This was absolutely gorgeous and legitimately made me cry in my fucking dorm room. I've been making my way through your writing for these last 3 days (rather slowly because these make me feel so many FEELINGS), and, god, your storytelling is just. beautiful. The real emotion and real interactions these fake personas with real people behind them can create.
What a lovely comment to get, thank you so much! I'm always amazed by the very real emotions that get expressed through this crazy weird medium. Thank you for appreciating it with me!
I dont think i´ve ever been able to explain why i love wrestling. But i was reading, and i think you´ve done it for me, and i guess for every fan out there. Its not because its "real", its because its true. Because the joy we experiment when they win is real, because we share their journey, the injuries, everything. What they make us feel is real, and it becomes a part of us.
As the mask became a part of the boy and finishes in a box (that part is poetry, honestly).
And coming back to our boys, i dont think there´re many more wrestlers to make us feel and connect with them as much as Kevin and Sami, when they win, when the lose, together or not.
This may be the best thing you've ever written, JJ.
I have written, in my capacity as editor and teacher, that the difference between being an artist and a hobbyist is the desire to communicate. That need, that urge, to practice your art and know that it might be provoking a reaction. It might be making someone, somewhere, FEEL something. Maybe something they needed to feel.
This includes sports, and wrestling is a combination of performative and kinesthetic art forms. The spectacle of physicality, be it the poetry of a flippy luchador match, or a Southern gothic drama brawl, or a hardcore match, or a comedy match is something that cries out to be SEEN. To get a reaction. It's why the wrestlers were just miserable during the shutdown. It became the equivalent of putting on a dress rehearsal on opening night, again and again.
No one understands how to play to a crowd like Kevin and Sami do. It is a finely-honed part of their craft. And any idiot can get cheap heat, or yell at a crowd, or do something ostentatious. KO refined it such that the slightest gesture can be intimidating.
By the way, the little girl in that NXT crowd is Izzy, who famously became a part of the classic NXT feud between Bayley and Sasha Banks. Izzy was maybe 6 or 7 years old and was a huge Bayley fan, dressing up like her, getting a hug before every match, etc. In their classic Iron Woman match, Sasha infamously beat the hell out of Bayley, throwing her in the jumbotron, and then stole Izzy's bow right from her hair, making her burst into tears. And then Sasha mocked her in the ring! It was just so jaw-droppingly MEAN, the perfect heel move for The Boss.
Izzy has since become a podcaster and media presence as a teen, but she plans to go into wrestling, and she says she hasn't forgotten about Sasha. Long-term storytelling!
"A dress rehearsal night after night" is such a good way of putting it! In addition to everything else being awful, I was heartbroken by the Thunderdome because I knew Sami could never turn face there, without real crowds.
I know Izzy and that moment with Sasha! It might have made sense to use that example instead of the one with Kevin, but I'm just so fond of how meticulous Kevin is there...
The way Sami had the audience in the palm of his hand at the Rumble is going to stay with me forever. I'll confess sometimes I've been ensure he could connect to an audience of tens of thousands like he could to Full Sail, but I should have had more faith in him.
I loved your tweet that this didn't even require analysis--it was all there, very clearly, and the audience reacted exactly as you would want.
I'm still amazed that in 2023 that Sami and Kevin, who were essentially comedy characters a year ago, are now main event players with the most important story in WWE.
And as you point out, every character involved is using the entirety of their backstories.
Roman, at his heart, is lashing out at everyone. The crowd, which used to hate him, even though he was doing what he thought they wanted him to do. He's subjugating everyone in his orbit and making them love him, be loyal to him. What is the one match he didn't technically win? The one against Seth Rollins, who psyched Roman out and forced a DQ. Roman has been BETRAYED by so many, and the feel of that steel chair on his back from Sami may as well been from Seth.
Kevin has flip-flopped a lot, but his rage is always turned toward something that he sees as an obstacle to a larger goal. He's there to cut through the bullshit of others (even if his character believes his own bullshit, although even here the character has a lot more self-awareness.)
The Usos' tragic obeisance to Roman is so compelling. Jey defying him, and Roman using every dirty trick to make him obey him--and rewarding them lavishly, but only if they continue to show blind loyalty. Solo, brought in as his executioner, just as Roman has made the Usos his assassins.
The Blackpool Combat Club's motto is "Forged in Combat." Meaning that within the bounds of the ring, anything goes, one-on-one. No quarter given nor asked for, but no two-on-one beatdowns, no foreign objects, no sneak attacks. It's like a social compact of sorts.
Sami believes in this social compact. In his wars against Kevin, even with betrayals, low blows, chair shots, etc, it's been in a prescribed, understood setting where everyone involved should know that their very lives could be in peril. They walk in knowing this.
Sami was willing to defend the Bloodline in combat. He was willing to fight Kevin, even low-blow Kevin, to win matches. What Roman wanted was something else. It wasn't a match, it was an execution. It's not just that Roman wanted to do this with someone who means something to him, but Sami's literal words are true: "This is beneath you." Rather, it's beneath Sami's idealized concept of who he wants Roman to be. He wants to be part of something bigger than he is, to be accepted, to be useful, to serve a Tribal Chief who is brutal but noble.
Roman isn't noble. He's a hurt child lashing out against everyone, using everyone, making everyone feel his own pain. He hasn't cared about doing the right thing for a long, long time. He wants to ensure loyalty by hurting each of his subjects in special ways (even Heyman, Brock's former advisor, is now bowing and scraping to Roman in a way he never did even with Brock). Sami witnessing and then finishing off Kevin is that special pain that would bind Sami to him forever.
And Sami says no, knowing what was to come.
Sami ends up in a heap, but him putting doubt in Jey Uso, the lynchpin of Roman's henchmen, is the first step in forcing Roman's empire to crumble.
The thing about forcing Sami to do this to Kevin is not only about Sami, but also Kevin. Roman has an understanding that unlike all of his other former opponents, Kevin Owens will NEVER STOP. You can break him again and again, and he will keep coming back to torment you, attack your henchmen, get in your way. Kevin is OK with Sami attacking him in a match, but attacking him with that chair means that they truly are over. There's no going back. It's a move meant to finally break Kevin emotionally.
And Sami won't do it.
And you know, YOU KNOW, that Roman has made the worst mistake. He's given Kevin hope. He's given Jey hope. And now Sami has found that the Tribal Chief has no clothes. And the thing about Kevin and Sami together, as you well know, JJ, is they will NEVER STOP. It's going to take time for them to repair things. It remains to be seen what happens to Jey. But this is the beginning of the end for Roman Reigns.
This was absolutely gorgeous and legitimately made me cry in my fucking dorm room. I've been making my way through your writing for these last 3 days (rather slowly because these make me feel so many FEELINGS), and, god, your storytelling is just. beautiful. The real emotion and real interactions these fake personas with real people behind them can create.
What a lovely comment to get, thank you so much! I'm always amazed by the very real emotions that get expressed through this crazy weird medium. Thank you for appreciating it with me!
I would have taken off the mask, too.
I'm loving this series. Keep up the great work.
Thank you! It has become, kind of without me noticing it, my life work, lol.
I dont think i´ve ever been able to explain why i love wrestling. But i was reading, and i think you´ve done it for me, and i guess for every fan out there. Its not because its "real", its because its true. Because the joy we experiment when they win is real, because we share their journey, the injuries, everything. What they make us feel is real, and it becomes a part of us.
As the mask became a part of the boy and finishes in a box (that part is poetry, honestly).
And coming back to our boys, i dont think there´re many more wrestlers to make us feel and connect with them as much as Kevin and Sami, when they win, when the lose, together or not.
I agree SO MUCH, I think they're two of the very best in the world at making us feel something that's deep and true. It's magic.
Not going to lie, this made my eyes well up a few different times. Incredible work.
Wow, that means a lot, thank you! I’m so glad it could move you.
This may be the best thing you've ever written, JJ.
I have written, in my capacity as editor and teacher, that the difference between being an artist and a hobbyist is the desire to communicate. That need, that urge, to practice your art and know that it might be provoking a reaction. It might be making someone, somewhere, FEEL something. Maybe something they needed to feel.
This includes sports, and wrestling is a combination of performative and kinesthetic art forms. The spectacle of physicality, be it the poetry of a flippy luchador match, or a Southern gothic drama brawl, or a hardcore match, or a comedy match is something that cries out to be SEEN. To get a reaction. It's why the wrestlers were just miserable during the shutdown. It became the equivalent of putting on a dress rehearsal on opening night, again and again.
No one understands how to play to a crowd like Kevin and Sami do. It is a finely-honed part of their craft. And any idiot can get cheap heat, or yell at a crowd, or do something ostentatious. KO refined it such that the slightest gesture can be intimidating.
By the way, the little girl in that NXT crowd is Izzy, who famously became a part of the classic NXT feud between Bayley and Sasha Banks. Izzy was maybe 6 or 7 years old and was a huge Bayley fan, dressing up like her, getting a hug before every match, etc. In their classic Iron Woman match, Sasha infamously beat the hell out of Bayley, throwing her in the jumbotron, and then stole Izzy's bow right from her hair, making her burst into tears. And then Sasha mocked her in the ring! It was just so jaw-droppingly MEAN, the perfect heel move for The Boss.
Izzy has since become a podcaster and media presence as a teen, but she plans to go into wrestling, and she says she hasn't forgotten about Sasha. Long-term storytelling!
"A dress rehearsal night after night" is such a good way of putting it! In addition to everything else being awful, I was heartbroken by the Thunderdome because I knew Sami could never turn face there, without real crowds.
I know Izzy and that moment with Sasha! It might have made sense to use that example instead of the one with Kevin, but I'm just so fond of how meticulous Kevin is there...
The way Sami had the audience in the palm of his hand at the Rumble is going to stay with me forever. I'll confess sometimes I've been ensure he could connect to an audience of tens of thousands like he could to Full Sail, but I should have had more faith in him.
I loved your tweet that this didn't even require analysis--it was all there, very clearly, and the audience reacted exactly as you would want.
I'm still amazed that in 2023 that Sami and Kevin, who were essentially comedy characters a year ago, are now main event players with the most important story in WWE.
And as you point out, every character involved is using the entirety of their backstories.
Roman, at his heart, is lashing out at everyone. The crowd, which used to hate him, even though he was doing what he thought they wanted him to do. He's subjugating everyone in his orbit and making them love him, be loyal to him. What is the one match he didn't technically win? The one against Seth Rollins, who psyched Roman out and forced a DQ. Roman has been BETRAYED by so many, and the feel of that steel chair on his back from Sami may as well been from Seth.
Kevin has flip-flopped a lot, but his rage is always turned toward something that he sees as an obstacle to a larger goal. He's there to cut through the bullshit of others (even if his character believes his own bullshit, although even here the character has a lot more self-awareness.)
The Usos' tragic obeisance to Roman is so compelling. Jey defying him, and Roman using every dirty trick to make him obey him--and rewarding them lavishly, but only if they continue to show blind loyalty. Solo, brought in as his executioner, just as Roman has made the Usos his assassins.
The Blackpool Combat Club's motto is "Forged in Combat." Meaning that within the bounds of the ring, anything goes, one-on-one. No quarter given nor asked for, but no two-on-one beatdowns, no foreign objects, no sneak attacks. It's like a social compact of sorts.
Sami believes in this social compact. In his wars against Kevin, even with betrayals, low blows, chair shots, etc, it's been in a prescribed, understood setting where everyone involved should know that their very lives could be in peril. They walk in knowing this.
Sami was willing to defend the Bloodline in combat. He was willing to fight Kevin, even low-blow Kevin, to win matches. What Roman wanted was something else. It wasn't a match, it was an execution. It's not just that Roman wanted to do this with someone who means something to him, but Sami's literal words are true: "This is beneath you." Rather, it's beneath Sami's idealized concept of who he wants Roman to be. He wants to be part of something bigger than he is, to be accepted, to be useful, to serve a Tribal Chief who is brutal but noble.
Roman isn't noble. He's a hurt child lashing out against everyone, using everyone, making everyone feel his own pain. He hasn't cared about doing the right thing for a long, long time. He wants to ensure loyalty by hurting each of his subjects in special ways (even Heyman, Brock's former advisor, is now bowing and scraping to Roman in a way he never did even with Brock). Sami witnessing and then finishing off Kevin is that special pain that would bind Sami to him forever.
And Sami says no, knowing what was to come.
Sami ends up in a heap, but him putting doubt in Jey Uso, the lynchpin of Roman's henchmen, is the first step in forcing Roman's empire to crumble.
The thing about forcing Sami to do this to Kevin is not only about Sami, but also Kevin. Roman has an understanding that unlike all of his other former opponents, Kevin Owens will NEVER STOP. You can break him again and again, and he will keep coming back to torment you, attack your henchmen, get in your way. Kevin is OK with Sami attacking him in a match, but attacking him with that chair means that they truly are over. There's no going back. It's a move meant to finally break Kevin emotionally.
And Sami won't do it.
And you know, YOU KNOW, that Roman has made the worst mistake. He's given Kevin hope. He's given Jey hope. And now Sami has found that the Tribal Chief has no clothes. And the thing about Kevin and Sami together, as you well know, JJ, is they will NEVER STOP. It's going to take time for them to repair things. It remains to be seen what happens to Jey. But this is the beginning of the end for Roman Reigns.