Disjointed thoughts on Wrestling fandom
Jun. 16th, 2013 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
transemacabre1. I find it intriguing how sometimes, wrestlers are clearly portraying the same character, even with a name change, when wrestling for different companies, and how sometimes they are wrestling as entirely different characters, unrelated to previous gimmicks. For example, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose of WWE's The Shield are pretty obviously intended to be the same characters as their indie personas, Tyler Black and Jon Moxley (respectively). Hell, the very first thing Ambrose did upon joining FCW was bring up their indie backgrounds. So Seth Rollins is the same guy who was in The Age of the Fall with Jimmy Jacobs and was Ring of Honor champion... just the name changed. There's a continuity of character there.
On the other hand, Windham Rotunda switched names AND characters while still in the same company, going from being Husky Harris to being (the much more awesome) Bray Wyatt. This is a clear break with the past, as there's no acknowledgement that Harris and Wyatt are portrayed by the same person. It stands out even more because his brother wrestles as Bo Dallas, and they were acknowledged as brothers onscreen when he was Harris, but not that he's Wyatt. Bo Dallas and Bray Wyatt are NOT brothers onscreen, even if they are offscreen.
2. It really skeeves me out when people write fics using the wrestler's real names. I mean, okay, Randy Orton is the guy's real name, but Randy Orton the character is not identical to Randy Orton the person. But c'mon, don't call Dean Ambrose "Jon Good" in your fanfic. Pretend that Jon Moxley is his real name if you have to. That, for me, starts toeing the line over into RPF which makes me antsy. What is the point of using their real names, anyway? Are you saying that this fic ACTUALLY happened, and that you know Dean as Jon Good? No? Then why the hell are you calling him that?
3. The abyss gazes back... we know from interviews and such that some wrestlers ARE aware of fanfic and have even read them. Jimmy Jacobs has tweeted fanfic to Seth Rollins in the past. I get real jumpy over this. When I was coming up in fandom over a decade ago, the prevailing wisdom was to keep fandom underground, to protect our own asses if nothing else. It is very easy for copyright holders to make a fuss and get fanfic and fanfiction sites/comms axed and deleted. Because its so much more visible today, I'm all for keeping that seperation between the fictional personas and the real wrestlers. Minimize embarassment for them, minimize the damage that could be done to fandom.
4. Mick Foley sends me text messages. Gabe Sapolsky (Ring of Honor, Evolve) emailed me a couple days ago. I have never been in a fandom that, in a sense, is so small and intimate. It's surprisingly easy to get in touch with some of these guys. In a sense that is cool, and in another sense its totally freaky. I CANNOT look at fanfic that includes Mick as a character. Are you shitting me? It'd feel as weird as reading fic about the people on my flist. And if its so easy for me to have this much contact, when I haven't even tried all that hard, how easy is it for fanbrats to get up in their face? And yeah, some of the stuff that goes on in Tumblrland is frankly invasive, but that's, y'know, Tumblr.
On the other hand, Windham Rotunda switched names AND characters while still in the same company, going from being Husky Harris to being (the much more awesome) Bray Wyatt. This is a clear break with the past, as there's no acknowledgement that Harris and Wyatt are portrayed by the same person. It stands out even more because his brother wrestles as Bo Dallas, and they were acknowledged as brothers onscreen when he was Harris, but not that he's Wyatt. Bo Dallas and Bray Wyatt are NOT brothers onscreen, even if they are offscreen.
2. It really skeeves me out when people write fics using the wrestler's real names. I mean, okay, Randy Orton is the guy's real name, but Randy Orton the character is not identical to Randy Orton the person. But c'mon, don't call Dean Ambrose "Jon Good" in your fanfic. Pretend that Jon Moxley is his real name if you have to. That, for me, starts toeing the line over into RPF which makes me antsy. What is the point of using their real names, anyway? Are you saying that this fic ACTUALLY happened, and that you know Dean as Jon Good? No? Then why the hell are you calling him that?
3. The abyss gazes back... we know from interviews and such that some wrestlers ARE aware of fanfic and have even read them. Jimmy Jacobs has tweeted fanfic to Seth Rollins in the past. I get real jumpy over this. When I was coming up in fandom over a decade ago, the prevailing wisdom was to keep fandom underground, to protect our own asses if nothing else. It is very easy for copyright holders to make a fuss and get fanfic and fanfiction sites/comms axed and deleted. Because its so much more visible today, I'm all for keeping that seperation between the fictional personas and the real wrestlers. Minimize embarassment for them, minimize the damage that could be done to fandom.
4. Mick Foley sends me text messages. Gabe Sapolsky (Ring of Honor, Evolve) emailed me a couple days ago. I have never been in a fandom that, in a sense, is so small and intimate. It's surprisingly easy to get in touch with some of these guys. In a sense that is cool, and in another sense its totally freaky. I CANNOT look at fanfic that includes Mick as a character. Are you shitting me? It'd feel as weird as reading fic about the people on my flist. And if its so easy for me to have this much contact, when I haven't even tried all that hard, how easy is it for fanbrats to get up in their face? And yeah, some of the stuff that goes on in Tumblrland is frankly invasive, but that's, y'know, Tumblr.
