the opening to this match is very special to me (the whole match is very good at least in my opinion); things i noted:
the lighting - so sick how for the first portion there's a notable difference between how shawn has the spotlight on him (presentation/entrance purposes, but also illuminates him as a bright "babyface" figure - the connotations are very hopeful and exciting for the crowd) and the placement of the shadows on hunter make him feel more deep within the cage itself (it feels very instinctually predatorial - especially given the eye contact and pacing in the first portion); hunter's placement within the cage (back to the wall in a way that sizes up the area) also screams "animal that has adapted to its environment".
the difference in eye contact - shawn takes his time getting to the ring, and he spends a lot of moments posturing for the crowd, his attention kind of scattered in multiple places (usual for him); hunter maintains his eye contact solely on shawn, tying in to how intrinsically linked he is to him, regardless of whether he likes it or not. shawn has a characteristic enthralling pull to him, and this is something that hunter has known for the entirety of his time here (which, for sake of kayfabe, is the entirety of his existence, from the start in which he breathed life into the character/gimmick. inadvertently, this makes shawn some level of a figurehead in his mind. this is coupled with the ceremonious lighting and spectacle of shawn's entrance here) - it should be noted too how the shadows let up and hunter is flushed with light the minute shawn steps into the ring with him. (to me, this just seems like pulling back the curtains and allowing for some level of intimate truth to be shared between them through the violence of the match; shawn drinks up hunter's attention on him, and begins to share the glance.) the cage is lowered and there is a level of separation just for them, that is doubled through those watching through the camera lens. hunter states how much he enjoys HIAC matches, and i feel that it couples with his own strange intensities - which are increased during his rivalry with shawn -> it always had the feeling of a man obsessively trying to kill their own personal deity, with the undercurrent of two lovers scorned in different ways.
of course, as it is with all wrestling matches that have heavy chemistry among its participants, there's the feeling of deep-rooted sentiment and intimacy within the violence and physicality. i love how drawn out the introduction is (even after shawn makes it to the ring and the cage is lowered/bell is rung, they still stare at each other for a good while) and i haven't yet seen one similar to this (no promo, no talking, no nothing) - but, there probably are others out there
hey, your video compilation of 4chan post about shield is a great ressource for fandom psychology. Interesting to see another user who lurk the wrestling board and use tumblr. Did you ever work on compilation of the tumblr fandom during the peak of the shield era ? I did not research it yet. xoxo
glad someone liked that video, only in times when im super fixated on something will i end up searching through the 4chan archives for more content...unfortunately 4chan vernacular tends to get a laugh out of me (if it isnt absolute lowtier content, had to scrape through a lot of that). the shield stuff i tried to get from when it was at its peak and you'll see posts on there from 2013+, but i also got modern stuff now bc the boardspeak actually changed with it.
ironically it is way easier to deepdive and compile stuff from 4chan bc it has a much better archival system than tumblr; ive also looked for lots of old stuff on deviantart due to the crossover but i found that it has a pretty shitty way of archiving/sorting older posts (just like on here. ive been on tumblr since 13 so i know what sorts of areas to look for, but its still very hard to find it directly on here. i havent spent as much time as i did getting those posts for that video so i can try harder.)
fandom psychology is interesting to me too so im happy you saw my video with that angle. ive collected lots of old shield fangirl content off of sites like weheartit and pinterest (ironically those are often better at keeping images up for longer periods of time) too but i didnt know if i should make a comp, maybe i will. i also looked through random forums and places like lolcow dot farms (which only really granted one of the screenshots...not too much discussion over there for good or bad. i was hoping to find discussion abt shieldfangirls or wrestling rpf but surprisingly they didnt think to make a "point and laugh" thread abt those topics). i find it interesting how much shieldrelated psychosis was on both sides of the spectrum (tumblr vs 4chan)....i could talk more on it but im a little brainless and sleep deprived rn
heres some extras i had that didnt make the cut (plus just some of my favorites):
and these were from a thread talking abt the modern stereotypical tumblr wrestling fan (specifically talking abt aedubs young bucks fans/the elite fans)
(*fangirl in this is a term im using loosely of course)