"Who is this Rey Mysterio? And what does she do?"

So yeah, it was only a matter of time before I wrote about wrestling. I had been meaning to do it for a while, and seeing Mickey Rourke on a Kimmel rerun with Roddy Piper gave me that final kick in the ass that I needed. You see, I grew up with pro wrestling and it remains something to which I still have a genuine interest. I'm not entirely sure when I realized the matches were pre-determined. One day I was feeling thrilled to do the chore of bringing wood up to our fireplace in freezing Alberta winter, (something I usually detested) simply because Strike Force had won the tag belts. Some time later I was hoping that Bret would get a bigger push beyond his Intercontinental Champion status.

There were a lot of reasons why I began the presentation that started this project of mine with a quote from Bret Hart. First, wrestling is the only forum in which acting styles used by Chaplin and Keaton still thrive. The faces are always BIG, right? Add to that the snobbish attitudes of modernism running parallel to the present day average person's view of wrestling. Perhaps most important is the fact that pro wrestling is a blend of athletics and performance. They work to try and produce the thrills, chills, and plot twists that some real sporting events have to hope will happen (see previous post).

I loved The Wrestler of course, and a big reason had to do with the little man behind the curtain being revealed just a little bit more. How it got ignored for a Best Picture nom (along with Bruce's Best Song snub) is beyond me. Especially when Slumdog keeps winning awards. Say it with me: it's just a movie about a guy from India trying to get his girlfriend back. Gah. I'm not sure why I still get pissy about these things when it happens every year. Seen Juno lately? Anyways, The Wrestler. Super good. Like I said though, I have always liked getting to see a little more about wrestling's backstage going-ons. For instance, I actually watched Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling series, and despite it looking like one big work from the start (my friend Kelly asked me, "Isn't all reality TV one big work?"), it somehow revealed to me that Brian Knobbs is a great match writer. I had never even really thought about that job existing in the manner that it did.

Anyways, Aronofsky's film got its critical acclaim, and we have all seen Rourke's announcement that he would wrestle for realzies at Wrestlemania 25. Then he backed out on Larry King after Chris Jericho spoke via satellite. Even though press releases said he had backed out, my initial reaction was that this was all a work. Chris Jericho would comment further on the next Raw about how Mickey ran away with his tail between his legs and the angle would progress. The interesting thing was that as I was thinking about this, my non-wrestling fan friends started telling me that they had heard Randy "The Ram" would not get another shot. It was at that point that I started hoping it was a work, mostly because there remains a belief among wrestling fans that it may well be. If this backing out were to end up being all part of the story, that same general public that thinks wrestling is stupid would have been outsmarted by wrestling.

So, I tuned in to Raw and sure enough, Jericho took a dig at Rourke backing out, but there have been no developments in the week or so since regarding the match being "back on." So it may all be my personal pipe dream that this match takes place. I really hope it does though, because that kid that loved Strike Force in me wants to see a "Ram Jam," the wrestling observer in me wants to see what kind of story these two men could tell, as well as what kind of bumps they are willing to take in the process, and the absolute adoration I have always had in me for these guys and their sport/art form wants to see it eke closer to a place that for them has always seemed unreachable: artistic credibility.