Surprise your audience, but be sure it makes sense in the long-term

I’ve never been shy to admit that I’m a fan of professional wrestling. Well, maybe I should say I used to be a fan of professional wrestling. Due to the combination of life’s responsibilities, the kids, and just the fact that the current product is nearly unwatchable to us fans of the 80s and 90s, I just don’t follow it at all anymore.

It’s a shame because it played such a huge part of my life for so many years. Anyhow, this weekend is Wrestlemania…I don’t know…30-something, and I don’t even know who is in the main event. Or any of the other matches.

But enough about that. Since it is Wrestlemania weekend, I thought I’d share some excerpts from a post I wrote for an older blog the day after Wrestlemania 30.

It’s about the writing, and how the writers made one of the worst decisions in Wrestlemania history.

…I’ve got to talk about a creative decision they made last night that I totally disagree with.

I’ll try to sum up the background quickly, but basically there is a character named The Undertaker, who in the last 29 years of Wrestlemania has won every one of his 21 matches at the event. A huge selling point of the annual event is to see how Undertaker can defeat his next opponent. His Wrestlemania matches in the last five years have been written to tell a story of high drama and suspense with lots of “almosts” and big moves to bring the audience to their feet, with Undertaker beating the odds and winning in the end.

Last night he faced a true beast and legit touch guy (and former UFC champ) Brock Lesnar. You’d expect the same formula, but maybe a bit more brutality. Maybe even blood if we’re lucky. But what you couldn’t expect is for Lesnar to win the match. He’s not a full-time wrestler; his contract has very limited dates on it and in the last year, he’s lost to two other stars who Undertaker had defeated multiple times in previous Wrestlemanias.

In other words, if you’re a writer for WWE, you’re not going to “waste” The Undertaker’s first Wrestlemania loss on a guy like Lesnar. You’re either going to let him retire undefeated at Mania, or have him lose a close, dramatic match to a new guy you hope to build the company around for the next decade.

But instead, the WWE writers did decide to waste the loss. In a relatively boring match, Lesnar basically threw Undertaker around like he was nothing, shrugged off the big offense, and beat him cleanly (that means without any foul play, which is rare for a “bad guy”) in the middle of the ring.

This is the worst major creative decision WWE has made in a long time. For well over a decade, the titles have become nothing but props and the matches have become nothing more than plot elements to supplement the storylines. The only thing in WWE that remained “real” was The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at Wrestlemania.

And now they killed it. For what? To make a guy who isn’t even on the full-time roster look strong for a few months until he loses to their champ and then goes on another hiatus until the money is right for another short-term return. Sure it shocked the audience in attendance. It shocked the people watching at home. It shock the idiots like me who accidentally read the result before I watched the match.

But other than shocking the audience, what purpose did it serve?

If you’re writing fiction, and that includes professional wrestling, you’ve got to make sure that when you write a scene for shock value that it doesn’t have any negative effects in the long-term.

And this poorly thought-out decision has nothing but negative effects in the long-term. At least in my opinion.

So that was what I had to say. I still hold to that opinion. Shock value for the sack of shock value does nothing for your story. It may get people “talking” for a little while, but if it’s done with no real reason, and doesn’t add to your overall plot, it’s nothing more than Katie Vick. (For the non-wrestling fans, make sure you drink a few beers before you look that one up.)

And for you wrestling fans out there, have a great Wrestlemania weekend. For the rest of you, thanks for reading, and if you’re in the Nebraska area, it’s not too late to sign up for the Nebraska Writers Guild Spring Conference taking place in Ashland this weekend. Hope to see some of you there!

Wrestling fans: What are some of the best written storylines you can remember? What are some of the worst? Let’s have a discussion in the comments section!