Do we need more jobbers in wrestling?

[rokuma]

I've been watching old WCW tapes and matches on YouTube, specifically Goldberg matches and I was thinking about how over he got. You KNEW he was going to win when he squared off against the likes of Mark Starr or The Barbarian or Glacier, but it didn't matter. It was so much fun watching him destroy people. Now, I was thinking about today's product and how we see rehashed matchups all over the WWE product and we see guys fail to get over to an extent in TNA. Does wrestling in general need more jobbers? Guys to make the stars look good? Guys that the stars can come in and just demolish in less than 5 minutes? There are benefits to jobbers:
1) It showcases the "stars" as big names and not equal by showing their dominance

2) There aren't any 'big spots' when guys wrestle jobbers so those become "memorable moments" like Snuka jumping off the cage, HBK off the ladder at WM X, and etc. Those get saved for the big matches

3) The same tired matchups don't get used week after week and there's actually something to look forward to on PPV every month or in TNA's case, every 3 months or so

4) It allows guys to hopefully get over without having to say a word

So, do you think this would help the WWE product or TNA's product? Would it make guys look more dangerous? Should either company go back to the "old style" of booking to try and help guys get over and save big matches for special occasions? It worked with Goldberg, but could it work today or are fans too smart for this strategy?

 

[TB77]

They still use jobbers to a degree. It's just not some no name local wrestler instead it's guys like JTG,Ryder,Slater and such. The problem with this is we "the hardcore fans" get infatuated with certain guys ie: Ryder and think he is to good to be a jobber.
You mentioned a couple of guys in your post like Glacier and Barbarian who were actually decent performers who ended up be jobbers and it made Golberg look stronger because they weren't no names. I agree they need jobbers to help build up guys and bringing in a few nobodys once in awhile could help and then have the guy being pushed face the low carder a like Ryder and JTG to look stronger.
Perhaps they could use a couple of guys from NXT as the jobbers in a generic ring attire so that when they get called up they use their gimmick attire so the fans don't associate them as the same person.

 

[TempestH]

Yes and no.

Guys like JTG, Ryder, and Slater are good to use to put people over. The problem is that they're used almost exclusively as jobbers for people higher in the pecking order. They should have matches and feuds with each other more often and trade wins with each other so that when they do job, it means more because they have a bit more credibility

I think in the modern era, where anyone who is halfway decent gets some semblance of a following, good wrestlers should not be wasted as enhancement guys. Straight up jobbers should either be newer wrestlers "paying their dues" or less talented workers who have little to no hope of improving and moving up the ranks.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Yes and no.

Guys like JTG, Ryder, and Slater are good to use to put people over. The problem is that they're used almost exclusively as jobbers for people higher in the pecking order. They should have matches and feuds with each other more often and trade wins with each other so that when they do job, it means more because they have a bit more credibility

I think in the modern era, where anyone who is halfway decent gets some semblance of a following, good wrestlers should not be wasted as enhancement guys. Straight up jobbers should either be newer wrestlers "paying their dues" or less talented workers who have little to no hope of improving and moving up the ranks.

This is a good explanation. Having guys like Ryder/Slater etc trade wins with each other means that the "big name superstar" who beats them isn't just beating an absolute nobody, who never wins a match.

Some wrestlers will always be enhancement talent, and they are needed to give the bigger star the chance to show off their power and movesets while looking dominant. I dont want to see talented guys like Drew McIntyre getting stuck as a jobber, but the lesser talents should be used in this way.

 

[DarrenYoungsCleanAssFro]

I think they need to do away with squash matches or use them sparingly. There's a huge difference between a jobber and a guy who gets little to no offense in. Jobbers are good to show the talent of other wrestlers but you aren't showing any talent if the guy you are fighting is a push over. All matches should have a decent amount of back and forth with the only exception being monster heels.

 

[Slash-LN]

They did that with Ryback and look how people reacted to it. After a couple weeks people were complaining that it was boring and they needed to give Ryback better competition.

Really it was the Monday night wars that caused the jobber to go away. Both shows were starting to match up better wrestlers with each other and showcase their best wrestlers because they wanted to be seen as better than the other company. People got spoiled with that when new fans came in that's all they new.

Having grown up on wrestling in an era of jobbers I personally miss it. A feud could be built between two wrestlers with little contact and then come pay per view time you were invested in the match and were willing to get the pay per view to finally see the two go at it.

I just think it wouldn't work in this era anymore. Like TB77 said we get infatuated with a certain wrestler and think they're too good to be a jobber. Pretty much you would have to bring wrestlers in and make them as generic as possible so there is no reason to get behind them. As I stated in my opening post they tried that already with the wrestlers wrestling Ryback and it didn't go over well.

 

[FlairFan2003]

It would be hard to go back to that way of televised promotion now. As a fan watching in the 80s, I watched each week largely for the promos and to see any interesting developments in current feuds. The TV show matches typically were squashes. Yes every once in awhile the promotions would televise a main event quality match like Curt Henning's AWA Title win vs Nick Bockwinkle, Randy Savage's IC Title win over Tito Santana, Two or three big Flair matches per year such as Ronnie Garvin's title win or the 45 min draw vs Barry Whyndam, etc, but you really watched for the promos and any new developments in current feuds, like a locker room beat down, a post match brawl, etc. Quality matches were rare and treated as an added bonus.

As a previous poster stated the Monday Night Wars, particularly WCW Nitro, changed that. Where Raw was still following the old format, albeit giving us decent main events, Nitro was booking Hogan, Flair, Savage, Sting, Luger, & Arn Anderson all against each other every week, plus developing and promoting newer talent in energetic, athletic, matches on the under card. This is why Nitro's ratings surpassed Raw's in early 96, 5 months before Hall & Nash arrived and sparked the NwO Storyline. Simply put, by showcasing better quality matches alongside the promos, etc, Nitro gained significant traction making their product more appealing. Of course WWE followed and by the end of 97 each show relied heavily on top star vs top star matches. 15 years later fans I believe, now conditioned to expect higher quality matches between major stars, would be totally turned off if Raw suddenly gave us Cena, Punk, Big Show, Bryan, etc all wrestling no name jobbers in squash matches.

Another poster I think hit it spot on when they said that mid carders should be given storylines and matches vs each other, trading wins & good moments, so that if they do lose to the Cena's & Punk's of the world it is a solid victory for those guys, and more entertaining for the fans. I do think the era of Barry Horrowitz (worked for two decades through multiple promotions as a jobber), George South, and The Mulkey Bros (maybe the most hapless pair of jobbers ever, became almost as popular as the regular wrestlers on TBS in the 80s) are over. It would be just too hard to go to back to that.