Drama is an exceptional implement that discovers and conveys human emotion. It is a crucial form of behavior in all cultures and a major social activity. It triggers people to use their imagination and solving skills. It can also help develop a better understanding of the world and gives people a sense of purpose. Before a match and in a wrestling match, it is essential for writers and wrestlers to build drama for those aforementioned reasons but also because it generates suspense, tension and anticipation.
In literature, drama is the construction of tension and anticipation to build to a climax. A classic anecdote to explain drama is two people sitting at talking, a bomb goes off, and then they die. The problem with the story is it failed to create drama or suspense. The only candid emotion the story would get out of the audience is befuddlement. A way to create drama would be by allowing the audience to know there is a bomb. It is irrelevant whether the characters know or not. As long as the audience knows, it changes the dynamics of the scene. Injecting drama into a story is not enough. The drama also needs to augment, so something like the bomb having a timer would intensify the scene. These are the fundamentals of building drama. However, to establish an immense amount of drama, an author can interpose more elements into the story. For example, one character can be aware the bomb is present, both characters can know about the bomb and their dialogue can methodically intensify as the timer keeps ticking down, or both characters can brainstorm and then implement ways to prevent the bomb going off.
A story building to a wrestling match must create anticipation, or else, it is meaningless. There needs to be something wrestling fans are intrigued to see. The reason(s) do not have to be complex, simply wanting to see who climbs the pecking order is enough. However, in order for that to happen, there needs to be a designed pecking order in the first place. Moreover, it needs to be established that the more wrestlers win, the more track they gain. Another way to create anticipation is by creating exciting matchups, a la seeing two or more wrestlers clash with a very diverse or similar style. Brawler vs. Technician can be intriguing due to of how different their strengths and weaknesses are, and Brawler vs. Brawler or Technician vs. Technician can be intriguing, too, to see what wrestler is the superior in-ring technician.
A common way promotions build pre-match build is by injecting heat into a feud. Heat is a wrestling term that simply means animosity between two or more wrestlers. A conflict creates heat, something that makes two or more wrestlers have an issue with each other. The most standard heat-filled conflict is when an antagonist does something atrocious to a protagonist. There is a handful of terrible things a heel can do to a babyface. They could injure them; they could win their title in an underhanded way; they could steal their girlfriend, etc. The ultimate objective is to make the fans want to see the protagonist seek his revenge and make the antagonist to pay for their sins.
Stipulations and ramifications are another way to create drama. A title match is most common ramification in wrestling, with two or more wrestlers wrestling each over a prestigious championship. Of course, there are so many other ways to add stipulations and ramifications, to establish a ‘something has to give’ feel to a match. Recently, AJ Styles proposed that if he defeated John Cena, Cena would have to admit Styles was better than he was. This created intrigue because Styles is such an arrogant and conceited wrestler while Cena prides himself on his toughness, so admitting anyone is better than he is, never mind AJ Styles, would be emotionally strenuous for him. But, because of WWE’s cop-out booking, failing to fulfill promises, WWE never made Cena say it to Styles.
In the ring, there are a variety of ways to create drama. Wrestlers working the traditional babyface vs. heel rasslin’ style is a common way to build drama. Rasslin’ was a southern wrestling style wrestling that emphasized kayfabe and stiffness and typically had long matches and feuds. Its styled formula was simple but effective. The match begins with the babyface’s shine period, with the babyface completely dominating the heel and dodging everything the he throws at him. In smarter matches, the story establishes the babyface is superior due his power, speed, agility, wrestling skills, etc.
The next part is when the heel takes over the match. This could have happened for a variety of reasons, the heel could have cheated the heel could have discovered a weakness, or the babyface could have failed to deliver high-spot, etc. The heel will then meticulously deliberate the pace of the match. A seasoned heel will pay attention to the crowd’s reactions to get a better understanding of the proper times for the babyface’s hope-spots; the proper times to cut-off the babyface’s comeback babyface; and then the proper time for the babyface to make his full comeback. After the babyface makes his full comeback, this is usually when the match becomes chaotic, spiraling out of control.
Both wrestlers will attempt to finish the match, urgently trying to hit their trademark spots and finishers. The formula is simple, but the twist and turns the psychology, personalities, crowd reading, pacing and structuralism can make it a dramatic classic. Of course, the Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair battles defines the style. Their realism, steady progression to the crescendo, roller coaster-esque drama building, layered storytelling and effortless transitions bringing the match to each building point was simply a work of art.
However, All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in the 1990s designed the most dramatic and sophisticated style called King’s Road. The style had many of the characteristics strong-style had but what made it unique was its layered storytelling and overall attention to detail. Its best trait was its long developing storytelling lasting for years. Its wrestlers would lose from doing something wrong, so their strategy for the rematch would be to avoid making that same mistake or mistakes, and another example would be wrestler using the same keys that helped them win the first match.
AJPW’s wrestlers did not just build the match’s drama but also built their characters. The stories were about the wrestlers using a variety of strategies and game plans best suited for whom they wrestled. They were chess-matches and battles of perseverance. Wrestlers like Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue solidified themselves as the best in workers ever by mastering this complex style.
Nowadays, WWE builds its in-ring drama through pacing, innovating reversals and shocking near-falls. WWE establishes a number of wrestlers’ moves as uncounterable, creating astonishment whenever a wrestler counters it. Whenever a move is countered often, WWE findsnew ways for wrestlers to counter it. The drama is established by the dynamics of the to and fro nature of the match. Correctly done, fans will eagerly anticipate who will land the deathblow to put the other wrestler away. Creating near-falls off moves that naturally end a match is an effective way to inject drama into a match. It adds a shock element into the match, as the fans expected the match to be finished. It can also establish a wrestler as more courageous and strong-willed. WWE sometimes overuses this technique, marring the infrequency of it and credibility of the move itself, a while WWE’s roster is perfect for this style, the company uses the style in almost all its matches. Even if its wrestlers overcome its triteness, it still feels rather homogenized.
Not even 10 years ago, WWE was better at creating unique stories for matches. The wrestlers were not nearly as athletic nor sound as their wrestlers are today, but many of them made it up by embodying their persona and story of the match by using body language, facial expressions, and mannerisms and by telling palpable in-ring stories. They made up their less-than-stellar move sets and scientific inabilities by adding emotion and passion into the match, something that creates more drama because of emotional investment.
Undertaker vs. Edge at SummerSlam 2008 is an ideal modernized match that demonstrated everything into together to create epic drama. Smackdown’s creative staff exquisitely constructed pre-match drama. With help from La Famila, Edge defeated Undertaker in a TLC match with the stipulation being Undertaker had to leave WWE if he lost. Edge had to face Undertaker, though, because Vickie Guerreo reinstated Undertaker to get back at Edge for cheating on her before their wedding. Edge knew he had no chance of beating Undertaker by himself in an Undertaker’s specialty match…a Hell in a Cell match.
Edge looked to Mick Foley for advice, since he went toe to toe with Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match in 1998, to gain a perspective and understanding of how to strategize for the match. Foley told Edge he needed to find the opportunistic, sadistic and merciless persona he once had. Edge snapped digging down deep, arcing his character into a psychotic Heath Ledger, playing the Joker, like persona. He also turned on La Famila, telling them they should fear him more than they fear the Undertaker. By virtue of Smackdown’s layered storytelling and Edge’s incredible personification of a psychopath, the drama was off the charts even without the Undertaker appearing once on television.
The match was beautifully constructed and narrated too. Edge’s loose cannon persona allowed him to be a believable threat to the Undertaker. He took him to the limit, using his fearless mood and in-ring quickness and cleverness to seize the underhand. However, Undertaker was still too much for him to handle. Undertaker took control of the match and then made Edge pay for all his sins. By copying every inhumane thing Edge did to Undertaker over their half of a year feud, Undertaker got his revenge and gave Edge the comeuppance he deserved in a matter of minutes.
Ultimately, drama in wrestling is pivotal because it builds tension, suspense and anticipation. There are many of ways to build drama before and during a match, but it is important to create drama because it creates intriguing questions that will later be answered. Storytelling is uneventful without drama because without it, there is no purpose, and without purpose, everything is irrelevant.
