The average wrestler today is far more well-rounded than in the past, but far more homogenized. Fans and workers alike watch so many different things. That isn’t possible today in our far more intermingled culture.
You could see a style that felt like a different world. A promotion could blow its fans’ minds by importing a Japanese or Mexican wrestler, a Jushin Liger or Rey Mysterio, because unless you were a tape trading hardcore, puroresu and lucha libre were likely unknown to you. Likewise, the wrestling of the 90s can’t be recreated for similar reasons.
#Integrity pro wrestling full#
There was no internet and wrestling was usually not on national TV, so as a result you could have all these separate little promotions that were very unique from each other, full of talent that could be a star in one state and a relative unknown in the next. The territory era of wrestling can’t be recreated because it was built in a world that was far less interconnected. This is wrestling tradition, and if you look at its history, not only is refusing to change a bad idea, it is impossible. To stay true to pro wrestling’s roots would be to constantly change to whatever the public wants at a given moment, not to stay stubbornly at some perceived perfect ideal. That is because it’s not a sport, it’s a performance. It has no loyalty to tradition, no integrity tied to the set rules of a sport. So pro wrestling was born out of doing whatever it took to entertain fans the most while making the most money. An entirely new form of entertainment was created by showing blatant disrespect for what had come before it. Some people did that and it worked, so more people did it, and it spread until this new thing, pro wrestling, became far more popular than amateur. All you had to do was make it fake, lie to the public, and fundamentally change what something was and always had been. If the wrestlers cooperated with each other, you could do more exciting things in the ring. If the matches were worked, no match would drag on for five hours and end with no winner.
If the matches were worked, the most beloved wrestlers could always win the biggest bouts. Pro wrestling was created to solve those problems. Matches could be boring, could stretch on for hours, and end in unsatisfying draws. Because it was legitimate, the less exciting, less charismatic wrestlers could beat the ones with more star potential. It was very popular in its day but in time flaws emerged. Pro wrestling comes from amateur wrestling, a legitimate, non-worked sport. The very birth of pro wrestling came from rejecting tradition and what came before, perverting it. Nobody Has a Lariat Like Stan Hansen’s Western Lariat.70 Years Ago, Verne Gagne and Hans Schmidt Had a Timeless Classic.In fact, it’s what we need more of today. These people often see themselves as historians, but if they really followed wrestling history, they’d know that drastic change, a rejection of wrestling’s past, isn’t just normal, it’s what the whole thing is based on. More and more podcasts and Patreons are springing up, lead by disgruntled fans and industry veterans alike, who preach to choirs of people like them, telling them that wrestling used to be better, that it’s lost its way. Yet in pro wrestling, there is a growing cottage industry devoted to fighting against that fact of life.
Actually, everything comes to an end, good and bad.
0 kommentar(er)
