Ian Rotten Looked at the Floor and Scribbled on Gum Wrappers

Ian Rotten vs. B-Boy IWA-MS 12/19/03

JR: The conversation on twitter the past few days has been based around a few notable people (erroneously) categorizing professional wrestling as performance art. I will not bore everyone here with my thoughts on why this comparison falls short. Instead, I will describe one of the more popular performance art pieces of the last decade or so: Melati Suryodarmo’s ‘Exergie: Butter Dance’. In the piece, Suryodarmo, wearing a short black dress and high heels, attempts to move and dance in evocative ways, while perched atop a stage covered in thick blocks of butter. As she moves, she inevitably slips and falls and collapses and seems to care very little for her own physical well being. Eventually, she removes her shoes and crawls off in silence.

I mention this piece because, strangely, the opening of this Ian Rotten and B-Boy match is the first thing I’ve seen in wrestling that has even tangentially reminded me of performance art. Rotten, confident in his movement and in control of his own body, makes an uncharacteristically smooth takeover and pulls B-Boy down into an armbar. In doing so, he manages to land awkwardly upon his opponents leg, and for the briefest moment there is doubt, a sense that he lost track of where he was, like that feeling when you think there’s an extra step and you plant your foot too forcefully and your entire equilibrium is off for longer than it takes your body to register that you’re still on solid ground.

This feeling continues into the first strike exchange, after Rotten comes off the ropes, on his heels from a few forearms. When he swings back he somehow leaves his feet, collapsing onto B-Boy, forcing them both back on the ground, rolling around and desperately grabbing and looking for some minuscule advantage. Last week Phil wrote about how Rotten applies holds from unseen angles, as though he is breaking some unspoken compact within the cooperative confines of professional wrestling. Here, even as it looks clumsy and oafish, I am struck that it is a conscious decision, that he does this to create a feeling of chaos and reality, not only for the audience but for his opponent. He finds ways to get people, seasoned and talented people, to run away, to expose themselves, to move quickly and purposefully without thought. It heightens everything.

When discussing professional wrestling, an idea that comes up often is escalation. I’ve touched on it briefly in this series. In most cases, we take it to mean an increase in motion; moves that the crowd accepts as ‘more devastating’, done in quicker succession, an inevitable and unsustainable perpetual motion machine. Here we see that to some extent, as B-Boy’s kicks create momentum and space that we had not previously seen. But at the same time, Ian’s previous efforts to look wild and unfettered serve to create their own sort of awkward escalation. As he ties B-Boy up and goes for headbutts, a spot that would normally look contrived or cooperative instead looks forceful, a declaration of war.

This match, moreso than any of the others we have written about, strikes me as a one man show. Perhaps that isn’t fair to B-Boy, whom I actually think is quite good here. But he is so stoic and emotionless throughout, whereas Ian is again so vibrant and vocal. He is constantly talking and screaming and grunting and doing small things to tell the audience where and when to pay attention. He creates a fuller experience for a crowd, for he has an innate sense of when to let things breathe and when to let things crash and come to conclusion.

The finishing run of this presents another narrative wrinkle that we haven’t seen from Ian yet, and one that is immensely interesting. The consistent story throughout all of these matches is that Ian is forever moving forward. Here he does so even to his own detriment. Even as his body breaks down, as he can’t stand on his weak knee, as his headbutts do more damage to himself than to B-Boy, he presses. It only serves to expose him. It’s like watching a bull lose a bullfight.

PAS: B-Boy is a guy who has been in my life for nearly two decades now, but I have never fully developed an opinion on him. He has cool entrance music and hits really hard, but always seemed a bit formless. Like JR mentioned above, he felt like an Ian opponent here,  a replacement level stiff worker, he will hit hard, take some shots, do some stuff on the mat, but the all of the seasoning in this match was Ian's. B-Boy puts on a pretty basic leglock, and Ian turns it into figure four, B-Boy throws some solid, but leg slappy kicks, and Ian cracks him with a palm and knuckles directly on the side of the jaw. They mention that Ian was wrestling BJ Whitmer the next night and I imagine it was a similar kind of match.  The real flaw of this match is B-Boy just kind of putting on an armbar for the finish after focusing entirely on the leg. 

My parents were both avid Contract Bridge players, and I grew up in the world of high level Bridge, going to National tournaments for vacations, caddying etc. There isn't prize money in Championship Bridge so really elite players make their living from taking on clients. Often World Championship teams will be made of 4 or so of the best players in the world, and a couple of rich guys paying to be part of the team (famously the chairman of Bear Sterns was playing in a National Championship Bridge Tournament during the first days of the Financial Crisis and was unavailable as his bank collapsed). If you are going to be a client playing at the level, you have to a very good player (Bridge is a partnership game), but almost all of the real flash, brilliance and moments of grace are provided by the Pro. That is what this match felt like. B-Boy is a competent wrestler at this style, but Ian is the world class maestro making the magic. 

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