Choose your own meaning

Sometimes, I get a lightbulb by looking at a puff piece. To be quite honest, that’s why I read the puff pieces on WWE.com. It’s not because they’re super interesting, or that I really love clicking “next” three times to read a 500-word report. It’s because sometimes, they inadvertently tip their hand. This article appears harmless, but you’ve got to look really close at the title. In fact, you can ignore the rest of the article, since it doesn’t even try to answer the question.

What will happen if Brock Lesnar beats John Cena?

That’s a question they want you to think about. They’re not going to answer it for you. They won’t even answer it on Sunday, at the PPV, or at Raw the next night. It’s not a question that’s going to be answered by WWE. It’s a question that’s going to be answered by you.

I’ve been thinking about what things mean in WWE for a long time. I’ve often ruminated on the meaning of titles, feuds, and character motivations. Later today, you can hear a podcast chat with myself and Rich Thomas about this subject. We dig deep on the motivations behind certain wrestlers. It’s an important question, but to WWE, it’s an important question you have to answer yourself.

WWE doesn’t define their titles. They don’t put a ‘purse’, they don’t set weight limits, and they don’t set clearly designated roles. Quick, what does it mean to be the US Champion? What do you get for holding onto the intercontinental title? What comes with the WWE Championship? You might have an answer to these questions, but ask someone else and they might give a different answer. WWE has allowed — really, encouraged — the definitions of these things to remain opaque. You choose your own meaning. Edge maybe said it best in his retirement speech last year. He said, “the World Championship is symbolic.” He went on to say that it belonged to everyone. I don’t think he was just saying those things lightly.

Look, there’s a turtles-all-the-way-down argument to be made here about the meaninglessness of battle. People fight for championships, but the championships don’t really mean anything. People fight for pride, but their pride is compromised when they lower themselves to fight. People fight for revenge, love, etc., but the people they’re fighting for would really rather have them in one piece. I’m not here to ruminate on the meaning of conflict, or what makes a conflict worth hashing out on PPV. But I do think it’s interesting that WWE is increasingly encouraging its fans to paint the meaning with their own brush.

The main event of Wrestlemania XXVIII was the largest case of this in the history of the company. The Rock vs John Cena was a thinly-told story, and it left most of us scratching their heads as to why — with a year — they couldn’t come up with something meatier. But as I suggested with Jason Mann a recent wrestlespective podcast, I truly believe this was by design. WWE wanted you to fill in the blanks. What would it mean to you if Cena won or lost? What would it mean to you if Rock won or lost? This answer is different for everyone.

If it seems like John Cena and Brock Lesnar are fighting over nothing, it might be that you have no skin in this game. There might be nothing in your life that reflects off this story. But WWE is betting that there is. They’re betting that by pitting a hulking bully on top of the wounded hero, they can touch a nerve.