Wrestling (was Re: Work with X or Suggest a Better Y, Mike.)

Michael Butler (mmb@best.com)
Sat, 3 Apr 1999 10:15:32 -0800 (PST)

What used to be called Big Time Wrestling in the 70's has matured and evolved. They work harder out there than they ever used to.

It appears the modern popularity of Big Time Wrestling among people with double-digit mental ages may stem from a couple of factors: 1) Pomo ironic sensibility
2) Recognition that those guys work hard out there, and *are* risking permanent injury every time they step into the ring, and *do* wind up with something perhaps like as much cumulative damage as (say) the average pro footballer after n years.
3) Awareness that though the shows *are* _staged_, they aren't _rigged_ or _fixed_ in an unfair way. Anyone who bets on the outcome better be betting on being able to read the promoters' minds, that's all. And the promoters are fairly predictable, as it turns out. Just like soap operas. And for the same reasons.
4) Knowledge that *both*/*all* parties in the ring have to cooperate in most of the techniques, or EMTs *will* be involved. This means that there is honor among wrestlers--they pack each others' parachutes, so to speak.
5) It's Twyla Tharp for the cave man in everybody. See #1.

Jesse Ventura, a by golly real live (former? can one ever be said to be a former?) SEAL, can be credited with significant contributions to most of the aforementioned evolutions, some of which have come about after he had to retire because of injuries really received in the ring.

That said, it's not my cup of chai.

> People in that state embraced him EXACTLy because he was a wrestler.
> The only class of person less trusted that a car dealer is a politician,

Sadly, BINGO. It's certainly *my* hope that he's worthy of trust.

MMB,
watching closely in case MN becomse less of a Peoples' Republic than CA