Actions Speak Louder Than Words

[klunderbunker]

This is something I've noticed a lot lately and it's a major problem in WWE and TNA. Anymore, there's really no such thing as displaying development or changes in your character. Instead, the commentators simply tell us about someone.

For instance, Daniel Bryan was on Smackdown and we were told he was a vegan and that he doesn't watch TV so he's an oddball. Ok, fine. However, that doesn't really mean anything for his character. What good does it do to tell us this about him if we don't see it? Take for example one of the most active characters of all time: Steve Austin.

Austin can best be described as a rebel. You knew he was a rebel because he rebelled against things. You had Austin out there destroying random things, causing problems every week, going against everything Vince said and generally causing chaos. Austin was a rebel based on what we saw him do. Imagine if his character was deemed a rebel and we just went from there. It wouldn't have been nearly as successful because we would have no reason to see him as such a character, which is what makes him work.

On the other hand, we have the same issue in storyline development. Last night on Impact, we were told that Hogan had gained power back in TNA due to talking to the network bosses in New York. In other words, we have no reason to accept Hogan is back in power other than because he says so. This is a problem in wrestling as it's a visual medium. We gain or lose confidence in someone because of what they can do. For instance Cena is known as being tough because we see him survive long beatings.

Simply telling us that Hogan has power again doesn't do anything for us. Why couldn't Immortal get power back by winning a big match or even have momentum by winning a series of matches? Instead of them showing us that Immortal and Hogan have power now, we're simply told that they do and that's it. Despite Immortal losing time after time, they now have power. It makes the team look weak and takes away the visual aspects of wrestling.

This is a problem on both sides and needs to be corrected soon, as it's rapidly hurting the development of both stories and characters.

 

[Mustang Sally]

This subject makes me think of illustrated storybooks; the text tells us what we expect to see....while the pictures augment the text. It takes me back to the story of Randy Savage and Elizabeth. The commentary by Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan gave us the text while the actions of Randy and Liz provided visual impact to the text.

The commentary in the beginning painted Savage as a beast, destroying his opponents while ordering Elizabeth from place to place. Concurrently, Monsoon was telling us that Liz was not Randy's valet, but rather his manager, having her own slant on things. Then, the actions went toward proving it; after the Mega-Powers exploded, she split with Macho Man and joined Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire, all the while painting the picture of a woman who was thought to be under her man's thumb......yet wasn't.

The best aspect was that it took months of subtle suggestions by the announcers to finally culminate in the big reunion after the Warrior/Savage retirement match. In those days, they truly used words and actions to slowly build a story. Without the commentary (words), the results (actions) wouldn't have been nearly as successful.

I'm going to sound like a broken record now, but I'm going to point to Drew McIntyre as the closest WWE has come to building a storyline with actions and words. His program with Kelly was doing exactly what we're talking about. The commentators were telling us that Drew is a raging beast even as Drew was telling Kelly he wasn't. Then, he'd get in the ring and prove himself wrong. And then, he'd get in the ring and prove himself right. His actions were speaking loud and clear, even in their ambiguity. I couldn't wait to see what was going to become of all this.

So what happens? They drop the whole damn thing just as Kelly is starting to see Drew in a new light. I mean, jeez.

So yeah, Klunderbunker.... I'm with you on this.

 

[Dagger Dias]

It's lazy booking. They want (insert wrestler being pushed) to be booked to be strong in an angle but think the fans are not patient enough to sit through a long string of matches to develop the character. They have the announcers tell us about the character instead, to give us a back story to prove why the immediate push is justified. WWE and TNA both should be less lazy with their booking because many fans are not only patient enough to sit through a long string of matches to develop someone, we also would enjoy watching that a lot more instead of seeing a new person get pushed randomly each month.