Post by Ampersand on May 12, 2021 21:48:33 GMT
‘But Ampersand,’ you say, ‘why e-fedding? And isn’t pro-wrestling culturally slumming it?’
‘No!’ I say, adding another layer of duct tape to hold you securely to your chair as I fire up the TV. ‘Now don’t make me hold your eyelids open. We're watching Mankind vs. the Undertaker.’
Before I can really explain why I'm into e-fedding, it’s important to understand the performance art that inspires it.
Yeah, you read that right.
I can’t give you a blanket, generalized statement as to why pro-wrestling appeals to people, I can only tell you why it appeals to me. Maybe you like it for the same aspects, maybe you like it for different ones, maybe you’re still mystified. All I can do is lay out my reasons and tell you why I feel compelled to helm what is, essentially, an unholy chimera of tabletop roleplaying, sports entertainment, collaborative writing competition, and web forum wrangling.
Strap in.
Even if you’ve never watched it, you’ve likely absorbed what pro-wrestling is through cultural osmosis. A bunch of physically potent folks duking it out in spandex over big, shiny belts.
‘But Ampersand,’ you sniff from your spot taped to the chair, ‘it’s fake!’
Yes. I am aware. Almost all wrestling fans are.
I do not care. We do not care. That’s not the point.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I love the physical spectacle. I love seeing people pull off incredible feats of athletic prowess that I could never hope to achieve unless I was willing to spend some time in traction. There’s nothing like that empathetic jolt you feel as someone goes crashing to the canvas or connects with a particularly viscous strike - that air-splitting snap of skin on skin that refuses to be drowned out even by the roars of the crowd. How can you take your eyes off of human beings that tell gravity to sit down and shut up because they have giants to slay? That chill you feel when that bloody mask of red covers the face of a battered combatant, and instead of hiding their identity, it only brings it into sharper focus. That dude up there on top of that cage? Yeah, he’s going to make this pay-per-view go from good to great by being slammed through fifteen feet of flaming tables stacked on top of one another.
Pro-wrestling is about as close as you can get to watching a tournament arc of an anime series come to life in flesh and blood.
Are you not entertained?
Now, if it was just that, I could still totally understand the fascination; the devotion. Choreographed or not, it’s fun as Hell to watch. But what makes these fights really reach in and grab my attention, what keeps me coming back week after week, is the context in which they are presented.
What keeps me coming back again and again are the stories.
I’ve been a storyteller and story listener for as long as I can remember. One of the things I love about stories is all the different ways they can be told. Plays, songs, poetry, and novels. Ghost stories told around the campfire. Movies played again and again as if you’re trying to figure out how a magic trick works; how was that feeling conjured from me? History you find for yourself outside of the text books you’re given that reveal contours and colors of the world you never knew existed.
For me, pro-wrestling is just another form of storytelling and I can draw a direct line from make-believe on the playground to tabletop roleplaying to e-fedding.
As I was setting up Ascended, it occurred to me that my approach to this is heavily influenced by my time dungeon/game mastering for tabletop roleplaying. Yes, shocker, your fedhead is a big ‘ol tabletop nerd. And, honestly, you should expect this fed experience, should you choose to engage in it, to be robustly flavored by that fact. I value collaborative storytelling, and that’s what I want to focus on because that’s what I love about watching wrestling; people collaborating to create a meaningful narrative together. The messy entanglement of human emotion punctuated by the violence of in-ring performance. E-fedding is taking that aspect of pro-wrestling and putting into a toybox of my very own to share with other folks. It’s taking the context in which a fight is couched and expanding upon it with characters me and my friends create.
Basically, it’s my double-stuf Oreo.
I e-fed because I love the story aspect of pro-wrestling, and want more of it. So, I’ve decided to make my own, and I hope that you’ll join me.
...Well, I mean, you’re duct-taped to a chair, so I guess you’re already here.
As long as you’re not going anywhere, I recommend giving Super Eyepatch Wolf’s video, Professional Wrestling is Stupid and Beautiful and I Love It a watch. He does a great job of breaking down why pro-wrestling is appealing and how it can be an excellent medium for storytelling. Trust me, it’s worth the 30 minutes. And while you’re here, maybe have a gander at the article, Lights-Out: Moxley and Omega’s Beautiful Horror Story by Charlie Davis. The analysis Davis provides is from a perspective I don’t often get to read, and does an excellent job of expressing how the confluence of narrative and violence unique to pro-wrestling draws the viewer in and refuses to let them go.
See on on the forums, folks.
‘No!’ I say, adding another layer of duct tape to hold you securely to your chair as I fire up the TV. ‘Now don’t make me hold your eyelids open. We're watching Mankind vs. the Undertaker.’
Before I can really explain why I'm into e-fedding, it’s important to understand the performance art that inspires it.
Yeah, you read that right.
I can’t give you a blanket, generalized statement as to why pro-wrestling appeals to people, I can only tell you why it appeals to me. Maybe you like it for the same aspects, maybe you like it for different ones, maybe you’re still mystified. All I can do is lay out my reasons and tell you why I feel compelled to helm what is, essentially, an unholy chimera of tabletop roleplaying, sports entertainment, collaborative writing competition, and web forum wrangling.
Strap in.
Even if you’ve never watched it, you’ve likely absorbed what pro-wrestling is through cultural osmosis. A bunch of physically potent folks duking it out in spandex over big, shiny belts.
‘But Ampersand,’ you sniff from your spot taped to the chair, ‘it’s fake!’
Yes. I am aware. Almost all wrestling fans are.
I do not care. We do not care. That’s not the point.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I love the physical spectacle. I love seeing people pull off incredible feats of athletic prowess that I could never hope to achieve unless I was willing to spend some time in traction. There’s nothing like that empathetic jolt you feel as someone goes crashing to the canvas or connects with a particularly viscous strike - that air-splitting snap of skin on skin that refuses to be drowned out even by the roars of the crowd. How can you take your eyes off of human beings that tell gravity to sit down and shut up because they have giants to slay? That chill you feel when that bloody mask of red covers the face of a battered combatant, and instead of hiding their identity, it only brings it into sharper focus. That dude up there on top of that cage? Yeah, he’s going to make this pay-per-view go from good to great by being slammed through fifteen feet of flaming tables stacked on top of one another.
Pro-wrestling is about as close as you can get to watching a tournament arc of an anime series come to life in flesh and blood.
Are you not entertained?
Now, if it was just that, I could still totally understand the fascination; the devotion. Choreographed or not, it’s fun as Hell to watch. But what makes these fights really reach in and grab my attention, what keeps me coming back week after week, is the context in which they are presented.
What keeps me coming back again and again are the stories.
I’ve been a storyteller and story listener for as long as I can remember. One of the things I love about stories is all the different ways they can be told. Plays, songs, poetry, and novels. Ghost stories told around the campfire. Movies played again and again as if you’re trying to figure out how a magic trick works; how was that feeling conjured from me? History you find for yourself outside of the text books you’re given that reveal contours and colors of the world you never knew existed.
For me, pro-wrestling is just another form of storytelling and I can draw a direct line from make-believe on the playground to tabletop roleplaying to e-fedding.
As I was setting up Ascended, it occurred to me that my approach to this is heavily influenced by my time dungeon/game mastering for tabletop roleplaying. Yes, shocker, your fedhead is a big ‘ol tabletop nerd. And, honestly, you should expect this fed experience, should you choose to engage in it, to be robustly flavored by that fact. I value collaborative storytelling, and that’s what I want to focus on because that’s what I love about watching wrestling; people collaborating to create a meaningful narrative together. The messy entanglement of human emotion punctuated by the violence of in-ring performance. E-fedding is taking that aspect of pro-wrestling and putting into a toybox of my very own to share with other folks. It’s taking the context in which a fight is couched and expanding upon it with characters me and my friends create.
Basically, it’s my double-stuf Oreo.
I e-fed because I love the story aspect of pro-wrestling, and want more of it. So, I’ve decided to make my own, and I hope that you’ll join me.
...Well, I mean, you’re duct-taped to a chair, so I guess you’re already here.
As long as you’re not going anywhere, I recommend giving Super Eyepatch Wolf’s video, Professional Wrestling is Stupid and Beautiful and I Love It a watch. He does a great job of breaking down why pro-wrestling is appealing and how it can be an excellent medium for storytelling. Trust me, it’s worth the 30 minutes. And while you’re here, maybe have a gander at the article, Lights-Out: Moxley and Omega’s Beautiful Horror Story by Charlie Davis. The analysis Davis provides is from a perspective I don’t often get to read, and does an excellent job of expressing how the confluence of narrative and violence unique to pro-wrestling draws the viewer in and refuses to let them go.
See on on the forums, folks.