For more than a decade, Hogan presided over the WWF as “Hulkamania” captured the fanbase. Hogan appeared to stepped directly out of a four-color comic book-an aesthetic only helped by his original moniker, “the Incredible Hulk Hogan”-and took the center stage in McMahon’s simple morality plays. He was loud, he was boisterous, and he was huge. The centerpiece of McMahon’s company was Hulk Hogan, who exemplified everything a WWF superstar was supposed to be. Eschewing the more “sport”-like elements, the WWF became loud and cartoonish in the ’80s, with over-the-top villains and larger-than-life heroes. The accuracy of those claims is debatable, but there is no question that the WWF rose to prominence while pushing forward a product remarkably different from its competitors. To hear McMahon tell the story, he single-handedly took professional wrestling out of smoky bars and bingo halls and into the mainstream in the 1980s. His guiding hand in the 1980s and early ’90s is so identifiable, in fact, that when his attention was pulled away a few years later, the resulting programs resonate as some of the strangest ever aired. ![]() The scripts we wrote and the events that actually occurred often bore only a passing resemblance to each other.) But while it may be difficult to give credit to specific writers for particular moments or episodes, when it comes to the World Wrestling Federation, the majority of it can go to owner Vince McMahon, the closest thing the WWF has ever had to a showrunner. (I say this from experience: I spent a few months as a writer for a local wrestling organization in southern Texas about a decade ago. It’s tough to say with any certainty how much of what came to the screen was made up on the fly and how much was preplanned. In addition, the live theater aspect gives everything something of an improvisational flair. I’ve never seen a wrestling program with a “Written by…” credit, and the sport’s shady, carny roots have always prevented that kind of transparency. It’s a complicated question, without an easy answer. But there was a question that never once popped into my head as kid, oddly enough: if all this stuff was written, who was writing it? Wrestling stories have their own rhythms and beats, and picking up on the repetitions and variations on those themes was brilliant fun for my young brain. Once I knew I was watching a scripted story, I began to appreciate exactly how those tales were told. And, frankly, this knowledge only made the show more interesting. ![]() On that, she was certainly right: regardless of his skill as a grappler, poor Barry Horowitz had as much chance of pinning the Ultimate Warrior as I did. What she meant, of course, was that wrestling was scripted-these weren’t real fights or contests the winners were predetermined. “Wrestling is fake.” That’s what my great grandmother told me when she found me watching WWF Superstars when I was eight. Same As It Ever Was?: Steroids Almost Ruin Pro Wrestling (Though Not in the Way You’d Think)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |