Wrestling has always been about characters. Characters who competed for belts and the glory of being the best wrestler for which ever company they worked for. From the glory days of the NWA to the global juggernaut of WWE, wrestlers have always fought through fictitious (and some very real) storylines to become the pinnacle of their respective employer’s brand.
But there lurks throughout wrestling’s storied mythology a breed of wrestler that never seemed to concern themselves so much with the big shiny belts as much as they did the sheer havoc they could create with everyone else who actually did concern their pretty little heads with such trivialities as World titles or their faces on cereal boxes. These characters are what I refer to as Chaos Characters.
The Chaos Effect: Why Titles Shouldn’t Matter to Dean Ambrose and The Wyatt Family
They have peppered wrestling history for decades, from the frantic panic of Rowdy Roddy Piper to the methodical madness of Jake “The Snake” Roberts, from the unstable monsters like Kamala and George “The Animal” Steele, to the brutality of Bruiser Brody and Abdullah The Butcher. Sure, they won some regional titles here and there, but winning championship gold was more a side product of their reigns of terror, not goals that their characters had set out to do. The fans never wavered in their love – or in most cases, disdain – for these characters due to their lack of championship gold, because it was clear that those titles were never part of their endgames in the first place.
But do these characters have a place in today’s industry with fans that seem more intent on the “now” as opposed to the long term investment needed to maintain characters such as these? Dean Ambrose and the Wyatt Family are all characters that seem like classic Chaos Characters of yore, but the Internet Wrestling Community seems hellbent that they’re being held back with a lack of meaningful wins or real championship titles (i.e. WWE World Heavyweight gold).
To quantify the future, you have to look at the past. Starting with the grandaddy of them all – and perhaps Ambrose’s closest comparison – the late great Rowdy Roddy Piper.
Roddy Piper made a name for himself in the NWA territories as a top hand who could work both ends of the stick (heel or face), winning various mid-level titles in multiple territories, but he’s undeniably best remembered for his role as Hulk Hogan‘s primary foil at the on-set of the WWF’s Rock and Wrestling Era of the mid-80’s. While Hogan strived to be the best world champion possible for the WWF, Piper seemed more intent on destroying the enigma of Hulkamania than actually taking away Hogan’s belt. Piper was a man hellbent on the destruction of an icon rather than replacing him at the top of the WWF foodchain. He didn’t want the gold, he simply wanted Hogan gone. You never heard anyone complain that Piper was being buried by the WWF for not winning the gold, you only heard the compliments of his work and how his maniacal attacks only propelled the righteousness of Hogan to all the Hulkamaniacs of the world. Hogan didn’t bury Piper, Piper elevated Hogan. Which is how Chaos Characters work. When Piper finally DID win WWE gold, the Intercontinental title versus The Mountie, it seemed more like a congratulatory wrist watch than a sign he’d reach the next step on the mountain. In fact, many people today often forget he’s a former IC champion. That’s how meaningless his title wins were to his overall character.
Arguably the second greatest Chaos Character of all time, Jake “The Snake” Roberts – ironically, the one that Bray Wyatt garners the most comparison to – garnered even less championship accolades than Piper, but he’s no less of a legend. Roberts brand of psychological terror captivated a generation of wrestling fans with his cold stare, bone chilling delivery of some of the greatest promos of all time, and the lethality of his infamous DDT. You knew he could care less about wearing a belt (and let’s be honest, it just wouldn’t look right if he did) and more about destroying the psyche of his opponents. His brutality against Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (that DDT on the cement!), his lethal strikes against Randy Savage (the infamous cobra bite), and his twisted mind games with Ultimate Warrior. Roberts always found a way to make his psychological warfare more interesting than any quest for a flash piece of hardware to hold up his spandex tights.
But if those two legends could have Hall of Fame careers without winning a substantial amount of (if any) championship belts, why do today’s Chaos Characters get held to a level where the belts are essential for their characters to mean something?
Bray Wyatt is perhaps the greatest paradox of the current crop right now. He’s beloved by the IWC and WWE Universe equally as a character, sells a decent amount of merch, and is continually put into top mid-card feuds – main event entry level stuff. Granted he rarely wins many of his feuds, but he never gets knocked down to low card or even lower midcard. He continues on to his next victim and the cycle repeats anew. But what once worked for his benefactor Aurelian Smith, seems to be flying right over the heads of poor Windham Rotunda’s fans heads. Wyatt may not win the feuds in the win/loss column, but in most cases, he does exactly what he said he would do (if you can decipher his Bayou meets William S. Burroughs rhetoric). When he feuded with John Cena, his proclaimed goal was to give Cena more aggression in his character. Do make him dig harder for his wins. Following his feud with Wyatt, Cena emerged with more skills in his move set and brought more fight to his game. He succeeded in changing Cena’s character. When he fueded with Daniel Bryan, it was smack dab in the middle of Bryan’s year long run to the WWE title at Wrestlemania and his being held back by the Authority. Wyatt said he could help Bryan by making him a monster – even offering his own soul as sacrifice for Bryan to do so. Bryan emerged victorious from that feud but also came through a character with more confidence than before, a stronger willed combatant in his battles with the Authority. Again, Wyatt did what he said he would do. He did the same thing with Roman Reigns, forcing his character to face the notion of what the fans wanted (“Anyone but you Roman”, echoing hundreds of thousands of Tweets after the Royal Rumble) versus what Roman wanted himself. Roman came out of that feud hungrier and stronger, and more over with the WWE Universe than when he entered. Wyatt is a psychological banshee that loves to secretly twist every character he encounters by imposing some of his own chaos on the other characters. Just like Jake “The Snake” Roberts before him, Bray Wyatt is grooming his foes for the rigors of the main event. But instead of acknowledging Wyatt’s subtle storyline advances for nearly every wrestler he feuds with, WWE Creative is attacked for not putting a title on him. But here’s the thing. Chaos Characters are only effective when they are CHASING someone. They cease to be effective characters once they stop chasing and have to turn and defend. That’s when they become human and the veil of lunacy is lifted.
Which leads us to the WWE’s resident “Lunatic Fringe”, Dean Ambrose. From his days as Jon Moxley, Dean Ambrose has a history of playing characters that are mentally unhinged. And while many seem to compare him to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Ambrose actually matches up better (as far as psychological profiles go) the other Hollywood Blonde, Brian Pillman (another great Chaos Character for WCW, ECW and WWF). Ambrose is a loose cannon, who seems more in it for the fight than the glory. He’s a classic underdog who’s not in it for the big win but for the respect that he stood his ground in the fight. Ambrose is more likely to be grinning through bloodied gums after a loss as he is to be crying in joy after winning a title. He sacrifices his body to take down his opponent, with moves clearly designed for hurting opponents rather than beating them. Arguably Ambrose’s most boring ring work was when he was actually US Champion (his lack of televised title defences aside). Ambrose is at his absolutely “lunatic” best when he’s hunting his opponent, from the crowd to the backstage, rather than fending off challengers for his US or IC title. His character works with Roman Reigns because of the insane absurdity of the fact he’s half the size. Everyone knows that crazy small guy that they’d never mess around with because he has that look in his eyes – well Ambrose is Reign’s crazy small guy. And just like Roddy Piper, Ambrose works best when he’s itching for a fight, not worrying where he ranks on the contender list. Real lunatics don’t worry themselves about championships – that’s why sane people wrestle. The lunatics are there to run the asylum.
Will the IWC ever go back to the old days where they invest more on the characters in the story than the seeming backstage politicking that dirt sheets unravel on an hourly basis? Hard to say. If the Twitterverse has anything to say, it would appear the days of the Chaos Character is gone. We’ve been so exposed to the inner workings of the machine, we can no longer see the machine itself.
But for those of us who still love the allure of the characters, of good versus bad, and the occassional moments of sheer lunacy or unmitigated dementia, these are some of the industry’s most important characters. They’re the ones who make the Main Event talent evolve, the ones who add depth to the rest of the roster, and the ones you hope never “get the picture”.
Now run…
