The state of wrestling address.
By Legend Killer | August 2nd, 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen, wrestling fans of all ages. Welcome, I am the one they call ‘Legend Killer’, speaking to you in a matter of crisis. The company, the business, the profession we once loved, has fallen. It has gone from a wrestling spectacle, full of action and excitement, into child-friendly programming, and a rather poor attempt at entertainment. Whatever happened to the things we liked the most about the thing us wrestling fans enjoyed most? What is it that keeps us watching and watching, each and every week, hoping that perhaps, we catch a glimmer of what used to be. The following will discuss two of these companies, World Wrestling Entertainment, and Total Nonstop Action, and what made them enjoy in the first place, and what they need to do, to bring back the true wrestling fan.
Part One: World Wrestling Entertainment
For those who haven’t been watching, the WWE has recently shed itself of all bloodshed and hardcore, and adpated more child-friendly programming. I don’t have a problem with that at all. Showing young children these larger than life characters on their TV screens. Showing young children that, just like their favourite WWE superstar, they can do anything and if they keep fighting, and never give up. They can achieve their dreams and goals in life, and the glow on a child’ face, the look in their eye, when they see one of these characters up close and personal, could make a young child’s wildest dreams true. However, with the focus squarely on the younger generation, where does this leave, the older fans? The fans that grew up during Hulkamania, Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior. The fans who watched through the Attitude Era, watching Stone Cold flip off the boss, D-Generation X crotch chopping everyone, and showing the world that they were rebels. The fans who know that when someone started bleeding, or when the feud ended inside a steel cage, that match meant something, not just to the fans or the company, but to the wrestlers who competed in these matches.
Let’s turn the clock back ten-fifteen years. The Attitude era is in full swing. On one side, you have a foul-mouth, beer-swelling, middle-finger giving sumbitch by the name of Stone Cold, who disobeyed everything his boss ordered him to do. On the other, was a group who wouldn’t listen to anyone but themselves, who do what they wanted, when they wanted. If they wanted it, they would take it. This is the wrestling business that comfirmed me a wrestling fan. Sure, I’d watched it on VHS back in those days. Watching guys like Bret Hart win the first ever King of the Ring, or watching my idol, Shawn Michaels go from being the guy everyone loved, to the guy everyone loved to hate. But it was the Attitude era that really got me hooked. Watching a group known as D-Generation X, make more sexual innuendos during a two-hour broadcast, than most people would in a lifetime. Viewing the women, like Debra and Ivory, strip down to the bare essentials, showing you that they weren’t afraid to bare it all, and the World Wrestling Federation as it was known back then, weren’t afraid to show the 18-35 males and females of the world anything.
Fast track to today. There is no bloodshed, no Stone Cold, no bare essentials. Nothing. The closest we have to the days of yesteryear in World Wrestling Entertainement, is a re-hashed D-Generation X. But these days, they have become childish, instead of the immature toilet humour we were used to seeing from them. From the days, where you could create an all-black stable, call them the Nation of Domination, and no-one would be offended. These days, it wouldn’t take long for someone to get offended and cause a massive uproar.
There is nothing wrong with the WWE becoming kid-friendly, but they have to give the older generations of fans something too, or be prepared to lose the fanbase, that bought them to where they are today.
Tags: Bloodshed, Child Face, D Generation X, Glimmer, Goals In Life, Ladies And Gentlemen, Larger Than Life, Poor Attempt, Randy Savage, Rebels, Spectacle, Steel Cage, Total Nonstop Action, Tv Screens, Ultimate Warrior, Wildest Dreams, World Wrestling Entertainment, Wrestlers, Wwe Superstar, Younger Generation
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6 Responses to “The state of wrestling address.”
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Drowgoddess Says:
The Attitude Era, in some form or other, was what drew a lot of people to wrestling, I would think. Your closing sentence sums up everything. It isn't about rehashing the Attitude Era years later, or focusing on blood and almost-naked hot chicks. It's about the simple fact that the most devout wrestling fan base, the people whose money and time put WWE where it is, is not ten years old. Catering to one segment of the audience at the expense of all the others eventually drives those others away. All those kids aren't spending their own money, and when their parents refuse to spend any more of theirs, WWE is in trouble.
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ThinkSoJoE Says:
But the reason we're all still watching, whether it's those of us who grew up watching The Rockers or those of us who grew up watching The Rock and Sock connection, is because we're all well aware of one thing about the wrestling business. It's cyclical. For every 1993 that gives us WrestleCrap coverboys like Giant Gonzalez, there's a 1996 that gives us big time angles like the nWo.
The problem with the current product can be attributed to the fact that there isn't a WCW breathing down Vince McMahon's neck, nor is there an ECW revolutionizing the business and causing WWE to realize that they need to do something different to keep the product fresh and entertaining.
They say that desperate times call for desperate measures, and TNA just did a mere 7,000 buys for one of their biggest pay per views of the year. Meanwhile, there seems to be a major change brewing in TNA creative. The combination of these two factors could cause the spark that sets off the professional wrestling powder keg and explodes it back to the popularity it enjoyed in the later half of the 1990s. Only time will tell.
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AllGrimlock Says:
I've stopped watching WWE a couple of weeks ago. RAW is the only show available where I live, but I hear there are good things going on at Smackdown. I'm tired of the same old feuds with Cena coming out on top. I'm tired of the scripted dialog (Jericho and HHH and a couple of others do a good job keeping it old school though). I'm tired of Hornswaggle vs. Chavo.
I've been a fan of WWE/WWF since Hulk Hogan wrestled Zeus on Saturday Night's Main Event and I'm not sure how they could get me back. Maybe let's some of the rest of the roster step up and take the place of Cena, Orton (who is awesome btw), HHH, and Micheals. The change I've heard is working on Smackdown and TNA is doing the same thing. Example- Eric Young, TNA Knockouts, Suicide (but they really need to put Sting and Kurt Angle to rest, for their own health). Santino is also doing a good job, but Mickie James is phoning it in (though I do have a crush on her)__The product WWE is putting out is not worth my time right now (I have a job and a life). Until they can capture my attention again. I'm happier without it. -
It's sad that I have to DVR AWA Wrestling on ESPN Classic or watch TNA to get my wrestling fix.
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AWA on ESPN Classic is fun to watch, seeing guys like Shawn Michaels before they made it huge in WWF. I actually like watching the old UWF shows too, just because of how terrible they were.
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Bruce Says:
The Attitude Era, in some form or other, was what drew a lot of people to wrestling, I would think. Your closing sentence sums up everything. It isn’t about rehashing the Attitude Era years later, or focusing on blood and almost-naked hot chicks. It’s about the simple fact that the most devout wrestling fan base, the people whose money and time put WWE where it is, is not ten years old. Catering to one segment of the audience at the expense of all the others eventually drives those others away. All those kids aren’t spending their own money, and when their parents refuse to spend any more of theirs, WWE is in trouble.