"There's so many documentaries out there right now and everything's exposing wrestling"
About this Quote
A nervous little line that accidentally captures a whole industry at an inflection point: the moment pro wrestling stopped being a shared illusion and started becoming content about itself. Owen Hart is not waxing philosophical here; he is clocking a threat. Documentaries, “exposes,” behind-the-scenes specials - all the stuff that flatters audiences as insiders - don’t just add trivia. They drain the oxygen from wrestling’s central engine: the agreement to treat a choreographed fight like an emotional truth.
The phrasing matters. “So many” suggests a flood, not a single hit piece, and “everything’s” makes it feel unstoppable, ambient. Most telling is “exposing wrestling,” not “exposing wrestlers.” The target isn’t one bad promoter or one scandal; it’s the form itself, the machinery of kayfabe. In the late 90s, that machinery was already rattling: the Attitude Era was turning real-life friction into storylines, tabloids and early internet fandom were trading rumors like currency, and Vince McMahon had publicly stepped into the narrative. The business was making money off the wink while also needing the audience to still feel something when a betrayal landed.
Coming from Owen - a performer whose persona often played with sincerity, technical skill, and a kind of old-school decency - the subtext is almost protective. Not just “don’t spoil the trick,” but “don’t cheapen the craft.” If wrestling becomes merely a set of revealed methods, it risks being judged like a con instead of experienced like theater with bruises.
The phrasing matters. “So many” suggests a flood, not a single hit piece, and “everything’s” makes it feel unstoppable, ambient. Most telling is “exposing wrestling,” not “exposing wrestlers.” The target isn’t one bad promoter or one scandal; it’s the form itself, the machinery of kayfabe. In the late 90s, that machinery was already rattling: the Attitude Era was turning real-life friction into storylines, tabloids and early internet fandom were trading rumors like currency, and Vince McMahon had publicly stepped into the narrative. The business was making money off the wink while also needing the audience to still feel something when a betrayal landed.
Coming from Owen - a performer whose persona often played with sincerity, technical skill, and a kind of old-school decency - the subtext is almost protective. Not just “don’t spoil the trick,” but “don’t cheapen the craft.” If wrestling becomes merely a set of revealed methods, it risks being judged like a con instead of experienced like theater with bruises.
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