The Passion of the Wrestler
Last night I decided to pop in one of the discs in the RVD set released by WWE some months back, and my match of choice was RVD/Sabu from Hostile City Showdown 1996. As I was watching RVD and Sabu put on a hell of a non-stop show for nearly 20 minutes, it started to dawn on me what set ECW apart from other "independents" at the time, and it's something that partly explains why ECW was able to achieve the degree of success it had, and why I think there might be a dearth of (foreseeable) competition to WWE.
I had discussed the idea of this post with Krusty, and he was able to sum it up with one word: Passion.
Passion is what I was watching when I watched Sabu and RVD tear down the house. Whether you think ECW was a viable source of competition, or was even nothing more than glorified "garbage wrestling" is not the point. The point is that these two men WANTED to be out there doing what they were doing. It reminds me of a comment Joey Styles made during One Night Stand. He noted that Sandman, Dreamer, and the Dudley Boys were absolutely beating the bloody hell out of each other, and that they loved every minute of it.
Now, I realize that part of Heyman's success with ECW was that he was able to bring in established stars like Kevin Sullivan, Eddie Gilbert, Cactus Jack, and Terry Funk, but he also had guys who wanted to be professional wrestlers. These weren't guys who happened to wrestle. These were guys who wanted to do this for a living, and to devote their lives to it.
This "simple" distinction is what I think typifies the fact that right now we don't have widespread competition to WWE. In the indy scene, you have a bunch of guys who play the part of some character for one or two nights a few times a month. They might call themselves wrestlers, but they're not. They are guys who wrestle. This is a very important distinction.
RVD, Sabu, and the others were/are wrestlers. They believed wrestling to be a craft, to be perfected and molded. Personally, you know which guys on the indy scene draw my interest? I notice the guys who act like they care, like they have a vested interest in their own matches. They're not out there just to earn a quick $15 and impress some chick with their moves (well, maybe not completely). They're there because they want to learn. They're there because they want to grow. Even in my local fed, the guys who impressed me were the guys who had WWE aspirations, who worked dark matches and B-show matches when WWE was in town.
What does this all have to do with competition to WWE, and why watching some ECW match from nearly 10 years ago sparked a thought? I don't think there are enough people out there these days on the indy scene who want to be wrestlers. You have feds full of guys who wrestle, but not feds that are full of wrestlers. There is simply no "next generation of wrestlers." This is undoubtedly related to the lack of any kind of territory system (which is another discussion in and of itself), but I think no one out there wants to be a wrestler anymore. They want to play the part for a night, and then go back to their "regular" lives. They don't want to pay the dues, they don't want to travel to lots and lots of independents in order to make their name.
Ring of Honor and TNA can only offer so much competition because they don't have the exposure to "make it big" (let alone booking, commercial appeal, etc). And I think they run the risk of finding guys on the indy scene who although they have some love for being wrestlers, are picked up before they can develop well rounded skills, out of the simply need to have someone with some sense of professionalism. I think this is why TNA and RoH have the "spot fu" and/or "lots of pieces of wrestling with no real storyline in the movements" reputations they do. The newer wrestlers might love what they do, but we're seeing them as they start to learn, something that should be done before they hit "the big leagues," so to speak.
I am sure this has always been the case with the indepedents, but I think it's becoming more transparent now that the indies are the source of (future) competition for WWE. I look at the guys wreslting in my locale, and I don't see anyone who really could move on the national scene and do well there, and I bet a lot of other people have similar experiences. I don't think wrestling by any means is dead, but if anyone is to rise up and provide a viable, different, widely captivating product, he needs to make sure he wants to rise up all the way to the top, as opposed to going along for the ride and bowing out when the going gets tough.
I had discussed the idea of this post with Krusty, and he was able to sum it up with one word: Passion.
Passion is what I was watching when I watched Sabu and RVD tear down the house. Whether you think ECW was a viable source of competition, or was even nothing more than glorified "garbage wrestling" is not the point. The point is that these two men WANTED to be out there doing what they were doing. It reminds me of a comment Joey Styles made during One Night Stand. He noted that Sandman, Dreamer, and the Dudley Boys were absolutely beating the bloody hell out of each other, and that they loved every minute of it.
Now, I realize that part of Heyman's success with ECW was that he was able to bring in established stars like Kevin Sullivan, Eddie Gilbert, Cactus Jack, and Terry Funk, but he also had guys who wanted to be professional wrestlers. These weren't guys who happened to wrestle. These were guys who wanted to do this for a living, and to devote their lives to it.
This "simple" distinction is what I think typifies the fact that right now we don't have widespread competition to WWE. In the indy scene, you have a bunch of guys who play the part of some character for one or two nights a few times a month. They might call themselves wrestlers, but they're not. They are guys who wrestle. This is a very important distinction.
RVD, Sabu, and the others were/are wrestlers. They believed wrestling to be a craft, to be perfected and molded. Personally, you know which guys on the indy scene draw my interest? I notice the guys who act like they care, like they have a vested interest in their own matches. They're not out there just to earn a quick $15 and impress some chick with their moves (well, maybe not completely). They're there because they want to learn. They're there because they want to grow. Even in my local fed, the guys who impressed me were the guys who had WWE aspirations, who worked dark matches and B-show matches when WWE was in town.
What does this all have to do with competition to WWE, and why watching some ECW match from nearly 10 years ago sparked a thought? I don't think there are enough people out there these days on the indy scene who want to be wrestlers. You have feds full of guys who wrestle, but not feds that are full of wrestlers. There is simply no "next generation of wrestlers." This is undoubtedly related to the lack of any kind of territory system (which is another discussion in and of itself), but I think no one out there wants to be a wrestler anymore. They want to play the part for a night, and then go back to their "regular" lives. They don't want to pay the dues, they don't want to travel to lots and lots of independents in order to make their name.
Ring of Honor and TNA can only offer so much competition because they don't have the exposure to "make it big" (let alone booking, commercial appeal, etc). And I think they run the risk of finding guys on the indy scene who although they have some love for being wrestlers, are picked up before they can develop well rounded skills, out of the simply need to have someone with some sense of professionalism. I think this is why TNA and RoH have the "spot fu" and/or "lots of pieces of wrestling with no real storyline in the movements" reputations they do. The newer wrestlers might love what they do, but we're seeing them as they start to learn, something that should be done before they hit "the big leagues," so to speak.
I am sure this has always been the case with the indepedents, but I think it's becoming more transparent now that the indies are the source of (future) competition for WWE. I look at the guys wreslting in my locale, and I don't see anyone who really could move on the national scene and do well there, and I bet a lot of other people have similar experiences. I don't think wrestling by any means is dead, but if anyone is to rise up and provide a viable, different, widely captivating product, he needs to make sure he wants to rise up all the way to the top, as opposed to going along for the ride and bowing out when the going gets tough.
posted by Anonymous at 11:52 PM
4 Comments:
I think one reason WWE has been "less fun" over the last few years is because with no WCW or ECW there is no jumping from fed to fed.WWE just brings in WCW/ECW leftovers. (like the Mexicools) Or OVW guys that nobody besides FRO has ever seen before. (And when the OVW guys come in on TV nobody is excited excpet for fro)
What Stoneco says is true. Without legitimate competition, it is now solely up to WWE to create its future stars. When you look at their history, they have a very high success rate creating stars out of guys who had already gained some recognition in other major territories (Hogan, Austin, etc) but when it comes to creating major stars with crossover potential all by themselves, their track record becomes a little hit and miss. The Rock was/is a major star, and Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar are big stars in wrestling circles, and Cena is approaching that level, but how many huge names they can mold from scratch really remains to be seen.
As it has been said a million times before, no competition makes the guys in the back lazy. There is no need to go all-out every week in order to steal viewers away from WCW.
The old system dispite its flaws worked better than what we have today. One major reason was in the old system Wrestling was how these guys fed their families. Like you said today's wrestling is just a part time job for most of wrestlers.
In the old days wrestlers wrestled 6 or 7 times a week. Sometimes like here in Ga they would finsh one match then had to rush to next venue to wrestle again the same night. It takes Passion to be able to do that.
Another thing that that you have pointed out that was different was that when a wrestler started to get cold in area he could go to new area you had a constant flow of talent. Dick Slater used to switch between Fla and Ga Wrestling half the year each. Johnny Walker (Mr. Wrestling II) and Joey Hamplton (The Assissin) worked Ala, Mid-Atleantic, Fla and La.
I can't see todays stars doing that nor can I see them working nearly everynight of the week in some high school gym, fairground stataum or YMCA gym for $800 a match the way The Assissin did. In those days Wrestlers had to make each other look good something today's stars do very little of. There aren't many of todays Stars that would have made it under the old system. Guys like Cena, and Randy Orton would never be given the push to main event status. Foley, HBK, 3H, and others are the last grads from the old system then that era will come to an end.
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