I grew up a BIG wrestling fan. For all the television I watch, this fact actually about me still surprises some people when I tell them. But if a wrestling event or storyline happened any time in the 1990s, I probably remember it. First Monday Night Raw? Check. Shawn Michaels betraying Marty Jannetty while being interviewed by Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake? Check. Bret Hart’s last match at Survivor Series ’97? I was there.
One thing that professional wrestling does really well is reinventing its characters. There are two types of reinventions. The first is the conversion of a character from good guy to bad guy. Best example of this? Hulk Hogan, America’s hero, joining the NWO and becoming the baddest man on the planet.
Then there is my favorite type of reinvention: When a character is killed off and the wrestler comes back as a totally different personality. Case in point: Kane. Kane is supposed to be the deformed, half-brother of the Undertaker. A little scary yes, especially for an 11 year old. But then, much like a child finding out the truth about Santa, I found out that Kane was in fact played by the same man who played Dr. Isaac Yankem, dentist by day, evil wrestler by night. But somehow it worked. People forgot about Yankem and grew to love the eventual Heavyweight champion Kane.
I’ve never been one for comparisons. At least comparisons that make sense. But hopefully my wrestling analogies will work in my reporting on the new blog for New Voices, the national Jewish student magazine. According to their blog, they are starting a blog!
The truth is that they have had a blog for a little while now but according to today’s post by new editor Ben Sales, the blog will now be a regular feature for the magazine. It will be updated every day and will feature students from across the country. If you or your kid would be interested in writing, you should visit their site.
Did my comparisons between New Voices and wrestling make sense? Or did I just want to rant about the WWF? I think that question is left unanswered.
