy of my support, but who seem to be those who appeal to a wide base of people, regardless of demographic. There are always going to be exceptions, but when a character is resonant the way Park and Bully are, I think the narrative is going to be more successful than just having a juiced-up pillhead like Angle demand your respect because hey, remember the Three Is that we can't legally reference on this show?
Obviously, I don't think that we should get the WWE model of ALL GOOD GUYS ALL THE TIME. It's clear to me that Impact is more willing to play with modes of long term booking, and it's definite that they're fine with bad guys winning. If they can find a happy medium and score some good writing in the process, they will be in a position to be a creative force at least. All it took was really someone to get behind. Trust me, in any medium of entertainment, be it sport, theater, or some hybrid of the two, the experience is always richer if you can get behind someone for the long haul.
