Negation Aspiration vol. 215

I’m not sure how to say this, exactly, but the Firefly Fun House match on night two of WrestleMania 36 was art. I’m not saying that to be twee, or to do a hacky “actually pro wrestling is an art form you philistines” thing. I truly believe it was art, because unlike some of even the best professional wrestling matches, it challenged me. It required a second viewing, and a frame-by-frame breakdown to understand it on the level upon which I believe it was intended to be understood. It contains complex character work, introspection, and a deep history lesson from WWE, a company we (and especially I) don’t give credit to or expect to present ANY of those things in its product.

I’m going to try to break it down here and make sense of it, both for you and for myself. Keep in mind that I could be completely off on all of this, but hey, it wouldn’t be the first time. Stick with me until we get to the end.

The Best And Worst Of WWE WrestleMania 36: Understanding The Firefly Fun House Match

less a classic match than an existential post-modern nightmare TV deconstruction of the dominant paradigms that guide not just the past 35 years of mainstream pro-wrestling narratives, but indeed all the forms of hero worship that consume collective populist mythology:

"That’s what the past 15 years of WWE was built on. Convincing kids that the best person was the one who could be the funniest, hurt you the most, and make you feel the worst."

taking the long-time viewer back to a time when these "icons" were all wonder & magic & right about everything, only to snap-propel them forward to a present where those once celebrated idols, when held away from the carefully placed light of their fabricated contexts, are revealed to be incalculably malignant hypocrites... that their vulgar cruelty, vicious narcissism, spiteful insensitivity, and instantaneous deference to raw ballistic anger when faced with the rare instance of something not going their way was not only tolerated but rewarded simply because they were conventionally attractive or moderately witty or had more arms around them or they were just louder and bigger than you.

please read Brandon Stroud's write-up above for a better look.