The big news in the wrestling world this week is Sasha Banks leading a walkout of “Raw” in a spat with WWE, and WWE making the curious PR move to defend itself by unwittingly smartening up its fans.
“When Sasha Banks and Naomi arrived at the arena this afternoon, they were informed of their participation in the main event of tonight’s Monday Night Raw,” the company said in a statement. “During the broadcast, they walked into WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis’ office with their suitcases in hand, placed their tag team championship belts on his desk, and walked out.
“They claimed they weren’t respected enough as tag team champions. And even though they had eight hours to rehearse and construct their match, they claimed they were uncomfortable in the ring with two of their opponents – even though they’d had matches with those individuals in the past with no consequence.
“Monday Night Raw is a scripted live TV show, whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their contract. We regret we were unable to deliver, as advertised, tonight’s main event.”
Yikes.
I know this isn’t breaking news, that wrestling isn’t real. WWE first broke kayfabe on that back in the early 1990s as part of its strategy to avoid oversight from state athletics commissions.
Even so.
Attend any live event, and listen to the conversations around you, and you’ll realize, not everybody is in on the work yet.
And I’m not talking about just the kids in attendance.
That Santa isn’t real, that the Tooth Fairy isn’t real, the Easter Bunny, isn’t common knowledge when you sit ringside.
The serious fans – the ones who come to shows dressed as their favorite wrestlers, replica title belts and all – will Stone Cold Stun you, then drop the People’s Elbow, if need be.
Even the smart marks will defend the business with the sentiment that, well, sure, it’s scripted, but sometimes they go off script, and it gets real, and that’s when it gets good.
That suspension of disbelief is key to the appeal of pro wrestling, which otherwise is just grown-ass men and women play-fighting in their underwear.
So, why? What was whoever in WWE PR is responsible for this thinking when they put out this press statement?
The vast majority of the people who buy tickets, who subscribe to Peacock to watch the pay-per-views, premium live events, whatever, who tune in for “Raw” and “Smackdown,” don’t want to know what’s behind the curtain.
A handful get into the backstage stuff, and even among those folks, a PR statement gets dissected as to it being either a work or a shoot.
For the other 95 percent of the people who pay the bills, they wouldn’t have noticed, or particularly cared, that Sasha and Naomi weren’t in the main event Monday night.
But now it’s all over the news that “Raw” is a scripted live show with characters who have hours to rehearse their matches.
I don’t know that WWE benefits from smartening up its fans, is the point.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
