I haven’t always been a wrestling fan. In the grand scheme of things, I’m still fairly new to all of this as a medium. In 2015, I was drawn to wrestling like a moth to flame curious as to how this was still as popular as it was when I was growing up. Now, I’m watching local, independent shows on the regular all around Britain. (Okay, so “All around Britain” might only encapsulate Edinburgh and Newcastle but I’m branching out soon!) It’s safe to say that I’ve become quite a big fan of the concept in the last 3 years.
One of the weirdest things I usually have to do as a lone wrestling fan amongst some of my friends is try to explain to folk why I like certain wrestlers. With some wrestlers, like the one I’m about to discuss, it certainly is a challenge to explain exactly why I enjoy them so much. It’s important to note that I do enjoy them and, quite honestly, I don’t understand the reasons for why others don’t.
(Due to events transpiring in June 2020, the article has been edited to remove direct mentions of one of the subjects of whom I no longer wish to affiliate this article or website with.)
As with any fandom in such a broad genre, though, you will always have arguments between members. The beauty of wrestling is that it has been around for decades with various styles popularized with each passing generation of worker. A few examples include hard hitting strong-style, the more methodically paced catch wrestling and the faster, acrobatic lucha-style wrestling. Much like film and music, there’s a style out there for everyone’s taste but a subset of these styles includes another genre often the subject of controversy and derision: Comedy Wrestling.
Now comedy wrestling isn’t it’s own style, per se. Utilizing comedy in an otherwise traditional wrestling match has been used for years throughout the wrestling world. Notable examples include Colt Cabana, Kikutaro and Grado to name but a few. Legitimate wrestlers whose personality, charisma and ability allowed for comedic moments peppered throughout their matches. It’s almost inevitable that something as outlandish as wrestling would become self-aware of the insane, sometimes unrealistic moves present in their arsenal and pointing a finger at it is sometimes, in itself, the joke.
In the world of kayfabe, wrestling-speak for the rules of transgression within its own microverse for moves and characters, bouncing against the ropes to gain momentum for a strike makes sense but all it takes is for someone to take a step back to realize just how ludicrous this concept is. As fans, we don’t do this because it’s part of the suspension of disbelief that comes with watching wrestling. There are numerous fans who will yell “You can climb a ladder faster than that!” but, in the realm of kayfabe, it’s a tool used to generate suspense and, in the right environment, these can be used to great effect to tell a story and make a match really enjoyable.
However far you suspend your disbelief, though, it’s safe to say that some concepts can be almost too ludicrous to make sense. For instance..
On the Sesh
Often criticized, Martina the “Session Moth” is someone whose style and antics in-ring is said to be bad for professional wrestling as a business. Martina’s demeanour as a wrestler is that of a party animal of sorts. Her mythos, often perpetuated further by Martina herself, is that of someone with thousands of children, always drinking, always partying and always up for a good time. She is known for grinding against officials, competitors, staff and audience members before, during and after matches. In short, she’s a lot of fun to be around. While a firm favourite in local promotion OTT Wrestling, as a wrestler, some people are not as turned on by her antics.
Notably, she also sports objectively lewd offensive maneouvres. Moves like the bronco buster, the wombstone, (a tombstone piledriver with the opponent’s head placed down her trousers) and a particularly inventive strategy utilizing a, let’s say, key feature of her womanhood to flip an opponent. Martina also often takes part in inter-gender matches, which is to say men wrestling women. This is a practise that had, for a while, been seen as taboo but has seen a recent insurgence with wrestlers like those mentioned previously.
Martina is, by all accounts, a great wrestler but the stigma attached to her comedy persona draws a lot of ire from viewers and critics alike. She is often called out for “killing the business” or making a mockery of the concept. If wrestling is not taken seriously by the performers, then it’s hard to take seriously as a viewer, in their eyes.
“That’s the Joke.”
As a fan of wrestling, I get to use the word “dumb” a lot in a general context. It’s not maliciously used, but it does denote something that requires perhaps a bigger leap of logic than most things. There are a lot of dumb moments that we, as fans, have to get past in order to enjoy the show. Distractions are my favourite example. From entrance themes forcing all standing wrestlers to look at the entrance ramp to refs somehow ignoring blatant cheating because another wrestler is talking to them. It’s one of the more annoyingly dumb tropes in wrestling. Similarly, what Martina does is, and with no offense intended, dumb. We know it’s not feasible to act this way in real fights. We know none of this kind of thing would fly in any other sport, real or otherwise. But here’s the thing:
That’s the point.
Comedy, at its core, is the deflection of expectation. As wrestling fans, we’re somewhat conditioned as to what to expect in a wrestling match: A bit of grappling, some showy moves, pinfall, 1-2-3. In the bag; no big deal. What nobody was expecting was a wrestler to come down to the ring with cans in hand grinding on every living thing between her and the canvas before proceeding to kick the opponent’s ass in the most creative way possible!
The joy of wrestling is in a crowd’s response to things. Wrestling crowds are some of the most fun to be a part of and can lead to some incredible moments that you never thought you’d see. Crowds singing along with songs that haven’t been popular in years, spontaneous and hilarious chants generated on the fly and cheers like you would not believe for the most banal and/or ludicrous actions with the level of inanity or insanity completely irrelevant to the loudness of the crowd.
The way I see it, these wrestlers are all about reactions. I’ve watched many matches where everything was above board, technically sound and “Good for business,” by these critics standards, and seen them be met with lukewarm applause and the odd cheer. Not bad, by any stretch, just not exciting or compelling. With performers like Martina, you’d be lucky if you heard anything short of wild cheers and applause throughout their encounters.
That is the power of their performance and their product. Whether good or bad for the business however accurate that statement may actually be; whether you like them or you hate them, it’s important to give credit where credit is due. The fact that they continue to entertain as the personas they have created is a testament to their talent and ability as performers.
I do understand the nay-sayers, ultimately: the fans whose wrestling preference are more grounded to reality than most. I get why performers like Martina offend you; how it seems like they’re ruining the image of wrestling in the eyes of the public. To them, I can only offer a different perspective. We live in a world that now has more types of wrestling than we’ve ever had before. There are countless promotions in different regions all doing their own thing, all working to different goals. Some who eye their promotion as prestigious and historic, some who hold their fight standard to the utmost importance and some who just want to have fun and entertain people above all else. Some of these companies do more shows, some less. Some treat everything seriously, others less so. The joy above everything else is that we have more choice now than ever before. The business is thriving now more than ever and, with every ounce of honesty in your heart, if their antics were killing the business, it would seem weird that I’m not talking about these matters in past-tense.
Bottom line: Enjoy what you want to enjoy in wrestling. Everything you want and more is out there and probably will still be there regardless of what these performers, or any other performers, do. Don’t take everything so seriously, that’s what makes us wrestling fans in the first place!
EDOOWINNIE 