Hold the Phone

This week’s posts are going to be a tad different than every other week and there is a good reason for this. As I have mentioned before in my Raw posts, I was going to attend Fastlane live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Not only was this my first WWE PPV attendance but my first WWE event in general and as a result I have tons to say and given the nature of this blog’s posts, I’d like to take this week to reflect on what I went to and how it’s changed my viewing of the product as a whole instead of reflecting on the shows themselves this week.

More Players than You Realize

The first thing I realized that has changed my viewing experience is just how many people operate in the background. Although I had always realized that people were obviously working behind the scenes at a WWE event to make everything happen, I never realized the scale of it all. There are people constantly maneuvering the crane camera, handheld cameras, moving cables, setting up pyro, setting up the ring, etc. and the way it is masked on TV is honestly astounding. Major props go to WWE’s production crew as the way they are able to operate in a near invisible state to the TV audience is both impressive and admirable given my past employment in performance theater.

Pro wrestling is often compared to a stage play in terms of the storytelling and segmenting but this comparison is really most relevant here. As overstated as it is in most entertainment, the background players are truly unsung heroes who deserve more recognition in some way.

“You Seem Bigger on TV”

On TV, WWE events seem massive in their scale. The ramp seems 10 yards long, the Titantron as big as the side of a barn, and the ring larger than most bedrooms. Being at an event I realized how intimate everything actual is (assuming most arenas are the size of the Bradley Center). The ramp is really only like 6 feet long, the Titantron is maybe only as large as a monitor in a Buffalo Wild Wings, and the ring is maybe just as large as two king beds. I was so worried in getting tickets that I would be too far away to really experience the event but, even being 4 seats in from the ramp, I felt that I was right there. A lot of this differing perception is due to how the event is shot on tv. Unless the arena is as big as a stadium, I now realize a full shot of the arena is rarely ever used and the camera angles often don’t encompass the entirety of the action. Part of this is obviously for cinematic effect but part of this is now obvious to me as a conscious effort to make everything seem bigger than it is.

I can’t say that this is a negative but is another thing that has reshaped how I view the events and appreciate the camerawork even more.

PART 1 END

Later this week, I’ll talk more about my experiences at Fastlane and articulate my reflections further.

Till next time,

Lucas