Every so often Brandon sums something up _perfectly._
Selling is about the story. About context. That’s why it works differently in different parts of the world. In Mexico, luchadors don’t sell like their North American counterparts. The drama of the injury isn’t important to the story they’re telling; lucha libre is essentially a battle between superheroes and villains, and the themes aren’t really sports-based. They’re about justice, mostly, and about being larger than life. You don’t want to see Blue Panther shaking out his fist after he punches a guy, you want to see him shrug off the pain and jump on somebody. Context. In Japan there’s a lot going on, but “fighting spirit” is the thing you hear about. That’s not about simply no-selling a move … it’s about ABSORBING the move and dealing with the pain, because your desire to win is stronger than your brain and your body. Your soul’s basically willing you forward. That’s why you’ll see some guys pop up from a big move, hit a move of their own and THEN collapse. It’s about being bigger than yourself. The energy of the match. In the U.S. we’re obsessed with the masculinity of pro sports, so we want to see people get hurt and come back, but there has to be a visible struggle. The physics of what we’re watching have to make sense, because we need to convince ourselves in the moment that what we’re watching is “real.” If we’re taken out of it for a second it becomes too easy to dismiss. That’s our culture, and that’s why our art comes out looking this way.