The Ideal Medium to Learn Storytelling
The year is 1999. You are a 17-year-old kid who has decided to pursue your field of choice and make your dreams come true. You are the son of a lumberjack and a therapist, none of whom have anything to offer in your chosen career path. You are antisocial, skinny, and short, making your chances of success in your industry negligible.
You are neither inherently gifted nor have the physical aptitude to be relevant. The only tool that you have at your disposal is your stubborn perseverance. You have a dream, and are willing to do everything you can to achieve it. However, you are a small fish in a huge pond. The dream that you intend to materialize is next to impossible.
You have to grind and wrestle for years at the grass-root level to make ends meet. You work rigorously trying to hone your skills and your indomitable will to succeed makes you stand out from the rest. You start developing a small modicum of credibility and become known among your peers as a technical genius born through sheer dedication to his craft. You weren’t naturally gifted or didn’t have the resources to guarantee success. Yet, you scratched and clawed your way to where you are today.
You finally catch a break. Ten years of blood, sweat and tears have brought you to this point. You have earned the opportunity to work at the biggest company that is a juggernaut in the industry. You gratefully accept it. However, things are not what you had imagined they would be.
The beautiful image of this global multinational organization paraded in public is nothing but a facade. The hierarchy of the company is decided based on nepotism rather than merit.
You are constantly and regularly shunned for lacking the charisma, physical prowess and expertise to be promoted, yet your higher-ups could learn plenty from you. You humbly ask to be taken seriously, being the workhorse in the office, yet the company fails to recognize your talents. You work harder than those around you, yet you can never seem to grab the brass ring. Almost as if it is imaginary.
Seeking recognition, you rebel against the authority in charge and rally up support to make your voice audible. You are granted one ham-handed opportunity to play ball and you knock it out of the park, thus proving your point that you deserve to be at the top. The company still fails to recognize your talents because in doing so, they would have to acknowledge their folly. However, the impact that your work has left in the industry hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Your popularity as a proficient and skilled worker has skyrocketed and the company’s hands are now tied. Having no choice but to accept their defeat, you are finally provided with the opportunity to lead the company and be its guiding face. You are now the top dog, and you take charge. Your tenure is regarded as one of the company’s highest successes and you are universally respected in the industry. Your story inspires millions around the world and opens doors for countless others like you to rise to the top based on merit alone. The impossible dream has now become a reality.
What if I were to tell you that the name of this B+ player is Bryan Lloyd Danielson, also known as Daniel Bryan. This entire story that spanned 15 years was only told inside a professional wrestling ring. Hard to believe, huh…?
That is the magic of storytelling. What people often fail to realize is that Professional Wrestling is also a medium for storytelling, and if used right, can deliver gut-wrenching and emotional narratives that simply can not be found elsewhere.
Every performer has a character. These range from corporate bosses to charismatic rebels, to high school jerks, to even walking dead men. I am not kidding on that last one.
Every character has an archetype whether its a Hero, Villain or Anti-Villain. Every character has a narrative and a story arc. From the moment they step through the curtain to the moment they step back, they are telling a story. That too, in front of a live audience and broadcasted worldwide on National Television. Professional Wrestling is like a play, except that it emphasizes physicality.
There are countless heartfelt stories similar to Daniel Bryan that I can discuss for hours on end. The key takeaway is that the fundamental cogs needed for one to understand how to tell a story are all present inside the squared circle.
Two men can convey a powerful message without uttering a single word in 10 mins that plenty of movies with their convoluted and over the top dialogue can not.
That is because Professional Wrestling is not a sport, it is a form of entertainment. It is a work of art.
I personally learned so much from Wrestling that I simply couldn’t learn anywhere else. That is why I believe that if executed right, Pro-Wrestling can be the ideal medium to learn storytelling.
