Nothing draws mail like a Vince McMahon, (President of World Wrestling Federation), says of his bouts, and I will Professional wrestling is all about the story line. The characters develop over time, sort of like Professional wrestling is most like a soap opera. The plots are no more outlandish than those Can you watch a wide receiver for New Orleans make a cell phone call from the end zone Quick … Why do you like Green Bay’s Brett Favre? Isn’t it because he is everyman and Is “The Rock” really that different from the Dolphin’s middle linebacker Zack Thomas? The Please understand that I do not care for, nor do I habitually watch, professional wrestling. I People watch these events who haven’t a clue about the details of the play. They watch to see Do you remember the XFL? Its fundamental concept was not wrong, it was merely ahead of Muhammad Ali understood the appeal of professional wrestling. He patterned himself after a Why is this important? Because low art displaces high art and sponsorship follows the Eventually, economics prevailed and movies became more literate. More important, however, The theater was forced to change and to become more like the movies in order to remain <\/P> Here’s a The real reason why you and your lefty pals hate Wal-Mart is that they are run by a The left does not care about small town economies because you sneer at them as rubes and The New York Times (your house organ) not long ago ran an editorial that asked that why Remember the “welfare farmer” refrain that even Garry Trudeau started running in his scripts? <\/P> Phew!! As Elmer Fudd once said to Bugs Bunny: “Golly, Mr. Wabbit. I hope I didn’t hurt ya Nothing draws mail like a dismissal of pro wrestling as a form of artistic expression or a criticism of Wal-Mart. A reader writes: Jan, Jan, Jan — How can someone as bright as you fail to appreciate the cultural significance of professional wrestling? This head-in-the-sand attitude is what allowed Bush to be elected president. People […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-7W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nexpression or a criticism of Wal-Mart. A reader writes: <\/P>
\nJan, Jan, Jan — How can someone as bright as you fail to appreciate the
\ncultural significance of professional wrestling? This head-in-the-sand attitude is what allowed
\nBush to be elected president. People didn’t take him seriously, thought he was too damn stupid to
\nbe elected and then the next thing we know, we’ve got John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act and
\ndisappearing WMD’s.
\n
\nparaphrase here because I don’t have the quote in front of me, that he doesn’t stage sporting
\nevents, he makes movies.<\/P>
\n
\na novel, (but with very large characters who wear odd costumes). Professional wrestling
\npresentations explore relationships, choices and consequences, sort of like Hamlet but louder and
\ncruder.<\/P>
\n
\nfound in All My Children or General Hospital. The characters no less believable.<\/P>
\n
\nafter a touchdown and find no comparison in professional wrestling?<\/P>
\n
\nbecause he plays hurt and because he has heart? What about Mick, “Mankind,” Foley? He is
\neveryman, it’s part of his name. Nobody takes more lumps or wrestles hurt more frequently than
\nMick Foley.<\/P>
\n
\nRock played middle linebacker at the University of Miami back in the mid ’90s until he blew out
\nhis knee. Would you contend that NBA all-star Dennis Rodman had no comparable character
\nwithin the world of professional wrestling? Jesse, “the Body,” Ventura was elected governor of
\nMinnesota. <\/P>
\n
\ndo not care for, nor do I habitually watch football or basketball or baseball or hockey. I do
\nbelieve, however, that Vince McMahon understands the appeal of “sporting events.”<\/P>
\n
\nthe spectacle, the cheerleaders and the occasional injury. McMahon simply distills the experience
\nand gives it to the viewer without the distraction of balls or cars and calls it “sports
\nentertainment.” It is the wave of the future and it must be understood.<\/P>
\n
\nits time. Launched in conjunction with the NFL rather than in competition, the idea will fly. You
\nwill see the basic concepts of the XFL, (sexier cheerleaders, no fair catch, rules that encourage
\nhard hits and big yardage gains), again.<\/P>
\n
\npro wrestler named “Gorgeous George.” So did Dusty, “The American Dream,” Rhodes, Jake,
\n“The Snake,” Roberts, and every professional boxer in the last 30 years.<\/P>
\n
\ndemographics. Does ChevronTexaco’s abandonment of the radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan
\nOpera open the door for them to sponsor Smack Down? Stranger things have happened. When
\nmovies were first released, they were crude and were considered low-brow entertainment.
\nEducated people preferred “the theatuh.” <\/P>
\n
\nis the fact that the theater changed as well. Plays became more like the movies with which they
\nwere forced to compete for dollars. The film industry recognized the tastes and needs of the
\ncommon man and presented a product to appeal to those tastes and needs. <\/P>
\n
\nrelevant, not to mention economically viable.<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n
\n
\nreader, who writes: <\/P>
\nWal-Mart doesn’t use union workers or pay a living wage? How many similar
\nemployers do? Does K-Mart? Target? Do regional and national grocery store chains? And hasn’t
\nMcDonalds’ caused a lot of family owned restaurants to close?
\n
\nconservative, politically active family and that the Waltons OCCASSIONALLY allow their
\nconservative beliefs to influence how they run their company. So Wal-Mart sells GUNS and
\nBULLETS and DOESN’T SELL MAXIM! THE HORROR! So people who want to legally own
\nguns shouldn’t be sold them, but parents who don’t want their 11-year-old boys (or girls) to look
\nat semi-nude women while they are in the checkout line should be forced to?<\/P>
\n
\nrednecks. That is reflected in the “entertainment” that Hollywood is putting out these days. “Sling
\nBlade?” “The Gift?” “A Simple Plan?” “Monster’s Ball?” Basically any Billy Bob Thornton
\nmovie?<\/P>
\n
\ncan’t small town America just DIE already, and it routinely rails against farm subsidies, as if that
\nwouldn’t hurt small town economies.<\/P>
\n
\nWondering why are we sending all that money to Iowa for ethanol when it could pay for childcare
\nand job training for thousands of urban teen mothers, eh? Not that I am against child care and job
\ntraining, I just hate the hypocrisy.<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n
\n
\ntoo much when I killed ya.”<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"