Yes, I watch professional wrestling. And I agree, it’s probably not something you would expect from the skinny, 26-year old, web developer who listens to Modest Mouse and writes his own blog. I too think it’s weird that I still watch professional wrestling, so I feel compelled to write exactly why.
I used to watch Monday Night Raw whenever I could as kid, normally it was past my bed time, but my mom used to work late on Mondays and my dad used to fall asleep early leaving me to sneak in at least some of the show. Then as I got a little older, I started being able to watch it on my own, talking about it and playing the video games with friends. Life started to get in the way of this all and I stopped watching wrestling and playing the video games all together.
Flash forward to my middler year of college (middler year is what they called the 3rd year of my 5-year program at Northeastern). One Friday night, my friend Jarrod and I had the TV on before we were about to go out. After flipping through a few channels we landed on the station that was carrying Friday Night Smackdown and we started watching, mostly to get a good laugh. What we saw was a storyline that involved one character, The Boogeyman, eating a “growth” off the face of a female wrestling. This moment of out-of-context ridiculousness struck a cord with me. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and remembered how utterly absurd watching pro-wrestling could be. Soon after that I began throwing what I would call “Raw Parties” where I would get together with a few friends, order a couple of pizzas, play some video games, and watch Monday Night Raw.
Since then, my affection for pro-wrestling has only increased. I’ve started going to “indie shows” for Ring of Honor whenever they come around and I’m going to see Monday Night Raw in person on November 14th (featuring the return of The Rock!) when it comes to Boston. There have always been a lot of over-the top wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin smashing beers around the ring and Triple H wielding a sledgehammer as a weapon. Recently, however, wrestlers like Chris Jericho, and even more recently CM Punk, have also been amazing wrestlers and great orators with the microphone. They have crafted brilliant villains as characters that are completely enthralling and also gifted performers in the ring.
What are your thoughts, positive or negative? Please add your comments!
“not something you would expect from the skinny, 26-year old, web developer who listens to Modest Mouse and writes his own blog”
One might say you even watch wrestling ironically… but I know you genuinely love it.
I think it certainly started off more ironic and became more real as I got into it more.