August 1st, 2011
Galley Friend J.S. sends along this dynamite profile of alt-wrestling star Colt Cabana. It’s worth reading as a lifestyle piece even if you’re not interested in wrestling.
That said, it reinforces my suspicion that CM Punk’s anti-WWE diatribe of a few weeks ago wasn’t just the greatest worked-shoot in the history of wrestling. (Unless the Montreal Screwjob was really a deep work.) It was also a seminal moment in wrestling: It represented mainstream wrestling’s first attempt to completely assimilate alt-wrestling.
Wrestling has always had minor leagues. Once upon a time, the entire enterprise was nothing more than a collection of minor-league road shows. But in the last ten years or so, there has emerged a kind of wrestling that isn’t just minor league, but fundamentally different. You could think of it like this: alt-wrestling is to the WWE what the Suicide Girls are to Playboy.
As the alt-wrestling subculture grew, the WWE tried to contain it, and sometimes co-opt it (by putting guys like Cabana and Punk under contract). But with the angle they’re currently playing with Punk, they’re doing something more: It’s like they’ve given up trying to subsume it. Instead, they’re attempting to meld the two, incorporating aspects of alt-wrestling into their mainstream product. If it works, it could change mainstream wrestling.
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