"We have been taught to believe that negative equals realistic and positive equals unrealistic." -Susan Jeffers

Take a deep breath, metaphorically close your eyes, and laugh at the "sport" which we call professional wrestling. It's not very hard you know, critics have been doing it for years now even up to the tragic death of Eddie Guerrero. Go on though, indulge yourself in excessive giggling. Convulse in a 56 year old Intercontinental Champion, snicker at a man who weighs no more than 180 pounds and can single handedly flip someone 180 degrees into a Canadian destroyer, cachinnate at the thought of a world championship which originally was never even won, but awarded - with a gold plated spinning center. Has wrestling always been this ridiculous? Sure, but 6-7 years ago a real-life war was fought behind the scenes on both sides. It was believable that 3 egos such as Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and chiefly Hulk Hogan would take over their respective show, which eventually would signal its own doom. It was in character for evil to collide in an inferno match with Kane and the Undertaker, or that a near psychotic, anti-authority redneck in Steve Austin would be a world champion despite his white collar boss and enemy. Sex, violence, racy "shades of grey" made for a realistic show. Elements truly found in today's society whether behind closed doors or in your face.

As these characters played out who they were right before us it gave us that "edge" of realism in wrestling. As the reality slowly dripped from wrestling, so did the ratings. Triple H after an injury that ultimately slowed his ability down, was a dominant world champion afterwards, Kane finally took his mask off to reveal that - he was ugly, not scarred. Chris Benoit won the WWE Championship, which is real in my book for his wrestling ability and strength but is overshadowed by the alpha male of World Wrestling Entertainment Triple H and his feud with Shawn Michaels. In TNA Jeff Jarrett was doing the exact same thing and unfortunately seemingly still is as he controls the NWA world championship.

Vince Russo once made a valid point during an interview upon explaining his writing technique; that to write successful storylines and angles you must put yourself in that character. In other words, "what would his/her character do in this situation?" It's really the basis for all writers and a simple concept. Why is this concept so hard to grasp by WWE writers? It worked for Vince Russo and the WWF did it not? So let's venture into practical reality. Characteristically speaking, since we wouldn't know 100% realism unless the WWE turned into UFC or something like it. (In which case I don't know who would stop the Big Show or The Undertaker). Do the current storylines even fit their characters? I'll scan each show.

TNA - Yeah, like I'm going to bash TNA; me, Mr. "anti-WWE"... well, no, I'm not. Nearly all of their current storylines are realistic. Jeff Jarrett desperately trying to keep his top spot and world title as TNA grows and new talent arrives to threaten his world title reign. So realistic that could possibly really be occurring. Samoa Joe who has always been a brutal wrestler took it too far when he bloodied Christopher Daniels. A.J. Styles who is an all-American babyface stepped in and defended Daniels out of respect for him. 3 Live Kru who have been unsuccessful in the past year will likely be split up for the New Age Outlaws, a team that HAS had major success. Monty Brown was next in line for a world title shot at Jeff Jarrett until Christian stepped in and challenged that spot. So naturally they face off. When storylines make sense it makes logical people such as me happy.

RAW - Now on to RAW. We will start with Ric Flair's recent storyline with Triple H which makes no sense. Ric Flair, who is 56 years old wins the Intercontinental Title and Triple H considers him "soft"? Is it because "Flair turned into a good guy!?" as a mark would put it. It's not logical; furthermore Triple H who is obsessed with the WWE title has yet to go after an increasingly stale John Cena. Eric Bischoff; who in the past once almost put Vince McMahon out of business has been put across as extremely weak in the past few years, especially now as Eric grovels before King Vince. The Big Show and Kane, two monsters who have settled for the tag team titles in a near non-existent division. Two of the best talents on the show athletically and ability wise in Shelton Benjamin and Kurt Angle, hold no titles at all. Yet, Chris Masters has been in the main event of Raw. There is no logic in that. Along with the fact that the wrestling looks so fake and so predictable; and many former wrestlers and experts agree with that, RAW is absurd and infeasible to watch.

SMACKDOWN- Smackdown! Is not actually bad at all contrary to its horrid counterpart. If the current world champion Batista competes in the time frame of his injury, I will fully expect him to lose the title. I am reminded of the Elimination Chamber at Summerslam 2003 where Triple H went into the match with an injury, let the 4 other wrestlers in the match do all of the work and then after Goldberg wiped everyone out (as if he deserved to) Triple H cheated and got the win over Goldberg retaining the title as Triple H would lay in the corner injured for a majority of the match. It was one of the worst matches I have ever seen in my entire life, and I hope history will not repeat itself. Other than that, thumbs up! Chris Benoit and Booker T are reliving their best of seven series which is realistic; they had some great matches in those best of seven and two wrestlers like Benoit and Booker T would do that. Randy Orton is the legend killer; he is still trying to take out the Undertaker, who is a legend. Makes sense to me! Even JBL walked out on Rey Mysterio during their tag team match against Kane and the Big Show. Yes! It's logical! Smackdown makes sense to watch! My only real complaint about Smackdown is that there is a lack of storylines in general, more so than RAW, but still lacking.

Is it too hard to be logical? I find it incredibly easy when you know what to expect out of certain characters. When you do this it makes it that much easier to create a storyline. Whether you like it or not TNA has just as much storylines in their one hour show than Raw and Smackdown combined in their 4 hour show! It starts with some simple realistic thinking, and it leads to great stories. The paradox in this is that upon speaking of realistic actions, the ones taking them are not realistic at all; merely playing characters on a show. It leads back to a writer's ability to imagine and create. It leads to us to either accept what the writer has created, or to challenge it. As a writer myself, I choose to challenge it, and this will never change.

by Joseph Bachman ..