I watched Faking It last night, the one where the ballet dancer trains to be a professional wrestler. I was expecting it to be yet another misrepresentation of wrestling by the ‘mainstream’ media, but it was actually quite good; it conveyed wrestling in a generally positive light, despite what I felt was a bit too much emphasis on the aggressive aspect.
I mean, it’s an aggressive, high-impact profession, but the the focus of the show – a ballet dancer given one month to train to be a wrestler – by virtue of his background, would have been better arrogant than aggressive. I guess that’s the way it ended up anyway, with his ‘dandy highwayman’ character (which I thought was quite funny actually, it suited him), but if I was just a casual viewer, I don’t think I would have got that.
However, there was a distinct lack of the typically brutish, sweaty Giant Haystacks type in the programme. The guys from Hammerlock were articulate (there goes the stereotype) and came across as genuinely nice guys. As a matter of fact, I’ve read a lot about Andre Baker and his promotion in Power Slam over the years, it was good to finally see him in action.
Update: Woke up at 8am this morning, looked at the TV which was strangely still on from the night before, and what did I see? An interview on the Big Breakfast with the wrestling ballet dancer. I hope they’re not going to make a big deal out of this. It seemed like such a revelation to them this morning that anyone with the build of a ballet dancer could make it as a wrestler. People, get yourself over to Mexico and see the luchadores in action.