Wrestlers can see the future. Oh, not a whole lot of it. And within the fiction, they don’t realize they can. But we, those who care about them, know that they carry the foreknowledge of their wins and losses to the ring with them, in their bodies and their faces. We scan them anxiously, wondering if we can spot the awareness of victory or failure in their stance, in their eyes. Obviously we shouldn’t technically…
Tag: Kevin Owens
Part 4 of the Road to R-Evolution: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Kevin uploads a new episode of his Weekend Escapades web series on January 1, 2014, covering the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It features the usual shenanigans: Kevin blearily explaining his next few shows in the pre-dawn dimness, filming Colt Cabana taking a shower, wandering around Chicago in the dark, admiring the Christmas lights of Muncie Indiana. Near…
[Content warning for discussions of suicidal ideation.] In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker arrives on Dagobah to begin his Jedi training. We see him meet Yoda, see him lifting objects and being lectured by his teacher, see him confront the apparition of Darth Vader. It’s implied that he’s on the planet for a month, maybe two. All this goes by in about 30 minutes on the screen; two months of Luke’s life compressed into…
(Part 2 of a series putting together Sami and Kevin’s timelines in 2013-2014: Part 1 is here). Putting together the beginnings of Kevin and El Generico’s story is like assembling a crazy quilt: scraps of cloth in a dozen different colors and shapes that sometimes don’t fit together quite right anymore because some of the pieces have gone missing. So many snippets and loose ends, such a challenge to piece them together. 2013-2014 are a…
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are going to be back in action again in the next few months, and everything is going to be great. That’s what Kevin thinks, at least, and we know because he’s told us so. When Sami Zayn went out with injuries to both of his shoulders in May 2018, Kevin spent the next five months reminding us of his best friend, Sami Zayn over and over again. If Sami were…
It’s February 2013, 2:12 AM, and Kevin Steen is sitting in front of a red curtain and a sign with red block letters taped to it spelling out “The Kevin Steen Show.” A Kane mask, pilfered from the Highspots warehouse, perches on the sign and glares down at him. On one side of Kevin is a wrestler who goes by Cheeseburger, who is kind of supposed to be Kevin’s co-host, but who will spend most…
I reach out and rest my hands on the barricade in front of me. Dan and I are in Brooklyn for SummerSlam 2018, and we’re in the very front row, on the end, right at the stairs to the ring. The crowd roars and rustles around me, and I cheer with delight as Seth Rollins wins the Intercontinental championship, groan with disappointment as the Bludgeon Brothers retain their titles. There’s a lot on the card…
My first love in wrestling was John Morrison. No, that’s not strictly correct. My first love was Starship Pain, his finisher: a flashy split-legged corkscrew moonsault, the first move I ever learned the name of. But over time I realized that it wasn’t the flashiness of it that I loved. When you took away the extra twists and the split-legged flip, the bells and whistles and glitz and glitter, what I loved at the heart…
Wrestling exists in a constant state of tension between dependence and independence, with storylines that are constantly playing out that anxiety, running through the options over and over. When is it wise to rely on others and when is it smart to walk away on your own? Seth Rollins betrays his brothers to achieve the pinnacle of success, but later admits the victory is hollow. Even worse, there’s the nagging suspicion he only traded in…
Telling a story in wrestling is basically like writing a play. Except that each scene is performed in front of a different audience, days or weeks or months apart. And you only get to do each scene once—there are no second takes. And there are no understudies, each role must be played by one and only one person; you can’t say “Oh, Sami sprained his knee, so this week the role of Sami Zayn will…