The GBYWN
For my ethnography project, I decided to do my report on an online community that I have belonged to. I decided to choose the GBYWN, or Global Backyard Wrestling Nation. Before I became a professional wrestler about two years ago, I was travelling around the Midwest practicing my craft in random backyards and buildings with my friends, both new and old. Many of the people I have met through this online community have had similar experiences, and a handful have even performed on national television. The Global Backyard Wrestling Nation community can be found at www.thegbywn.com.
The Inhabitants
The other members of the GBYWN are mainly from the United States, most notably in the Midwest and East Coast. However, there are different groups, or “federations,” from all over the rest of the world. There are at least a handful of federations from England, France, Canada, and even Australia. A large majority of the members are male, aged between fourteen to twenty-five. They come from all different races, religions, neighborhoods, and lifestyles. Despite all their personal differences and all the distance between them, all members of the GBYWN share one major similarity; they enjoy professional wrestling.
While the community is brought together by wrestling, members of their group express their passion differently. Some go to talk about the televised wrestling shows, spreading backstage information and rumors that they come across. One such instance of this comes when a rumor broke that Randy Orton, a famous wrestler for the WWE, got injured during a show. Although there was no mention of it on television, the rumor was spread throughout the GBYWN (www.thegbywn.com/t16074-orton-injured). Finally, days after the incident was reported, news broke on WWE’s official website reporting that Randy Orton had indeed been injured, and was being pulled off a future event in order to recover (http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2012-02-13/orton-suffers-concussion). In this way, the GBYWN is in a way like an information community, where members come and talk about wrestling and share media. However, while some members are content with discussing wrestling with their peers, others pay homage to their love in a more active way.
Although it sometimes gets viewed in a negative light, backyard wrestling is a very common activity for the members of the GBYWN. Backyard wrestling, otherwise known as “yarding,” involves two or more individuals coming together or recreate their own wrestling match. Despite a concerned outcry from adults and parents that backyard wrestling resembled a group of young kids beating each other up for no reason, yarding more closely resembles the half-choreographed, half-athletic contests highlighted in the WWE and in other top wrestling promotions. Almost every member of the GBYWN has in some way been involved with yarding, and some have even travelled large distances to meet others who participate in the activity as well.
Although many members of the GBYWN enjoy travelling to meet new friends and holding yarding events, they are not always able to do so freely. Travelling always costs money, and many members of the GBYWN community have jobs and other responsibilities. Therefore, some groups within the community will invite many out-of-town wrestlers to come visit at once, and a “supershow” is created (www.thegbywn.com/f7-gbywn-supershows). A supershow is when members of different groups will come together in one location for a day or longer, dedicated to yarding and meeting new people in person that they had only met online. All assembled members will get together and pair off, with the intention of putting together their own wrestling match. Everyone involved will then try to put on the best performance possible, and will try to out-do the other matches that take place. Afterwards, members who do not have to travel home right away will usually go off somewhere and hang out, usually at some food establishment or someone’s house.
Communicating With Others
The most common way that members of the GBYWN keep in touch with each other is the large forum on the website. The forum is broken up in many sub-categories, some which are dedicated to wrestling while other categories are about other trivial things, such as music or other sports. Another category on the forum is the Media Section, where members will post some of their own matches for others to view and comment on. Most of these were linked from Youtube (www.youtube.com) and other video hosting sites, such as the now-defunct MegaUpload (www.megaupload.com). Another way they keep in touch is through Facebook (www.facebook.com). Another tool the moderators use to communicate with each other is by using Skype, a program that allows one user to talk to another with a webcam (www.skype.com). Other community members will use Skype to talk about upcoming matches, or to plan a large supershow that is coming up.
A Supportive Community
Through the GBYWN, many of the community members have developed close friendships with others. I myself have met dozens of great new people from around the United States and Canada, and many of these people have become some of my closest friends. I have even wrestled some of them in professional wrestling promotions, and we hang out whenever we get the chance. However, sometimes bad things happen to people, and members of the GBYWN are not exempt from this rule. One of my friends suffered a few concussions, and was in very bad shape mentally after it happened. When others heard about his problems, they tried everything they could to show their support and let them know he had friends there for him (http://www.thegbywn.com/t14901-focalin-head-injury-ongoing-recovery).
Online Etiquette
While every forum will always have its drama, the GBYWN actually runs fairly smoothly in that. Some forums are full of people who have problems with “noobs,” or people who are new to either the site or backyard wrestling. That does not seem to be the case with the GBYWN, who is normally pretty welcoming of new members as long as they do not come in and immediately act rude or obnoxiously. All members are welcome to post their own media for others to see, who can then comment on and hopefully give constructive criticism on how to improve their work.
However, as with any activity involving competition of some kind, sometimes people will develop egos. Arguments are all over the place as to who is better or who doesn’t know how to wrestle, while other arguments happen between others who just plain do not like each other. Further blurring the line is that wrestling has a history of larger than life personas, and even members of the GBYWN will sometimes play different characters, or gimmicks. Some will even pretend to be more arrogant or cocky than they really are, which may in turn annoy others. Despite the occasional bickering, the GBYWN is really a very friendly and open community, and in a lot of ways acts like a large family would.
Goals of the Community
Simply put, different group members have different goals for what they want to accomplish in the GBYWN. Some solely want to be able to talk about wrestling with people who enjoy it as much as they do, while making friends on the way. Other people like the travelling and meeting other members. Some like performing in front of a crowd, and competing with their peers to put on the best match they can. Still others have even grander goals. While some people who perform have no intentions of ever moving out of the backyard, others dream of one day working for a top professional wrestling company. Some people started yarding and then went on to get professional training, and currently work for independent wrestling companies who are not yet as popular as the WWE. A few have even made it to the “big time,” making televised appearances in AAA, Mexico’s most popular wrestling promotion. Some have taken it a step farther and have made appearances on The United State’s top two companies, TNA and WWE.
(I do not own this video.All rights reserved to the WWE and Youtube user DannyDangerPro.)
In conclusion, the GBYWN is many different kinds of online communities at once. It has become an information community, where wrestling aficionados come to talk about their favorite form of sports entertainment. It is a support group, lending support and assistance to those in need of help or even just a friend. It has become its own social networking site in a way, where different people from around the world come and make new friends. The GBYWN has become a place of competition, where athletes all meet up and try to entertain and out-perform each other. Still, for others, it’s simply a starting place for those who want to live their dream of becoming a professional wrestler one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment