Yes, pro-wrestling is scripted. However, it’s not as simple as people assume it is and let me clarify that issue before proceeding with my rant. All those arguments, rivalries and cussing one another are scripted (though sometimes pro-wrestlers have real life issues with one another). Of course it would be bad for a company if their employees genuinely hate each other to the point of wanting to destroy one another. All the beating, all the pain, the hurt, the ache, the sick, loud thuds you hear whenever a steel chair hits a wrestler’s cranium is real, however.
So before you open your mouth judging wrestlers as mere actors who make millions faking fights in front of people who enjoy watching people rip each other apart, remember you have your own sick kicks, too. Some of us enjoy watching overly dramatic people weeping because his/her lover got killed in a cliche’d death. Others enjoy watching overly dramatic people powerbombing another through a table.
Prior to this year’s Wrestlemania, the Undertaker has had a 21-0 Mania record. Bookers (top, executive-ish wrestling people who plan the outcome of matches) don’t book you to win 21 straight Wrestlemania’s if you’re not special. The Undertaker, the Phenom, the Deadman, excudes dominance and commands intimidation. He’s a 7-foot, 300-pound guy who happens to genuinely know MMA, so yeah, even if he’s not going to harm you for real in the ring, he is pretty scary.
Again, the outcome of pro-wrestling matches is pre-determined but, much like any other TV show, your matches have to look realistic — you have to properly sell the opponent’s attack, landing on the correct spot after falling from a ladder and stuff like that — in order for you to properly do your job. And the Undertaker is pretty good with this. Which is what helped him become who he is right now. His mic work and the promos he cut, have been brilliant. One of my favorite Taker lines goes like this (Wrestlemania 21, nine years ago):
Many men try to make a name for themselves at the expense of the Undertaker but they all, like Randy Orton will, “rest…in….peace.”
The Undertaker is a legend. And many pro-wrestling fans believed that the streak will never be broken. Why would WWE even think of booking Taker to lose at Mania? Why ruin the legacy that they themselves have helped him build? That sounds absurd. But lo and behold. At Wrestlemania 30 earlier today, Brock Lesnar blocked a Tombstone Piledriver, delivered an F5 and beat the Undertaker and broke the streak!!!
There are some things in life that people don’t and should not mess with — burgers should always go with fries; spaghetti and ice cream should always be present in birthday parties; and the Undertaker’s Mania record should be perfect. SCREW YOU, WWE, for booking Taker to lose. I don’t know how you even convinced him to agree with the outcome of this match. This is BS and unless you come up with a decent post-Mania storyline regarding this, I am never patronizing your stuff ever again (okay, maybe I will but I’ll still be very upset at you).
I HOPE VINCE MCMAHON AND HIS CREATIVE TEAM STEP ON A LEGO.
patrickkennan.com 