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Our students are well on their way to establishing their rivalries. They've been working away in phases to develop their wrestling characters. We've moved past just name and gimmick into the musculature of their finishing moves, and their characters' virtues and vices (in the Aristotelian sense). With the end of the semester rapidly approaching, the pay-off for all of this is upon us. As of today, our students are creating twitter accounts through which they will create rivalries, cut promos, and develop story. Follow the action by searching: #topprofswrestling
Below you can find each of the additional phases that led to this exciting moment. Stay tuned, as we may be posting some of our brilliant students' avatar portfolios after the feuds are done!
Finishing Move Muscle Action
As we discussed in class, please draw a series of stick figures demonstrating one of your finishing maneuvers for your Avatar. If you haven't come up with a finishing move for your Avatar now is a good time. Then please tell me which muscles would need to contract to perform each part of your finishing move.
Avatar Ethical Framework
Taking the framework below, and building on our discussion of Aristotelian virtue-ethics, fill in the moral characteristics your avatar has. What features do they exhibit. Please also write a brief (~300 word) discussion of how these ethical traits fit your character.
Twitter Feuds
Now that our wrestlers are assembled it is time for the battle to begin. A good out of ring build and feud is one of the key ingredients to a dynamite match and thanks to social media we can complete some killer promo work from the safety of our couch. Your task is to design a twitter account for your wrestling avatar and start a feud with your classmates, or with other professional wrestling personalities. The goal here is to create an online persona that embodies your character and gives them a voice.
There are a couple different components of this assignment that will be completed between now and the end of the semester.
Part 1: Profile creation and rationale. DUE 04/15/2021
Create a twitter account for your character. You should have a specific handle, bio, and set of images for your character. In a separate word document please paste in all the components of your twitter bio and then provide a rationale for why you chose each of these components.
In a separate paragraph you should describe which of your classmates you are going to target first and why. Which professional wrestlers if any you are going to call out and why? These are just ideas, things may change as you start your twitter feuds.
Grading:
You will be graded on the clarity of your character, whether your bio has the required components, and the explanation of your rationale. We would like to see ~300 words on your twitter persona.
Out of: 20 points.
Part 2: Let the twitter battle begin! DUE 04/22/2021
Feel free to get very creative with your twitter feuds; however, also try to stay true to your character. While we want you to be as free as possible with your twitter feud it might be helpful to have somewhat of a framework to work from, so we would suggest the following:
Keep in mind that the end goal would be to build to a match.
Feel free to reference past matches, slights, or other characters that do not exist. Remember this is kayfabe. Feel free to also reference other wrestlers that you are not directly feuding with.
You can also call out myself and Dr. Phillips. Remember we are the authority/ managers in this scenario.
Also feel free to amass followers. Get your friends in on the action, have them follow you, and post comments.
Stay true to your character. You developed certain virtues and vices, how do those play into your character’s Twitter persona?
Grading:
Each of your tweets should include #topprofswrestling. This will allow Dr. Phillips and I to easily see all of your tweets and interactions. While this is all in good fun, please let’s keep things within the realm of tasteful. Grades will be based on content, creativity, and how well they fit with your character.
You should aim for a robust rivalry – one or two shared tweets won’t be enough to establish a real sense of animosity between you and your rival. You need to establish stakes, build anticipation, and do your best to get “heat” from the public audience on Twitter. This is, after all, public on social media. You might look at promos, pre-match packages, and rivalries from promotions (WWE, NXT, AEW, RoH, New Japan, Etc.) to get ideas for your own rivalries.
Out of: 30 points
Part 3: Final Reflection and Portfolio. DUE 04/27/2021
The final portion of the Avatar Project is to put everything together. We’d like you to assemble an Avatar portfolio that gives us the full picture of your wrestling character. You should include all of the previous parts of the avatar assignment:
Pick your gimmick
Nutrition and body-type
Finishing move and muscle actions
Virtue/vice ethical framework
Twitter bio creation/rationale
A synopsis of your rivalry (including top-tweets)
Final reflection paper (more on this below)
This portfolio should be submitted as a flashy .pdf with a cover sheet and table of contents. Please indicate on your submission on Canvas whether you’d be willing to allow us to share these to our website.
Final Reflection Paper: For your final reflection, we’d like you to tie everything together. Bring in both aspects of philosophy and biology that we’ve discussed in class, and how each of the topics we’ve discussed apply to the creation of a person, a character, and how you interact with each other and the world around you. What did you learn about yourself, about philosophy, about biology? How will these lessons affect you in the future? What is the most important lesson you learned from this experience?
We are looking for a careful reflection, grounded in course material, that pulls from your experiences in the class. This reflection should be ~1200 words.
Grading:
You will be graded on the completeness of your portfolio, and the quality of your reflection paper. The reflection paper should incorporate texts, lectures, discussions, and projects from class. When describing the impact of the class on you, be sure to give specific examples and explain how they impacted your thinking. Be thorough, but concise.
Out of: 10 points for portfolio
40 points for reflection 50 points total
Final Grade
Part 1: 20 points
Part 2: 30 points
Part 3: 50 points
Total: 100 points