> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.protein.xyz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # What Can Artists Learn From Pro Wrestling? - URL: https://www.protein.xyz/what-can-artists-learn-from-pro-wrestling/ - Published: 2026-10-13T09:33:41.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-13T09:33:41.000Z - Description: The second Protein LECTURE saw Elijah, artist, writer and DJ, step into the ring to challenge ‘authenticity’ in entertainment, champion mystique, advocate for having enemies, and explain what Phil Mitchell and Chappell Roan have got to do with any of this. - Author: Protein - Tags: SEEDS The wrestling and music industries share a similar history. Both emerged around 100 years ago and were initially made up of lots of different players, companies and ways of doing things. They were lively businesses full of must-see spectacles. But over time, they became consolidated into a handful of giants, with operations flattened and standardised. In a little under a century, both pro wrestling and music have gone from live ticketed businesses to streaming businesses. > ‘The authenticity in entertainment is actually more fake than wrestling’ [Elijah](https://elijahcore.com/?ref=protein.xyz) uses this framing to explore the tension between real and fake entertainment in a world that equates authenticity with quality. ‘The authenticity in entertainment is actually more fake than wrestling,’ he explains, connecting this to a decade of social media pushing relatability as paramount, even when it’s totally faked. The obsession with seeming real means we’ve stopped telling good, imaginative, unbelievable stories. These ideas are part of Elijah’s early workings for an upcoming book on the topic, with his [LECTURE](https://www.protein.xyz/tag/lectures/) at [Protein STUDIOS](https://www.proteinstudios.com/?ref=protein.xyz) giving him the opportunity to test his thinking with an audience for the first time. To outsiders, a bunch of buff and eccentric wrestlers throwing themselves at one another might seem bizarre. They might criticise the sport as obviously fake and staged. But take a closer look and you’ll see that the world of wrestling, and its impact, is very much real. It might be scripted. It might be rehearsed. There might be agreement on who’s going to win and who’s going to lose. But how people respond gets at something raw, igniting emotions, connection and inspiration. > To put it in layman's terms, kayfabe 'would be like being Phil Mitchell all the time' During audience questions, someone shares how following the death of wrestling legend Pac, his friend Will Ospreay paid tribute to him in a match, deploying Pac’s signature move, the Black Arrow, while fighting back tears. ‘The whole place was in tears, and I watched it and I was in tears’, the audience member says. ‘So yes, this is silly and camp and funny but at the same time it makes you feel something.’ --- **Before we go any further, here are some terms you might want to brush up on:** - *Babyface: The good guy.* - *Heel: The bad guy.* - *Gimmick: Character or persona.* - *Kayfabe: Maintaining the story as if it’s real, even outside of the ring.* - *Work: Something scripted but presented as real.* - *Shoot: Something genuinely real.* - *Worked Shoot: A situation that blurs the line between fiction and reality.* --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/2026/10/Tony-Khan-Neck-Brace.webp) Tony Khan on NFL Network To understand the extent of pro wrestling’s commitment to storytelling, Elijah uses Tony Khan, owner of wrestling promotion AEW, as a prime example of kayfabe. During one show, he was attacked by AEW’s very own Jack Perry, Kazuchika Okada and The Young Bucks, who gut-punched him, then dropped him on his head, executing ‘one of the deadliest moves in pro wrestling’. Afterwards, Khan participated in a standard news segment but [while wearing a neck brace](https://www.reddit.com/r/AEWOfficial/comments/1cdurui/tony%5Fkhan%5Fwearing%5Fneck%5Fbrace%5Fduring%5Fnfl%5Fnetwork/?ref=protein.xyz). And when responding to questions about the incident, he maintained the story and encouraged those watching to tune into AEW to get his doctor’s prognosis. ‘For them to do that to be in front of millions of people around the world…it scared me and it scared my family’, he tells the anchors. > ‘Why build a world if you're gonna use the first possible opportunity to break kayfabe?’ To put it in layman's terms, kayfabe ‘would be like being Phil Mitchell all the time’, Elijah says, referencing the iconic character from the British soap *EastEnders*. ‘If you saw the actor who plays Phil Mitchell, Steve McFadden, at the pub, to stay in kayfabe he’d be drinking an orange juice, because the Phil Mitchell character is an alcoholic who doesn't drink.’ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/2026/10/Untitled-Design-A4-Landscape--3--1-1-1.png) Birds of a feather: Phil Mitchell & CASSIDEAD In the music industry, a current artist demonstrating immaculate kayfabe is CASSISDEAD. When Elijah did a show with him, he told the MC, ‘“I’ve never seen you without the mask. I respect your commitment to this thing.” And he just looked at me and was like, “What mask?”’. Mystery and theatre have long been at the heart of artists' work. MF Doom, Daft Punk, Sia and Pussy Riot all used masks, helmets and wigs to conceal their identity. David Bowie famously embodied different flamboyant characters throughout his career. But this world-building and curiosity are fading as the curtain is drawn back and everything is laid bare. ‘I want a bit of mystique', Elijah says. 'If you listen to electronic music, you often see these dynamics where people explain in four points how they made the tune. All the magic has gone’. Sophia Epstein’s SEED [Ambiguity Maxxing](https://www.protein.xyz/ambiguity-maxxing/) and Alexi Gunner’s [Mystery Matters](https://www.protein.xyz/mystery-matters/) also observe how in a seemingly transparent world, intrigue becomes even more necessary. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/2026/10/Untitled-Design-A4-Landscape--6--1.png) Adrian Street, a.k.a. Exotic & David Bowie Discussing this with Elijah, Protein’s editor Sophia French asks if what they'd just experienced was a shoot or a work, and points to how his lack of surname and all-black outfit that he wears for events suggests a gimmick. ‘I’m working’, Elijah responds. ‘I mean, it’s a work shoot’. ‘Of course’, French agrees. > 'It adds this layer where the line between fantasy and reality gets more interesting’ ‘Chappell Roan, one of my favourite gimmicks’, Elijah states. ‘And what’s weird is she once got angry at this reporter and someone said she’d make a great pro wrestler’. Shortly after, Roan performed in lucha libre mask and ensemble. And at the start of this year, Roan’s makeup artist Genesis Webb [confirmed](https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/stylist-for-chappell-roan-confirms-inspiration-comes-from-wrestling-including-bull-nakano-sting-vader-more/?ref=protein.xyz) she was inspired by Japanese wrestling outfits for Roan’s Governors Ball look; Bull Nakano appears to be the main reference. ‘This has not come from nowhere. She's been working you’. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/2026/10/Untitled-Design-A4-Landscape--5--1.png) Chappell Roan & Bull Nakano Alongside kayfabe, a work, a shoot, a worked shoot and a gimmick, enemies are another crucial component of pro wrestling. For Elijah, his enemies are the loose ideologies people lazily adopt, choosing a stance for the sake of it rather than really interrogating what they think: ‘I would see an enemy as someone that doesn't see there being a possibility of 999 other ideas’. But there is one enemy Elijah references throughout the LECTURE: BBC Radio 1Xtra. ‘I got invited to do a conference. They didn't know what I was gonna talk about and I started laying into 1Xtra’, he explains. ‘Conferences need confrontation. We need to add a bit of spice to these things.’ In a piece for [*The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/26/uk-radio-stations-black-british-music-recycled-american-rap?ref=protein.xyz), Elijah clarifies his thoughts on this, explaining how stations like 1Xtra position themselves at amplifiers of [new Black music and culture](https://www.protein.xyz/brand-britain-evolved/), yet just play a loop of recycled American rap. He compares this confrontation with wrestling commentator and manager Paul Heyman at ECW’s *One Night Stand 2005\.* During the pay-per-view event, Heyman criticised WWE and rallied the crowd onto his side. This is what they call a worked shoot: something scripted that draws on real-life situations to present as unscripted. > 'Use media to build stories rather than break them' There’s something about a work, or a worked shoot, that feels akin to a hall of mirrors. An audience member echoes this sentiment: ‘I was thinking about Carl Jung’s shadow and David Lynch, and this psychologist called Adam Phillips who talks about fantasy. I think what you're kind of talking about here is creating a space of fantasy where some of the more taboo sides of us can be expressed.’ Another audience member asks: ‘If social media moves out of its authenticity era, what comes next? And what does that mean for the future of pro wrestling?’. ‘Now wrestlers get to tell their own stories too, outside of what's happening on the television. So like the music business, it was top-down’, Elijah responds. ‘Wrestlers will be on television, and then they can just go on their Twitter and say, "Hey, that wasn't supposed to happen" or, "I'm gonna do this instead" or "I got fired"…It adds this layer where the line between fantasy and reality gets more interesting’. ### **In summary:** 1. **Rarely break kayfabe:** ‘Why build a world if you're gonna use the first possible opportunity to break kayfabe?’ 2. **Use media to build stories rather than break them:** ‘If I go on a podcast, I'm gonna maintain my personal kayfabe. I’m just Elijah. There's no surname. I don't have any other things that you can connect me to apart from what I present.’ 3. **Pick an enemy:** ‘Like 1Xtra. It makes it more fun. You need a bit of beef.’ 4. **Reference expansion:** ‘If you’re a makeup artist using '90s Joshi wrestling from Japan, that’s pretty cool, rather than using the same Y2K kind of thing.’ 5. **Conferences need some confrontation:** ‘Or I'm not coming anymore. I don't want everyone to agree with me.’ --- ### A selection of Elijah's favourite matches and segments: 'The most famous "worked shoot"' 'John Cena heel turn' 'The greatest wrestling intro of all time from August, with Britain's best wrestler atm Will Ospreay just before he won at Wembley stadium' 'One of the greatest builds and stories from the year. It's so absurd but they pulled it off' ### Further watching: 'In this order' | SEED | #8452 | | ---------- | -------- | | DATE | 03.10.26 | | PLANTED BY | PROTEIN |