7/27/2023 0 Comments Are wrestling fans too smarky now![]() The first sounds you hear in the film are the voices of Jesse “The Body” Ventura & “Mean” Gene Okerlund, who had come to define the era’s ringside announcing. Miming the late-80s Schwarzenegger action movie format as much as the budget would allow, No Holds Barred was a blatant attempt to launch the movie career of Hulk Hogan, who had already dominated the “sports entertainment” world and was looking for his next conquest. This was the only way it was ahead of its time. It would take over a decade after its release for Vince McMahon’s juggernaut wrestling promotion to form its own movie studio, so in this way No Holds Barred was ahead of its time. Together, help paint a complete picture, the fiction & the reality, one feeding off the other.Īlthough No Holds Barred was far from the world’s first pro wrestling picture, it was the first film produced by the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). 2008’s The Wrestler, by comparison, is a smark’s dream: an authentic look at the brutal truths of pro wrestling as a career. 1989’s Hulk Hogan vehicle No Holds Barred perfectly captures the nature of mark mentality in the infancy of the current Vince McMahon era. Searching for this balance in pro wrestling cinema leads me to the bookends of the modern wrestling movie. A well-rounded fan needs a solid admiration of both. It’s a scripted sport, but scripted in the style of reality television: the reality & the fiction are inseparable. On the other hand, the context of the practical, behind-the-scenes operations of the sport gives deeper meaning to the in-the-ring storylines. The violence wouldn’t mean as much without the camp. Losing yourself in the characters & the soap opera drama is just as important as the in-the-ring athleticism. I think it helps to appreciate both sides of the coin to experience the full potential of pro wrestling. ![]() I was sandwiched between a young mark and a smark, two different wrestling worlds clashing on either side of me. The kid ahead of me would be genuinely upset if he were in earshot. Around a third my age, this kid had a preternatural comprehension of the sport that he thankfully shared with the neighboring crowd in short, high-pitched bursts. A few rows behind me, another ten year old was also yelling ridiculous taunts, but his were much funnier & more insightful than mine. ![]() ![]() I got drunk, cheered for heels like a jerk, and shouted things that disturbed the 10 year old boy sitting in the row ahead of me. Despite the distinctly tame vibe of the crowd, I decided to misbehave. Last night I attended my first live pro wrestling event, a months-long goal fulfilled. “Smark”: a fan who is aware of and interested in the backstage and non-scripted aspects of wrestling a portmanteau of “smart” and “mark.” “Mark”: a wrestling fan who enthusiastically believes that professional wrestling is not staged. Definitions pulled from Wikipedia’s glossary of professional wrestling terms: ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |