Tuesday, December 2, 2014

A Roller Coaster of Scripted Emotions

(Installment No.2 is geared toward how Creative Writing hugely impacts Professional Wrestling and Sports Entertainment.)  

Next month will be 22 years that I have watched professional wrestling (also known today as Sports Entertainment) but, honestly, those years just cover how far back I can recall watching.  It would not shock me to know, when I entered this world in 1988, I was counting like a referee going for a three count.



Plain and simple: I am infatuated with Sports Entertainment, especially World Wrestling Entertainment.  When I was a child, I used to wrestle with friends, siblings, and pillows.  I would create pay-per-view events with my action figures, eat the Ice Cream bars, stay up late on Monday Nights to watch RAW (still do, by the way!), and would know all the words to all theme songs for each Superstar.

Minus the physicality and eating the ice cream bars (which need to make a return to freezers nationwide), I guess you can say I have not changed much in my passion for Sports Entertainment.  What I love most about it is its scripted nature.  From a very young age, I understood that Sports Entertainment was scripted and, while the physicality was real and the competitors had to be in peak physical condition, I knew what I was watching was predetermined, simulated action.  I hate when people, who are uneducated and have no knowledge about the sport, insult the product by referring to it as “fake.”  Wrestling is no different from any movie or show on television, but the integrity to those forms of entertainment is rarely challenged.

The scripted dynamic of Sports Entertainment is what intrigues me the most, because it allows my creative juices to flow.  I love predicting what happens next, how storylines are going to twist and turn, the cliffhangers, and the range of emotions expressed throughout an entertaining match.  Yes, a sense of disbelief and sometimes turning the brain OFF are necessary but the stories told inside the ring are powerful and memorable.  Sports Entertainment is a true rollercoaster ride of scripted emotions and I find it more enjoyable than any professional sports game, than any television show, or any movie.  I would compare it to a book reader’s favorite novel, a film connoisseur’s favorite motion picture, and a musician’s favorite album.  Watching professional wrestling is the number one influence in why I want to become a creative writer.  

There is no greater feeling than knowing the words I write can keep someone eager to turn the page or filled with emotions as they sit at the edge of their seat. 

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