The observation that we used to have a unified culture is somewhat overstated but true. The sheer amount of cultural choices before us astounds me. I’m almost 70 and try my best to keep up. The fact that I’m writing this is evidence I’m trying to get other stories and perspectives than the legacy press. My husband, an ultra-progressive Liberal wouldn’t sully his mind reading anything other than the legacy press. He refuses to consider he is becoming fossilised in his cultural choices - from his books to his music to his movie choices. For example he hated “Oppenheimer”. He felt Cillian Murphy was unable to portray Oppenheimer to the depth that Sam Waterstones did in a 1983 PBS series. For him there never will be a “unified culture”. He is not alone. And he is proud of his “ignorance”.
Ok. You’ve exposed me as the boomer dinosaur I am. The difference between 1987 - the year I got married - and 1973 - the year I moved to LA and was first able to gorge on TV sports - was cable. I’m one of those old farts that used to watch Monday Night Football for the halftime highlights of Sunday games, since there was no other way to see them. But another factor was regional. Wrestling on the Southern California airwaves was, for a long time, Mexican ‘Lucha Libre.’ Boxing was much bigger, with a regular prime time broadcast - “Boxing From The Olympic!” I landed in Lo Cali at 13, and was thrilled about all the local sports on the tube. I had come from rural Nebraska. Wrestling was huge there, but it was the real deal, and the kabuki theatrics of the pro version didn’t have a place among the limited offerings available in a tiny market that had 2.5 VHF channels (2 clear stations and 1 mostly snowy).
I miss the the 80's and 90's. Everyone watched the same shows, listened to the same music, had the same references. When I see today's most authoritarian groups, I automatically decide they are the unpopular kids with power and they want payback, which is why they try to tear down their old competition (stereotypical replacements). No one wants to marry me? I hate the nuclear family.
Having grown up in the 1980s, I agree the culture was different as you describe. There were a minority of good looking and popular people, almost always white. And if you weren't one of them, too bad, you would have to settle for being ordinary or maybe a dork. There was not an escape hatch to invent your own gender identity or quirky subculture; that option did not exist. Complaining about it only highlighted that you were unpopular, so everyone had to just accept it. In my own case, the pressure to conform helped me get into fitness and forced me to maximize my social skills - which improved my life.
It’s a major stretch to squeeze a tablespoon of cultural significance into the awkward spectacle of pro wrestling, at least in terms of it representing a popular manifestation of a bygone era’s taste for stimulating hero narratives. Dude, whatever that monoculture you’re on about might’ve had in it that inspires your mystical sentimentality now, you of all people ought to be able to try to contextualize a bit more persuasively. Pro wrestling’s well-deserved rep as a total BS sideshow with a mostly dumb audience kept it well out of the mainstream. The mention of ESPN actually refers to an entity that was low-profile and struggling to fill airtime, not the ubiquitous dominator of sports bars from coast to coast. That much being said, the curse thing is sad, and some of your overall critique is apt. And the bro culture of the time could be a major drag. But if you want to explore funnier and more period-certain entertainment options, check out The Stanley Siegel Show, or maybe a Red Foxx or Richard Pryor monologue. That sh*t was seriously funny.
“If you are tall, blond, and beautiful, just being yourself is enough. In the 1980s, young people who couldn’t meet such standards were willing to live vicariously through those who could.”
I am skeptical about how true this was. I imagine that like the Von Erich family, behind the scenes, those who were lower on this largely genetics-based status hierarchy were horribly dissatisfied and resentful, and that this would have played out in each of their lives in predictably bad ways.
I find very little to be nostalgic about from reading this article. While I am no fan of the politics of resentment, a society that offers multiple competing status hierarchies that excludes less people based on their genes seems like a huge good.
As long as you've got a graph of longevity by sport, and you're talking about how the present differs from the 80s, it would be worth having a graph of suicide rates over that timespan.
I'm glad you wrote about this, Rich. Pro-wrestling is America's greatest and most depraved contribution to human culture. There have always been fixed fights. I swear, I once read an excrept from a Church Father who complained about the swindlery of fake wrestling matches. But where it used to just be a carnival scam, America turned it into a performance art every bit as beautiful as ballet, compelling as competitive sports, and violent as warfare.
Fake and gay though it is, it deserves respect. There's a reason so many men and women have given their lives for its sake. I hope we never see such tragedy as the Von Erichs again. Although given the life trajectories of Kota Ibushi, Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, CM Punk, and to a lesser extent Bryan Danielson, I can safely say that we have yet to see the end to the great human tragedies of sports entertainment.
I believe the reference to Terry Gordon should be Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy. He dropped out of high school at age 14 and started working as a professional wrester (freakishly young for the profession) . He died at age 40 due to his addictions. He most successful wrestling in Japan (solo and tag team with Steve "Dr. Death " Williams) and as a member of the Freebirds trio in the US.
Richard, A heart wrenching story from beginning to end. And in this time of skimming, I read every word.
Thank you for writing and posting it.
The observation that we used to have a unified culture is somewhat overstated but true. The sheer amount of cultural choices before us astounds me. I’m almost 70 and try my best to keep up. The fact that I’m writing this is evidence I’m trying to get other stories and perspectives than the legacy press. My husband, an ultra-progressive Liberal wouldn’t sully his mind reading anything other than the legacy press. He refuses to consider he is becoming fossilised in his cultural choices - from his books to his music to his movie choices. For example he hated “Oppenheimer”. He felt Cillian Murphy was unable to portray Oppenheimer to the depth that Sam Waterstones did in a 1983 PBS series. For him there never will be a “unified culture”. He is not alone. And he is proud of his “ignorance”.
Ok. You’ve exposed me as the boomer dinosaur I am. The difference between 1987 - the year I got married - and 1973 - the year I moved to LA and was first able to gorge on TV sports - was cable. I’m one of those old farts that used to watch Monday Night Football for the halftime highlights of Sunday games, since there was no other way to see them. But another factor was regional. Wrestling on the Southern California airwaves was, for a long time, Mexican ‘Lucha Libre.’ Boxing was much bigger, with a regular prime time broadcast - “Boxing From The Olympic!” I landed in Lo Cali at 13, and was thrilled about all the local sports on the tube. I had come from rural Nebraska. Wrestling was huge there, but it was the real deal, and the kabuki theatrics of the pro version didn’t have a place among the limited offerings available in a tiny market that had 2.5 VHF channels (2 clear stations and 1 mostly snowy).
This article carries the same sense of self-parody that pro wrestling does.
I miss the the 80's and 90's. Everyone watched the same shows, listened to the same music, had the same references. When I see today's most authoritarian groups, I automatically decide they are the unpopular kids with power and they want payback, which is why they try to tear down their old competition (stereotypical replacements). No one wants to marry me? I hate the nuclear family.
Having grown up in the 1980s, I agree the culture was different as you describe. There were a minority of good looking and popular people, almost always white. And if you weren't one of them, too bad, you would have to settle for being ordinary or maybe a dork. There was not an escape hatch to invent your own gender identity or quirky subculture; that option did not exist. Complaining about it only highlighted that you were unpopular, so everyone had to just accept it. In my own case, the pressure to conform helped me get into fitness and forced me to maximize my social skills - which improved my life.
It’s a major stretch to squeeze a tablespoon of cultural significance into the awkward spectacle of pro wrestling, at least in terms of it representing a popular manifestation of a bygone era’s taste for stimulating hero narratives. Dude, whatever that monoculture you’re on about might’ve had in it that inspires your mystical sentimentality now, you of all people ought to be able to try to contextualize a bit more persuasively. Pro wrestling’s well-deserved rep as a total BS sideshow with a mostly dumb audience kept it well out of the mainstream. The mention of ESPN actually refers to an entity that was low-profile and struggling to fill airtime, not the ubiquitous dominator of sports bars from coast to coast. That much being said, the curse thing is sad, and some of your overall critique is apt. And the bro culture of the time could be a major drag. But if you want to explore funnier and more period-certain entertainment options, check out The Stanley Siegel Show, or maybe a Red Foxx or Richard Pryor monologue. That sh*t was seriously funny.
“If you are tall, blond, and beautiful, just being yourself is enough. In the 1980s, young people who couldn’t meet such standards were willing to live vicariously through those who could.”
I am skeptical about how true this was. I imagine that like the Von Erich family, behind the scenes, those who were lower on this largely genetics-based status hierarchy were horribly dissatisfied and resentful, and that this would have played out in each of their lives in predictably bad ways.
I find very little to be nostalgic about from reading this article. While I am no fan of the politics of resentment, a society that offers multiple competing status hierarchies that excludes less people based on their genes seems like a huge good.
As long as you've got a graph of longevity by sport, and you're talking about how the present differs from the 80s, it would be worth having a graph of suicide rates over that timespan.
I'm glad you wrote about this, Rich. Pro-wrestling is America's greatest and most depraved contribution to human culture. There have always been fixed fights. I swear, I once read an excrept from a Church Father who complained about the swindlery of fake wrestling matches. But where it used to just be a carnival scam, America turned it into a performance art every bit as beautiful as ballet, compelling as competitive sports, and violent as warfare.
Fake and gay though it is, it deserves respect. There's a reason so many men and women have given their lives for its sake. I hope we never see such tragedy as the Von Erichs again. Although given the life trajectories of Kota Ibushi, Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, CM Punk, and to a lesser extent Bryan Danielson, I can safely say that we have yet to see the end to the great human tragedies of sports entertainment.
I believe the reference to Terry Gordon should be Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy. He dropped out of high school at age 14 and started working as a professional wrester (freakishly young for the profession) . He died at age 40 due to his addictions. He most successful wrestling in Japan (solo and tag team with Steve "Dr. Death " Williams) and as a member of the Freebirds trio in the US.
No one hooked on to the curse stuff, so I feel invited. Still, I have nothing to say about it except TINACBNEIAC. And I probably misspelled it.