Showing Restraint

In a Tag Team wrestling match, the two wrestlers on each team are supposed to alternate positions inside the ring, one exiting as the other enters.  Invariably, one team will ignore this rule and begin to work together on a single opponent.  One partner will restrain the opponent, pinning back his arms, while the other kicks or elbows the helpless victim or slugs him in the gut.  This evokes a host of feelings in the viewer:  compassion for the trapped man with his arms restrained and his body exposed; a sadistic thrill over the nastiness and cruelty of the cheaters as they out-number and overwhelm their isolated opponent; frustration at the clueless and ineffective official who is unable to enforce the rules.  It’s so unfair (I love it!)

One of the strangest rules in any sport is the “Five Count Rule” in Tag Team Wrestling, which permits both partners to remain in the ring together following a tag to inflict two-on-one abuse until the ref counts slowly to five.  Certainly it doesn’t take five whole seconds for one man to get in the ring and the other to get out!  Hockey teams aren’t allowed to have extra skaters on the ice advancing the puck for 5 seconds during a shift change, so why do they permit this outrageous loop-hole in the rules of wrestling which has resulted in suffering and possibly injury for thousands of athletes over the decades??  Where can we write in to complain about this injustice?  Should we gather in public somewhere in a huge protest until they change the rules??

Actually, the excitement and appeal of pro wrestling comes from the drama evoked by a Baby-face fighting against all odds, the injustice of dirty cheaters using strength in numbers to enforce their will, the implied submission of a restrained body on display and awaiting abuse.  The Five Count Rule, which permits these sadistic displays of gut-punching and other two-on-one abuse multiple times per match are as important to the success of the pro wrestling industry as the money-shot is to the porn industry.

When the independent federation called “Ring of Honor” began, they were going to clean up the sport with a “Code of Honor” that every wrestler had to obey:

1. Shake hands before and after the match
2. No outside interference
3. No sneak attacks
4. No harming the officials
5. Any action causing a disqualification is a violation of the Code

The twisted fans, although they may scream and cry when the rules are being broken, actually would be bored to tears if everyone obeyed the above code.  Listing them in a very specific, straight-forward, and often repeated manifesto like the 10 Commandments actually served to make it more outrageous and exciting when the “Code” was deliberately ignored, which happened like 25 times per show, to the outrage and high dudgeon of the commentators.  A villain could evoke some cheap heat just by refusing to shake hands.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

As long as we’re examining the rules of Tag Team wrestling, there is also the matter of double-teaming in the corner.  Besides exploiting the Five Count Rule, some Tag Teams drag one opponent over to their corner where the outside partner holds his arms back so the inside partner can punish the ensnared prey.  The officials should have zero tolerance for this unfair violence, yet the refs often stand there shaking their finger and tsk tsk-ing as the abuse continues. What if a boxer’s manager interfered in a match, restraining the opponent so his boxer could inflict a few body shots or kidney punches?  Wouldn’t there be an immediate disqualification and possibly a law-suit??

Can’t they position the outside Tag Team partner further away from the ring, perhaps on a platform a few yards away, or place a barrier like a plexi-glass screen between him and the ring so he can’t interfere?  Maybe he should wait in a cage or box or wearing cuffs until the inside partner releases him and they quickly trade positions.  But if they changed the rules to ensure fairness, tag team wrestling would lose the very violence and cruelty, the sex appeal, that the fans crave.

Pro wrestling will always be popular because it scratches a certain itch for the  fans, whether they’ll admit it or not: I believe wrestling fans, people in general, have a masochistic streak and want to experience a little abuse and unfairness so they have something to grouse and complain about. People don’t necessarily want to feel pain themselves, but they do enjoy seeing their hero, an object of worship, in pain.  When the fans fall in love with a popular wrestler, the bookers are quick to unleash a barrage of cruel and outrageous agony for that Baby-face, giving his eager fans plenty to scream and cry about, and they go home drained, excited, and thinking about the incredible scenes of torture they just observed.

The fans identify with the hero and will tune in or buy tickets to witness (and experience, vicariously) the torture, humiliation, and agony felt by their blue-eyed, handsome hero as he is restrained and beaten down.  Ironically, when fans support and cheer for a wrestler, they’re actually setting him up for punishment, gut punching, and degradation in all his future matches.  And, in a classic vicious cycle, his suffering will, in turn, feed on the wide-spread feelings of compassion for him and the growing support for him.  Everyone seems to love a punching-bag.