AN INTRODUCTION TO LORE
Every so often a match comes along that is so incredible, so moving, and so affecting that it drives people to write articles praising it. This is not the case for the Mtn Dew Pitch Black Match from the 2023 Royal Rumble, a blacklight-soaked match between Bray Wyatt and LA Knight that ended with Bray Wyatt picking up the victory and a post-match angle where Uncle Howdy sends LA Knight to hell by missing an elbow drop. This match was baffling to many a casual viewer who hadn’t watched the intricate buildup to the match and left many asking: Does lore in wrestling suck? Looking at the differences between the way the Elite and Bray Wyatt handle their lore I am hoping to explain that when it comes to wrestling, lore is a very delicate balance. Too much lore can turn an audience off to a given storyline, but in the correct hands, it can enrich the story you are telling.
JUST WHAT IS LORE?
Before we get into this broader look at lore in wrestling, I think it’s important to establish a definition for Lore when it comes to wrestling. There’s a difference between following a story that’s been laid out within the promotion’s previous shows and expecting me to be watching extra content on YouTube, trawling through Twitter, or god forbid pointing my phone at a screen waiting for a QR code to decipher. This is the basis I will be using to differentiate between lore and Lore.
ANALYZING THE ELITE
If you are a storyteller and you are allotted a certain amount of TV time in a given week to tell a story you should, ideally, be able to tell that story on screen. Whether it be in-ring or backstage you can’t expect a general audience to go and seek out extra credit content for the story to make sense. The Adam Page vs Kenny Omega feud shows what a good handle on that delicate balance can do for a story. Hangman Adam Page obtaining the AEW title has been lauded as one of the best storylines in wrestling.
Two friends who split apart, both wanting something different but in the end coming to blows over the same prize: the AEW championship. It was a great long-term story played out mostly on screen, but there was Lore there if you wanted it. BTE, the YouTube vlog series for the Elite, has plenty of backstage vignettes that help add flavor to storylines and the Page/Omega feud was no different. Supplementary materials included how Hangman became friends with the Dark Order while at his lowest, something that helps to flesh out the story while not being mandatory to understand it.
ANALYZING BRAY WYATT
On the other hand, you have Bray Wyatt, who I have a lot of conflicting feelings about. Although most people have written off his B-movie antics, I think that his usage of mixed media ARG-type storytelling is something genuinely fresh. It’s not often that you get a wrestler that can come out with something that unique, but therein lies the problem.
Sure he’ll come out every week and do anything but wrestle but if you want any background as to what’s happening you better get ready to learn the Lore. The story being put on weekly confuses and confounds, who is Uncle Howdy, why is Uncle Howdy, and what part does Mtn Dew have to play in all of this? The only answers we can glean are from digging into the Lore, learning character motivations, and background information that’s crucial to the story through QR codes. This is not the only problem with Wyatt since his return, mind you, but the glacial pace of the story’s progression tied with a reliance on an inventive but supplementary source has left many less than excited about where Wyatt goes next with this story.
SO, WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
This is a small start, and I do plan to dive deeper into the wares of all of wrestling’s lore merchants, but I wanted to begin with a strong thesis. Wrestlers, left to their own devices, can create great interwoven stories that last years with highs and lows that keep audiences engaged and coming back every week. Wrestlers, however, will also create promotions like Control Your Narrative, a bizarre story-based promotion that I do have plans to cover. Lore-based wrestlers walk a razor-thin line between creative and frustrating and seeing so many jumps off that line and dead sprint away into the night I can understand why people give up on the idea entirely. However, with a careful hand and an eye for what is necessary and what is supplementary I think it’s possible to make Lore work.
I look forward to exploring the highs and lows of wrestling Lore with all of you.
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