Everyone knows that professional wrestling isn’t real (not normally), but that doesn’t make it any less appealing, and in WWE Unreal they want to show its inner workings. Here they aim to reveal the behind-the-scenes of how both weekly events and major events are created. Big superstars make appearances and their most intimate moments are showcased. There is some controversy about what this means for kayfabe. At the end of the day, it demonstrates the situation WWE is in: the important thing is the spectacle and the sense of grandeur over the sport or tradition, and that fits perfectly with Netflix.
It is well known that in professional wrestling, they don’t actually hit each other. Not normally, because exceptions exist, and in Japan, just don’t ask too much about it. This doesn’t make the spectacle any less interesting. The matches are engaging due to the mix of athleticism and the ability to tell a story not only with a microphone in hand but with every movement and every small decision made in the ring. Great wrestling is that which tells something through the match itself. Something very difficult to achieve with real fights.
That’s why it has been seducing us for almost 150 years, and it doesn’t seem like the interest it generates will end anytime soon. This is something that Netflix knows well, the new home of the largest wrestling company in the world, WWE, which has decided to create a show revealing all its secrets: WWE Unreal.
A reality show that seeks to unravel everything
From its name, they do not hide what its premise is. Also because many people within WWE itself, but without decision-making power, have had problems with the concept. WWE Unreal wants to show what the day-to-day life of WWE is like, breaking the mystery and not pretending that everything is, in reality, to a certain extent real. What in the industry jargon is known as kayfabe.
Following the wrestlers both in their weekly events and in the company’s major events, culminating in the biggest of all, WrestleMania, the series seeks to give us that perspective: the reality behind the scenes. Both the day-to-day of the writers and the training of the wrestlers or what happens in the locker rooms after a particularly intense event, or one that perhaps did not go as well as it should have.
A large part of the interest in WWE Unreal lies precisely in that idea. Showing what is not seen. How everything works behind the scenes. How a behemoth like WWE operates, but also wrestling itself, in general. But not only that.
It is also an opportunity to see WWE stars outside of their characters. In their most intimate and vulnerable moments. This is a perspective we have never seen, or have rarely seen, and it could well serve to reevaluate our relationship or sympathies with some of them. The premiere of this program could mean a significant change in the dynamics of interest with some of these professionals.
A program that is going to generate controversy from its very premise
Although, as we have said, WWE Unreal premieres not without some controversy. Even within WWE. Throughout the many decades of wrestling’s existence, kayfabe has been sacred. Not stating that it is fake and that those involved act in relation to a script and a character is essential, and although it has relaxed a lot in the last decade and a half, it is still seen as very bad taste and a bad practice to expose the inner workings of the business in that way.
That is why we should not be surprised if, from certain sectors of the wrestling industry, WWE Unreal is not viewed favorably. It directly attacks one of the foundational pacts of the discipline at a time when WWE is seen, especially, as a malevolent actor within the scene.
Although that precisely demonstrates WWE’s position regarding wrestling. Just one more leg of what they do. They are an entertainment company, and the entertainment is above the sport or tradition. Something that undoubtedly also fits perfectly with the kind of content that interests Netflix.
That’s why WWE Unreal is perfect for everyone involved. It’s the kind of content that WWE wants to create, the kind of content that Netflix wants to have on its platform, and the kind of content that WWE fans want. It’s likely that a good part of the wrestling community does not see this as positive, but for years, WWE has refused to even define itself as such. They have declared themselves as sports entertainment. So it shouldn’t surprise us that, for them, keeping up appearances isn’t that important either.
