Reality TV and Wrestling - Part 1

After my recent post relating Bukowski's take on crowds and wrestling, THE MARK left a comment inquiring about the intersection of wrestling and reality TV. I have a few thoughts, which is why I call this Part 1....I have a feeling this will be continued for a few weeks.

First: Wrestling is like reality TV in many ways, and there have already been several notable crossovers. The Miz, currently in the WWE, started on The Real World. The WWE has run two reality shows: Tough Enough and Diva Search, where they showed people competing to be wrestlers. NXT currently seems like a hybrid: psuedo competition, but plenty of kayfabe thrown in. What's kayfabe you might ask? It's a carnie/wrestling term for what two people do in character. In the past, when two wrestlers were feuding on TV, there were actual rules prohibiting them from being seen together in real life so people wouldn't know they weren't really fighting. It's certainly weakened over the years, as people were increasingly interested in who these guys were. For a while the TNA promotion even was showing real bios during the show.

Second: Wrestling is an exceptionally unique part of the entertainment world. Even though most wrestlers have a gimmick, it's fairly understood that your top wrestlers all are really just bigger and louder versions of themselves. It's that part that makes it unique. You know how actors and actresses are always complaining that people confuse them with their characters? Not so in wrestling. Not to say that if you watch a wrestler you know him, but the good ones you very might well have a decent start. On the other hand though....they have a little warning. The disadvantage your average reality show contestant has is they don't know how what they're saying will play before they say it. This leads to lots of "that was edited, I'm really much nicer" moments. When wrestler's keep talking, it's because things are working well. The only embarrassment is bad gimmicks. There's a whole site dedicated to that in fact: Wrestlecrap.

So there's the overview. If I get really inspired, you may even get the Dr. Jack breakdown.