I’ve blogged before about my attraction to the Safe Partner — the Tag Team partner outside the ropes watching the in-ring destruction of his mate but unable to assist or participate in the match.
I seem to accumulate many photos of Safe Partners — leaning on the ropes, looking concerned, excited, eager, or frustrated. When I see images like this, my finger automatically right-clicks and selects “Save Image As…” before I even get a good look at him.
I checked out some of my old Blogs on this topic and I’m pretty happy with what I’ve written on this topic already. Revisit these old articles if you want to know more about the ironic appeal of this otherwise boring, uneventful pose: Voyeurism, Watchmen 1, and Watchmen 2.
There ain’t no rest for the wrestler. Even when he is outside the ropes, uninvolved in the action, he is still on the clock. We expect him to continue performing for us and to look good while doing it.
Depending on his personality, there are many ways for the Safe Partner to advance the story of the match from his position outside the ropes. He can reach eagerly for a Tag to build suspense, or start a group clap to inspire his partner, or bitch at the ref for being so blind and stupid.
Even just standing still and watching can reveal more of the story — the story of his helplessness, passivity, emasculation, and ineffective weakness — unable to rescue his friend and partner.
One great thing about attending a live pro wrestling show (which I do all too rarely) is that you can watch whatever you want to watch. You aren’t reliant on a cameraman to interpret a scene or capture the best images for you. You’re only restrained by your eyesight and the speed at which you can move your gaze around.
Sometimes during a great Tag Team match, I may just keep my eyes glued to one specific wrestler the whole time, whether he is inside or outside the ropes. And I’m allowed to look at him — I’m supposed to look at him — for once in my life, it’s OK to stare and gawk and leer.
When I first wrote about my interest in the Safe Partner in an article called Voyeurism on March 4th 2011, I wrote:
“I wish they’d use a split screen when televising pro wrestling, the action in the ring shown side-by-side with a view of the Safe Partner and his endless bitching and worrying. Someone should invent that — I’d pay extra for it.”
Well I am excited to say that I think we’re getting close to having the technology to see any camera shot we wish — to direct for ourselves which camera’s image we want to view at any given time. There is now an App that you can watch on your tablet during WWE broadcasts that shows you alternative images and action during the commercial breaks.
Why couldn’t a wrestling program broadcast the view from EVERY available camera’s feed simultaneously to an App, and allow the viewer to click on which camera’s shots he wishes to view? We have the technology now, right?
If the viewer enjoys watching the Safe Partner outside the ropes for example, he could just watch the one camera feed that constantly displays the Safe Partner. Or, a REALLY obsessed viewer (like me) could set up multiple tablets and display each camera’s image to one of the tablets. By mounting the tablets on the wall, he could watch the match from every possible angle at once!
More and more people are turning off their televisions and turning to the Internet for entertainment because television is a passive experience but the Internet is active. You are in control.
Giving the viewer the power to control the camera angle, to look through whichever lens he wishes, to stare at a particular actor in a scene offers that active, empowered role that television currently lacks. You may laugh at this idea now, but I just bet this feature is coming soon.
So hurry up, wrestling federations — give me the power of U-Control, or I-Camera, or Empower-TV, whatever you want to call it!
And when you do, please be sure to keep some of the cameras focused on the Safe Partner (front and back) — I promise at least one viewer will be watching from those angles.
This is a great topic. It touches on another topic that you’ve explored at least once over the years. Basically, when I first became erotically charged up by TV pro wrestlers when I was young, I got turned on by all of the introductory rituals as much as by the match itself. For example, when both wrestlers were already in the ring, in opposite corners, weraring their ring jackets, and initially the camera was focused on the ring announcer in the center, I would strain to see the wrestlers just on the edge of the screen, to see if either of them was hot, and if it was my lucky day, one or both of them would have classic pro trunks extending just below their jackets, the pecs and the bulge given that much more attention because of the half-opened jacket, and even the waiting, hands-on-hips pose as they waited to be introduced could get me stroking away. To this day, I’m more turned on by a hot young wrestler who appears a bit humble and restrained as he waits at the turnbuckle during his introduction than by some flamboyant guy over-doing it. (And don’t get me started on my orgasmic reaction to the traditional body/trunks/boots inspection by the ref.)