Harnessing the Power of Momentum: The Thrill of Wrestling's Shadows

Everything in that world of elevated and improbable characters is larger than life, even the storylines, which become gladiatorial conflicts. But nothing grips the collective imagination more than the eruption of the monstrous in the pure strangeness of the wrestling ‘heel’. Now, this is a study in momentum.

THE RISE OF THE WRESTLING MONSTERS

It has been my wont to associate the grim, shocking appearances of wrestling’s most deranged egomaniac, Bray Wyatt, with the ultimate, inexorable, deathly presence of the supernatural Undertaker. The latter is essentially the burial of the former, its logical conclusion. These competitors were as much hung upon the wave as anyone or anything; it was not physically manifest movement but momentum as narrative force that wrestling leans upon.

MOMENTUM'S ROLE IN CRAFTING ICONS

A wrestling monster isn’t just built on brute force, it’s built on narrative. It’s more than just beating up people for sport – it’s building a character that moves forward into the audience’s psyche and their imaginations. As we have seen with Bray Wyatt’s evolution, his creation isn’t about winning a record number of matches, it’s about moving creatively so rewardingly that the fans are drawn in, that they are compelled to be along for the ride as his character evolves and grows.

THE DOWNFALLS AND TURNS: MOMENTUM'S DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

No matter, however: the kind of momentum that elevates these characters to stardom is also the momentum that can cause their undoing. Professional wrestling is filled with stories of heel characters who turn babyface – and who, in turning, take the energy with which they were a heel and leak it out of their wicked persona, virulently, in painfully short order. Once that momentum turns, good or bad, the storyline changes, and that endurance that gave the character depth gets re-directed. Momentum seems to have a finite capacity: too much of it in the wrong direction and characters can be run off course of what made them compelling to begin with.

UNCLE HOWDY: THE NEXT CHAPTER IN WRESTLING'S DARK SAGA

Cue the return of Uncle Howdy, a step in the right direction to fill the shoes (or, perhaps more accurately, the creepy mask) left behind by Bray Wyatt. Cleary, we’re craving the reemergence of the mythical monster archetype in professional wrestling. And surely, Wyatt looms large over his successor, whose spotlight existed in the shadow of a past that is anything but forgotten. Can Uncle Howdy recreate the creepy allure, the narrative depth, the ability to play in mythic scales that made Wyatt a bonafide phenomenon? Me thinks it is… yes it is.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENT MOMENTUM

Momentum, for Uncle Howdy and any wrestling character, is keeping the ball rolling, finding ways to tweak and evolve into something fresh, and for every appearance, every promo and every match to add another layer onto the story you’re telling; that build, that anticipation and intrigue – that’s what keeps fans invested and keeps characters relevant.

WOULD UNCLE HOWDY REIGNITE THE WRESTLING WORLD?

Once again, the masses of the WWE Universe hold their collective breath, watching to see if Uncle Howody can conjure up enough momentum to become the next scary wrestling celebrity, or if he’ll simply end up as a biographical entry in the history books that Inoki calls ‘the archive of the night’ – the annals of the men and women who operate in the shadows of sports entertainment, the stuff of which legends are made. In any event, the legacy of Bray Wyatt and the men and women he’s followed (and perhaps paved the way for) provides us with both models and paradoxes for the future.

UNDERSTANDING MOMENTUM IN WRESTLING

What I mean by momentum is not a physical back-and-forth, but a back-and-forth of character storytelling, an emotional back-and-forth of the audience, a story structure – this is what gives a feud momentum. When momentum is created, a character just gets bigger and bigger until they become a legend. If you have momentum in your favour, people want to see you. This is what momentum is. If you have momentum in wrestling, you are going to dominate the landscape. The reason why this is so important is because wrestling, by nature, is an artificial medium. It is two guys hugging each other in the middle of a ring, and that’s it.

In imagining the possible trajectory of wrestling’s new monsters, we’re left with at least one final certainty: at the heart of their rise and fall is the simple, everlasting rule of momentum. To successfully create narrative within the world of wrestling is really to fully understand how to harness and project momentum in a way that captivates audiences and leaves them hooked.