Working on Weakness

In pro wrestling, it is common practice among Heels to target the opponent’s weakness — to discover where he is injured and sadistically focus the attack on that body part.

Joey Ryan’s shoulder was injured early in the 2010 Battle of Los Angeles tournament, but he refused to quit.  Instead, he bravely (foolishly) went into his match against Austin Aries with a bandage  on his shoulder.

Of course Aries focused on that injured shoulder right away, ripping off the bandages as if he were ripping off flesh.  He then drove his elbows and knees into the injured area, twisted the upper arm into sick contortions, and “worked” on the damaged joint for most of the match. This was great ring psychology, and it honored a tradition in classic pro wrestling —  focusing on one body part!

Aries pauses the match and grabs a microphone to offer Joey Ryan a chance to quit.  When Ryan refuses to quit (because he is the determined and courageous hero),  Aries promises to break his shoulder.  (Damn, I love when wrestlers issue cruel threats like that!)  Then Aries puts Ryan in a painful Arch hold to make good on his promise.

Some say the purpose of pro wrestling is to depict the endurance and pain tolerance of the heroic man (in this case, Joey Ryan).  He is being tortured basically — given the choice of surrendering or suffering bodily harm.  The strength and super-human pain tolerance of brave, hairy chested Joey are the themes of the match as the fans watch him suffer endless abuse on his purportedly injured shoulder.

Aries, meanwhile, plays an aloof, sadistic, vicious, arrogant opportunist — craftily using his opponent’s misfortune to his advantage.  He represents the sneaky rich and powerful people, the hated One-Percenters, who’ve gotten ahead in life by taking short-cuts and using people.  We all hate bastards like that (but their unbridled greed and arrogance can be a masochistic turn-on for some reason.)

A Hero is a person who overcomes the odds (especially a good-looking person who overcomes the odds.)   The fans are delighted when handsome Joey is able to forget about the horrible shoulder pain to defeat the under-handed villain.

Joey Ryan continued in the tournament and faced several other Bad Boys who knew of his shoulder injury and targeted it for abuse.  This is the sort of match (or series of matches in this case) that really gets inside your head.  This gimmick of deliberately targeting an injured man’s weakness and staying on that body part — of telling an opponent exactly what you’re going to do to him —  really works psychologically for wrestling fans.  It positions the hurt victim as both helpless and uber-masculine.  It portrays an almost kinky scene of Bondage and Domination as the sadist (Aries) continues to provide his prey with abuse, and the masochist (Ryan) continues to absorb it.

I won’t spoil the ending, but let’s just say you should go order Battle of Los Angeles 2010 from Pro Wrestling Guerrilla if you want to watch Joey Ryan suffer endlessly.