Does pro wrestling today need Jobbers

[scottyshowman82]

I remember waking on Saturday mornings as a kid and watching WWF Superstars, which was a lot more different than it's current day counterpart. WWF Superstars showcased some of the best stars on that era, but every match featured a match against wrestlers politely referred to as enhancement talent or as now so happily refer to as Jobbers. At the time I would watch these matches and it wasn't really a match. The superstar would always cream the jobber would made you think the match was pointless. But what eles did the match do? It made the superstar seem like an unstoppable wrecking machine, since he was going up against someone who was clearly beneath him when it came to skills and talent the superstar got to showcase all of his moves. Also when they showed up in the future they had this aura of momentum as well.

It was great, because you could really tell the difference between someone who was a WWE superstar to the run of the mill, average pro wrestler. Could this help benefit stars of today? Tyson Kidd comes to mind, he was mentioned in a raw promo this week by CM Punk as Punk was referring to how talented he was and that he doesn't get a spot on Raw. If Kidd was featured in more matches were he buried jobbers would that give him more of the perception with fans that his should be facing more of WWE's best than ironically finding himself on today's WWE Superstars today being jobbing to other superstars himself.

Do you think more jobber matches would be effective in today's pro wrestling shows?

 

[ABMorales787]

It worked wonders for Ryback so I would indeed like to see more of that. The problem with that, mainly with WWE, is that they want results fast with their talent. So rather than having them compete with these names no one has ever heard of, they go with more established talent, such as seeing Antonio Cesaro constantly beat Zack Ryder. It does cause it's troubles though like seeing the likes of Kofi Kingston and Wade Barrett trading wins. That kinda gets them nowhere fast. TNA is somewhat better with it as their a sense of hierarchy with the talent.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Professional wrestling, and the professional wrestling fan, are far different nowadays that they were back in the day on WWF Superstars on Saturday morning. Expectations are far loftier, fans are generally far more knowledgeable and are much less likely to have the patience or attention span to tolerate the notion of jobbers in 2013. I think fans want and expect a steady diet of a higher calibre product, and will be far less tolerant of matches featuring known legitimate jobbers squashing nobodies with any degree of regularity.

Plus, the whole notion of jobbers has not totally dissipated. The old difference is, the jobber of today has a name, has a theme song, and has more of a following, however limited it may be. As long as the WWE features guys like Zack Ryder, Santino Marella, or Yoshi Tatsu, the role of the jobber is safe. It would never fly nowadays to have totally anonymous jobbers get decimated by superstars; the jobbers need more name value and recognizability. Enter Curt Hawkins, JTG, or Jack Swagger.

 

[Leoffler17]

OH MY GOD NO.

It's such a waste of time to have a man come down to the ring just to be DESTROYED in 4 minutes. I don't know about you but I can't stand it.

Wouldn't it be much more of a how you say.... Believable scenario if all matches were back and forth until simply THE BETTER MAN WINS.

Ryback for instance, ok, great. He can demolish 3 guys who i've never seen before using the same moves week after week after week after week after... you get it, but what if he came down to the ring and faced Kane? Took some shots, received vintage Kane shots, and then out of nowhere hit a couple moves, take the big guy down and then got a clean victory over THE BIG RED MACHINE.

THATS how you show you're a beast, by getting in the ring with people who deserve the TV time. Put on a good show and leave me saying "Wow this ryback guy is for real".

I can understand maybe a squash match over Yoshi Tatsu or whoever is getting fired soon. But wouldn't it be a little more believable if he won over and older star? I mean, thats how most professional sports work, old guys get old, new guys are young. I just feel like WWE stopped having people earn their stripes. This beating unknowns and never will be's is just a waste of time. Let the people who deserve the ring time get it. Go through a commercial and let them show what they can do. Win some, lose some, but always keep showcasing stars upsides. Thats why I find it so hard to get over with people who just get thrown into a title picture.

Edge is the perfect example of how superstars become the whole damn show. He held every title before he got the big one. He stayed fresh. He put on a good show. And now he's a legend. You cant expect me to believe some random dude comes in and just runs house..... well.. without running house first. Give Ryback the US or Intercontinental title, let him talk about what an honor it is to be that champion. Have him hold the title for a while, drop it, want it back, get it, drop it and show the WWE universe he's the real deal.

But im not a WWE writer so I'll just enjoy the show. Which would be much more enjoyable if i knew ever name on the card. And didn't have to watch a 3 second match with a nobody and then look at Sicky Guerrero's ugly mug.

 

[Slash-LN]

If you grew up in that era you understand the value of the jobber at the time. The main guys would beat up the jobbers but they also had storylines running another guy on the roster. There was a buildup that usually led to a pay per view match. People wouldn't bitch about seeing the same match over and over because it didn't happen back then.

Today were spoiled with what is considered top of the line talent facing off with each other. John Cena isn't going to be facing off with a guy like Yoshi Tatsu. He's going to face a higher level of competition. Look how bored people, myself included, got with Ryback facing jobbers. We're just used to more now.

The Monday night wars were a big catalyst to that. In the early days both sides were still using jobbers but to compete they started pitting better talent against each other. There are times when I miss the day of the jobber because the pay per view meant more back then in my opinion. The pay per view was the big pay off. Now with such little time to build stories leading into a pay per view it isn't that way. Plus people who didn't grow up with jobbers most likely wouldn't like it now.

 

[DirtyD79]

Plus, the whole notion of jobbers has not totally dissipated. The old difference is, the jobber of today has a name, has a theme song, and has more of a following, however limited it may be. As long as the WWE features guys like Zack Ryder, Santino Marella, or Yoshi Tatsu, the role of the jobber is safe. It would never fly nowadays to have totally anonymous jobbers get decimated by superstars; the jobbers need more name value and recognizability. Enter Curt Hawkins, JTG, or Jack Swagger.

That's what I was about to say too. If people mean let's do a whole show of jobber squash matches against ham n' eggers with every main event ending in schmozzes, DQs or "oops we're outta time", No No No And HELL NO! It sucked back then and it would suck just as bad today too. Ratings would be further down the crapper than they are now. WWE and TNA would be lucky if they could get on public access with an act like that.

Back then you could get away with it because outside of Monday Night Football and Johnny Carson there was nothing else on most networks on Monday night but nowadays it's a whole new ball game and you better be producing the numbers. There's big money on the line and if you can't get it done the network will find somebody who can and will. It's as simple as ABC, Always Be Closing!

 

[Radical]

I don't think Pro Wrestling needs No Name jobbers but it definitely needs the "guys who job a lot but are on the roster".

At least if the guy is on the roster he probably had some wins and some sort of success (however brief) during his career with that company so the announcers can try to remind people a little bit about that before he gets squashed but at least he has a name and some sort of potential following.

Brodus Clay's (re)debut as the Funkasaurus was an example of using mostly (only) WWE roster 'jobbers' to show how dominant this guy can be. Now, the gimmick is kind of too corny for me and they haven't really gone anywhere with it, which I think is a mistake but at least they used roster talent to go up against him. If nothing else it means they could have one or more of the guys he beat gang up on him and give him a bit of a feud to go with.

Ryback, however, had a bunch of matches against No Name jobbers, which went on too long but he eventually did start beating guys on the roster like Mahal and Primetime Players, etc.

Ryback has turned out to be a lot more hot than Brodus Clay but I think that's clearly because Clay's gimmick is too goofy to be taken seriously however he should be used more as a huge face that heels can pick on and defeat to get more heat. Big Show beat him up a bit a while ago to get heat but I don't think they even had match, which they should have.

So yes, wrestling will always need 'jobbers' because if you think about everyone who debuts there's just no way they can have them go up against more established Superstars very often because then they probably cause more problems than they solve.

Think about it .... how would you guys like it if Ryback beat CM Punk in his debut match? I'd be a HUGE victory for Ryback but that problem is the fans would have ZERO chance to know about Ryback before he got this huge win.

That's why you need some sort of jobbers on the roster so the guy getting a push can get some wins, show off their moves and try and get the fans to react.

Sure, if Ryback beat Punk on his debut match there would be a reaction but I guarantee it would be more along the lines of "This is garbage! They buried Punk! I'm never watching WWE again!" instead of simply "Oh well, another predictable squash match." But at least I got to see the guy show off a few more moves and you can think about potential real feuds for them.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

No. Jobbers worked back in the day because you could still get a guy over by having him win a lot of matches because it was bought more as a sport. It also kept top guys healthy because they never bumped.

Now that's not a good idea. Not only do I have 500 other channels I can flip to, but I can find stuff on the internet also. Every segment has to be interesting. The only jobber squashes that will work are what I call "circus" squashes. These the the Goldberg/Ryback stuff.

 

[MCMG]

Yes. Jobbers are an extremely useful way to give new guys exposure on TV and perhaps buy time for a feud. It can be argued that guys like Ryback wouldn't have gotten to Punk this quickly. He completely skipped the mid-card and awkward tag-team stage and went straight to the top. Thanks to all those seemingly pointless matches with jobbers he was at a stage where he was well known and liked by the audience.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Well, there are still guys who would be technically jobbers today but they're just not marketed in the same way jobbers were back in the 80s and 90s.

Today's jobber is someone that has an actual presence. Someone with a character or gimmick, someone that has some degree of recognition, has theme music, etc. Back in the day, your typical jobber was someone that was just there, a body to occupy a brief period of time in which he'd get in very little offense against his opponent before ultimately losing.

That old way of doing things as it pertains to jobbers would not work among fans today and I understand & agree why. A lot of fans have much grander expectations, sometimes unreasonably so, for what they want to see. Some fans and even dirtsheet writers are impossible to please anyhow. If WWE or TNA puts on matches such as..I dunno...say Big Show wrestling against Alex Riley or James Storm against Robbie E for 5 or 6 minutes with Riley or Robbie getting in little to no offense and just being batted around like a cat toying with a mouse before the kill, fans would get very, very tired of it. Dirtsheet writers would also pan it as meaningless filler that accomplishes nothing. Even when these companies put on great matches on free television, somebody always pops up with something along the lines of how they shouldn't be giving ppv quality matches away on television.

For me personally, featuring more jobbers in an old school way holds little appeal. It worked with Ryback but, all in all, look how long it took for the bitching and moaning to start. About a month or so after Ryback's debut and started going through squash matches, how many complaints did you hear from people wishing WWE would move Ryback onto "real matches"? The occasional "old school" jobber squash match has its uses and place every so often, but it's not something I want to see a whole bunch of on television. For me, that's not going to make me interested in ordering a ppv.

 

[fenderjapan]

I cannot say whether or not it makes sense for the business.

I can say this, however...

How fucking cool would it be to go to wrestling school, get a few months of training, and then get the chance to go to a WWE event and get in the ring with a superstar on TV? How awesome would it be to tell your friends "dude, watch Jakked this weekend, I'm wrestling The Big Bossman"...thats how it had been for a lot of independent wrestlers who never had a real, legit shot at making it (or were far from making it at the time). Look at Mick Foley, he had like 2 matches or something before his match with the British Bulldogs. That kids dream came true instantly. Even if he never went on to WCW and WWE and Japan he would always have that tape and the memory of getting in a WWE ring.

That doesn't answer the question but its cool food for thought.

 

[CrunKSinatrA]

Enhancement talent really worked with Ryback. I did find it weird that they had a few matches on pay per views though.

The jobbers do a serve a purpose now since wins don't matter as much since the death of kayfabe. They at least give us a look at the wrestlers moveset. Like seeing Sin Cara's top tope C4 into the lionsault/swanton bomb combo.

One thing I believe would help update the whole jobber role would be ridiculous gimmicks. They don't need music, barely an introduction, just something ridiculous. Ryback would be thousand times bigger if he was fighting two sparkly vampire/Twilight rip offs and giving them a double Shell Shock. Or someone in a giant chicken suit/Gobbly Gooker would be funny too.

But instead we got Ryback versus some guy or a couple of dudes no one will remember or care about. These would be matches that would get thousands of views on youtube. It's just the right amount of insane that makes pro wrestling awesome. And now creative is trying to make Ryback funny with bad jokes. He could be hilarious by destroying two color coordinated plumbers with fake mustaches.

Also, enhancement talent are normally tryout matches for cruiserweights. It's kind of weird to look back and see Jeff Hardy wearing flannel tights with sunflowers while HHH spikes him with a pedigree. But put a glittery Stormtrooper mask on him and tear some arm holes in a sleeping bag, now no one knows it's Jeff Hardy. And it won't kill any potential careers from fans remembering their enhancement roles and posting the match on youtube.

This would definitely stay in line with the PG era limitations and Pepsi sponsors won't get uptight.