Let's Get Real: Stop Dropping Real Names on TV

image credit: WWE.com

Dusty Rhodes is a wrestling legend, and someone whom anybody with a love for pro-wrestling should both admire and respect. Because of how good Rhodes is, any time he comes to the ring to perform it should be an enjoyable occasion. When he made a rare appearance as part of an ongoing storyline involving his real-life son Cody's fake firing, it was an enjoyable experience... for the most part. But one part of the segment irked me. It wasn't when Big Show cried or Stephanie McMahon brought up Goldust's past drug habits, it was when Rhodes told the Cleveland audience that he was there as "Virgil Runnels", his real name, not Dusty Rhodes. As if to say, whatever you've watched so far is just a show, but this is “real”, and you know that because I just broke character.

This isn't a dig at Dusty Rhodes by any stretch. I have nothing but respect for him, and am 99% certain that was either in the script or something he'd be instructed to do. It's not the first time someone in WWE has done this; even my superhero CM Punk has been guilty of dropping a Paul at Triple H, a Dwayne at The Rock, or referred to himself as Phil. Stephanie McMahon herself will often call her husband Triple H "Paul" on TV, and in the last couple of weeks has referred to Goldust as Dustin Runnels, a name which he's not used in WWE since the early 1990s.

I know why WWE permits this nowadays (because it seldom used to). The trend of dropping a wrestler's real name into the conversation to amplify the atmosphere and make it seem more “shoot” than “work”. It really started during WWE's Summer of Punk back in 2011. Sure, we'd seen glimpses of it on WWE TV before that, but as Punk's story became more about how much "real life" dirt you could throw into a storyline, real names came up more frequently. It's only become more frequent since then.

While I appreciate that WWE feels this is a good way to pull in today's more “in the know” audience, it's an approach I don't like. Let me state for the record that this has nothing to do with wanting to preserve kayfabe. That toothpaste left its tube years ago and to try and put it back now, or even want to, would be a messy and pointless endeavour. Today's fans know that Dusty Rhodes is a stage name. They know that nobody is christened “CM Punk” or "Triple H" or "The Rock". So my issue isn't with preserving a long-since-deceased “secret”.

When Dusty announced that he was “there was Virgil”, it jolted me. But it didn't do what I believe WWE had intended and make me think “woah, this just got real”. Instead it took me out of the show. After he said it I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying like I was supposed to, I was thinking about how unnecessary it was for him to have done that. WWE had effectively jolted me out of the show and pulled me out of the moment in their attempt at pulling me in just that little bit more.

I understand that wrestling's biggest and oldest weapon is blurring the lines of fiction and reality. Daniel Bryan vs. The Machine is a great example of this. Fans are hooked on Daniel Bryan's narrative as WWE uses perceived backstage dirt, and he's more popular than he's ever been. Bringing “reality” into fiction has worked extremely well. The fans are firmly behind Bryan in a way we haven't seen in years, and yet Triple H hasn't had to say “Bryan Danielson” once.

The truth is, it may just be me being a stick in the mud. Maybe WWE are right and wrestler's dropping their stage names on TV does enhance the art. But personally, I just don't see why it's necessary. There are plenty of other ways to get the same point across, that something just got personal, without jolting your audience out of the show completely.

Written by Matt Saye of The Wrestling Journal