
The bizarre world of indie wrestling - kikitee
http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/inside-bizarre-world-of-indie-wrestling/
======
baxtr
I think this is so great! I feel like we’ve lost many “sub-cultures” like the
Punks etc. Today, everybody seems to become a hipster with a beard and a
lumberjack shirt. So I’m really grateful, that these kind of communities still
exist outside of the uniform world we live in.

Also: I don’t think “bizzare” is a good word to describe the community.
“Special” would have been much better.

~~~
Noos
I dont think this is great. The article didn't mention the massive health
risks wrestlers face, even risk of death or long term impairment. The WWE has
tried a little to reduce those but the smaller or more hardcore promotions
probably still are doing chair shots and flying headbutts or other dangerous
moves.

I love wrestling as a performance, and it is a art, but the cost of it is in
the wrestler's bodies, much closer to boxing than football. I can't really
love small promotions where they are probably giving themselves serious
conditions that will manifest twenty years down the road for less than minimum
wage and the vain hope the WWE will scout them.

~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
The upshot here is that there is ultimately way more control over the issue
than both American football and boxing have.

Played right these guys can reduce the risk significantly because the rules of
engagement aren’t guaranteed upon entering the ring. With boxing and football,
you have a much more stringent set of rules to follow.

------
stevenwoo
Never understood pro wrestling even though I watched it when I was a child
(limited stuff on TV in the 70's.) and forgot about it until I watched the
GLOW dramedy series and they kind of spoonfed the hows and whys of everything
to the viewers and it clicked - it's a live action soap opera or play with
very athletic performers. These indie wrestlers and the story told in the
fictionalized account of the start of GLOW have a lot in common.

------
tsumnia
Firstly if you have time, I'd recommend watching Max Landis' Wresting Isn't
Wrestling [1]. Warning, its a 30 minutes comedy, but to get his message you
really do have to watch it all.

Just as Landis says, most of wrestling sucks. Its poorly choreographed, the
storylines can make no sense (why does a communist boar want to fight a
football coach?), or straight depressing (people well past their prime, ala
Mickey Rourke's character in The Wrestler).

However, there is something magical to having the empathetic bound with an
indie wrestler. You know that are doing for the love, because they might be
paid $0, even after driving hours to the show. In Mick Foley's books, he talks
about how he slept in his car eating a tablespoon of peanut butter to train at
a particular school.

In addition, its story driven, much like any soap opera. Characters come and
go and some stay and change. These characters arcs are the appeal to audience
members, but they take longer levels of commitment to develop. Once they are
there, its near impossible to remove the need to keep up with the story, even
on a minimal level. I don't watch RAW every Monday, but I still make sure to
check /r/SquaredCircle on Reddit for the latest news/videos.

In one podcast, I recall Shawn Michaels (former wrestler, now a born again
Christian) talk about how wrestling consumers very, very similar to Christian
consumer. In his example, he was promoting a Christian redemption movie (The
Resurrection of Gavin Stone) he stared in. It doesn't necessarily have to be
the worlds greatest, but they will spend money on it because it explicitly it
supporting one of the consumers' major interests.

Plus, who doesn't think some of the moves just LOOK BADASS?!

[1] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYvMOf3hsGA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYvMOf3hsGA)

------
drumhead
Why is it bizarre, its passionate, its enthusiastic, its physiscal, its
brutal. A violent ballet with operatic storyline. Bizarre? No.

~~~
msla
It's bizarre because it's the only form of fiction where some people are
convinced the fans don't know it's fiction.

Equivalently, it's the only form of fiction which some people think isn't
"real". Try this on for size: "You know movies aren't real, right?" Can you
seriously imagine anyone saying that? It would be utterly absurd. Yet in
discussions of wrestling, it's par for the course.

~~~
lllr_finger
Wrestling fans can be broadly defined as "marks" who buy into the illusion,
and smart marks who understand the illusion and how it relates to business.

Arguably the largest part of this illusion "kayfabe" has been dead for years
and years - everyone knows wins and losses are predetermined. That doesn't
stop promotions from using wrestling news and social media to blur the lines
of what's real and fake when it comes to contracts, injuries, and alliances.

~~~
failrate
Vince McMahon was required to kill kayfabe to avoid litigation over steroids
in sports. By redefining WWE as entertainment, certain anti-doping
requirements were lifted.

------
arafa
For those that enjoy this sort of thing, you may also like the backyard
wrestling documentary "The Backyard"
([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309326/?ref_=nv_sr_4](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309326/?ref_=nv_sr_4)).
It's violent and disturbing in places, but also often hilarious and silly.

------
sevensor
I have a relative who organizes WWE-style wrestling events. He started doing
it while working on a Ph.D. in philosophy. Now that he's finished the degree,
I'm pretty sure he's doing wrestling promotion full time. I asked him once if
wrestling was connected to his dissertation. I didn't really understand his
answer, but it has something to do with how we construct our identities. Who
decides if you're a face or a heel?

~~~
failrate
Usually, you try a bunch of gimmicks until one sticks. By that time, it's
usually clear by how the crowd reacts to you whether you're a face or a heel.
Other considerations are whether one group is over or under represented.
Additionally, the most charismatic workers can turn face or heel as necessary
to build heat for another or to advance a story line. It is exactly the way it
works in comic books and soap operas.

------
failrate
I fondly remember FUW in Bloomington-Normal, IL. If you go on YouTube and look
for Scrub-E the janitor, you might find one of my matches.

------
freehunter
This article really reminds me of a podcast called The Dollop. One of their
first episodes went into the strange world of Competitive Endurance Tickling,
and while that and indie wrestling aren't comparable, some of their stories
beyond that one really fit the tone of "this interesting subculture you never
knew about".

~~~
dsnuh
There are a couple of documentaries on Netflix about "Competitive Endurance
Tickling" and how there is something very off going on there...

