Ripped To Shreds: The Twilight Zone
NOTE: Just to clarify, this is about wrestling, even though the first part of this column does not make any direct references to wrestling.
He entered through the gates, and realized there was something different about where he now was. It was not the world he had known and lived in for his entire life. Eerily and strangely, he could sense that people around him had been duped to believe what was not real. But deep down, he was pondering the question of whether or not these people were believing a lie, or believing the reality of another realm. A realm where humans could still retain the memories from which their normal lives took place, but with the glaring exception of retaining the logic of that world.
A realm of perception where everyone was free to physically leave when ever they pleased, but also where leaving mentally proved to be a much more difficult task. He feared for his own well being, and at the same time he questioned whether or not he actually wanted to leave. But during his physical stay, he managed to see the words that shattered this other dimension, which he then realized had only existed in his own imagination the entire time. A gray piece of parchment from his native world had made its way into this one, and the script seemingly leaped out at him. While nothing physically changed, the logic that was familiar to him suddenly returned. This place was no longer special or unique to him, and he departed, with the only physical object he took away from there being a small, rectangular red and white piece of paper with words that no longer had the same meaning.
This is not a column about people’s enjoyment of something being ruined by the revealing of the truth behind a long running lie. What you are about to read concerns the potential ramifications of two similar, yet decisively different worlds eventually, and probably, meeting full speed in a head on collision. One world that is grounded in a set of distinct physical and mental laws that are generally impossible to break. The other, a world where the laws of nature and human limits can be set and broken in any manner a person wishes inside their own mental dwellings. However, mental capacity has boundaries, and the concept of mind over matter will prove to only be so strong.
One world is said to have been created over 4 billion years ago, being a relatively small piece of what was at one point in time a gargantuan collection of matter. According to the widely accepted theories, this world became an independent entity by its forced separation from the matter due to extreme levels of density and temperature. Save for it’s intelligent life with mental disorders such as schizophrenia, this world generally does not produce people who can change their personalities and the level of their character and personal values in a mere instant. This world enforces laws of physics that can not be broken. Gravity applies in all areas except in special, man altered circumstances. Anything without light will be in darkness. Every effect has a cause. Violence will spur pain, and whilst all humans have different levels of will and tolerance, all individuals of this world can only endure so much physical punishment before serious, irreversible effects take their toll. This is the world of unwavering nature.
The other is a world that was born out of a low brow man made aspect of the former, and eventually developed an atmosphere that could sustain relatively absurd elements compared to the aforementioned realm. This latter universe not only has inhabitants that can transform their character traits in the blink of an eye, but their personas can often times go to extremes that are very rarely seen in the other. This world will allow for it’s occupants to have extraordinarily high thresholds of pain, or thresholds that are extraordinarily low. A form of physical attack that is a near coup de gras when performed by one particular individual can have a much greater effect than when it is executed by someone else, in spite of how superior their power, speed, or technique may be. In many instances these people will tend to suffer more from the same physical inflictions than people of the natural world, but on not too atypical occasions they will be able to survive some of the most vicious forms of brutality. The logic is different here, as people’s actions can seemingly be unexplainable, but frequently appear as understandable in the eyes of other dwellers of this realm. This is the world of the beyond.
The beyond, as stated before, was created from a man made aspect of the natural world. Therefore it is, at it’s very core, essentially grounded in a foundation of the natural world from which it came. But while the physical and mental laws of the natural world are not governed by man, the residents of the beyond are the ones who dictate their own laws. As long as their laws don’t extend too far from the laws of the natural world from which their domain came, anything they wish to be real can be real. They create their own atmosphere to sustain their lives. There is a catch, as there is only one, yet devastating way to destroy this, and as you will later discover, it is can have catastrophic results the likes of which no natural disaster has ever brought about.
A room with four walls is a private quarter. But a room with only one, two or three walls is an entrapment for our captivation. The people within these ill structured settings must go about their existences under the glaring eyes of the public. Whatever ordeals they face are open to be seen for the pleasure and interests of anyone who pleases. We may laugh at them, we may cry for them. Their victories are our delights. Their downfalls are our disenchantments. We may not always understand them, although we do know them. We invade the privacy that they don’t have. But they do not see us. For it to truly be a separate room that they are in by themselves, they must treat it as such. Four physical walls may not be present, but in the mind of the room occupants, they are all there and to them no amount of light can pass through.
Prey tell, what do you call a room that does not even have one wall, in reality or in imagination? By definition it can not even be a room. But the world of the beyond does not fall into natural logic. The realm itself is a room with no boundaries, no set height, length, or width. Anyone may see into this room, but the men of the beyond are able to see you too. This is the only room of it’s kind that exists. This room is one big sub-world of the natural world. It’s occupants can see into the natural world just as much as you or I can. They acknowledge the people who temporarily come to visit them, as well as the entire world in which they both have knowledge of. Despite having no structural limits, this world can be demolished by the same people who keep it in tact.
Once an inhabitant of the beyond leaves their realm and steps into the natural world, they become their own ultraviolet radiation towards the O-Zone layer of their own atmosphere. The more prominent they become in the natural world, the more prominent they become in the minds of the people who step into this dimension. They become their own grim reaper, their own harvester of sorrow to themselves. This creates a strange contradiction for those who have been lead to believe all they could about a certain person from the beyond. One source, which has been a rock of solidarity for the truth their entire lives, is saying that a person, place, or thing is not what it is said to be. And there are those who sometimes want to believe a lie. The world of the beyond, to which people of the natural world do not belong, and has never certifiably given them any form of truth that is exclusive to their world yet is still undoubtedly real, is saying something dissimilar. It has told many lies, and trust can only be so strong.
With that, the mental image and perception people held of aspects to the beyond have now disappeared, and those aspects have now disappeared forever. Then people realize that those aspects were never real to begin with, but were merely a figment of their imagination. From then on, anytime they try to enter into the beyond, they realize that their own suspension of disbelief is what made this world real to begin with. A major element to that dimension was that they acknowledged anyone who entered, along with everything from the place from which they came. It is dependent on existing in your mind, which also contains the knowledge of your real world.
When reality collides with imagination, reality will almost always come out the victor. Anything that goes from our imagination into reality will stay in reality, and if it is something that can only exist in your imagination, it’s existence will come to an end.
****
Professional wrestling is a form of entertainment like no other. Yes, the words that come out of the performers’ mouths are the same words that are on the script for that evening’s show. Yes, the action that takes place is choreographed and is predetermined by the road agents. But while most other forms of entertainment take place inside their own fictional universe that is separated by an even more fictional aspect, the proverbial fourth wall, wrestling has no such thing. The fourth wall does not simply refer to the revealing of inside happenings that shouldn’t be discussed about on camera, but simply any actors’ acknowledgement of the audience. In wrestling the entertainers can see the audience is there, and they acknowledge them while the show is taking place. This means they must also recognize the knowledge that most people have. But like many shows, they want to do and convey things that they know are not real. Thus, it means they have to become ignorant of certain parts of life, even parts there are common knowledge to a number of people.
Wrestling can remain ignorant of many things, but there are some things they simply can not turn a blind eye to. If you asked Triple H in character who was the leader of Germany during the World Wars, he would tell you it was Adolph Hitler. If you asked him who discovered America, he’ll tell you it was Christopher Columbus. But if you asked him who the father of Stephanie’s child is, he’ll tell you he doesn’t know (or that it’s probably a “studâ€). We all know he has a happy marriage to Stephanie and that he is the proud father of her baby. But he just can’t tell people that while he is in character. The fans are a part of the show, and while the wrestlers are the central figures, the fans do not have characters or gimmicks. They have no script, and they have no one to control what they say or do.
Some people in the show give shoots on rare occasions. Others in the show have never done anything thing but shoot. These are two parts of the show that collide. These are two worlds that collide. The wrestlers can dictate the show. But when they enter into our world through major media outlets, the character they played in the wrestling world is exposed to their own form of kryptonite. They exist on paper just fine. But for them to exist in the minds of wrestling fans as someone who was badly hurt in a limousine explosion, and to be seen on the Today Show as being perfectly fine at the exact same time with both perceptions staying in tact is just not going to happen. You can accept that the stars of any other show are not who they say they are. And while you might be able to do the same thing with wrestling, there are many who can’t.
