Pro Wrestling: The Purest Form of Storytelling

As I was working with the trainees at the Blaze Pro Wrestling academy yesterday we got into the discussion of motivations. Of personal and character development. Focusing on the WHYs of action and intention as opposed to "just the moves." 

For sure. The moves are cool. Even essential. That's the sizzle to season the steak, if you'll permit an oft overused metaphor. 

However, without the WHY in that ring nothing else matters.

Again, not a new opinion. Speak to any respected veteran with a podcast and they'll tell you much the same thing.

Here's where I can draw those parallels to movie making and books and other forms of entertainment and get the same point across. Why is the John Wick franchise so captivating in comparison to one of any dozen direct-to-streaming action franchises that also have terrific action? It's because of the WHY. Of the drive and dedication of the performers and craftspeople involved to bring you a multilayered story that also delivers some of the greatest action seen in cinema history.

Side note, for a deeper dive into the layered storytelling and themes of John Wick, please check out the amazing video essays done by Mikey Neuman of "FilmJoy" Fame:

But getting back to my thesis statement, Why do I think Pro Wrestling is the Purest Form of Storytelling?

In Pro Wrestling we as performers - athletes - clowns - bookers - competitors have the broadest canvas possible with which to tell and re-tell some of the greatest stories possible to a wide audience. An audience that ranges from little wee children all the way up to those grandparents in the front row trying to smack the "Bad Guys" with her cane (RIP Gracie, you were amazing).

When we first start out training wrestlers, the emphasis is so heavily focused on the action. About being safe and protecting yourself, which is absolutely how it should be. In process of doing that, we also "protect the business" as it were, ensuring that the performers we put in front of a crowd will be able to lend their creativity and efforts in a way to illicit the response from the paying customer who's more often than not only a few feet away from the action. This is admittedly a longer process for most than you'd think since the best way learn is often times by diving feet first into the ring and making mistakes live in front of said audience.

But the benefit of this is where we can begin to tell the simplest of stories with these wrestlers. In my mind I equate them to the "Little Golden Books" of matches, where a viewer of any age can watch and without to much effort get a grasp of what's going on.

For example: Young up-and-comer is nervous but excited to compete and prove themselves against the wily veteran who knows the craft better and isn't afraid to take advantage of the newbies' inexperience. Will the newcomer have the fortitude to stand strong? Will they be true to themselves? Will the veteran resort to chicanery and foul play? Will they welcome the new wrestler warmly and have a purely competitive bout?

And most importantly, who is going to win?

Every match - exactly like every book, movie, TV show etc - has so many variations on the same theme. Will The Protagonist face the challenge before them and show grit , perseverance and moxie even when The Antagonist lays roadblocks and obstacles in their path to challenge and defeat their ambition.

These stories - these matches - only get more complex and nuanced as time goes on. As performers get enough reps in, if they have the privilege to travel and see the world - to see how other countries and cultures perform their wrestling - they will learn how to layer in so many different variations on this theme. They will learn how to show conflicts within themselves. To show regret for their actions. Show righteous indignation and validations for wrongs done to them that are then repaid onto the dastardly bastards who've earned them.

Saying "Pro Wrestling is like a Morality Play" is obviously accurate. But I don't think it goes far enough to describe the nuances that are possible within different matches on the same card.

I don't think there are any other mediums (especially not LIVE mediums) where during one 2 Hour Event, you can literally have multiple stories that will appeal to all ages. From the "Little Golden Book" style Little Good Guy vs Bad Bully encounters all the way up to a John Wick-Style violent exhibition of a wronged individual fighting for revenge where no quarter will be asked or given. 

Pro wrestling can contain love stories. Stories of individuals overcoming personal adversities. Tales of friendship and betrayal and horror and comedy ... oh God, so much comedy.

But through it all, when done right - Pro Wrestling is Pure.

Because it can be anything, for anyone at any time. 

And that is kinda magical.

Thanks for reading. Please check the links. 

AK

BOOKS

SHIRTS

EVENTS

Ending The Year with Intention

Here I am sitting on my couch in December of 2023. Another year come and gone. Highlights and low lights and more behind me and a whole future of tomorrows ahead of us all.

Like many, I wonder what the future holds.

Unlike many, I think I know what I no longer want it to hold.

I want it to hold less uncertainty. Less self-doubt and recriminations. Less fear.

The last 2 years have been full of personal loss, life changes and other emotional turmoil. I've been so hard on myself in ways and have done everything I can to be a better person, to do more things to make me a better me.

Yeah. Sounds selfish. And it is.

But I want to be a better man. A better father. Better partner. Better wrestler / writer / author.

The trick is, I've been trying to do all of those things at once. And its not easy.

So... the time is now to narrow my focus for a bit. to streamline my online presence. to focus in on the areas that I find the most fulfillment. the areas that I will be the most committed to. 

Because those are the paths that will bring me joy. 

And with joy, will come its own reward.

I'm gonna do my best to be more diligent with my posting. To ignore the noise and to focus on what matters.

At the end of the day, that's all any of us can do.

Stay Tuned for more

Please check the links along the side for my Books and PWTees page. I appreciate all the eyeballs and attention you give me. 

AK

Power of the Light Side

So our friends over at the ForceCenter Podcast have put out a call for those of us within the community to share their thoughts and ideas of how Star Wars has brought the Light Side into our lives. Or how it has  elevated our understanding of things in life via the space fantasy / melodramatic metaphors we find from the stories told in a galaxy far, far away.

Given the things happening in my life right now, it's probably not surprising this is what's on my mind:

Sometime in the winter of 1983 my dad surprised me one evening and said "We're going to go to the movies." While I'd certainly watched movies with Dad before hand - usually whatever happened to be playing on one of the 5 channels available to us over the Winnipeg airwave rebroadcasts -  this was a special thing. We were going out to the theatres! A special trip, just me and my dad to the (locally) famous Metropolitan Theatre in the heart of downtown.

Turns out (spoiler alert), it was a double feature of Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back. 

Watching on the big screen the adventures, the fun, the fear and the tragedy of those first 2 life-changing movies not only left an indelible mark on the way I look at the world, but created a real bond between myself and my dad. 

It's not an uncommon thing for sons to have trouble connecting with their parents, clearly. My father's upbringing was rougher than mine from a different era. And while he always treated me fairly and with love, I often grew up feeling like he and I were different. That we were interested in different things and didn't have very much in common.

Turns out - naturally - that as I gained life experience of my own that obviously we are very similar. We have shared interests, ideas, perspectives and are undeniably bonded in ways that go beyond our love of "westerns in space that tell family dramas in a succinct, spiritual format."

As such, being able to introduce my dad to the Mandalorian while I was recovering from a minor procedure took me back to being (almost) 7 years old. Watching his eyes light up and his smile broaden as Din Djarin and IG-11 mowed down that town of Child Rustlers in the most sci-fi realization of a classic western shootout I've ever seen committed to digital film was simply magical. Seeing him relive his own childhood in that moment, seeing his mind expand and his imagination awaken because of Star Wars rekindled the bond between us that honestly never left, but ebbed and flowed over time as everything does. 

That afternoon with him was one of the best times of my life.

As I write this my father is nearing the end of his time with us. No bacta tank or teched out mod will be able to keep him from passing on into the Force. But through the tears I am smiling. Because we are meant to grow beyond the paths they lay for us, as my daughter one day will do to me. Obviously there are many other important things that Dad gave and taught me beyond our oftentimes silly space shows, but being able to revisit something he'd shared with me that meant so much to the both of us ... well, it's just another way of knowing that "No one's ever really gone."

Thank you for reading. If my words today have moved you in any way please consider supporting a local Cancer Care Charity of your choosing. For example the good people at the Canadian Cancer Society are doing tremendous work in difficult times to provide help to as many suffering people as possible.

#MTFBWY

AK