Drama vs Actual Wrestling: How much of each is enough to satisfy us?

[D-Man]

Recently there's been a lot of debate in the TNA threads in regards to their new direction and shocking, yet extensive and complicated storyline about the new faction labeled as "They/Immortal." Most importantly, many have complained that a recent episode of Impact contained a lot of drama and not enough actual wrestling. WWE has a tendency to do this at times, as well. But it makes us all ask the question, "What's more important to the product and the audience?"

In the past, pro-wrestling has always been about, well, pro-wrestling. There's no denying this. But it was a form of entertainment that has evolved from only (actual) wrestling matches into a form of "sports entertainment"; combining a dramatized television programming and choreographed wrestling matches which serve the purpose of blowing off dramatic situations on the television show. Promotions have been able to gain a broader audience from this format change since most television programming revolves around entertaining storylines, drama, and confrontation between characters of a television show.

Understandably, he pro-wrestling audience is a bit different. They enjoy drama between their favorite wrestlers, but they also enjoy physical confrontation in the form of a pro-wrestling match. The more exciting the match, the more exciting the product can be. And to many fans of pro-wrestling, an actual wrestling match contains all of the drama, confrontation, and storylines they crave.

So let's end this debate and all of the complaining. You all have your opinions on how much actual wrestling and drama is required to fulfill your entertainment cravings. How much actual wrestling as compared to drama do you require to be the most entertained?

Please remember that this is a non-spam section. Spamming in this thread will result in warning/infraction.

 

[The Doctor]

I will easily say I prefer drama over wrestling every day of the week. Drama is really what got me into pro wrestling. Drama is what keeps me tuning into RAW every week. Drama keeps us all on this forum and talking about the week's happenings. Drama is what makes pro wrestling different from many other "sports". Without drama we'd just be watching two guys pretending to fight.

Don't get me wrong, I like actual wrestling matches. After all, as you said, pro wrestling is about the wrestling. But personally, if the wrestling matches in question don't have some form of story or don't contain one of my favorite wrestlers, I'm just not interested. I think it's The Brain that always says that two people in a high school gym can put on the Steamboat/Savage Wrestlemania 3 match hold-for-hold, but because it isn't fueled with drama like Steamboat/Savage's story was, people just won't care as much. That's pretty much how I feel.

I think every match should have drama of some sort. Whether it be a simple story of two young bucks trying to one up each other, or a more involved one like the Cena/Nexus story, the drama is what keeps people tuning in. Props to the wrestlers that can put on great matches AND provide drama. Those are the true masters of the craft.

In conclusion, I'll take drama over wrestling but would love to have drama WITH wrestling.

 

[Ferbian]

It has to be drama, and there's really no arguing against it. I'll admit there are certainly some matches that have made me cringe a little bit, and with the fact that I watch wrestling online, it allows me to scroll past these matches. And trust me, I take use of this ability.

However I more or less never miss a bit of promo time. Professional wrestling has for the majority of time, and especially now it is entertainment based. And so it will remain for many years to come, it will continue to become more and more entertainment based. So of course I'm gonna care more about the actual drama and storylines produced than I would ever care about the wrestling.

But even with that, I'll admit that I enjoy a great wrestling match. And I take the time to sit down and watch a match that has the potential to become either match of the week, match of the year etc.

But yes, drama will forever be the primary part of wrestling that I will enjoy.

 

[RVDgurl]

Personally, I am drawn to the actual wrestling. This is why, while I do love the WWE, I prefer smaller independent promotions. Companies such as ROH center their product around in ring ability. The drama is there to compliment the matches, not overtake them. Promos and storylines are meant to the set up for the matches. THe matches should be the focal point of a wrestling show.

Now I realize that this is simply my opinion and that many people prefer drama over the actual wrestling. And truthfully, a great arguement can be made for both options. I understand that to appeal to a large group of people, such as the WWE does, there has to be a strong element of drama. When your product is marketed towards a more broad portion of the population, there has to be more entertainment than simply wrestling.

 

[klunderbunker]

Wrestling. If I wanted to watch drama, I'd watch a drama which has better actors and less plot holes. Having drama be a part of the show is fine, but at the end of the day it's the wrestling that matters most. An angle is one thing, but having a 40 minute opening segment which turned into a board meeting in the back office isn't what I watch a wrestling show for.

As I said in the LD, that's fine once in a blue moon and this past week's show was fine for something like that as we needed a lot of explanations. What I don't want this turning into is a drama where we have to take breaks for pesky wrestling, have a run-in every match and then back to the drama. The idea is that the drama is supposed to build to something, like a blowoff match. In WCW, the king of drama, thhis was supposed to be Sting vs. Hogan, but we get more drama instead of an actual ending.

Look at WWF on the other hand. The whole McMahon conspiracy vs. Austin and the Higher Power and all that jazz were eventually settled in the ring. As Scott Hall said when Sting confronted him on Nitro for the first time: "let's do it in the ring, where it matters. Not in no newspapers, not on no microphones." Or, as Eric said on commentary on the last Nitro I watched, "Would you rather watch wrestling or would you rather watch people talk about wrestling?"

Easy answer to me.

 

[The Brain]

I think it's The Brain that always says that two people in a high school gym can put on the Steamboat/Savage Wrestlemania 3 match hold-for-hold, but because it isn't fueled with drama like Steamboat/Savage's story was, people just won't care as much. That's pretty much how I feel.

Thank you for referencing that Doc. I do use that argument a lot and it’s something I believe to be true. That’s why I have to say the drama is more important than the wrestling. Don’t get me wrong; I love a good match as much as anybody. I’m not saying I’d be happy with poor matches as long as they’re filled with drama, but drama can turn an average match into a great match.

I’ll give another example. There always seem to be disagreements about whether or not Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior from WM6 was a good match. Those who say it was a great match are usually long time fans. Those who say it wasn’t tend to be younger and newer fans. The younger fans are just seeing the action from bell to bell. They don’t appreciate the magnitude of the match. They don’t consider that this was basically the first big face vs. face match and those matches very extremely rare and almost nonexistent at that time. They don’t realize that The Ultimate Warrior was the only one in the past several years that could rival the popularity of The Hulkster. Basically they’re missing all the drama. Those of us who think this was a great match probably think that because of the drama involved. If Hacksaw Jim Dugan and Dino Bravo put on that same match earlier in the card we probably wouldn’t have thought much of it.

The wrestling is important to me as a fan too, but it’s the drama that’s kept me a fan all these years. In the mid 90s I was spoiled by many great matches from Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Every year I hope to get a handful of matches as good as those guys delivered back then. I usual find myself disappointed. I’m not sure how long I would have stuck with WWE if not for the drama. I may have never gotten into that much in the first place. The turning point for me as a casual fan as a little kid to a life long fan was Randy Savage vs. Honky Tonk Man from SNME in 1987. It wasn’t much of a match, but it was loaded with drama.

 

[jmt225]

I honestly love both equally.

My all time favorite feud is Raven vs. Dreamer. And while I dug most of the matches between the two, the matches had very little to do with why I loved their feud so much. I loved it because of the storyline behind each match, because of the promos, because of the characters being portrayed. Now, if the matches had stunk to high heaven, then sure... the value of the feud would drop severely, but regardless... it was the drama of the feud that made it what it was overall.

And then you have a feud like CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe, which was built on nothing but three matches. That was it, yet I loved every second of it.

So, yeah... I love both aspect when it comes to professional wrestling. Unfortunately, good drama in the business these days just doesn't exist. The writers are just so out of touch with pop culture today that it makes it impossible for them to know what's going to draw people into a feud. Moreover, the fact that they try to add so much comedy to each feud hurts it as well. And that's why we're seeing people answer with "wrestling" here... because it's been so long where a storyline could pull us in.

Case and point... Edge vs. Matt Hardy. Everybody, EVERYBODY was interested in that feud when it first started, and WWE fucked it up. They completely got rid of all realism and drama and made it a completely one sided affair, with a bunch of "****" jokes thrown in the middle (Matt being so bad on the mic as a babyface didn't help matters... but there are plenty of ways to work around that).

The point is, how are most wrestling fans going to appreciate a good, drama filled storyline when it's so rare these days?

Seriously, when you actually think about it... what would you rather have: A great storyline with weeks and weeks filled with compelling drama and mediocre matches, or a terrible storyline with one great match every two months? People underestimate just how good drama to the show can be, and it's because it's been so long since we've seen a storyline really draw us in.

 

[shattered dreams]

I think when it comes down to it if it was an either or choice then I wouldn't watch. Like I talked about some in the kayfabe thread, I agree with what KB said about if it was only entertainment, but would personally also look elsewhere if I was purely looking for "wrestling." The allure is the mix. Kind of like I was trying to figure out in the TNA vs ROH thread, just how good can wrestling be without the "drama." There is even obvious drama/storytelling within matches. How can you really separate the two?

As far as drawing power to the masses I would suspect that wrestling would come in a distant second to drama. It is an interesting balance though because I think long-term it is the stories that fuel the shows but short-term the wrestling is integral. The wrestling glues the show together and makes it flow. If you do not like it, it takes up too big of a block of the show to justify watching, especially since that likely means you will be disappointed in the payoff match. It is a cycle. I guess that means to me that on shows I prefer a little more drama build while on PPVs I prefer more in the way of wrestling but varying this formula some here and there is important to keep things not robotically stale.

 

[Monkey_Mania]

I'd rather watch the drama portion of it. You can't really draw me in with a match that may be a five star classic, especially if it doesn't have a good story to it. This is why I hate the way Raw, SD, and Impact are presented at times. Sometimes they give away big matches for no fucking reason, and I'm supposed to care that John Cena and Randy Orton are fighting just for the sake of it? Fuck that, I want to see the story unfold. That's why the drama should always be the selling point of the weekly shows, and save the matches (outside of regular TV matches to get the big talent over) for a PPV.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Drama for sure. And to sum up why, well just read The Doctor's post because my answer is the same as his. Hardly anybody in this day & age of wrestling has the attention span to watch a long wrestling match especially one without no story. If it has no story & no build up to the match, the match has no meaning and can make the fans wonder off in their own little word for a few minutes as their is no point to the match. If you have ever watched World Of Wrestling, you cant tell me that you werent bored of it although it's considered a classic. I would say the same about ROH but they do have a little drama and their wrestling is class but as classy as the wrestling is, there have been times while I've watched a ROH PPV where I've thought "when will this shit end" cause it was nothing but a 3 hour wrestling show with no drama. WWE as shitty as most of their matches are today, I've never had the same case with as their drama keeps my eyes glued to the TV screen for 2/3 hours.

 

[Optimist Prime]

Thank you for referencing that Doc. I do use that argument a lot and it’s something I believe to be true. That’s why I have to say the drama is more important than the wrestling. Don’t get me wrong; I love a good match as much as anybody. I’m not saying I’d be happy with poor matches as long as they’re filled with drama, but drama can turn an average match into a great match.

I’ll give another example. There always seem to be disagreements about whether or not Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior from WM6 was a good match. Those who say it was a great match are usually long time fans. Those who say it wasn’t tend to be younger and newer fans. The younger fans are just seeing the action from bell to bell. They don’t appreciate the magnitude of the match. They don’t consider that this was basically the first big face vs. face match and those matches very extremely rare and almost nonexistent at that time. They don’t realize that The Ultimate Warrior was the only one in the past several years that could rival the popularity of The Hulkster. Basically they’re missing all the drama. Those of us who think this was a great match probably think that because of the drama involved. If Hacksaw Jim Dugan and Dino Bravo put on that same match earlier in the card we probably wouldn’t have thought much of it.

The wrestling is important to me as a fan too, but it’s the drama that’s kept me a fan all these years. In the mid 90s I was spoiled by many great matches from Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Every year I hope to get a handful of matches as good as those guys delivered back then. I usual find myself disappointed. I’m not sure how long I would have stuck with WWE if not for the drama. I may have never gotten into that much in the first place. The turning point for me as a casual fan as a little kid to a life long fan was Randy Savage vs. Honky Tonk Man from SNME in 1987. It wasn’t much of a match, but it was loaded with drama.

Couldn't agree more. I've also brought up these examples in discussions in the not-so-distant past.

I've always said that two great in-ring wrestlers like Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero can put on a great match...but it will never in a million years equal the status of drama-driven storyline matches like Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior, etc. It's just not possible.

Great charisma, personality, and build up can make up for the lack of in-ring ability without a problem (as seen by the examples above)...but the same cannot be entirely said for the opposite. Great flips and moves aren't going to make nearly as much of an impact if there isn't a great storyline and the wrestlers involved are lacking personality, charisma, and/or substance. It's just the way it is.

And that's the difference between today and yesterday. Wrestling seems to be geared more toward the in-ring wrestling only with less build up, personality, charisma, and/or substance. Where yesterday, it thrived off of the latter...until the wrestling world was spoiled with a great comibination of both in the mid-to-late 90's. Since then, only the older guard have been the ones to recreate the thrilling dramatic matches of old (i.e. recent Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker matches). It will take guys like Daniel Bryan and Evan Bourne to work quite a bit to be able to have the same impact.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

The way I look at is this. In order to have the wrestling, you have to go through the drama. The idea of PPV's these days seems to be to build up to them by having the drama played out week by week with relatively short contests on TV with the 15-25 minute matches taking place on PPV. I personally enjoy both and feel that you need both for pro wrestling to work. There is always going to be drama involved but wrestling needs to be a featured point and not just the drama. It's like Ying and Yang. Without One, You Can't Have the Other.