BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) EVIL CORPORATE FIGURES
Bad guys wear suits. Everyone loves to boo the asshole corporate guy. They’re often used as authority figures, but they also come in the form of managers, commentators, and even wrestlers in some gimmicks. IRS comes to mind for sure. It’s the dudes who come to the ring wearing ties, but now it seems everyone dresses professional. It has to be taken one step farther now. The easiest way and cheapest way to have the guy be a stooge. Finding a unique twist on it is hard to pull off, but when it’s done it’s an automatic boo machine! Hell, I’m calling dibs on that now. “The Automatic Boo Machine” Mikey MiGooooo! Yes!
(THREE) LOGOS
When you’re a super fan and obsessed with something as a kid you’ll start incorporating it into your classroom doodles and art projects. It’s not uncommon for kids to scribble out their favorite band’s logo on their homework, book covers, or folders. It goes the same with comic book characters, cartoons, cars, etc. Then there are the wrestling logos. Wrestling isn’t credited for its design work, but there has been some cool logos. The old Hulkamania font was iconic, the original boxy WWF logo, the DX logo, the nWo, HBK’s broken heart logo, Razor Ramon’s razor blade, Bret Hart’s heart and target, etc. etc. etc. It’s fun.
(TWO) WRESTLEMANIA
It’s the superbowl of wrestling. How can you NOT love WrestleMania. Even if someone doesn’t know shit about wrestling they know that WrestleMania is a “big deal”. It’s just one of those universal events. The fact that the carny business of wrestling has evolved and built up an event SO MUCH that they can draw over 80,000 people, sell millions on PPV, and virtually control an entire major city for one weekend a year. That’s not even looking at the impact of the actual narrative side of the business. When you get into that area your mind will wander in awe for hours.
(ONE) THE SPECIAL APPEARANCE
Wrestling invades the pop culture here and there. Sometimes wrestling is a bigger thing in the eyes of pop culture and sometimes it’s a side show people snicker at. Regardless, there is always some sort of dipping into the pop culture. I love when a wrestler shows up in something totally un-related to wrestling that it’s bizarre. I know people are treating wrestling as a novelty in some of these cases, but it’s still getting them out there. Sometimes it’s a spot on a talk show, a sitcom, a commercial, a movie, or even an award show. It’s just a little moment where you feel like wrestling is being accepted and it’s “okay to be a fan”. I don’t know how non-fans perceive it, but for a fan to see Vader on “Boy Meets World” was just kind of awesome.
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