“It’s an exciting art that I didn’t know existed! » The documentary series 3 seconds, produced by Louis Asselin, meticulously reviews Quebec professional wrestling, from the 20e century to the present day.
“I immersed myself in this universe which is a form of entertainment in its own right with a lot of naivety, in order to tell it as completely as possible from a blank page”, confesses the former novice who has become a specialist in discipline in two stages, three movements. The title was even thought to pique the curiosity of the a priori neophyte viewer. “Three seconds is the time the referee counts to declare the winner while the opponent is held to the ground during a fight between two wrestlers,” explains the director.
The ten-episode series thus shows these microcosms of people passionate about professional wrestling, a booming sector across Canada that originated in the circus and fairs with “strong men”. To do this, Louis Asselin’s team notably followed one of the largest organizations in the country, North Shore Pro Wrestling (NSPW), based in Quebec City, which regularly produces galas at the Diamant, Robert Lepage’s theater, whose slogan is precisely “from wrestling to opera”, but also elsewhere in the province. “Quebec professional wrestling does not only take place in major centres. For example, we shot in St-Fulgence, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, and Shawinigan,” says the director.
Similarities to comics
Looking at 3 seconds, audiences also learn what has long been kept an open secret: Pro wrestling fights are scripted. “For about twenty years, it has been said in broad daylight that the winners are known in advance,” says Louis Asselin. According to him, the writing process is quite complex, with real reflection. “The wrestlers follow narrative frames. Spectators who assiduously follow the fight therefore want to know what will happen during the next confrontation and talk about what has just happened in front of their eyes”, he relates, before specifying that the screenwriters, also called the scriptwriters or the bookers, who create these narrative frames, often do so with the collaboration of the wrestlers.
The good guy or bad guy personality can change depending on the city and the wrestler’s history within the same organization if, for example, he or she decides to betray an ally.
According to Louis Asselin, the scripting of professional wrestling matches borrows a lot from the process used in comic books. “The bad guys and the good guys are always drawn in broad strokes,” he describes. The finesse and subtlety of the stories lie rather in the many twists and turns that a fight has. There are always multiple acts like there are multiple chapters in a comic book to captivate and engage viewers, whether they are regulars or recent converts. “The writers must give the keys so that everyone embarks on the fight,” he adds.
“The nice or bad personality can change depending on the city and the history of the wrestler or the wrestler within the same organization if, for example, he or she decides to betray an ally”, then underlines Louis Asselin. According to him, these real actors would even take malicious pleasure in reinventing themselves. ” [Que le lutteur soit] nice or bad, the public nourishes the fights with their applause and their boos and these interactions are very energizing for the wrestlers and the wrestlers”, adds the director.
A mix of art and sport
“During my first wrestling evening in the fall of 2021 at the Théâtre du Diamant, in Quebec City, I was blown away by the level of high acrobatic acrobatics of the professional wrestlers, who have an approach that is more circus than boxing,” recalls Louis Asselin. Always impressed, he salutes the speed and precision of execution of this extraordinary discipline and which, according to him, deserves to obtain its letters of nobility with the general public adept at art. However, Quebec professional wrestling does not have access to any subsidies and any government programs, as may be the case in culture and sport. “This is a purely industry”Must Yourself”, made with the means at hand by promoters and organizations, such as the NSPW”, he reveals.
But then, is professional wrestling an artistic discipline? Athletic ? Neither? “It’s a delicate question on which the experts who comment on or follow this discipline on a daily basis do not agree”, says the director of3 seconds which evokes a practice that is both sporting and artistic, but which also relates to the business.
“Theatrical codes are clearly present in professional wrestling, with the staging, characters, costumes, choreography, etc. “, illustrates Louis Asselin. But that’s not all, because wrestlers must be extremely fit in the ring to be able to fall and get hit without too much risk. “These men and women spend around thirty hours a week in the gym to hold fights of around twenty minutes”, continues the director, who considers them to be pure athletes. According to wrestler Marko Estrada, wrestling is simply a “spart”, the meeting between sport and art.