WWE as Head-on Sports Entertainment vis-a-vis Popular Sports

Necks broken, careers ended in an instant, yes this is entertainment, well at least for the teacher and house prefects, but the hazards are real…Nape stretched for a nuchal-yogic exercise one Saturday, the Physical Education Class day, I mouthed with a panache.

”Please, don’t try this at home,” chuckled my classmates,” or even at school “.The only source of amusement during the grueling ninety minutes of workout was discussing the weekend matches. Our affection for all sports was as unbiased as our hatred towards all mathematical formulae of probability. But the be-all and end-all of our lives was WWF, yes that’s what World Wresting Entertainment was better known as until they got the ‘F’ out. The brutal regime at school seemed less afflictive with our trump cards in our pockets. At the strike of beat four we would readjust one-arm distance amongst our files and exchange hands. Boy were those days good! The coinage ‘Entertainment’ instead of ‘Federation ‘ after losing a battle with World Wildlife Fund was, as fate would have it, a well thought-out flip…the beginning of an era …the groundbreaker arena of sports entertainment.

‘Is that even a sport?’ one would question. Well, the bruises, all blood and gore…it is all for real. The very level of the injuries and stakes involved makes it worth a watch; and this follows countless Smack Down replays of A-shows and hits on pay-per-view videos of draws. Healthy competition is the essence of all sports, and one could clearly see it in not only the Dudley boys’eye, but that of every wrestler before a knockout or an eye-patch replaces it…Unlike cricket playing cards where we always fought over Sachin and Brian Lara, the WWE suit had the undisputed championship belt and each player was ranked to a T,from Booker T to Katie. Having the ace of spades and a heavyweight champ on card meant you could be the game, as it was all about the game. On-screen they all vied for public shouts and the script of the show depended , in addition to capability and strength, on the popularity of the stars and the mystery surrounding them. The rise of the rivalries between underdogs and undertakers here was phenomenal and that really inspired us with oodles of attitude. Agreed its staged, scripted , fixed…call it what you may but the fact remains that it’s a sporty act if it is to be called an act at all.

Competition by itself, is the start line but not the finish line of sports. We tell the folks who have had a tough luck at a tournament, that sports is more than winning and losing. Why not take it literally? When they fight WWE RAW, they know the AFTERMATH and they enjoy the race rather than pulling each other down, unless so instructed. There’s no room for crab mentality. Even roadies and splitzvilla, the shows that are believed by some to be scripted, make for great auditions and immense contest. Kayfabe is a mark of true sportsmanship since only those confident enough of their talents can go for Contract signing and be as comfortable with a defeat as with a victory.

Curiosity is deeply ingrained in us. Finding out results of a national exam on a chat site weeks in advance, knowing that it’s dubious, has never bothered us. Question papers leaks are not known to have helped people qualify with a hundred percent result each. Paul , the octopus , never deterred us from watching the Cup. We all still waited with bated breath , our eyes glued to the TV, marveling at the predictions. The amniotic fluid can surely tell us if it is going to be pinks or blues, yet it only makes us anxious and does not get any better till we finally see the baby. Every Indian was all eyes on KBC despite knowing that Harshwardhan Nawathe had ‘created history’ weeks in advance. Prashant Batar was a surprising proof to the fact that what they show ‘coming up’ is not always where they rest the case. Knowing the outcome is not all that bad I guess, it only makes way for more wonder and excitement. Hence I do not mind classifying sports entertainment as a genre of sports.

Does it seem a little cheesy to decide the outcomes in advance? Well if you could grease cricket balls, then a little cheese will not put you on slippery grounds. Don’t we all love the toss to roll out batting for our team? Luck is an inevitable factor too, a necessary evil; but in the end you have to play with your head, you would think. Oh wait Zidane did it too in the FIFA World Cup once…sounded a little intentional, but on part of which team? The grass has always been greener on the other side…Seems like the unbiased coin favored the team that used a whole lot of hard work and some incitation to ‘foul’ play. One should get a ‘penalty’ kick for that…else a golden shoe does it… Did it…or did it not?…Science of the unbiased coin says that the every outcome depends on a superposition of forces that decide it. Only in WWE is this biasing legalized. If it were so in other sports, no more Greg Chappells would be martyred, no more Hansie Cronje plane crashes or Bob Woolmer mysteries. WYSIWYG…What you see is What you get Entertainment and that is WWE…all betting and plotting legitimately regulated.

A bit of sugar and spice does not cause dyspepsia. Disclosing the recipe has not given it any competition to coke or pepsico. If you smell it you would know the rock had been cooking. With the results in hand Hulkamania and consequently Wrestlemania has never seen any burials but the Dead Man Walking. WAGs in football stadia survive on their high amusement ratings. Test matches are less favoured than the IPL because of the lesser scandals and booking disadvantage. Everything in WWE including the Attitude Era music scores and shows like Hogan Knows Best unravels more secrets and keeps us on the Edge…even if the Hardy Boys do not like it.

WWE is not for the light-hearted. The abuses, the harsh lines do not mean any harm. King of the ring Austin 3:16 has never pulled followers of the biblical John away. Royal rumble is like a national holiday for ardent kid followers and they await it like they wait for Santa. World-wide appeal to people of all ages makes WWE the brand that it is. It is a mind-sport, it is a heart sport…it is out-and-out a sport…and reaches far and wide into the ring of entertainment. Like it or not, it is here to stay. All is Fair or Foul. Personally, I love Soccer and Cricket. But if you don’t like WWE, c’mon be a sport.