Professional wrestling is our guilty pleasure. We can’t explain professional wrestling. Fumi Saito, one of (if not) the most important Japanese wrestling journalists told me that we, as wrestling fans, can’t offer an explanation for the phenomenon that surrounds pro wrestling. He talked about the way the normal person reacts to wrestling, and how it’s almost stupid to justify our enjoyment of this art when everyone laughs at us. He talked about working for wrestling media, and how it meant to be at the center of the conversation.
See the world in white, understand in red.
It’s strange how professional wrestling can evoke many feelings in one person, and how it can be something permanent in us wrestling fans. Unlike other sports, pro wrestling doesn’t leave you. It lives inside of you. “We watch wrestling because it makes us believe in a better world”.
We watch pro wrestling because we believe in the heroes of our everyday. We watch pro-wrestling despite the darkness in this world, that pretends we can’t believe and let us loose by the hand of our own childish imagination. We forget this is something scripted, and that these wrestlers are portraying characters who have flaws. We want those with power to be punished because of the harm they do.
It’s always “We”, because “we” need justice to be served. That’s why Timothy Thatcher stabbing Chris Hero on his back with a deadly Saito Suplex is so special: It sets everything up for said justice to appear.
For a hero to fight.
Hero returned to professional wrestling last week, and he was going to stand up against the monster in Thatcher. Hero’s role in West Coast Pro Wrestling is behind the curtain. He is West Coast’s matchmaker, and he prides himself on the impact that this promotion has made in the industry. In an independent scene that’s looking to thrive, West Coast competes with Deadlock Pro Wrestling to see who’s the better company.
Hero is building West Coast’s legacy, and he can’t allow anyone to attend against what already is his home, and the place he protects with his life. After all, Hero’s career was not built in the big scenarios and the bright lights, but the dirty yet mythical school gyms, bingo halls, and little venues he has wrestled in.
The eternal hero of independent professional wrestling formed his legacy in front of 100 rabid fans or less, and he started building an aura. An idea started surrounding Hero. The myth of the best wrestler in the world. He, alongside CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, and Homicide became part of the most historic generation of talents in the indie circuit, and Hero’s name rose to the top of the conversation on his own terms.
We’re currently in the last months of 2023, and with wrestlers like Eddie Kingston being successful and defending two championships at once from Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling, one can notice this trend of classic indie wrestlers earning recognition for all the years they spent fighting for the people.
Hero, on the other side, decided to return to in-ring action in his current home: West Coast. Hero stood in front of a ruthless and merciless Thatcher, and despite his obvious ring rust, he didn’t let his rival beat him. Three years of hiatus came to an end that night, and Hero showed us he was rebuilding the machine since his three-year-long hiatus.
A three-year-long hiatus stopped any activity but was enough for Hero to recover and show Thatcher the severe mistake he made by provoking him. Hero’s technique and violence were equal to those of Thatcher, and his tactics were starting to become more desperate, looking to defeat Hero once and for all. Hero wrestled like a veteran, and he didn’t have any issue in starting fights or playing a little bit dirty, because despite having “Hero” on his name, one feels seduced by the aspect of cheating or playing around when an apparent dark cloud is in front of you.
When the villain plays dirty, you need to return the favor in order for them to pay for what they have done to you and your close ones.
That’s why a return to in-ring action means so much for Hero, because he got to send Thatcher to a house of pain he knows very well. Despite Thatcher’s aura and dangerous background, Hero got to close a chapter once and for all, defeating his rival and bringing the justice we believe in in the form of a Fujiwara Armbar. The justice only a hero could bring in this dark, dark world. The justice that makes us believe in pro-wrestling when everyone criticizes it. The justice the world needs.
Maybe that’s why we watch pro wrestling.
Maybe that’s why we can’t allow anyone to take away our imagination and our hope. Maybe, and despite the darkness that surrounds this wicked world, we watch pro wrestling to believe. Believe in a bright light that appears whenever you need it. Believe in the illusion of a better world. Believe in heroes. Believe in Chris Hero, the only man who can make said light appear at any time. The hero that makes us feel loved, and motivates us to continue in this game called life.
The hero that can bring that light that no one will turn off.
