Quote:
| People love asking questions. I still don't know why my Ask Jim thread became so popular that there were 4 editions of it.
From talking to Bon Jr, it seems as if you still watch indy wrestling. However, how do you feel about the changes to mainstream wrestling from when you began watching? |
Ahhh, this is gonna be a long one.....
Any discussion about mainstream wrestling, sadly, will probably begin and end with
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.Folly.
When I started, there were 2 weekly syndicated shows-Championship Wrestling and All Star Wrestling. The formula was exactly the same for both shows-5 matches, usually all squashes, and a localized interview halfway through hyping that month's big show. Here in NY, that big show was always at the
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.showcase-Madison Square Garden.
We were lucky in that we had cable TV early on, and I got to see each month's MSG show live on cable. Two things quickly became apparent-the champ (usually Bruno) was incredibly over, and the booking was completely by-the-numbers. The pattern was noticable to even a 13 year old mark and it was almost always the same. Let's use Waldo Von Erich as an example-
Month 1-Waldo Von Erich returns to MSG, and decimates the #2 babyface-usually either Chief Jay Strongbow or Ivan Putski. Because of the savage beating Waldo gave the babyface, he became the number one contender, and would get a title shot next month.
Month 2-Waldo gets his title shot, and wins the match-but not the belt-by either a DQ or a blood stoppage. Next month-the inevitable Texas Death Match!
Month 3-Texas Death Match, Bruno gets his pinfall victory over Waldo, and Waldo begins the long slow slide down the card.
Month in and month out, the same pattern, hardly ever changing. And Madison Square Garden would sell out 18000 seats every month, sometimes even selling another 5000 seats downstairs in the Felt Forum to watch that night's show live on closed circuit TV. Why mess with the formula if you're selling out The Garden every month?
Vince Jr. messed with the formula. A lot.
I don't need to detail what happened post-1983, but it certainly had its good points and bad points.
Wrestlemania III, and seeing 80,000 people in a football stadium to watch wrestling? Definitely a good point.
A bad point? The oversaturation of programming, both of free TV, and Pay Per View.
Believe it or not, there was a time when there was one (WWF) wrestling PPV a year, and that was Wrestlemania. Inevitably, more followed, and we ended up with 5 a year. Looking back, that wasn't really a bad thing, because each show meant something. Feuds were given time to develop, and there was actual long term booking going on. Legend had it, in the early days, when one year's Mania ended, Vince already had the next year's storylines scripted out up to Mania again. I believe it.
Oversaturation means, in theory, more money for McMahon, but it also has the effect of making PPV's mean nothing. It's to the point where the tail is wagging the dog-it sometimes feels like the PPV exists to hype the next night's RAW. It's a TNA way of doing business, but that's another dissertation for another day.
Getting back to Jim's question-it still amazes me that wrestling has become as mainstream as it has. The business will always go through boom and bust periods. It's pointless to talk about match quality, because nobody in 1973 could have dreamed of what Rey Mysterio would be doing night in and night out.
I remember when WWF put out their Bloodbath steel cage match DVD, and I was thrilled that the MSG Bruno/Koloff cage match from '75 was on there.....until I got home and watched the match. It kinda sucked.
In summation, because I'm babbling like Mike Adamle-I'm amazed at how big, and how mainstream the business has gotten. I'm also amazed that despite how big the business has gotten, I still enjoy ROH and Chikara more than pretty much anything Vince puts out there.
Screw Triple H and his 15 minute promos-I'm infinitely more interested in what Ultramantis has to say!
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