Matt Hardy and Ric Flair: The Dangers of Staying in Character

Writers, actors and wrestlers aren't that different from one another. Each has to create a persona that is different from their everyday personality. However, the longer they stay in character, the more dangerous it becomes to keep these personalities separate.

An actor once told me that he had to erase a character that he had played in a small skit multiple times. He couldn't allow himself to remember how to be the character he had portrayed. When I asked why, he said, "The character was all about how he would screw you less than the next guy would and I found I had started to agree."

I didn't think much about it at the time, but as I started writing fiction I found that if I didn't finish the story soon enough then I started reacting to everyday situations the way that my characters would. You don't just become the character, the character bleeds over into your personal life.

That is the case with Matt Hardy and Ric Flair. They both love what they do to the point that they try to keep themselves immersed in it 24-7. Now both are in the news because their lives are falling apart at the seams. For Matt it has to do with his drug-induced car accident and increasingly disturbing YouTube videos. For Flair it is his catastrophic choices with money and terrible choices in personal relationships.  

It appears that both wrestlers are playing their parts too well.

Flair needed to portray the flamboyant, wealthy champ during a period where breaking kayfabe wasn't allowed.

Hardy of course, had his YouTube show.

By connecting his personal life to the web and mixing it with his persona, he blurred the lines that once separated Matt Hardy the wrestler and Matt Hardy the individual.

The irony that Ric caused his problems because of an old school approach and Matt because of new technology should not be ignored. It seems things are coming full circle. Now guys in the business are encouraged to break kayfabe, but to connect with fans.

How can you connect with fans if you don't stay in character? You can't, which results in a catch-22. Be free to be yourself, but good luck making it to the top.

I realize that Ric and Matt brought this on themselves. No one told them to rip their lives apart, to live two lives in the same body until they mixed horribly or even to keep themselves "on" every hour of every day.

But fans wanted it and they received glory and applause like any good actor.

Now let's give them help. Instead of attacking them, let's simply ask Matt and Ric to take a step back and try to find themselves instead of the men they pretend to be in the ring.

Or as Ric once said, "To be the man you have to beat the man."

I would love to seem them both do just that.