Welcome to Wrestling School

No Comments25 August 9:01
Welcome to wrestling school!

 

This isn’t about fitness. I want to create a space where your body feels accommodated and celebrated, where you’re given the support and help you need to be a lasvicious land mine of spandex and lace in that pool.

 

This series of articles will talk about creating your own character, costuming your grappler alter ego, and working the crowd.

 

But before the bestowment, I feel it’s worthwhile to talk about why Go Deep is getting in bed, so to speak, with scripted gimmicks, character catfights and trash talking. Go Deep is a flustering hive of healing and empowerment. And not just for us, the performers–the audience can and often do come away from it changed; rubbed the right way, even! And though there’s no discounting the obvious appeal of lubed ladies wrestling to oldies, I think there’s something deeper, and perhaps more importantly, more sustainable, at play. Most of our attendees come in on the guest list — they have an investment in attending the event, and, when their friend/partner/coworker takes to the pool, they have an investment in participation, as an audience member. And that’s good in the moment, but it doesn’t encourage repeat attendance or participation from the general public in a larger way.

 

Let’s give them something to be invested in throughout the night. Let’s engage them, on a personal and emotional level the entire night.

 

Characters & Storylines Encourage Audience Investment

 

At the August event, I had two girlfriends, one ex-girlfriend, a metamour and all three of my roommates and their paramours in attendance.

 

And they all booed the shit out of me. One of them threw shit at me from the stairs while I was wrestling. They booed, so the entire club followed suit.

 

 

In pro wrestling, we call this “heat”. The audience — even if they know that you’re otherwise an okay person — still wants to boo and jeer and heckle you when you’re being a “bad guy”. They want to participate in the narrative of what you’re creating.

 

It goes both ways. There are a lot of “good guys” in wrestling that are, on the outside, really unpleasant, but get massive — pops, we call them —when they defeat the bad guy or do well because people want to participate. Even if it means going with the herd. Especially if it means going with the herd.

 

Now if we can engage the audience with characters and jokes and outlandish antics, for two to three hours, you’ve given the audience, regardless of who they came to support, something to be a part of, something larger than themselves, for a night.

 

By Working Together We Are Able To Exist

 

The fans want to support what we’re doing. And if we can provide them the experience of a united, coherent show with a sustainable space that can endure, cooperatively, this entices people to support us.

 

The event is extremely costly to produce. There are admin costs, promotional costs, also the costs of setting up and tearing down, DJs and a staff of people to support. Supperclub has committed to having our event in their space for the duration of the year. They did this after seeing the support we had, but as we have this commitment it’s important to make sure we follow through. By making the event more attractive

 

Rather than put the onus on the fan to support individual performers, we can direct their attention (and their tips!) towards supporting Go Deep as a whole, which can then in turn better accommodate us as performers and volunteers.

 

Okay, Also: It’s Fun To Play Pretend

 

I love being the bad guy. I love getting booed, the bitter banter between me and Dottie — it’s the best. I have never felt as good about my body and truly believed in people’s attraction to it as I do now, getting into the pool. So take risks. Wear facepaint. Try a Southern accent. Ride a toy horsey. Make the most of this magic circle.

 

Dressing skimpy and allowing someone access to your body to bodyslam you, to wedgie and tease you — it’s scary. It’s scary and at times it can feel so so daunting but you know what, you don’t have to fail. You don’t have to be scared. Let some prettied up pantomime take the fall for you. Let your alter ego fall on her ass. The differences between wrestling and burlesque/stripping/sex work are a hairline fracture.

 

  • Both born at the carnival.
  • Both obsessed with appearances.
  • Both employ pumped up personas and exaggerations of our true selves.
  • Both make use of the body for entertainment.
  • Both are at the mercy of making a connection with the audience.

 

And, Like Pro Wrestling, Having Gimmicks Will Make You & Your Body Safer

 

There is a huge margin of error not matter how choreographed you are to accidentally get hurt in the ring. We have different bodies with different needs, and when you go into the pool without an understanding of the other person’s limits and anxieties, when you compete, you can hurt someone really bad.

 

And you don’t mean to. It’s slippery, there’s a lot of people cheering, and you want the bragging rights. Telling a story together can be just as hot and rewarding as a legitimate fight, and even more so if you, like me, plan out your moves ahead so you can have exactly the type of performance you wanted (quelle horreur! My two person bodyslam was a stunt!).

 

Telling a story effectively, and getting the audience along with it, and getting good photos of that story–that can be so gratifying. And safe. And consensual. And leave your body feeling good enough to do it next month! Or even next week, if you wrestle for work.

 

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll publish more lessons on this page, which will cover:

 

1. How to create a wrestling persona.
2. Performing as the character (good guy vs bad guy, talking to the crowd/trash talking your opponent).
3. Basic grapples and how to communicate with your opponent before/during your match.
4. Managers, Commentators, Agents and other vital non-wrestling skills/roles, for those who are a little gunshy about trying to go full GLOW.
In the meantime, here is some recommended viewing:

 

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