WWE becomes the poison
"Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either."
- Albert Einstein
There comes a time in every young mans life where they must make a stand. To fight for their beliefs, honor, and principles.
Grant it, when someone states something as biblical as that, they're usually not referring to an internet rant. Never the less, this is how I feel about a certain subject I've managed to tip-toe around for almost as long as I could make one clear distinction that has yet to leave by my side: that wrestling is scripted.
For years, I've grown a clear disdain for wrestling fans, and usually, I would just have shrugged it off to me being anti-social, and a complete prick. While that's completely true, I still feel there is something more to it, and I never quite figured what it was, until now. Well, actually, a few years ago, but for argument sake, and dramatical effect, we'll just leave it as a revelation I stumbled upon at 4 in the fucking morning.
You see, for me, not only am I just unable to socialize with any other human being without coming off as a complete asshole, or without the aide of a keyboard, I've grown to hate the pure arrogant intolerance of "wrestling" fans who really aren't wrestling fans.
I think to clarify that would require a little in-depth back story.
You see, not only do people throw the word "legend" and "icon" around rather easily, but the term "wrestling fan" gets bumped up and down the vocabulary, as well. People who've been watching wrestling, namely the WWE, since the attitude era, circa 1997, feel this qualifies them as being a wrestling fan. Well, you know what? I watch a lot of C.S.I., and not only for the dreamy William Petersen, and this, in no way, qualifies me as a criminal analyst, or even some crime scene investigator.
What sets me apart from these so-called "wrestling fans" is the fact that, I don't claim that watching WWF/E since 1992 qualifies me as a wrestling fan. Hell, even the fact that I remember anything beyond yesterday should entitle me to qualify for anything, considering I have the memory of a decaying mongoose - and the reflexes of a dead cat to match. Instead, what qualifies me to call myself a true wrestling fan is the fact that I didn't just stop at WWF/E. I watched WCW, and I enjoyed it for all of its flaws, and even its perfection (and they couldn't have gotten any more perfect than the new World order: original black and white, not tender roasted, extra crispy). But watching both WWF/E and WCW still doesn't qualify me as a wrestling fan.
I jumped into ECW relatively late, around the time it had its pay-per-views advertised on Cablevision in my area, which I believe was November to Remember 1998, and then fell into it again once it had its deal with The Nashville Network, just before it became The National Network. I originally thought it all trash - over-glorified hardcore trash. But even this did not qualify me to call myself a wrestling fan.
Until then, I referred to myself as a WWF/E fanboy, who just happened to enjoy other, non-WWF/E products. What gave me the instant right to call myself a wrestling fan was when I started looking deeper, further, and found myself looking for other, non-televised, non-American products to enjoy. What made me a true wrestling fan was the fact that I looked for the old, classic stuff, where legends were just regular talents trying to put on a great show, rather than just "old guys" who got out of the game because their bodys just couldn't take it anymore.
What makes me a wrestling fan, first, and foremost, is the fact that I'm willing to never settle and compromise for just one product. As far as I'm concerned, all wrestling, regardless of its promotion, region, or the ethnicity of its competitors, is capable of being good entertainment.
And this is what brings me to the point of this mini-rant/article, and yes, 18 pages qualifies as a mini-rant in my vocabulary. Problems now, then go to the corner, stare at the paint chips, and wonder when would be a good time to go ride that bike of yours.
With most "wrestling fans" comes the opinions. Most usually so daft, and devoid of any intellectual thought that you almost wonder if they're borderline retarded, or simply just completely retarded. These are the people that run around screaming how they're a wrestling fan since 1997, or 2000, or any time since, and then have the audacity to sit in judgement of not only the crop of WWE talent that actually are capable of putting on a good match, but sit in judgement of anything not-WWE, and state that it's bullshit. You know what's real bullshit? The fact that these people think their opinion is in any way valid. Simply because these people have a keyboard and internet access doesn't necessarily mean that their opinion is actually a good one.
And this isn't just based on age, because even the oldest of wrestling fans can be naive ones, as well. They can claim that they've enjoyed the rich pastures of the NWA in its glory, or the AWA before it was just another dead piece of history, but for all of that, they still look at WWE as being this impecable product that if no other company can live up to just isn't worth watching. Nevermind their taste and eye for talent. What really irks me about older fans is the fact that they play favoritism over the products, and if it's not the WWE that was impecable, it's ECW, or WCW, or any other number organizations they might have grown up with.
Nothing in wrestling is perfect. Nothing ever will be. But for the most part, anyone who dare states that their opinion is valid, simply because they've seen any number of years worth of WWE material is full of themselves, if that's all they've exposed themselves to, and that's all they want to expose themselves to.
Now, as for the exposure of other, non-WWE, products, I can't simply just blame the fans entirely for being too lazy to look at other promotions and enjoy it. There's a certain mentality the WWE instills into you. It's almost hypnotizing how they can get you to believe that it's not wrestling if its not a WWE product. You're almost desensitized from enjoying really great wrestling if you watch nothing but WWE. The undisputed era, as I proclaim it to be such, (ranging from mid 2001 until current - or whenever TNA is viewed as a completely viable company of competition for the WWE) does nothing to help this, because the only product widly available was WWE. So people who grew into wrestling at this time period are even harder to expose to real good wrestling, simply because WWE is all they know, and it's all they've ever heard of.
It's like a disease. You could call it entertainiatus, where basically the person is completely numb to anything resembling a non-WWE product, and will spit on any name that never graced a WWE ring. These are also the type of people that don't mind wrestlers being shoved down their throats. They accept it, because it's all they've ever known. They don't understand the glory days where we, the fans, had options. When we had good, solid, TELEVISED options to enjoy.
These days, it's almost an uphill battle trying to explain why John Cena isn't the greatest wrestler alive, or the greatest WWE Champion ever, or even the greatest janitor to step out of a Wendy's establishment. The WWE installs the hype of a wrestler, and their promotion, into their favorite fans, the demographic which is prepubescent to late teen years. The WWE not only likes to groom their world champions, they like to groom their fans to think, act, and pretty much speak a certain way. Most commonly known as "sheep," these people flock together, and follow every word of the WWE as if it were the God's honest gospel, as preached to you by the saint of wrestling himself. They accept what is given to them, for the most part, because they don't know any better. And they honestly don't want to know any better, simply because of the WWE mentality that's installed into them.
So for my piece, this is a list of the major gripes I have with the WWE, and how it has ruined the state of wrestling in its attempt to become wrestling.
- Wrestling + MTV - Wrestling = WWE
You know, there was a time when the WWE was simply just the World Wrestling Federation, a northeastern based wrestling promotion just trying to make a name for itself while avoiding flying under the NWA banner. A time when the WWF only had hopes and aspirations to be a big draw in the northeastern territory, just as the NWA was in the south. Then all of a sudden, that changed into an aspiration to become something bigger. Vince McMahon Junior wanted something grander, and something more majestic to stand up and out against the likes of the NWA and the many promotions flying under its banner. They wanted to take bigger risks for bigger pay offs, and they wanted to do it on the back of a once failed WWWF superstar in Hulk Hogan. Someone whom Vince Sr. saw no potential in.
Not only that, but it would have a look about it unlike any other wrestling promotion. It would cater to larger audiences, and in such a fashion and style that it would attract celebreties to the event, not only as spectators, but participants of the action. They made it big in the news, and got the hype out there that this was the wave of the future, that wrestling was coming in, and in a big way. All off the back of Hulk Hogan.
It was glitzy, it was glamorous, it was edgy, it was hip, it was everything Vince had ever hoped and dreamed it to be. It was, above all else, successful. And this began the ushering of the poison into the wrestling world, as now this pioneer of a vision turned successful product was now in control of creating the very image of wrestling.
Now McMahon, through the power of the media, could mold, shape, and conform the way wrestling was not only percieved, but how it would entertain people for years to come. No longer would wrestling be considered a carnival show for rednecks, hicks, and southerners; instead it would now be an international form of entertainment. No longer would wrestling be about ring psychology, and entertaining the fans through in-ring actions, but rather, would be more story driven through acting segments outside of the ring. The matches would be more about a series of acting out actions to sell the crowd on the character, more so than the selling of maneuvers to hype up the action and sell the crowd on the match. Wrestling would now be all about crowd participation, more so than viewed as an athletic competition, such as boxing was.
Vince McMahon finally had the power he wanted to not only take on the NWA, but actually bury it. Who'd have ever thought he'd actually be successful?
Now, building up from the 80's, the feel of the WWE was always to mimick the atmosphere and attitude of MTV and present wrestling in a colorful fashion. Everything had to be flashy and glitzing. Wrestling had to be glamorous with its production more so than its wrestling and in-ring ability. Everything had to have a certain appeal and edge about it that could be marketable for its fan base. Now wrestlers had to be sold as more than just wrestlers, but as pure entertainners that just happened to be athletes. They also had to have a way with words that could help push sales of the product. What was once secondary to the business, being a strong character that could act, was now the primary objective of the product, and the wrestling became secondary.
- Spectacle over substance
Not only was changing the face of the product enough for McMahon, he had to go and change the actual product, itself.
Vince had accomplished his merging of wrestling with the MTV attitude of the early 80's; wrestling was now colorful and flashy. But in the process of bringing wrestling into the light of the media, Vince also changed what the product was. It was no longer about wrestling, it was about the superstars and just how marketable they can be. Like I said, the wrestling became secondary to the acting of the superstars, themselves.
In addition to selling the wrestlers, they also sold the events to be more than just bouts between competitors; they sold it to be something grander. Bigger, better, more entertaining than anything their competition could supply. The wrestling, again, was secondary, and no greater example of this could ever be found than Wrestlemania. And that tradition even continues to this day, where the wrestling is secondary on the "grandaddy of them all," and the "grandest stage of wrestling." Just look at the slogan of their last Wrestlemania, Wrestlemania 21; "Wrestlemania goes Hollywood." That, alone, indicates what the WWE has always wanted to do with wrestling; turn it into a form of entertainment rather than present it as a serious simulated sport.
When the stage got bigger, the wrestling became less important. It was all about the hype, the celebrety participation, and the creation of nostalgic moments. Most of the memorable matches of Wrestlemania, the ones that get put over as being the best in the business, and hyped up, the most, by the WWE are the main events that really weren't good matches. They're most memorable because of the entertainment factor, and even then, some of them really weren't that entertaining.
They had buried NWA's product by becoming more media friendly, and by changing the product to be a suitable form of entertainment. No longer was wrestling going to be viewed as a simulated sport, it was now a form of entertainment, a guilty pleasure of entertainment to be exact.
But in the process of becoming something bigger, and something different, NWA was still churning out wrestling classics. They had always been the stronger promotion, but now, they were buried underneath the weight of a changing face of how the product would be viewed. It no longer was the leading promotion. It was now viewed as an alternative, simply because the WWF had become a media product, and was now seen nation wide as the premiere promotion. The NWA had lost its luster and effect on the wrestling fan base, as now, anyone and everyone with a television set could simply tune into the WWF and become a wrestling fan.
Highlighting people like Hogan over Flair was now the norm, and was now acceptable. Charisma outweighed in-ring talent, and was shifting the entire wrestling world, and the way people would view it. New standards were in place, and the only thing you needed to become the top guy in the wrestling world was to get over with the crowd outside of a ring. You didn't need to impress people with your ability to work a match, you just had to be a flashy, charismatic guy to take on the responsibility of being the top guy of an organization. And you also needed a look.
- The WWE becomes WWGQE
It wasn't just about the acting of the superstars, it was also about the look. To be the top guy, particularly in the WWF, you had to have the charisma and the looks of a superstar. You had to have a certain physique in order for Vince McMahon to look at you as being the top guy of his company.
You see, Vince had a set standard of what he considered the looks of a champion. In Vince McMahon's company, you had to be at least six feet even, well over two hundred pounds, and have a strong looking physique about you. So basically, if you looked, and could draw a crowd like Hogan, you were going far in the WWF. In fact, the way you were pushed in the WWF could actually place you on the doorsteps of Hollywood.
This is the WWF effect on our society. They became a new stepping stone into Hollywood. The fact that they pushed the charisma and looks to be more important than the wrestling literally gave Hollywood the notion that these people would be huge draws at the box office, and for the most part, they were kind of right. They already proved they could entertain the crowd with their charisma, it would be easy to squash their athletic ability, simply because, they didn't need it to build up their fan base.
The WWF, in the process of changing the product, managed to learn the art of shoving superstars down the fans throats. For good reason, the WWF had that type of power, and could get away with it. They were in our homes, and had us by the seat of our pants, simply because, at first, there really wasn't anything as big as them. WCW didn't burst in on the audience in a big way until they signed up Hogan in 1994.
Under Vince's iron fisted rule, he was molding what people look for in a champion, as well as whom they would accept as their champion. He did this in the earliest stages of the game, and because he was uncontested when he reached his new audience through the media, it has become the norm.
As time progressed, the WWF slightly redefined the looks of a champion. The standards became more of a male model search, and sometimes the search of a body building god. It was difficult for guys that didn't meet these standards, because the highest they could get was mid-card level. Despite being great athletes in the ring, they didn't have a "marketable" look to them, so for the most part are left to rot in wrestling limbo.
Sometimes, all a wrestler needs to make it big in the WWE is have the looks. With the top crop of talents with enough charisma to spare, all it takes to build up the new talent is have the looks. From there, they can build up heat with the crowd, just because of who their opponent is, and how much the crowd hates that opponent. That's enough to build up enough of a fan base around this new talent, and makes up for the lack of charisma, if only for the time being.
- Unleash the boredom
Currently, the WWE is running on a trial version of a charismatically challenged big man in their main eventer, Batista. While he has improved tremendously on the mic, and his in-ring ability has gotten better, but for the most part, he's still running on borrowed heat.
Basically, the experiment was built up for almost a full year now, when they started teasing a complete breakdown of Evolution. Once Orton had struck it out on his own, they started to see that as a face, he wasn't convincing, and that his character actually had become weaker. Seeing as the WWE was also grooming Batista within the Evolution group, and that they needed a quick fix to the Orton problem, they figured they'd start to build up his face turn, rather than pull it out overnight, like they did with Orton.
The chips fell in place where, for months leading into the Royal Rumble earlier this year, the WWE started building up a fan base around Batista. It was working. They teased along the way up until the Royal Rumble that Batista would turn on Triple H, split from Evolution, and challenge for the, then exclusive to Raw, World Heavyweight Title. But the WWE did it in such a malicious way - as they tended to drop the possible turn on Triple H for weeks at a time, only to explode it weeks after the Royal Rumble victory - by teasing a possible shift in gears in moving Batista to SmackDown. That road leading to the contract signing to officially declare the Triple H vs. Batista Raw main event at Wrestlemania was side tracked by a possible Batista vs. JBL SmackDown main event. It almost looked like the WWE had second thoughts on building up Batista against Triple H.
The end result, as always the case with any Triple H opponent, is instant baby face heat for Batista. You would think that after the feud, it would just die down, but that wasn't the case. In fact, the borrowed heat carried over when Batista was, in essence, demoted to SmackDown, where he would finally have that teased feud with JBL. Again, like with Triple H, JBL had grown a reputation with the fans where anyone that faces him had instant face heat. So once again, Batista benefited as a main eventer with no strong charismatic traits to help carry him, nor did he have any in-ring ability to help make him entertaining, at the very least, in the ring.
This isn't the first time the WWE has tried this experiment. Back in 1994, just as the WWF, for the first time since Vince Jr. had taken over the company, had to go it alone without Hulk Hogan. The fans were calling for 2 superstars to be the top guns of the company for years, and now that Hogan was a non-factor, the doors for these two, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, were wide open for them to take the ball, and run with it. When it looked like Shawn Michaels was about to finally get the good grace from the WWF to take on the main title, they pulled something.
Diesel, Kevin Nash, happened to be the bodyguard of Shawn Michaels during Intercontinental title run, back in 1993. They were building up a relationship, for the most part, where the two were viewed as a viable tag team. But the WWF figured the next best thing, for the fans, than a Michaels title run would be a Diesel title run, and on November 23rd, the two had vacated the WWF Tag Team Championships, as a means of splitting up the group to set up, what the WWF thought, would be a great feud, and a great champion.
On November 26th, Diesel defeated Bob Backuland at a WWF house show in Madison Square Garden for the WWF World Heavyweight Title in a 8 second squash match. He had strong face heat just based off of conflicting with Michaels character, but it wouldn't last long. The build up was wrong, and the experiment backfired, simply because the fans had been screaming for Michaels and Hart, not Nash. The the WWF didn't want to hand Michaels the title because he didn't fit the ideal look of a champion, so figured the next best thing, for the fans, would be Nash. They jumped the gun too quickly into a Nash face turn, and dumped the title onto the wrong superstar.
This go around, the WWE seemingly got the experiment right.
- The ECW-itude originality
In addition to building up the mentality of what fans should expect from their champions, they also managed to instill into their fans that they were an innovative force. Nothing could be further from the truth.
During 1996, WCW had started up a notion within the wrestling world that stirred the pot, and rattled the cage of the WWF. Teasing what was assumed to be a WWF invasion angle, WCW had created a new hype within wrestling, and used their newly acquired talents, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, to start up the new World order. This further put tension on the WWF product, because it was in 1994 that the WWF had lost Hulk Hogan, their big draw, to WCW. So like a chicken that had lost its head, the WWF was now facing up against a powerful foe with a bigger bank account than them, and now had an edge in drawing in the crowd.
The teased WWF invasion of WCW drew in a lot of ratings, and drew in a new base of fans for WCW. It was bigger than when WCW had signed up Hogan, only 2 years earlier.
The WWF's reaction and attempt to regain the ratings? Well, that didn't come until mid 1997, where for the most part, the WWF introduced a series of "original" new ideas to help boost up the WWF ratings, and help launch the famed Atittude era.
The problem? They weren't original, they, for the most part, were stolen ideas from various wrestling promotions, namely ECW. But for the most part, the WWF fans bought into it, and were lead to believe it was all original when in fact it was all done before. The WWF took some of the better storylines from ECW and completely watered it down for the WWF crowd, and the media.
Not that it wasn't good, because it was, but the credit of what the WWF did in that time period is misplaced. It wasn't their creative that was able to save them, or even Vince Russo, it was the mind of Paul Heyman.
In addition to taking ideas from ECW, WWE actually took ideas from their competition of WCW, by creating their own version of the nWo, D-Generation X. They even used the remaining members of the Kliq, Shawn Michaels and Triple H, to form it. It was even used as the stepping stone to help pave the way for Triple H's arrival into the main event, almost as the nWo was to solidify Hogan as the top heel of the company.
Again, the WWF used the media to their advantage, by turning the negative publicity from organizations such as the Parents Television Council, PTC; which was later mocked by the WWF through their talents in Steven Richards, Val Venis, The Godfather - Charles Wright, Bull Buchanon and Ivory, into more hype for the WWF product.
The era that redefined wrestling was all about the acting rather than the wrestling. The product, again, was all glitz and glamor rather than the ability and technique. It was just like the Hogan years all over again, only this time, the WWF had built up enough stars to actually run off of incase they lost one. Once again, the WWF kept up its product as being the dominant promotion in the United States, and was securing its place as the dominant international promotion
- Rock n' gimmicks
But before the success of the Attitude era, the Rock n' Wrestling era was rolling through, and dawned the age of gimmicked wrestlers in the media wrestling product. The WWF, during the early 90's, was running high off of its momentum from the 80's, but stumbled with the idea of wrestlers with nothing but gimmicks.
What better way to put over a product built on entertainment and acting than wrestlers who were more about their gimmick than wrestling ability? Just about every new faced wrestler, as well as a few older ones, were slapped heavily with gimmicks. From Duke the Dumpster Drose, Doink the Clown (all 5 versions: Matt Borne, Steve Keirn, Steve Lombardi, Ray Liachelli, and Dusty Wolfe) all the way down to Dr. Isaac Yankeem, DDS, and Skinner. Anything to push the product, and highly emphasize the acting over the wrestling. Anyone, and everyone had gimmicks of some kind, and for some, it was more noticeable than others.
But this wasn't a trend that just started in the 90's. No, this was something that just kicked it into high gear during that time period. Instead, the gimmicky wrestlers goes as far back as when Vince Jr. first took over the WWF, with such unmemorable gimmicks as "Natural" Butch Reed, - whose sole gimmick was he was a natural African-American athlete the likes of Greg Valentine, but had blonde dyed hair - and Outback Jack - an Australian who was hyped up for months through vignettes drinking beer with animals, and hanging out with Aboriginies. The WWF was quite literally a circus, but this is what they wanted, this was the color and glamor of their product.
Grant it, this wasn't entirely new to wrestling, but it was on a grander scale, and it was done in a glitzier, and more colorful fashion. In the WWF, everyone had to have a gimmick, and it all had to be something that would purely entertain the fans. Some were on the money - the Macho Man and the Macho King, the Undertaker, the Ultimate Warrior for example - while others completely missed the mark - "Adorable" Adrian Adonis, Hakeem, "Portugese Man-O-War" Aldo Montoya. For the most part, it was mostly to cover up a superstars in-ring ability, or as a punishment, with rare cases of it being neither.
But the roots of the gimmicked wrestler was always around, and was always enjoyable in the independent scene as well as some of the big promotions of their times. It wasn't until the WWF flooded the media market with these gimmicky wrestlers that the wrestling fans turned on the concept of the gimmick wrestler. It wasn't just enough to hate the gimmicks the WWF was throwing at us through our television sets, but they had to do it in large quantities.
- WWE history course 101
Leave it to the undisputed era to allow WWE the one thing they'd always wanted; no competition. Without it, the WWE was able to not only mold the type of fans they wanted, they were able to mislead them with false information about some of its own past, which included their purchased up properties of WCW and ECW.
The WWE not only gained the rights to the footage vaults of these companies, but gained the rights to everything that made those companies out, ranging from gimmicks, to the wrestlers, to the history. It wouldn't have taken the WWE long to not only make use of the video vault, but the power of changing history to make it seem like the WWE was running on cruise control, rather than steering away like madmen, trying to stay afloat a sinking ship.
They weren't big lies, or even out right falsify the events in question; they were meare exagerations of history to favor the WWE in a better light than it actually garnished during the troubling times. Most of these exagerations will be found in DVD specials, such as the Monday Night Wars or ECW: The Rise and Fall, and as of currently, The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior.
None of this, per say, is completely bad, but altering history to better suit your company's image in the eyes of new fans is kind of a slap to those who lived through the drama, and remember, quite clearly, how the story actually went down.
- Production over quality
Throughout all of the years of the WWF's success, one constant has always kept it above any of its competitors, and is one of the many training focal points to its product: the production value.
The WWF has always prided itself on its different product from the rest of the wrestling promotions out there, but it also worked hard to give it such a flare, on television, that it looked far too good for others to ever compete.
The music was on the money during the mid 90's, and was done in such a way that no other company could match it without coming off as too campy, or too gimmicky. The sound of the music was quality, and fit each wrestler's persona, that it became as much a part of them, as their in-ring attire, or the promos they cut, or even the merchandise they pushed. No other company could compete, for whatever reason.
In addition to the music was the camera work. Everything fit in perfectly for them, and they honed in on the ability to keep up with the action, at all times, without every looking too chaotic. TNA fails this course, currently, simply because their producers tend to miss the mark in keeping with the action, and focusing on the wrong aspects. They managed to train their fans, for years, to enjoy their television shows more than others, simply because of the production crew's ability to switch to a better camera show on the fly, without missing a beat.
They also, during the attitude era, managed to perfect the art of pyro usage. Now, pyro is an expectancy of any wrestling product, and it seems that the failure to produce any is a sign of weakness. A show suffers, simply because of the lack of over the top production value in the product, all because of how the WWF trained its fans to enjoy its product.
In the end, it hurts everyone, as sometimes, the better wrestling, isn't the one on the better looking picture. Fans have been trained to better enjoy a inferior product, just because it has the better sound and look to it, as oppossed to the substance in the ring. Again, it's the ideaology of Vince McMahon: entertainment over sports. The glitz and glamor far outweighed what was really important: the simulated sport of wrestling.
- Trademark formula of psychology
The most hindering part to wrestling, as further glamorized by the WWF, was the addition, and mandatory necessity of a trademark finisher. These days, a wrestler can't be looked at as being serious if they don't have a trademark finisher. In addition to the lack of trademark finisher, another sign of weakness, as viewed by the fans, is if a trademark finisher doesn't look realistic when performed by certain wrestlers, simply because it doesn't fit that superstar. If a superstar is too small for a maneuver, or is simply too big to execute such a small move, it's deemed horrible.
The fact that matches much end in a predictable enough fashion is a hinderence to wrestling, as a whole. Everyone in a wrestling ring is expected to not only produce trademark finishers, but they have to be flashier and glitzier than anything ever done before, and no basic maneuver could suffice itself for the fans to "truly" enjoy. Everything had to be bigger, better, and more amazing looking that before, to the point that, now, we have such over choreographed maneuvers, such as the Canadian Destroyer.
The WWF made it a necessity for fans to enjoy a wrestling match, only if for the fact that it would end with a trademark finisher, almost 90% of the time. In the process of establishing trademark finishers to be a set standard in wrestling, they also created the formula where matches didn't have to follow ring psychology to lead into those finishes to be more realistic, but instead, were like hiccups that could hit from anywhere, at anytime, and easily end a match, despite how awkward the maneuver was, or how it never fell into place with the way the rest of the match went.
In the end of it all, the WWF also created a formula for its matches, and groomed its fans to get used to their style of wrestling. For the most part, people will complain about certain wrestlers throwing only punches and kicks, but for every match in the WWE, you'll see far more punches and kicks thrown as a means to "soften" an oppont up for the finish, as oppossed to actually using ring psychology to set up the finish. The WWE created this formula to sell each explosive maneuver as being something big, rather than something necessary to set-up the finish. Not only that, but to sell these maneuvers as explosive, and something unique to the match.
This has ruined the way these WWF groomed fans would look at any non-WWE match, as well as older matches that didn't live up to this formula. For these fans, watching a match with ring psychology, where a true story unveils itself in the form of the action in the ring, and every maneuver helps to lead into the finish, would be boring, and for the most part, would be frowned upon simply because it wasn't "entertaining."
When it is all said and done, not only have they groomed this fans to enjoy a subpar product in the WWE's current state; not only did they groom their fans to accept and enjoy wrestlers that were lackluster, and were forced upon them, but in the end, they force the fans to enjoy one type of match, and no other: the WWE style of match.
- Poisonous summation
Through their tireless grooming process of its fans, they perfected their art of building the conception of wrestling within these fans, the WWE has managed to taint these wrestling fans views of what makes good wrestling good. If the WWE fails, wrestling, as a whole, has to suffer with it because the fans the WWE brings in helps the wrestling community. But through its grooming process, they corrupt these fans to never enjoy anything outside of it, particularly today, during the undisputed era.
The WWE has perfected their art too well. The entire wrestling product, outside of the WWE, is made to look inferior and weak, simply because it lacks everything that the WWE has created. The lack of production in its product, the over emphasis on the wrestling over the entertainment value of the product, and the lack of "solid" acting for that entertainment aspect. Fans cannot fall into a good match based on the WWE formula of how a match should be worked, and this hurts how wrestlig fans percieve ring psychology and well worked matches using ring psychology. It also taints the fans perception on what type of maneuvers should end a wrestling match.
In the end, the WWE has hurt the industry far more than it ever helped, all in its attempts to become wrestling.
Next time, my rant on the idiotic calls of defense for trash wrestlers, such as John Cena and Dave Batista.
- Albert Einstein
There comes a time in every young mans life where they must make a stand. To fight for their beliefs, honor, and principles.
Grant it, when someone states something as biblical as that, they're usually not referring to an internet rant. Never the less, this is how I feel about a certain subject I've managed to tip-toe around for almost as long as I could make one clear distinction that has yet to leave by my side: that wrestling is scripted.
For years, I've grown a clear disdain for wrestling fans, and usually, I would just have shrugged it off to me being anti-social, and a complete prick. While that's completely true, I still feel there is something more to it, and I never quite figured what it was, until now. Well, actually, a few years ago, but for argument sake, and dramatical effect, we'll just leave it as a revelation I stumbled upon at 4 in the fucking morning.
You see, for me, not only am I just unable to socialize with any other human being without coming off as a complete asshole, or without the aide of a keyboard, I've grown to hate the pure arrogant intolerance of "wrestling" fans who really aren't wrestling fans.
I think to clarify that would require a little in-depth back story.
You see, not only do people throw the word "legend" and "icon" around rather easily, but the term "wrestling fan" gets bumped up and down the vocabulary, as well. People who've been watching wrestling, namely the WWE, since the attitude era, circa 1997, feel this qualifies them as being a wrestling fan. Well, you know what? I watch a lot of C.S.I., and not only for the dreamy William Petersen, and this, in no way, qualifies me as a criminal analyst, or even some crime scene investigator.
What sets me apart from these so-called "wrestling fans" is the fact that, I don't claim that watching WWF/E since 1992 qualifies me as a wrestling fan. Hell, even the fact that I remember anything beyond yesterday should entitle me to qualify for anything, considering I have the memory of a decaying mongoose - and the reflexes of a dead cat to match. Instead, what qualifies me to call myself a true wrestling fan is the fact that I didn't just stop at WWF/E. I watched WCW, and I enjoyed it for all of its flaws, and even its perfection (and they couldn't have gotten any more perfect than the new World order: original black and white, not tender roasted, extra crispy). But watching both WWF/E and WCW still doesn't qualify me as a wrestling fan.
I jumped into ECW relatively late, around the time it had its pay-per-views advertised on Cablevision in my area, which I believe was November to Remember 1998, and then fell into it again once it had its deal with The Nashville Network, just before it became The National Network. I originally thought it all trash - over-glorified hardcore trash. But even this did not qualify me to call myself a wrestling fan.
Until then, I referred to myself as a WWF/E fanboy, who just happened to enjoy other, non-WWF/E products. What gave me the instant right to call myself a wrestling fan was when I started looking deeper, further, and found myself looking for other, non-televised, non-American products to enjoy. What made me a true wrestling fan was the fact that I looked for the old, classic stuff, where legends were just regular talents trying to put on a great show, rather than just "old guys" who got out of the game because their bodys just couldn't take it anymore.
What makes me a wrestling fan, first, and foremost, is the fact that I'm willing to never settle and compromise for just one product. As far as I'm concerned, all wrestling, regardless of its promotion, region, or the ethnicity of its competitors, is capable of being good entertainment.
And this is what brings me to the point of this mini-rant/article, and yes, 18 pages qualifies as a mini-rant in my vocabulary. Problems now, then go to the corner, stare at the paint chips, and wonder when would be a good time to go ride that bike of yours.
With most "wrestling fans" comes the opinions. Most usually so daft, and devoid of any intellectual thought that you almost wonder if they're borderline retarded, or simply just completely retarded. These are the people that run around screaming how they're a wrestling fan since 1997, or 2000, or any time since, and then have the audacity to sit in judgement of not only the crop of WWE talent that actually are capable of putting on a good match, but sit in judgement of anything not-WWE, and state that it's bullshit. You know what's real bullshit? The fact that these people think their opinion is in any way valid. Simply because these people have a keyboard and internet access doesn't necessarily mean that their opinion is actually a good one.
And this isn't just based on age, because even the oldest of wrestling fans can be naive ones, as well. They can claim that they've enjoyed the rich pastures of the NWA in its glory, or the AWA before it was just another dead piece of history, but for all of that, they still look at WWE as being this impecable product that if no other company can live up to just isn't worth watching. Nevermind their taste and eye for talent. What really irks me about older fans is the fact that they play favoritism over the products, and if it's not the WWE that was impecable, it's ECW, or WCW, or any other number organizations they might have grown up with.
Nothing in wrestling is perfect. Nothing ever will be. But for the most part, anyone who dare states that their opinion is valid, simply because they've seen any number of years worth of WWE material is full of themselves, if that's all they've exposed themselves to, and that's all they want to expose themselves to.
Now, as for the exposure of other, non-WWE, products, I can't simply just blame the fans entirely for being too lazy to look at other promotions and enjoy it. There's a certain mentality the WWE instills into you. It's almost hypnotizing how they can get you to believe that it's not wrestling if its not a WWE product. You're almost desensitized from enjoying really great wrestling if you watch nothing but WWE. The undisputed era, as I proclaim it to be such, (ranging from mid 2001 until current - or whenever TNA is viewed as a completely viable company of competition for the WWE) does nothing to help this, because the only product widly available was WWE. So people who grew into wrestling at this time period are even harder to expose to real good wrestling, simply because WWE is all they know, and it's all they've ever heard of.
It's like a disease. You could call it entertainiatus, where basically the person is completely numb to anything resembling a non-WWE product, and will spit on any name that never graced a WWE ring. These are also the type of people that don't mind wrestlers being shoved down their throats. They accept it, because it's all they've ever known. They don't understand the glory days where we, the fans, had options. When we had good, solid, TELEVISED options to enjoy.
These days, it's almost an uphill battle trying to explain why John Cena isn't the greatest wrestler alive, or the greatest WWE Champion ever, or even the greatest janitor to step out of a Wendy's establishment. The WWE installs the hype of a wrestler, and their promotion, into their favorite fans, the demographic which is prepubescent to late teen years. The WWE not only likes to groom their world champions, they like to groom their fans to think, act, and pretty much speak a certain way. Most commonly known as "sheep," these people flock together, and follow every word of the WWE as if it were the God's honest gospel, as preached to you by the saint of wrestling himself. They accept what is given to them, for the most part, because they don't know any better. And they honestly don't want to know any better, simply because of the WWE mentality that's installed into them.
So for my piece, this is a list of the major gripes I have with the WWE, and how it has ruined the state of wrestling in its attempt to become wrestling.
- Wrestling + MTV - Wrestling = WWE
You know, there was a time when the WWE was simply just the World Wrestling Federation, a northeastern based wrestling promotion just trying to make a name for itself while avoiding flying under the NWA banner. A time when the WWF only had hopes and aspirations to be a big draw in the northeastern territory, just as the NWA was in the south. Then all of a sudden, that changed into an aspiration to become something bigger. Vince McMahon Junior wanted something grander, and something more majestic to stand up and out against the likes of the NWA and the many promotions flying under its banner. They wanted to take bigger risks for bigger pay offs, and they wanted to do it on the back of a once failed WWWF superstar in Hulk Hogan. Someone whom Vince Sr. saw no potential in.
Not only that, but it would have a look about it unlike any other wrestling promotion. It would cater to larger audiences, and in such a fashion and style that it would attract celebreties to the event, not only as spectators, but participants of the action. They made it big in the news, and got the hype out there that this was the wave of the future, that wrestling was coming in, and in a big way. All off the back of Hulk Hogan.
It was glitzy, it was glamorous, it was edgy, it was hip, it was everything Vince had ever hoped and dreamed it to be. It was, above all else, successful. And this began the ushering of the poison into the wrestling world, as now this pioneer of a vision turned successful product was now in control of creating the very image of wrestling.
Now McMahon, through the power of the media, could mold, shape, and conform the way wrestling was not only percieved, but how it would entertain people for years to come. No longer would wrestling be considered a carnival show for rednecks, hicks, and southerners; instead it would now be an international form of entertainment. No longer would wrestling be about ring psychology, and entertaining the fans through in-ring actions, but rather, would be more story driven through acting segments outside of the ring. The matches would be more about a series of acting out actions to sell the crowd on the character, more so than the selling of maneuvers to hype up the action and sell the crowd on the match. Wrestling would now be all about crowd participation, more so than viewed as an athletic competition, such as boxing was.
Vince McMahon finally had the power he wanted to not only take on the NWA, but actually bury it. Who'd have ever thought he'd actually be successful?
Now, building up from the 80's, the feel of the WWE was always to mimick the atmosphere and attitude of MTV and present wrestling in a colorful fashion. Everything had to be flashy and glitzing. Wrestling had to be glamorous with its production more so than its wrestling and in-ring ability. Everything had to have a certain appeal and edge about it that could be marketable for its fan base. Now wrestlers had to be sold as more than just wrestlers, but as pure entertainners that just happened to be athletes. They also had to have a way with words that could help push sales of the product. What was once secondary to the business, being a strong character that could act, was now the primary objective of the product, and the wrestling became secondary.
- Spectacle over substance
Not only was changing the face of the product enough for McMahon, he had to go and change the actual product, itself.
Vince had accomplished his merging of wrestling with the MTV attitude of the early 80's; wrestling was now colorful and flashy. But in the process of bringing wrestling into the light of the media, Vince also changed what the product was. It was no longer about wrestling, it was about the superstars and just how marketable they can be. Like I said, the wrestling became secondary to the acting of the superstars, themselves.
In addition to selling the wrestlers, they also sold the events to be more than just bouts between competitors; they sold it to be something grander. Bigger, better, more entertaining than anything their competition could supply. The wrestling, again, was secondary, and no greater example of this could ever be found than Wrestlemania. And that tradition even continues to this day, where the wrestling is secondary on the "grandaddy of them all," and the "grandest stage of wrestling." Just look at the slogan of their last Wrestlemania, Wrestlemania 21; "Wrestlemania goes Hollywood." That, alone, indicates what the WWE has always wanted to do with wrestling; turn it into a form of entertainment rather than present it as a serious simulated sport.
When the stage got bigger, the wrestling became less important. It was all about the hype, the celebrety participation, and the creation of nostalgic moments. Most of the memorable matches of Wrestlemania, the ones that get put over as being the best in the business, and hyped up, the most, by the WWE are the main events that really weren't good matches. They're most memorable because of the entertainment factor, and even then, some of them really weren't that entertaining.
They had buried NWA's product by becoming more media friendly, and by changing the product to be a suitable form of entertainment. No longer was wrestling going to be viewed as a simulated sport, it was now a form of entertainment, a guilty pleasure of entertainment to be exact.
But in the process of becoming something bigger, and something different, NWA was still churning out wrestling classics. They had always been the stronger promotion, but now, they were buried underneath the weight of a changing face of how the product would be viewed. It no longer was the leading promotion. It was now viewed as an alternative, simply because the WWF had become a media product, and was now seen nation wide as the premiere promotion. The NWA had lost its luster and effect on the wrestling fan base, as now, anyone and everyone with a television set could simply tune into the WWF and become a wrestling fan.
Highlighting people like Hogan over Flair was now the norm, and was now acceptable. Charisma outweighed in-ring talent, and was shifting the entire wrestling world, and the way people would view it. New standards were in place, and the only thing you needed to become the top guy in the wrestling world was to get over with the crowd outside of a ring. You didn't need to impress people with your ability to work a match, you just had to be a flashy, charismatic guy to take on the responsibility of being the top guy of an organization. And you also needed a look.
- The WWE becomes WWGQE
It wasn't just about the acting of the superstars, it was also about the look. To be the top guy, particularly in the WWF, you had to have the charisma and the looks of a superstar. You had to have a certain physique in order for Vince McMahon to look at you as being the top guy of his company.
You see, Vince had a set standard of what he considered the looks of a champion. In Vince McMahon's company, you had to be at least six feet even, well over two hundred pounds, and have a strong looking physique about you. So basically, if you looked, and could draw a crowd like Hogan, you were going far in the WWF. In fact, the way you were pushed in the WWF could actually place you on the doorsteps of Hollywood.
This is the WWF effect on our society. They became a new stepping stone into Hollywood. The fact that they pushed the charisma and looks to be more important than the wrestling literally gave Hollywood the notion that these people would be huge draws at the box office, and for the most part, they were kind of right. They already proved they could entertain the crowd with their charisma, it would be easy to squash their athletic ability, simply because, they didn't need it to build up their fan base.
The WWF, in the process of changing the product, managed to learn the art of shoving superstars down the fans throats. For good reason, the WWF had that type of power, and could get away with it. They were in our homes, and had us by the seat of our pants, simply because, at first, there really wasn't anything as big as them. WCW didn't burst in on the audience in a big way until they signed up Hogan in 1994.
Under Vince's iron fisted rule, he was molding what people look for in a champion, as well as whom they would accept as their champion. He did this in the earliest stages of the game, and because he was uncontested when he reached his new audience through the media, it has become the norm.
As time progressed, the WWF slightly redefined the looks of a champion. The standards became more of a male model search, and sometimes the search of a body building god. It was difficult for guys that didn't meet these standards, because the highest they could get was mid-card level. Despite being great athletes in the ring, they didn't have a "marketable" look to them, so for the most part are left to rot in wrestling limbo.
Sometimes, all a wrestler needs to make it big in the WWE is have the looks. With the top crop of talents with enough charisma to spare, all it takes to build up the new talent is have the looks. From there, they can build up heat with the crowd, just because of who their opponent is, and how much the crowd hates that opponent. That's enough to build up enough of a fan base around this new talent, and makes up for the lack of charisma, if only for the time being.
- Unleash the boredom
Currently, the WWE is running on a trial version of a charismatically challenged big man in their main eventer, Batista. While he has improved tremendously on the mic, and his in-ring ability has gotten better, but for the most part, he's still running on borrowed heat.
Basically, the experiment was built up for almost a full year now, when they started teasing a complete breakdown of Evolution. Once Orton had struck it out on his own, they started to see that as a face, he wasn't convincing, and that his character actually had become weaker. Seeing as the WWE was also grooming Batista within the Evolution group, and that they needed a quick fix to the Orton problem, they figured they'd start to build up his face turn, rather than pull it out overnight, like they did with Orton.
The chips fell in place where, for months leading into the Royal Rumble earlier this year, the WWE started building up a fan base around Batista. It was working. They teased along the way up until the Royal Rumble that Batista would turn on Triple H, split from Evolution, and challenge for the, then exclusive to Raw, World Heavyweight Title. But the WWE did it in such a malicious way - as they tended to drop the possible turn on Triple H for weeks at a time, only to explode it weeks after the Royal Rumble victory - by teasing a possible shift in gears in moving Batista to SmackDown. That road leading to the contract signing to officially declare the Triple H vs. Batista Raw main event at Wrestlemania was side tracked by a possible Batista vs. JBL SmackDown main event. It almost looked like the WWE had second thoughts on building up Batista against Triple H.
The end result, as always the case with any Triple H opponent, is instant baby face heat for Batista. You would think that after the feud, it would just die down, but that wasn't the case. In fact, the borrowed heat carried over when Batista was, in essence, demoted to SmackDown, where he would finally have that teased feud with JBL. Again, like with Triple H, JBL had grown a reputation with the fans where anyone that faces him had instant face heat. So once again, Batista benefited as a main eventer with no strong charismatic traits to help carry him, nor did he have any in-ring ability to help make him entertaining, at the very least, in the ring.
This isn't the first time the WWE has tried this experiment. Back in 1994, just as the WWF, for the first time since Vince Jr. had taken over the company, had to go it alone without Hulk Hogan. The fans were calling for 2 superstars to be the top guns of the company for years, and now that Hogan was a non-factor, the doors for these two, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, were wide open for them to take the ball, and run with it. When it looked like Shawn Michaels was about to finally get the good grace from the WWF to take on the main title, they pulled something.
Diesel, Kevin Nash, happened to be the bodyguard of Shawn Michaels during Intercontinental title run, back in 1993. They were building up a relationship, for the most part, where the two were viewed as a viable tag team. But the WWF figured the next best thing, for the fans, than a Michaels title run would be a Diesel title run, and on November 23rd, the two had vacated the WWF Tag Team Championships, as a means of splitting up the group to set up, what the WWF thought, would be a great feud, and a great champion.
On November 26th, Diesel defeated Bob Backuland at a WWF house show in Madison Square Garden for the WWF World Heavyweight Title in a 8 second squash match. He had strong face heat just based off of conflicting with Michaels character, but it wouldn't last long. The build up was wrong, and the experiment backfired, simply because the fans had been screaming for Michaels and Hart, not Nash. The the WWF didn't want to hand Michaels the title because he didn't fit the ideal look of a champion, so figured the next best thing, for the fans, would be Nash. They jumped the gun too quickly into a Nash face turn, and dumped the title onto the wrong superstar.
This go around, the WWE seemingly got the experiment right.
- The ECW-itude originality
In addition to building up the mentality of what fans should expect from their champions, they also managed to instill into their fans that they were an innovative force. Nothing could be further from the truth.
During 1996, WCW had started up a notion within the wrestling world that stirred the pot, and rattled the cage of the WWF. Teasing what was assumed to be a WWF invasion angle, WCW had created a new hype within wrestling, and used their newly acquired talents, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, to start up the new World order. This further put tension on the WWF product, because it was in 1994 that the WWF had lost Hulk Hogan, their big draw, to WCW. So like a chicken that had lost its head, the WWF was now facing up against a powerful foe with a bigger bank account than them, and now had an edge in drawing in the crowd.
The teased WWF invasion of WCW drew in a lot of ratings, and drew in a new base of fans for WCW. It was bigger than when WCW had signed up Hogan, only 2 years earlier.
The WWF's reaction and attempt to regain the ratings? Well, that didn't come until mid 1997, where for the most part, the WWF introduced a series of "original" new ideas to help boost up the WWF ratings, and help launch the famed Atittude era.
The problem? They weren't original, they, for the most part, were stolen ideas from various wrestling promotions, namely ECW. But for the most part, the WWF fans bought into it, and were lead to believe it was all original when in fact it was all done before. The WWF took some of the better storylines from ECW and completely watered it down for the WWF crowd, and the media.
Not that it wasn't good, because it was, but the credit of what the WWF did in that time period is misplaced. It wasn't their creative that was able to save them, or even Vince Russo, it was the mind of Paul Heyman.
In addition to taking ideas from ECW, WWE actually took ideas from their competition of WCW, by creating their own version of the nWo, D-Generation X. They even used the remaining members of the Kliq, Shawn Michaels and Triple H, to form it. It was even used as the stepping stone to help pave the way for Triple H's arrival into the main event, almost as the nWo was to solidify Hogan as the top heel of the company.
Again, the WWF used the media to their advantage, by turning the negative publicity from organizations such as the Parents Television Council, PTC; which was later mocked by the WWF through their talents in Steven Richards, Val Venis, The Godfather - Charles Wright, Bull Buchanon and Ivory, into more hype for the WWF product.
The era that redefined wrestling was all about the acting rather than the wrestling. The product, again, was all glitz and glamor rather than the ability and technique. It was just like the Hogan years all over again, only this time, the WWF had built up enough stars to actually run off of incase they lost one. Once again, the WWF kept up its product as being the dominant promotion in the United States, and was securing its place as the dominant international promotion
- Rock n' gimmicks
But before the success of the Attitude era, the Rock n' Wrestling era was rolling through, and dawned the age of gimmicked wrestlers in the media wrestling product. The WWF, during the early 90's, was running high off of its momentum from the 80's, but stumbled with the idea of wrestlers with nothing but gimmicks.
What better way to put over a product built on entertainment and acting than wrestlers who were more about their gimmick than wrestling ability? Just about every new faced wrestler, as well as a few older ones, were slapped heavily with gimmicks. From Duke the Dumpster Drose, Doink the Clown (all 5 versions: Matt Borne, Steve Keirn, Steve Lombardi, Ray Liachelli, and Dusty Wolfe) all the way down to Dr. Isaac Yankeem, DDS, and Skinner. Anything to push the product, and highly emphasize the acting over the wrestling. Anyone, and everyone had gimmicks of some kind, and for some, it was more noticeable than others.
But this wasn't a trend that just started in the 90's. No, this was something that just kicked it into high gear during that time period. Instead, the gimmicky wrestlers goes as far back as when Vince Jr. first took over the WWF, with such unmemorable gimmicks as "Natural" Butch Reed, - whose sole gimmick was he was a natural African-American athlete the likes of Greg Valentine, but had blonde dyed hair - and Outback Jack - an Australian who was hyped up for months through vignettes drinking beer with animals, and hanging out with Aboriginies. The WWF was quite literally a circus, but this is what they wanted, this was the color and glamor of their product.
Grant it, this wasn't entirely new to wrestling, but it was on a grander scale, and it was done in a glitzier, and more colorful fashion. In the WWF, everyone had to have a gimmick, and it all had to be something that would purely entertain the fans. Some were on the money - the Macho Man and the Macho King, the Undertaker, the Ultimate Warrior for example - while others completely missed the mark - "Adorable" Adrian Adonis, Hakeem, "Portugese Man-O-War" Aldo Montoya. For the most part, it was mostly to cover up a superstars in-ring ability, or as a punishment, with rare cases of it being neither.
But the roots of the gimmicked wrestler was always around, and was always enjoyable in the independent scene as well as some of the big promotions of their times. It wasn't until the WWF flooded the media market with these gimmicky wrestlers that the wrestling fans turned on the concept of the gimmick wrestler. It wasn't just enough to hate the gimmicks the WWF was throwing at us through our television sets, but they had to do it in large quantities.
- WWE history course 101
Leave it to the undisputed era to allow WWE the one thing they'd always wanted; no competition. Without it, the WWE was able to not only mold the type of fans they wanted, they were able to mislead them with false information about some of its own past, which included their purchased up properties of WCW and ECW.
The WWE not only gained the rights to the footage vaults of these companies, but gained the rights to everything that made those companies out, ranging from gimmicks, to the wrestlers, to the history. It wouldn't have taken the WWE long to not only make use of the video vault, but the power of changing history to make it seem like the WWE was running on cruise control, rather than steering away like madmen, trying to stay afloat a sinking ship.
They weren't big lies, or even out right falsify the events in question; they were meare exagerations of history to favor the WWE in a better light than it actually garnished during the troubling times. Most of these exagerations will be found in DVD specials, such as the Monday Night Wars or ECW: The Rise and Fall, and as of currently, The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior.
None of this, per say, is completely bad, but altering history to better suit your company's image in the eyes of new fans is kind of a slap to those who lived through the drama, and remember, quite clearly, how the story actually went down.
- Production over quality
Throughout all of the years of the WWF's success, one constant has always kept it above any of its competitors, and is one of the many training focal points to its product: the production value.
The WWF has always prided itself on its different product from the rest of the wrestling promotions out there, but it also worked hard to give it such a flare, on television, that it looked far too good for others to ever compete.
The music was on the money during the mid 90's, and was done in such a way that no other company could match it without coming off as too campy, or too gimmicky. The sound of the music was quality, and fit each wrestler's persona, that it became as much a part of them, as their in-ring attire, or the promos they cut, or even the merchandise they pushed. No other company could compete, for whatever reason.
In addition to the music was the camera work. Everything fit in perfectly for them, and they honed in on the ability to keep up with the action, at all times, without every looking too chaotic. TNA fails this course, currently, simply because their producers tend to miss the mark in keeping with the action, and focusing on the wrong aspects. They managed to train their fans, for years, to enjoy their television shows more than others, simply because of the production crew's ability to switch to a better camera show on the fly, without missing a beat.
They also, during the attitude era, managed to perfect the art of pyro usage. Now, pyro is an expectancy of any wrestling product, and it seems that the failure to produce any is a sign of weakness. A show suffers, simply because of the lack of over the top production value in the product, all because of how the WWF trained its fans to enjoy its product.
In the end, it hurts everyone, as sometimes, the better wrestling, isn't the one on the better looking picture. Fans have been trained to better enjoy a inferior product, just because it has the better sound and look to it, as oppossed to the substance in the ring. Again, it's the ideaology of Vince McMahon: entertainment over sports. The glitz and glamor far outweighed what was really important: the simulated sport of wrestling.
- Trademark formula of psychology
The most hindering part to wrestling, as further glamorized by the WWF, was the addition, and mandatory necessity of a trademark finisher. These days, a wrestler can't be looked at as being serious if they don't have a trademark finisher. In addition to the lack of trademark finisher, another sign of weakness, as viewed by the fans, is if a trademark finisher doesn't look realistic when performed by certain wrestlers, simply because it doesn't fit that superstar. If a superstar is too small for a maneuver, or is simply too big to execute such a small move, it's deemed horrible.
The fact that matches much end in a predictable enough fashion is a hinderence to wrestling, as a whole. Everyone in a wrestling ring is expected to not only produce trademark finishers, but they have to be flashier and glitzier than anything ever done before, and no basic maneuver could suffice itself for the fans to "truly" enjoy. Everything had to be bigger, better, and more amazing looking that before, to the point that, now, we have such over choreographed maneuvers, such as the Canadian Destroyer.
The WWF made it a necessity for fans to enjoy a wrestling match, only if for the fact that it would end with a trademark finisher, almost 90% of the time. In the process of establishing trademark finishers to be a set standard in wrestling, they also created the formula where matches didn't have to follow ring psychology to lead into those finishes to be more realistic, but instead, were like hiccups that could hit from anywhere, at anytime, and easily end a match, despite how awkward the maneuver was, or how it never fell into place with the way the rest of the match went.
In the end of it all, the WWF also created a formula for its matches, and groomed its fans to get used to their style of wrestling. For the most part, people will complain about certain wrestlers throwing only punches and kicks, but for every match in the WWE, you'll see far more punches and kicks thrown as a means to "soften" an oppont up for the finish, as oppossed to actually using ring psychology to set up the finish. The WWE created this formula to sell each explosive maneuver as being something big, rather than something necessary to set-up the finish. Not only that, but to sell these maneuvers as explosive, and something unique to the match.
This has ruined the way these WWF groomed fans would look at any non-WWE match, as well as older matches that didn't live up to this formula. For these fans, watching a match with ring psychology, where a true story unveils itself in the form of the action in the ring, and every maneuver helps to lead into the finish, would be boring, and for the most part, would be frowned upon simply because it wasn't "entertaining."
When it is all said and done, not only have they groomed this fans to enjoy a subpar product in the WWE's current state; not only did they groom their fans to accept and enjoy wrestlers that were lackluster, and were forced upon them, but in the end, they force the fans to enjoy one type of match, and no other: the WWE style of match.
- Poisonous summation
Through their tireless grooming process of its fans, they perfected their art of building the conception of wrestling within these fans, the WWE has managed to taint these wrestling fans views of what makes good wrestling good. If the WWE fails, wrestling, as a whole, has to suffer with it because the fans the WWE brings in helps the wrestling community. But through its grooming process, they corrupt these fans to never enjoy anything outside of it, particularly today, during the undisputed era.
The WWE has perfected their art too well. The entire wrestling product, outside of the WWE, is made to look inferior and weak, simply because it lacks everything that the WWE has created. The lack of production in its product, the over emphasis on the wrestling over the entertainment value of the product, and the lack of "solid" acting for that entertainment aspect. Fans cannot fall into a good match based on the WWE formula of how a match should be worked, and this hurts how wrestlig fans percieve ring psychology and well worked matches using ring psychology. It also taints the fans perception on what type of maneuvers should end a wrestling match.
In the end, the WWE has hurt the industry far more than it ever helped, all in its attempts to become wrestling.
Next time, my rant on the idiotic calls of defense for trash wrestlers, such as John Cena and Dave Batista.