The state of wrestling address.
Sunday, 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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