peter_midnight
Occasional Pre-Show
I have not watched wrestling of ANY kind since WWE made Brock Lesnar a regular guy by having him do dumb things like throw a piece of the car Jamie Noble bought him halfway across the ramp. One thing I think started this descent (among others) is the suspension of disbelief for the ridiculous. It's 2016, why are run-ins still tolerated by wrestling organizations? What I mean is that okay, we all sort of accept them as fans, but from a logic point of view, how does a run-in not get heavily fined or result in a permanent suspension in this day and age? It's done on camera so even if the referee doesn't initially see it, it's not like they couldn't have brought an instant replay rule into effect in this day and age.
Next, why are ridiculous DQs even tolerated by the organization? I remember back in the day when Jack Tunney would flip over the slightest infraction, but nowadays you have guys using baseball bats, sledgehammers, what have you and not even as much as a 30-day suspension without pay. It's not like we don't have real life examples of this either. Go look at Mike Tyson fights post prison and you'll see tons of in-ring brawls, controversial finishes that resulted in fines, suspensions, licenses being revoked, and rematches. Floyd Mayweather has done the same thing, so why hasn't wrestling evolved?
Finally, what is the purpose of a backstage vignette? Are the people on camera supposed to ignore that a camera is there? How stupid does the babyface look when the heels are plainly scheming on camera and they still don't know that they're being set-up? Mark Madden once suggested a Quality Control department to ask these sorts of questions and I think this needs to be addressed.
You can't say it hasn't been done to great success either. All Japan had an entire decade of success by doing something like this whereas pretty much all matches had clean finishes up until Baba himself died in 1999. And that Chris Jericho argument of Japanese fans are so much smarter doesn't hold up either. If you talk to Japanese fans of the previous eras (ages 40 and up), they'll talk of wrestling as a sport. I meet many native Japanese in my profession and almost all of them watched when Inoki and later Riki Choshu were on top. They said it was pretty hard to tell if the show was fake until things like the ref ignoring outside interference that was obvious happened.
I feel that so much potential has been lost because wrestling has taken all of it's tools away from itself. Don't get me wrong, by my logic a steel cage match becomes unnecessary, but I think that is the logical evolution to keep adults interested. Places like the WWE almost have to market to kids because they're the only ones capable of suspending disbelief this much.
Next, why are ridiculous DQs even tolerated by the organization? I remember back in the day when Jack Tunney would flip over the slightest infraction, but nowadays you have guys using baseball bats, sledgehammers, what have you and not even as much as a 30-day suspension without pay. It's not like we don't have real life examples of this either. Go look at Mike Tyson fights post prison and you'll see tons of in-ring brawls, controversial finishes that resulted in fines, suspensions, licenses being revoked, and rematches. Floyd Mayweather has done the same thing, so why hasn't wrestling evolved?
Finally, what is the purpose of a backstage vignette? Are the people on camera supposed to ignore that a camera is there? How stupid does the babyface look when the heels are plainly scheming on camera and they still don't know that they're being set-up? Mark Madden once suggested a Quality Control department to ask these sorts of questions and I think this needs to be addressed.
You can't say it hasn't been done to great success either. All Japan had an entire decade of success by doing something like this whereas pretty much all matches had clean finishes up until Baba himself died in 1999. And that Chris Jericho argument of Japanese fans are so much smarter doesn't hold up either. If you talk to Japanese fans of the previous eras (ages 40 and up), they'll talk of wrestling as a sport. I meet many native Japanese in my profession and almost all of them watched when Inoki and later Riki Choshu were on top. They said it was pretty hard to tell if the show was fake until things like the ref ignoring outside interference that was obvious happened.
I feel that so much potential has been lost because wrestling has taken all of it's tools away from itself. Don't get me wrong, by my logic a steel cage match becomes unnecessary, but I think that is the logical evolution to keep adults interested. Places like the WWE almost have to market to kids because they're the only ones capable of suspending disbelief this much.