Bliss is a dynamo former bodybuilder, a Red Queen who backs her evil boasting with a stylish, acrobatic offense. I also found myself caring about other wrestlers, among them a Punky Brewster-esque character named Bayley, the woman who will challenge Alexa Bliss on Sunday in a rematch for the RAW Women’s Championship. So I started to follow Bálor’s career, the same way you would keep up with a mixed-martial arts fighter, one who also happened to be a new recurring character on “Game of Thrones.” To my extreme excitement, Bálor is booked on June 4 to compete in a “fatal five way” match against Joe (“the submission specialist”) and three veterans: Roman Reigns (something of a noir superhuman), Bray Wyatt (a cult leader in the “True Detective” mode), and Seth Rollins (known as The Kingslayer, for having beaten Triple-H at Wrestlemania 33.) Seeing Bálor hold his title aloft, I identified with him. Wrestling can be balletic, as when you have two skilled improvisers who know each other well, taking turns making each other look good, combining each other’s best moves into stunning reversals, knowing for sure only what the final conclusion of their match must be.īálor was able to get the three-count on Joe only after delivering his signature aerial finisher, an awesome turnbuckle leap known as the Coup de Grâce. So I began to root for him against Joe, a formidable brawler who personifies malevolent entitlement, a character willing to sacrifice 10 years of friendship in order to seize a title opportunity. His character is masculine, noble, brave, a man you want to root for. I had not seen a performer like Bálor before, quick and acrobatic, accurately described as “James Dean cool, John Wayne tough.” For big matches, Bálor enters the ring body-painted as a “Demon King” from Irish lore. The revelation occurred during the main event, when Finn Bálor defended the NXT Championship against his former best friend and betrayer, Samoa Joe. As Enzo and Cass proclaimed themselves to be the “realest guys in the room,” I felt a pang of jealousy, like I was getting left out of a really great inside joke. Their shtick is a hard-to-geolocate pastiche of Brooklyn-and-New-Jersey tough guy braggadocio, and all of it was being recited in unison by a crowd of enthralled Europeans. A couple of knuckleheads named Enzo and Cass strutted into London’s SSE Arena reciting a goofy liturgy of their own greatness, with the crowd chanting along. My attitude changed one day when I watched a pay-per-view event at Brian’s house, similar to the one we’ll see on June 4th. I had been hearing my well-heeled buddy Brian talk about pro-wrestling for years, but resisted watching because I imagined it as having remained the schlocky, Hogan-esque affair I remember from my youth, nothing for a serious culture lover such as myself to trifle with. It’s a mythical reality so epic that the philosopher Roland Barthes once compared pro-wrestling to “…the great solar spectacles, Greek drama and bullfights: in both, a light without shadow generates an emotion without reserve.” Instead, wrestling beckons you to join a communal narrative universe where humanity’s eternal conflicts are enacted by actor-combatants on the grandest stages. You probably know that the outcome of each professional wrestling match is predetermined-that’s what makes it “sports entertainment,” instead of just “sports.” But there’s no attempt to deceive you or any of the millions of fans worldwide. Outside the ring, the world gets more cynical every day. Pro-wrestling was one of the main balms that soothed my broken heart after his election: When you wake up every day to a fresh set of outlandish lies, it feels great to follow a large-scale human activity that tells such lies for fun, entertaining us instead of preying on us. It has to be said upfront: The techniques used by WWE to create a mythology surrounding each wrestler are the same ones our strongman-in-chief uses to surround himself with an alternate reality. For a country drenched in propaganda, here is a show that uses propaganda to create something noble and exciting. For wrestling fans like me, this is as significant as an NFL playoff game: Many of my favorite wrestlers will face-off in rivalries that are months or years (sometimes decades) in the making.īut even if you’re not a fan, you should go see it-because pro-wrestling is the sport for right now in America. On June 4th, Royal Farms Arena hosts Extreme Rules, Baltimore’s first major World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) pay-per-view event in seven years. Baltimore Sun eNewspaper Home Page Close Menu
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