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World Wrestling Entertainment Channel Coming to Apple TV on February 24
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I'm a former performer in the wrestling business. I worked from the mid-90's through the early 2k's from the time I was in my mid-teens until my early 20's when I was injured and decided to give it up. I worked as in-ring talent, manager, referee, ring crew, booking and in support roles (photography, pyrotechnics, ect) for a few indy promotions in the US and Canada.
Wrestling is real, in so far as we are really going out there, really putting our body on the line. When someone's got a concussion or a broken wrist it really hurts. It's fake in that we are not trying to actually trying to hurt anyone, nor are we in real competition in the ring. The goal of wrestling is not to pin your opponent - if that was true, every wrestling match would be the first guy to get your opponent down break their arm and sit on them.
The goal is to make each other look better by performing in such a way that you and the people you're working with get attention and reaction. Getting that lets you do more shows (and thus, get more money, which we call the gate), do bigger and better matches and sell more merchandise. THose things - moving up the card, getting more of the gate, and merch, that is where the money is.
When you show that clip of Shawn Michaels not connecting on the Superkick, well, yeah. The goal isn't for him to really drive his boot into the guy's face. In a real fight a reverse thrust crescent kick would be stupid, it doesn't have much contact power. It's strength is that you can bust it out very fast, which can catch an opponent off guard. Which is why you don't see UFC guys go for them very often. Especially not after hanging back for 10 seconds stomping the mat to show what he's gonna do. The goal is for him to LOOK like he's doing it, to tell the story, and his opponent's job is to make the move look like it hit him like a ton of bricks (in wrestling parlance, we call that selling).
Now, I hate WWE and all it stands for. I came out of the territorial wrestling tradition (though well after most of the territories were a decade dead) and WWE and its version of wrestling is as kin to real pro-wrestling as Kraft Dinner is to a plate of Grandma's homemade mac-and-cheese. It looks the sort-of same, it's fast, but it doesn't satisfy you in anywhere near the same way. But I'm happy that via this new network, fans might get to watch some of the classic wrestling I grew up watching and learning how to do. Might show them how bad McMahon screwed things up. It also might give some payoffs to some of the older guys who can really use them, and to the families of the guys who aren't with us anymore.
I don't offer any ill-will toward those nearly any of the Stamford guys - they're making the money and living the dream, aces for them. I don't know why they'd want to work so badly for a guy who lets his son-in-law put his 40+ year old work-out buddy who hadn't wrestled a good match in 5 years into the Wrestlemania main event. But that's not me. When I realized I either stayed in bingo halls the rest of my life, go to school, or go work for Vince, I chose to go to school.
And I'm happy Apple will be one of the platforms WWE Network will be on. I'm sure it'll be the best version on the market.
Wrestling is real, in so far as we are really going out there, really putting our body on the line. When someone's got a concussion or a broken wrist it really hurts. It's fake in that we are not trying to actually trying to hurt anyone, nor are we in real competition in the ring. The goal of wrestling is not to pin your opponent - if that was true, every wrestling match would be the first guy to get your opponent down break their arm and sit on them.
The goal is to make each other look better by performing in such a way that you and the people you're working with get attention and reaction. Getting that lets you do more shows (and thus, get more money, which we call the gate), do bigger and better matches and sell more merchandise. THose things - moving up the card, getting more of the gate, and merch, that is where the money is.
When you show that clip of Shawn Michaels not connecting on the Superkick, well, yeah. The goal isn't for him to really drive his boot into the guy's face. In a real fight a reverse thrust crescent kick would be stupid, it doesn't have much contact power. It's strength is that you can bust it out very fast, which can catch an opponent off guard. Which is why you don't see UFC guys go for them very often. Especially not after hanging back for 10 seconds stomping the mat to show what he's gonna do. The goal is for him to LOOK like he's doing it, to tell the story, and his opponent's job is to make the move look like it hit him like a ton of bricks (in wrestling parlance, we call that selling).
Now, I hate WWE and all it stands for. I came out of the territorial wrestling tradition (though well after most of the territories were a decade dead) and WWE and its version of wrestling is as kin to real pro-wrestling as Kraft Dinner is to a plate of Grandma's homemade mac-and-cheese. It looks the sort-of same, it's fast, but it doesn't satisfy you in anywhere near the same way. But I'm happy that via this new network, fans might get to watch some of the classic wrestling I grew up watching and learning how to do. Might show them how bad McMahon screwed things up. It also might give some payoffs to some of the older guys who can really use them, and to the families of the guys who aren't with us anymore.
I don't offer any ill-will toward those nearly any of the Stamford guys - they're making the money and living the dream, aces for them. I don't know why they'd want to work so badly for a guy who lets his son-in-law put his 40+ year old work-out buddy who hadn't wrestled a good match in 5 years into the Wrestlemania main event. But that's not me. When I realized I either stayed in bingo halls the rest of my life, go to school, or go work for Vince, I chose to go to school.
And I'm happy Apple will be one of the platforms WWE Network will be on. I'm sure it'll be the best version on the market.