BIG E. VS. RUSEV

Best Case Scenario: The type of HOSS match that keeps Vince McMahon’s 80’s steroid-soaked fever dream alive, with just enough flag waving and chicanery for a final blowoff match next month.

For anyone wondering how to build a character, pay special attention to this match and, specifically, the way Rusev is talked about by the announcers. In wrestling, announcers serve the same purpose as cable news commentators do to the real world: they are articulating a very specific narrative with a very specific agenda that will — or at least has the fundamental goal of — changing the way you perceive things in order to achieve their goals. For most cable news companies, it’s making money for their advertisers and making you afraid of something, and in wrestling, it’s to get you to buy into what they want you to believe about a specific character.

While it doesn’t always go the way they planned (See: -Tista, Blue), but they’ve walked the walk on top of talking a very well planned out talk regarding Rusev’s rise up the ranks. He’s being pushed as powerful enough that we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s able to overcome AMERICA! in the form of Big E., and they’ve done so in such a way as to let Big E. not look like a weakling for being unable to overcome Rusev.

And they’ve also helped establish Rusev as not a machine, but a monster. Lana’s control over him isn’t just a matter of her pushing buttons on a control panel, but harnessing the considerable potential of her charge and channeling in a progressive direction (at least for his character development perspective) direction. And they did it in under ten minutes. That’s definitely something your correspondent would watch over and over again.

Match .65 | PPV 3.0

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