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| Randy Orton plays to the crowd during the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
Wrestling is Shakespeare. (I know I know, but please bear with me)
It’s often forgotten that Shakespeare wrote his plays to be performed for the masses. At the time they weren’t necessarily hoisted up as the height of artistic achievement. It was entertainment pure and simple.
Standing on the muddy floor of London’s original Globe Theatre, patrons expected to be treated to dazzling sights and sounds – story lines playing-out before them through unlikely and unbelievable situations.
Often, performances were greeted with raucous audience interaction fueled with the alcohol consumed before and during the night – today’s theatre goers, sitting silently in their chairs, most likely wouldn’t recognize a 17th century Shakespeare performance as such.
It can be said that today’s pro wrestling, with its manufactured plots and larger than life characters, provides a similar sense of theatre.
Centuries from now will World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and its like, be held in such reverence as the works of The Bard of Avon? Probably not.
But those who were in the Saddledome in Calgary this week to see WWE’s Monday Night Raw, an evening dedicated to former wrestler and Calgary native Bret Hart, couldn’t care less.
“Entertain me,” everyone seemed to be thinking in unison – Shakespeare’s clients demanded the same.
And though I heard more than one irony-void “You f—ing suck” directed at the ring from an adult fan, most see it as the show that it is – at least, I really hope they do.
(Scroll down for more images)
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| Cody Rhodes, right, grapples with Sheamus during the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| Daniel Bryan, top, and Roman Reigns in action during their tag team bout during the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| The WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| Bret Hart makes an appearance on ‘Bret Hart Appreciation Night’ during the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| Sheamus and Damien Sandow in action at the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| Daniel Bryan, bottom, and Seth Rollins in action during their tag team bout during the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| John Cena, left, and Curtis Axel in action at the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| Daniel Bryan, top, and Roman Reigns in their tag team bout during the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| John Cena, bottom, and Curtis Axel in the ring at the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| Bret Hart, right, with Vince McMahon on ‘Bret Hart Appreciation Night’ during the WWE Raw live event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta Monday, May 27, 2013. |
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| Former Stampede Wrestling and WWF/WWE wrestler Bret Hart in Calgary Monday. |
