..is gimmicks!
Once upon a time major companies like the WWF and WCW were filled with wrestlers who weren't just wrestlers but they were CHARACTERS. Every wrestler had a gimmick, bad or good, that made them unique. It allowed them to be different and separated them from the next guy. Some gimmicks were great, some gimmicks were horrible, but looking back I can remember those days and I'm both entertained by them still, while I also find myself missing those days. Those days transitioned into the Attitude era where gimmicks turned edgier and in some ways characters turned far more real, but most wrestlers (and certainly the successful and relevant ones) all had a gimmick and a character.
Now we come to present day. Is that what's wrong with wrestling nowadays? Is that what needs to be changed for the business to draw more interest where it's declined? WWE has gone PG, and sure they have gimmicks and characters in many ways, but yet not to the level or the depth as they did generations ago. TNA is trying to recreate past success and in so many ways is just a carbon copy of old things like the Attitude era.. but is what they're missing interesting and unique characters? Ring of Honor focuses on the wrestling and keeping it real to a point, but would they be more successful if they focused more on characters people could get interested more into instead of one dimensional, hollow wrestlers who so often seem to all blend together?
I find myself, and this is true no matter what company it is, feeling as if the new era of young wrestlers have no character to them. They have nothing unique about them. They look the same, they feel the same, and it makes me uninterested in them. People accused the Legacy of being exactly that, and whose to argue they weren't at the time? People have accused TNA's X Division of being this.. spot monkeys with no character who all just blend in together and have nothing unique about them. And just look at the current Ring of Honor CHAMPION? Tyler Black is the most bland, uninteresting, and generic wrestler you can find. He has no character, and yet he's the top star in the company right now?
Instead of trying to be edgy and recreate the Attitude era like TNA, something that fans just don't seem interested in anymore because the envelopes been pushed far beyond where they can take it to any success now a days; or trying to make a product that focuses on the athletic side of things and plays off the real competition like Ring of Honor, which many fans don't seem interested in anymore because they have things like MMA which IS real and IS an actual competition... why not focus on characters and stories far more then they are now. Sometimes we need to look into the past to move into the future.
Thoughts? Opinions? Do you agree or disagree?
Once upon a time major companies like the WWF and WCW were filled with wrestlers who weren't just wrestlers but they were CHARACTERS. Every wrestler had a gimmick, bad or good, that made them unique. It allowed them to be different and separated them from the next guy. Some gimmicks were great, some gimmicks were horrible, but looking back I can remember those days and I'm both entertained by them still, while I also find myself missing those days. Those days transitioned into the Attitude era where gimmicks turned edgier and in some ways characters turned far more real, but most wrestlers (and certainly the successful and relevant ones) all had a gimmick and a character.
Now we come to present day. Is that what's wrong with wrestling nowadays? Is that what needs to be changed for the business to draw more interest where it's declined? WWE has gone PG, and sure they have gimmicks and characters in many ways, but yet not to the level or the depth as they did generations ago. TNA is trying to recreate past success and in so many ways is just a carbon copy of old things like the Attitude era.. but is what they're missing interesting and unique characters? Ring of Honor focuses on the wrestling and keeping it real to a point, but would they be more successful if they focused more on characters people could get interested more into instead of one dimensional, hollow wrestlers who so often seem to all blend together?
I find myself, and this is true no matter what company it is, feeling as if the new era of young wrestlers have no character to them. They have nothing unique about them. They look the same, they feel the same, and it makes me uninterested in them. People accused the Legacy of being exactly that, and whose to argue they weren't at the time? People have accused TNA's X Division of being this.. spot monkeys with no character who all just blend in together and have nothing unique about them. And just look at the current Ring of Honor CHAMPION? Tyler Black is the most bland, uninteresting, and generic wrestler you can find. He has no character, and yet he's the top star in the company right now?
Instead of trying to be edgy and recreate the Attitude era like TNA, something that fans just don't seem interested in anymore because the envelopes been pushed far beyond where they can take it to any success now a days; or trying to make a product that focuses on the athletic side of things and plays off the real competition like Ring of Honor, which many fans don't seem interested in anymore because they have things like MMA which IS real and IS an actual competition... why not focus on characters and stories far more then they are now. Sometimes we need to look into the past to move into the future.
Thoughts? Opinions? Do you agree or disagree?
