break the walls down

As I wrote recently, I'm back on the professional wrestling bandwagon. And what a great time to be back on the wagon it is!

Historically, professional wrestlers have played characters, either good guys (faces) or bad guys (heels). When Kevin Nash and Scott Hall left the WWF (now WWE) in the mid 1990s and signed with WCW, they debuted as bad guys - but they were cool. Fans took to their gimmick, and when Hulk Hogan turned heel to join them in the creation of the nWo, it changed wrestling forever.

Fans no longer loved to hate the heels, they started to love the heels. The nWo's popularity exploded and made waves far beyond wrestling's usual base, paving the way for the emergence of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Degeneration X and the Rock as the stars that would bring the WWE back to prominence.

Now 15 years later, wrestling is changing again. Fans no longer want to be told who to root for, nor do they want to be told who is good and who is bad. Fans want to make these decisions for themselves. They want to be entertained, with both the story and the skill on display in the ring. The reality era of professional wrestling has arrived.*

*Internet wrestling fans, known as the "Internet Wrestling Community," have dubbed various time periods of professional wrestling with labels. The late 90s/early 00s were the "Attitude Era." The last 6 years or so have been the "PG Era." Now, members of the IWC are championing CM Punk for ushering in the "Reality Era."

As a fan who enjoys watching the WWE programs and finds myself to be less critical than most who choose to blog on the subject, I am enamored with the recent change in philosophy in a unique way. I'm fascinated by who these guys - the wrestlers - are in person. In the age of twitter and non-stop media, fans are offered windows into (some)** wrestlers personalities that did not exist prior. We can either admire a wrestler's ability to play a character, or we can appreciate his genuine nature as a performer.

**Obviously, this is at the discretion of the individual wrestler. When the Undertake is not on TV, he stays completely out of the public eye. Conversely, wrestlers like Cena, Punk, Ryder and the Miz engage with fans regular through twitter and other media outlets.

For that reason, I will state proudly that I am a John Cena fan, just as I am a CM Punk fan, a Zach Ryder fan, a The Miz fan, a Justin Gabriel fan and a Randy Orton fan.*** These wrestlers all bring either unique physical skills or strong entertainment value to the ring. I am enthralled with the Cena/Punk angle, because it many ways it's not an angle.

***For comparison purposes, I am not a Mark Henry fan because I don't care to watch his character or his performance in the ring and don't know anything compelling about him personally - which is not to say that there's not something compelling about him, I just don't know it. Wrestlers like Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston and Sheamus (at least, as a bad guy) fail to elicit a reaction from me either way. I find them talented, but not altogether compelling.

As I got back into wrestling, I took to John Cena because I felt that his performance in the WWE was the most authentic. In the ring, he is who he is. He connects with some fans and get booed by others, but doesn't try to change that - I respect that. That's what this entire Cena/Punk story arc is about. Both guys have been allowed to be themselves and do their best to entertain us. The fourth wall that's forever kept the fans separated from the backstage workings of the organization and the true personalities of the performers is being taken apart, brick by brick. In fact, the WWE is playing with the fourth wall and using it to excite its current fans and engage new ones.

This type of truth, or reality, is new territory for professional wrestling - and I think it's exactly where wrestling should go. Not only does it allow the performers to shine in new ways - especially Punk - but it opens up the story arcs, makes them more relatable and more appealing to a larger fan base. Wrestling has always had a niche audience, and it's never really been cool to watch wrestling - but the audience is expanding, wrestling is becoming cooler, and, most importantly, it's becoming really fun to watch again.