In defense of Wrestlemania

From the top trend on Facebook to ESPN's Twitter feed, pro wrestling headlines have been all over the Internet in the past few days. World Wrestling Entertainment's annual Wrestlemania pay-per-view was held over the weekend, showcasing the top talent in the business on a more global scale than ever before. It's interesting to me that, with wrestling seemingly more popular in terms of fan base and viewership than ever before, the industry maintains its negative connotations and uncool reputation. Call me the devil's advocate, call me a loser, call me whatever you want... but I pro wrestling gets a bit of an unfair rap. Let me explain.

For those of you who aren't aware, I, like most young, American boys in the 1990s, had a decent amount of exposure to pro wrestling during one particular stretch of my childhood - in the midst of what pro wrestling historians call the "Monday Night War." Pro wrestling was a taboo topic back then, just as it is today, in the sense that if you watched it, you didn't really admit it to anybody. Heck, I wasn't supposed to watch it as a kid. Wrestling, along with "The Simpsons," "South Park" and a few other shows, had been banned from my household (and probably for good reason). There are just some shows that parents didn't want their kids watching. I am totally fine with that and don't resent my parents from the restrictions they placed on me and my siblings. But, from time to time when my parents were out for the night, I'd be flipping channels and catch a glimpse of some good, old-fashioned grappling. Violent though it was, there was something so intriguing about it. I don't remember exactly what I was thinking as a kid, but it just seemed cool, and I'd try to sneak in a few minutes of pro wrestling here and there when my channel surfing incidentally lined up with World Championship Wrestling's TV programming.

At one point during the height of the now-defunct WCW's popularity, Karl Malone, one of my favorite Utah Jazz players teamed up with a guy named Diamond Dallas Paige to fight against "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan and Dennis Rodman of the Chicago Bulls. The surprising combination of forbidden fighting and my beloved basketball icon proved too good to resist and my brothers and I found ourselves sneakily tuning in to WCW Monday Nitro each week. Eventually - and, to this day, I have no idea how this happened - we convinced our parents to watch the Mailman and DDP feud with Hogan and The Worm as they geared up for a heated confrontation at WCW's Bash at the Beach pay-per-view in the summer of 1996. Believe it or not, it actually turned into a great family bonding experience. We ordered Bash at the Beach and a couple other PPV events over the course of the next several months and even invited some of our extended family to watch with us a couple times. (I'm sure they thought we were absolute morons.) A few months later, WCW hired some former WWE (then "WWF") writers and the storylines got a bit more "mature," I guess you'd say, and my family's short-lived affair came to an end. Honestly, it was a blast while it lasted. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

As a junior at Alta High School, I decided that I wanted to run for band president. As part of my unprecedented campaign (literally, I don't think anyone has ever tried so hard to become band president at any high school), I thought it would be funny to buy a plastic WWE championship belt and make a video portraying me training for the presidency, a la Rocky. I guess the concept kind of caught on and three additional wrestling belts eventually made their way to the sacred confines of the Alta High Band Room. Silly? Yes. But it worked. Again, I'm not ashamed to admit it. My buddies and I took the joke a step further and made a 30-minute mockumentary about a fictional pro wrestling tag team called "The Big Ticket." (In retrospect, I'm sure it was horrible, but we thought it was hilarious.) In 2010, we joined creative forces yet again to make an hour-long "Big Ticket" sequel. (Likely just as horrible, but twice as hilarious.)

As an LDS missionary in Raleigh, North Carolina, I was called to speak Spanish. Contrary to what you may believe or hear, learning a new language is not a total piece of cake. It takes effort. You don't leave the Missionary Training Center completely fluent in the new foreign tongue. Something that helped me tremendously in my learning efforts was speaking with little Hispanic children. They would make fun of me if I didn't speak the language very well, but they were a lot nicer about it than the adults were. I quickly came to realize that little Hispanic kids know a lot about three things in particular: soccer, school and pro wrestling. Thus, I found wrestling to be a pretty easy topic of conversation - something that I knew a little bit about and could use a bit of "Spanglish" in without sounding like an idiot. The kids loved talking about it, which was cool, but it also kept me somewhat up-to-date with which wrestlers were popular, which ones were doing well and, of course, which ones were the bad guys.

Now that I'm seven years removed from my mission, I don't have consistent access to the Rey Mysterio and John Cena fan clubs like I did in North Carolina, but I am savvy enough to spot WWE references in pop culture today. There are nods to pro wrestling (both modern and from the '80s and '90s) all over the place, if you know what to look for. It's somewhat amusing to me. I would incorporate some of the classic catch phrases as I did my college radio shows. In fact, the most popular segment of my show down in Ephraim was called the "KAGE Match" - a blatant nod to pro wrestling. I'm still not sure that any of my listeners understood that. It disappoints me.

Most recently, as I had the glorious privilege of working with Salt Lake Comic Con, I got a chance to meet the immortal Hulk Hogan - to take a picture with him, give him the nWo "wolf" hand gesture and to sit front row at his spotlight panel. It was awesome. I got a little bit of grief for it, but, as a kid who grew up in the '90s, meeting the Hulkster was like meeting one of the coolest guys on the planet. I suppose that today's equivalent might be... Chris Hemsworth or somebody like that? Whatever. It was really cool for me. Hulk still rules!

SO. With all of that context, it's not that I am a pro wrestling addict or something. More like I just know a lot about it. Anyway, I think I've got some valid points and pretty strong arguments for the case I'm about to make, so let me now explain why I don't think that pro wrestling is actually as bad as society purports it to be by listing a few common complaints I hear about the industry and then rebutting them in rather majestic fashion.

Complaint: "Pro wrestling is fake."

You know what? It's scripted. Yes. Which is stupid because "Doctor Who" is REAL! Oh wait... No, it's not. Most shows on TV are scripted. This should not come as a shock to anyone. Certainly, to the untrained viewer, like my 10-year-old self back in the day, you bet I thought it was real. Heck, I even prayed that Karl Malone would beat Dennis Rodman at Bash at the Beach. (Side note: Hogan and Rodman cheated to win. I got really upset and have never prayed for the outcome of a sporting event since.) I'm positive that WWE takes great lengths to ensure that their programming looks and feels real (or unscripted), but... can you blame them? Would you want your favorite TV program to come right out and say, "Hey, everyone, our show isn't real! Look at all these green screens! And here: meet the stunt doubles!" Of course you wouldn't want that! Every show and movie that you watch wants to look real, even though it is clearly fictional. Yes, pro wrestling is scripted. But so is everything else.

Furthermore, those steel chairs can't dent themselves, now, can they? I submit to you that they cannot. There is no denying that these guys (and chicks) that put their bodies on the line each time they step in the ring are a rare, freaky combination of incredibly athletic and certifiably crazy. No stunt doubles, no CGI, no wires. You can pull all the punches and kicks you want, but there is some stuff you just can't fake.

If you've been paying attention to the top Facebook trends in the past week and a half or so, you'll have seen that Rey Mysterio Jr., the first guy I ever remember watching in the squared circle, recently killed a guy during one of his matches. Literally. The guy passed away. Of course, this was an accident, an unintended consequence of a move likely gone wrong, but I dare you to go find that guy's mom and tell him that pro wrestling is fake. I dare you.

On the other hand, you've got UFC and MMA, which is real. Have you ever watched UFC or MMA? That stuff is brutal! I can barely bring myself to watch the highlights from time to time. Thank heaven pro wrestling isn't real! The number of injuries, broken bones and in-ring deaths would multiply considerably and that entire industry would get shut down in a heartbeat.

Complaint: "Pro wrestling is too violent."

Going back to a point I brought up in my exposition, I know why my parents didn't want me to watch pro wrestling. I understand why I stopped watching "Power Rangers" and couldn't play any of the "Mortal Kombat" video games. Violence is not the answer to a vast majority of life's problems. The worst thing about wrestling is that it teaches young viewers that the best way to resolve a problem or to take out your frustration is by beating the tar out of your enemies. That's not good.

But at least they're not out there shooting each other with guns or chopping each other's heads off.

Take a look at some of the popular network dramas on TV today. Shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investiagtion," "Law & Order" and "Criminal Minds" are all about gruesome depictions of violence and the aftermath of crimes like murder, rape and domestic abuse. I stopped watching "The Walking Dead" after two and a half seasons because it got to the point where I figured I had seen enough zombies get their skulls split in two by machetes. There are other programs like "Game of Thrones," "Dexter," "Hannibal" and a host of others that I don't dare venture into because I'm afraid they'll be too intense for me. On the other hand, do you know what "WWE Raw" is rated? TV-PG. I was a WCW fan and never got into the WWF "Attitude Era" with the Rock, the Undertaker and D-Generation X, but today's pro wrestling is incredibly mild by comparison. Wrestlers rarely get busted open these days, so blood is at an all-time low. Male and female wrestlers cannot compete against each other, due to the company's stance on violence against women. Long gone are the profanity-laden tyrades of villains like the bird-flipping "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Vince McMahon and company understand that their fan base consists of, largely, 35-year-old guys and 8-year-old kids, and, following the deaths of superstars like Eddie Guerrero and "The Rabid Wolverine" Chris Benoit, they've made appropriate adjustments to the nature of their entertainment to keep the show as family-friendly as possible. I'd go so far as to say that WWE programming is substantially tamer than your average weeknight TV drama.

Complaint: "Pro wrestling is for losers."

This is probably the main complaint I heard as an employee of Salt Lake Comic Con. Wrestling has been included in a couple of the conventions in the last year and a half, including appearances by Hulk Hogan and "divas" Maryse and Kelly Kelly. Most controversially, at Salt Lake Comic Con 2014, a local, independent wrestling group brought in a ring and hosted occasional matches in the middle of the vendor floor.

People hated that ring for a couple reasons: 1) it was big, 2) it was loud, and 3) it was pro wrestling. I found these complaints somewhat humorous for a couple reasons. First of all, as with anything, if you don't like it, don't watch it. But secondly - and mainly - for a group of people who pride themselves on being all-inclusive of people of any interest or "fandom," as they call it, it was funny to hear the comic con attendees be so judgmental of those who like pro wrestling. So... apparently it's ok for a dude to like "My Little Pony" but not Hulk Hogan? Wow. (Side note: I have never been more ridiculed in my life for being a sports fan than I was as a comic con employee, which I found to be very strange.)

One thing I learned at comic con was that lots of different people like lots of different things - and that's totally ok. Some people like Marvel and some people like DC. Some people like both and some like neither of the two. It's fine! It doesn't matter what other people like! Just be yourself and like what makes you happy. Whether that's aliens or vampires or sweaty guys throwing each other around a wrestling ring, it's totally fine to be a fan of anything in the world... As long as it's not, you know, committing crimes in the real world or going against your religion or whatnot...

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I'll stop there, I think. If you made it this far into the blog, I offer you a hearty congratulations. I'm not here to sway your opinion one way or the other. I'm not here saying I freaking love the WWE and watch every second of their programming (because I don't). I have just always found it interesting that we put such a negative label on something that, by the entertainment standards of the day, is actually not all that violent, profane or out-of-the-ordinary. I'm just simply here to ask, "Whatcha gonna do when Hulkamania runs wild on you, brother?" Hopefully your response will be a little more open-minded and less judgmental than it has been in the past.

And if you subscribed to the WWE Network for $9.99 to watch Wrestlemania last night, your secret is safe with me.

FanX 15 - "Great Scott!": Christopher Lloyd on the inspiration behind Doc Brown

One of my favorite parts about Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience 2015 was the opportunity I had to sit on the front row during Christopher Lloyd’s panel on the second morning of the convention. The Back to the Future trilogy was a huge part of my childhood, so seeing Doc Brown, live and in person, was amazingly awesome for me. I just wish I would have been more prepared to snag a less-blurry picture of him holding up the iconic Mattel hoverboard (which he emphatically proclaimed “wouldn’t work”).

Now, it dawned on me about three quarters of the way through the panel that I should probably have been taking notes or recording some audio so I could blog about it later, so there’s some good news and some bad news here: The bad news is that I didn’t record or write down anything for about 40 minutes, but the good news is that I did record a couple answers that he gave toward the end of the hour.

One question that begged a noteworthy response was an inquiry as to the origin of Doc Brown’s eccentricity. For the sake of his reputation, with which I’m practically not even worthy to touch, I’m not going to paraphrase, sum up or adjust any of his response. I’ll simply include it all –starting at the point where I began recording – and let Mr. Lloyd take it from there. He began by talking about Albert Einstein, noting the wild hairstyle and vastly superior intellect and we’ll join his response right there, mid-sentence:

“…E = MC², and so forth… Extraordinary. Albert Einstein went on a travel across the ocean in a big ship liner and they found… Here’s the genius of his time… and they couldn’t find him; somehow he’d disappeared and they were worried about, “Where was he? What happened to him? Where’s Albert?” And they went down to the bottom of a hole, where, you know… the lowest people were living down there, who couldn’t afford… they were the bottom deck. And he was there, playing with a pinball machine. Who’d have thunk, you know? And the other image I had – I feel maybe I’m going on a little too much about this – was the… I love classical music. I grew up with it around the… [interrupted by applause] …And there was a great doctor by the name of Leopold Stokowski. He was a conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra – wonderful – and he did a lot of innovative interpretations of Bach and other music… All right. There was a piece he did called ‘Planets,’ a classical piece, where each planet is described in music, describing that planet’s mythical association, like the planet Mars. Music was picked that was very ‘military’ and harsh. Venus, the goddess of love, etc… I had that recording and it showed the solar system on the jacket. This was back when you had records [laughs]… and Leopold Stokowski had his arms raised, with the baton in his hand… He had this shock-white hair coming behind him in his profile. That was a lot of my image of Doc Brown. I remember my father looked at that jacket and he said, ‘I’m sure he’s a great musician, but does he have to have his hair like that?’”

Seeing Mr. Lloyd was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. Let’s be honest, though he defied the laws of aging on-screen for so long, it was somewhat apparent to me that the guy is getting older. Who knows how much longer we’ll have him around? But, for the time being, I can say from personal experience that the man is a legend – a national treasure. His roles in movies like Back to the Future and Clue have provided me with years of laughter and enough classic one-liners to impress (and, likely, annoy) my friends for a lifetime. (…not to mention the fact that his role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit gave me nightmares throughout my entire childhood!)

Here’s to you, Christopher Lloyd! Thanks for the memories.

FanX 15 - One-on-One with "Good Cop" Glenn Morshower

Actor Glenn Morshower didn’t come to Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience 2015 in January with much of the same pomp and circumstance as headliners like Matt Smith and Billie Piper of the BBC’s cult hit “Doctor Who” or with a fan base equal to that of fandom-driven idolatry like Harry Potter’s Tom Felton and Star Wars’ Carrie Fisher. He came humbly, quietly and unceremoniously.

That’s the way I found him at the pre-convention press conference.

Morshower is best known for portraying an staggering number of military personas on film and television. In fact, as he quickly pointed out, he has played more military roles than any other actor. Ever.

“That’s living or dead,” Morshower told me. “That’s an IMDb fact – and I’ve actually spent more time in uniform than most people in the actual military, so I think parts of me wake up in the morning and wonder if I am in the military.”

Although Morshower was never in the military, himself, he largely attributes his on-screen presence, backbone and stern nature, as seen in movies like Pearl Harbor, X-Men: First Class, Black Hawk Down and the Transformers franchise, to his upbringing; he was raised by his step-father, who he referred to as “a lifer Navy guy.”

IMDb credits Morshower with nearly 200 roles in films, TV shows and video games, including appearances in hit military and political dramas like “JAG,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “NCIS,” “Alias,” the rebooted “Hawaii Five-O,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and many, many more, but there is one role that Morshower easily claims as his all-time favorite:

“Bar none, my role as head of the Secret Service, Aaron Pierce, on ‘24’ for seven years,” Morshower replied confidently. “He is the nearest and dearest to my heart. I believe in everything that that character stands for, so, basically, I said to the producers, ‘Let me get this straight – you want to pay me to play me?’ I enjoyed that immeasurably, light-years beyond anything else, not to mention that it was the ultimate family… the highest bar I’ve ever seen set.”

Another role came to mind, as well.  “ I did three years on ‘The West Wing,’” he commented. “Both shows [“24” and “The West Wing”] … their bar for excellence was through the roof – and, unless you brought your A-game, you simply were not welcome there. […] I like working in that kind of an environment.”

While he pointed out that he hasn’t minded being typecast into a specific type of role in so many different movies and TV shows, he did mention to me that he got about a year and a half ago where he felt like he had “done it to death” and began to seek out other types of characters.

“I’m just not interested in doing [military roles right now] because I want to be seen in other lights,” Morshower told me. “So this year, it was kind of a ‘bucket list’ year for me because the three roles I wanted to play – which were a serial killer, a flamboyantly gay character and the president of the United States – all three roles came about within a four-month period of time. … So I’m getting out there and returning to what originally got me into the craft[: …] the ability to transform into a completely different human being. But the old saying about being typecast is, people say, ‘Do you mind being typecast?’… My answer is, ‘No, I mind being not cast,’ because my wife and I were able to put our kids through college on typecasting, so I have no problem with typecasting.”

You may recognize some of Morshower’s prominent non-military roles in movies like Moneyball and TV shows that included “Friday Night Lights,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “The Secret World of Alex Mack” and “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

Despite his gruff on-screen exterior, deep down inside, Morshower is like a giant teddy bear. I asked him what he liked the most about doing pop culture conventions and, to be honest, his answer surprised me.

“The people. Just the people. I love giving folks hugs and, more often than not, people don’t want to shake my hand – they want to hug me, and I dig that… ‘Dig’ is a word from the ‘60s… And I do because there’s something very powerful about embracing another human being who has waited in a very long line to meet you. In many instances, you know, they’ve flown from God-only-knows where and I think we have, really, a moral responsibility to be fully present and engaging of every single person that walks to our table. (And I don’t mind this being recorded…) I can’t stand working with jerks! I can’t stand it! I can’t stand actors that don’t reach out and embrace people. I can’t stand being next to actors who think they’re doing you a huge favor by merely showing up. … You’re an actor. So what? Someone sweeps the streets, someone makes cones at Dairy Queen, you’re an actor. That’s what you’ve chosen to do, but that doesn’t mean that you are more special… I think that we are all of equal importance and the fact that we’re treated specially doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I’m honored to be there with others. I think it is the greatest business in the world and I also think it’s the worst business. And the worst business aspect of it comes to… it is the worst business to get into if you’re going into it in search of your self-esteem, because then you’ll believe anything that anybody tells you, and if they tell you that you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, you walk around believing it and then you live as though you’re better than others, which is a nightmarishly ugly thing to be around. So, I just love people, period. I’m glad to be here.”

Then I asked him if I could give him a hug. He happily obliged.

FanX 15 - Ireland Reid, Queen of the Nerds

Costume designer Ireland Reid said that she stumbled into an opportunity that changed her life. After 15 years of designing outfits for fitness competitors, she came across a chance to create and wear her own costume at a comic con event. “Everything just kind of fell in place from then,” Reid told me while at Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience 2015 in January. Now a popular cosplayer, model and geek girl extraordinaire, she travels the world, appearing at comic and pop culture conventions as a featured guest.

“I get to travel all over […] the world, basically, showing and creating and designing costumes based upon cosplay characters that I’ve actually grown up with and learned to love and appreciate,” Reid said. “It’s pretty exciting.” Some of Reid’s most popular and well-recognized costumes include Batman nemesis Poison Ivy, Star-Lord of Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men’s Emma Frost, Jessica Rabbit and outfits inspired by the popular Harry Potter and Assassin’s Creed franchises. When I asked her how many cosplay outfits she had, in total, she responded that she had “completely lost track,” but has a room full of mannequins with costumes on them.

Reid loves creating Pokémon-themed costumes, as well. Aside from her iconic Pikachu and Pichu costumes, she has several other stylish outfits, including a jewel-encrested Shiny Eevee outfit, which she debuted in Salt Lake City.

“This is a never-before-seen costume,” Reid said, describing her Shiny Eevee. “It’s actually been done for three months, so I was pretty excited to get it out and [have it] see the light of day.”

While she was thrilled to debut her new costume, there was one thing that Reid was not excited about – the cold Utah weather. It was the California native’s second trip to the Beehive State, but she had never experienced wintertime in Utah. “I’m from Southern California,” she said. “It was around 80 degrees when I left, so this is a change.” (Full disclosure: 40 degrees feels like summer in January for Salt Lake City residents, so if she was trying to avoid snow and really cold weather, she picked the right January to visit.) She did have some nice very things compliments about Utah, however, saying, “I absolutely love this city. I think it’s absolutely beautiful. Everyone is super friendly and nice. I love it.”

Reid maintains an incredibly busy schedule, cramming in all of her modeling, prop making, costume designing, acting and a slew of other social media shenanigans. While she maintains a cool, professional demeanor when appearing at conventions, Reid’s bubbly, ultra-nerdy personality is perhaps most best showcased on her YouTube channel, where she uploads videos when her limited availability permits. Reid explained that her videos cover a wide variety of topics. “I do unveils for [subscription services] Nerd Block, Loot Crate [and] Arcade Block,” she said. “I also do … a lot of skits – kind of funny or humorous – and then a lot of behind the scenes of how I make some of my cosplays.”

Ireland Reid’s official social media accounts include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram, and her prints and a more detailed biography can be found on her official website, Store Envy and NerdGlam.com.