Yesterday or Today - Getting Over

[IrishCanadian25]

In the 80's and the first half of the 90's, TV shows on Saturdays and Sundays often featured superstars in squash matches with enhancement talent, or "jobbers." The enhancement talent were generally non-descript guys in pretty generic attire. Few and far between were the guys who ascended beyond that role. Former high-level guys like Jim Powers and Jim Brunzel got some offense in, but nothing threatening.

The top-level guys (the ones with the characters) got a few minutes to destroy these jobbers, debut their moves and mannerisms, and get the crowd familiar with them. They would run vignettes and build towards the 4 or 5 annual PPV's.

Gone are the enhancement talents, unless Big Show or Khali need to destroy 3 guys at the same time.

Now, there are more spots on the main roster since there are 3 shows, and PPV's are more frequent. The crowd is far less patient. If you aren't over, you're changing shows and eventually being released.

In your opinion, is it harder to "get over" in today's modern business? Or was it harder back then?

 

[jmt225]

The answer is pretty easy and you explained why perfectly yourself, IC.

I mean, seriously... just put this in perspective: The Red Rooster got pops. Go back and watch those videos... the Red Rooster actually got cheered. Today people shit on the character every time he's brought up (and rightfully so), but it didn't matter back then.. if you were a good guy, you were going to get cheered, and if you were a bad guy, you were going to get booed. It was that simple. Today, it's nothing like that.

Today, you have to give the audience a reason to like you other than you have basic morals. You have to truly relate to them one way or another, because every single one of them is 100% certain that professional wrestling isn't "real," which is ultimately the main reason why the crowd is so different these days. Back in the day there were still doubts about pro wrestling being real or not, but today people know for sure it's all just a show, nothing legit. So, with that... to make that audience like you, they must be able to relate to your character, or they must find you exciting to watch. And to make an audience hate you, you must work hard to be as much of a repulsive human being as you can be, while at the same time not doing anything "cool." In the 80s and early 90s though... pretty much anyone could get cheers and boos.

 

[Via Armbar]

The internet is honestly the deciding factor here for me. It has managed to change just about every aspect of the business, especially in relation to how performers are seen and supported. Fans are far more crucial of wrestlers currently than they ever have been before. Most noticeably with the ''Look that Vince loves'' type of wrestlers.

The comparison is used rather frequently; John Cena is todays equivalent of Hulk Hogan. Fair enough assessment and in many ways it's true. Now, if anyone can refresh my memory please do so and remind me of how often Hulk Hogan was booed during the mid to late eighties? I'm sure the numbers resemble the same amount of times he was pinned cleanly during the same era. Not very many at all. Everyone loved Hogan, he was professional wrestling. He didn't have the agility or speed of Savage, nor the technical ability but he was without a doubt the most over man in the company. Now for Cena, the same just cannot be said. While he is without a doubt the top draw in the WWE and has been for a couple years, he isn't without his haters. He has a similar style to Hogan, a similar gimmick. Yet, he gets booed. How could this be?

I'm going to have to stop myself from dry heaving for a moment and use a term I hate...the IWC. With the ever growing library of wrestling matches from all over the world becoming more and more available, eyes are being opened to things they haven't seen before in wrestling. There are more faces, more moves and crazier gimmicks. Wrestling fans have become selfish in a way. They have all become experts on the business and have decided who is good and who is not. They decide what makes a good performer and has even decided what wrestling is. They feel they now have the right to decide EXACTLY what they like without being told by the companies putting on the shows. A fickle bunch they are.

So without a doubt for me, getting over in todays over saturated and ever-changing wrestling business is far more difficult to get over in than it has been in the past. I fully believe the internet is the biggest reason for this.

 

[Deexter Jorgan]

I agree with Armbar, the internet is allowing today's established wrestlers to get over with fans, if it weren't for the internet would Matt Hardy even have a job?, not really.

There are also issues with spoilers from feuds and TV tapings letting the fans even closer to what happens in the industry than before.

the biggest change as you said IC is the squash match concept, without it stars are not getting over, guys like Dolph Ziggler, CM Punk, Luke Gallows, John Morrison etc have to find new ways to get over, without these matches guys are either being released or are just being used as jobbers themselves.

With this concept we could have had guys like Burchill look more dominent and strong without sacrificing any of the other pushes to the other members of the roster.

but without loss there is still gain, any wrestler that the WWE sees as potential are still promoted and placed in a position where they can be utilised as "stars", look at guys like John Cena, the Miz or even Triple H for example, they film movies, they go on talk shows, they promote the product like no one else can.

If any other wrestler can gain favour being doing this they may get their opportunity as a world champion with or without the fans favour.

From the early days of squash matches to todays environment there has been more short term world champions than long term and it certanly has benefited, more main eventers are created and more spots are filled with a divided roster working on either show.

and because of the short term memory of todays wrestling fan things have to move alot faster, and i doubt the old process would have allowed that to happen.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Few and far between were the guys who ascended beyond that role.

We just need to substitute the words "few and far between" with "never" when talking about those bygone years.

In the early 90's, we had a local guy named Mark Thomas who was a jobber for awhile in WWE. He told us that the road agents informed him: "Don't get in any offense, don't show too much defiance toward the superstar you're wrestling, don't mug for the crowd......you're here to get the shit beat out of you and that's all."

Mark wrestled in small-time independents very successfully but was willing to trade his local rep for some big-time television exposure. There were plenty of guys like that, and I never saw one break through and become a star. My Dad told me of one notable exception: Randy Savage. In the mid-70's, before he left WWE to play minor league baseball, he saw Savage as a skinny, nondescript jobber in WWE getting the stuffing beat out of him week after week.....and Dad remembered Gorilla Monsoon saying: "This young man's time is coming."

Wrestling today is much better than those days. Even jobbers occasionally win......or at least you aren't 100% certain before the match even starts that they're going to lose. For instance, Evan Bourne is a jobber but they let him win just often enough that you have some hope for him when the match starts.

I'll take today.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

Mustang Sally, I have one for you. Sean "1-2-3 Kid" Waltman.

Waltman had like 4 different jobber names. Cannonbal Kid. Kamakaze Kid. Etc. Finally, on an episode of Monday Night Raw, he was billed simply as "The Kid."

Out came Razor Ramon, just a few months off of a co-main event WWF Title Match (a submission loss) to Bret Hart. This was gonna be a squash.

And then it wasn't.

Waltman stunned Razor, hit the top rope, hit a moonsault to a standing Razor, and earned the pinfall victory. A star was born immediately. Waltman feuded with Ramon, and eventually was instrumental in Razor's face turn and subsequent IC Title runs. Waltman himself beat Ted DiBiase (though he lost clean to IRS) and enjoyed a couple of tag team title runs in the early and mid 90' with guys like Bob Sparky Plugg Hardcore Holly.

Eventually, Waltman became "Syxx" in the nWo and held the Cruiserweight Title, before returning to the WWE in DX. He was a part of two of the three biggest angles of the late 90's.

And it all started with a pinfall win over Razor Ramon from out of nowhere. And things like that will never happen again.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Mustang Sally, I have one for you. Sean "1-2-3 Kid" Waltman.

You're right, IC, and that was one of the most unexpected events ever. I remember half-watching that match against Razor and being stunned to attention. It was great.

It's an example of the exception proving the rule, though. Will we ever see it again? It's possible we won't because today's lowliest jobbers have still won some matches while the losers of the 80's and 90's were losers from the start.

 

[smokinglizard]

You know, what made events like that great was the fact that they were totally unexpected. That's what makes an event unforgettable. Like Goldberg's debut...that was done very, very well. Pro wrestling needs to endeavor to not be so predictable.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Like most movie plots, wrestlings have all been done before... the potential for shocks diminishes each week...

Today is not unlike the 80's era... but how wrestlers are described is... back then if you ever read WWF Magazine for example, they would refer to "open contracts" which mean jobber/enhancement talents... Often there would be little one liners in WWF news or in featured articles saying...."x has signed an open contract"... I remember Virgil, Bob Backlund, Tito Santana and many more getting that tag... it usually signified a former top name moving down the card to jobber status.... The modern equivalent of this is of course being "on a developmental deal" or being "future endeavoured"...

On the face of it though, the balance is still there, just with more mobility up and down the card... in Hogan's era there was a very clear heirachy... Main event, upper mid, mid, opener and enhancement... You knew Jake or Bossman were Upper Mid cos they never got title matches... you knew someone like Koko was an opener and so on... today one week Evan Bourne is a main eventer, the next back on Superstars...

The mechanics of getting over is still the same, a higher placed person has to lose to a lower placed one... this happens far more often than it did in the past... Jobbers never won in Hogan's day and I agree with Kid being the only major case of it in the early RAW days... but that was down to the "old school" mentality... you had to be exceptional to move up the card more than one notch... Guys like Rick Martel, Ronnie Garvin, Kerry Von Erich, Curt Hennig...all were "World Champions" but in WWE they were mid who moved to upper card... guys like Bossman, Taker, Yoko, Owen and Davey Boy clearly went higher over but again they were exceptional talents and took months of positioning and building... The guy who broke the mold was Stone Cold... he made it possible for a midcarder to leap straight to the main event with one action. Lex, Diesel all came close but their pushes were planned... Stone Cold's really was the first proper case of one guy just popping the crowd enough to not only turn heads, but the machine around to get behind him... Once that mould was broken, it was inevitable lightning would strike again and again...

In the past, pushes were determined up to a year in advance, as there were only 4 or 5 events a year... Hot Shotting was never done... You might earn your spot but still have to wait a year or several months for it to open up or fit in with the shows... Its easier to get over these days cos the ceiling that is percieved doesn't really exist... The opportunities to get over are more the chances to work that push are more, the methods to get ones self over are more and the less protected nature of the business means that consumer choice can drive pushes rather than the closed kayfabe days of Vince calling someone 3 months before and telling them the good news... only for them to blow it the night before

Today Jack Thwagger can get the title in 24 hours notice... just to see if it sticks... thats the main difference...

 

[Super Strudel]

I think arguments could be made for both.
In the old days, especially on a national scale, it was harder to get over due to less national TV coverage and shows. Because of this, there were fewer main event spots. If you take into account in the past 5-10 years the different tv shows with national coverage that get wrestlers main event exposure, you have to give credit to the main event guys who fought their way to the top back then.
That being said, I think these days are just as difficult because nearly everyone is a tweener. There are no clear cut faces and heels, no matter how hard the wrestler tries. You could mug a granny and defecate in her letterbox, and some section of the crowd would still cheer you.
Cena is case in point of this. He is no difference to the babyfaces of yesteryear, the difference is granny's actually do want to defecate in his letterbox.
And as for the enhancement talent fairytale, I have another one, although no where near the same level as 1-2-Syxx-Pac: Gunner "Brent Albright" Scott. Debuted on Smackdown with all the hallmarks of a jobber, only to pin Booker T thanks to interference from Chris Benoit.