Charisma, skill or both?

Bouchie

There's three types of wrestlers and we can sum them up with the following 3 examples:

Charisma - Hogan

Skill - Chris Benoit

Both - Kurt Angle

We all would like guys to have both but that's very rare. So if you had to choose a guy with either skill or a guy with charisma (no skill), who would you choose and why?

I would always prefer to have Charisma over a guy who can actually wrestle. Charisma is what people will pay to see, get their interest, and keep them coming back. Wrestling is a business, after all.

We've already seen fans chant "boring" during a highly technical Benoit match. There's just nothing exciting there. Pure wrestling fans still love it, but the majority of fans have a short attention span and want constant excitment.

3D

Well, most successful wrestlers now HAVE to have charisma. You can only go so far on ability alone. Benoit for example - he was made Champion for his ability and dedication. But many people (me excluded) think his reign was a flop, and he did nothing with the belt.. personally I felt he had no time to, but that's me. The really successful wrestlers have both - Hogan, HBK, Triple H, The Rock, etc, etc, etc.. But I think if you had to have one and one alone, most would go for charisma.

Look at John Cena. He's the WWE Champion, a fairly dominant champion (Barring the last 2 weeks), being booked well, and why? He is charismatic, great on the mic, and really over with the fans.. Why is he over? Purely on that charisma. Most people would agree he is STILL fairly green in the ring, but he is good on the microphone, and so he is over.

Carlito. When he first arrived, people had doubts over his character and his in-ring ability. But the guy is LOADED with charisma, and as a result he is over as a heel. He's just great on the mic, good at comedy when necessary, good at being serious, and when given what looked a dodgy character (Carlito Caribbean Cool? Seemed a crap name at first) he took the ball and ran with it.. he's great! I think Carlito is actually proving himself to be solid in the ring now but before he had much time to prove himself he still got over due to his charisma.

Christian. Great in the ring, but always overlooked by the WWE. Yet he has a pretty big 'net following, and is a guy most fans love to hate? Why? He aint called Captain Charisma for nothing.. the guy is just so charismatic, the fans love him despite being what is esssentially a high-profile jobber. Push the guy, damnit...

What I'm saying is, you can do without the skill, it's undoubtedly charisma that will push you to the top, and keep you there.

3D. Wrestling Clique, Monksdiner, JimmyVan and KnowYourNews' Crafty Old Veteran.

Jackie Pies

for me, it can depend on the skills. Benoit is great at technical wrestling but I don't always get off on that. what I really enjoy is the fast paced, highflying moves that guys like London, Styles, Williams, Daniels do so well. then I love the larger brawlers who can do some moves off the ropes and who make every punch look like it would really fu ck your ass up, guys like Raven, Stone Cold, Abyss, Lesnar. now some of these guys have the charism- esp Raven and Austin, but most of them don't talk very often for the simple reason that they're not great talkers.
so I say skill is more important, but the match has to be entertaining enough to make up for the fact that the guy isn't.

spankymcspankspank

its almost impossible to choose between the two.... skill is like a foundation for all great wrestlers, and a lot of charisma is that extra special "it" that they need to become a superstar. that extra something in showbuisness, whether its music acting comedy etc, you know when people talk about superstars and they say "that person has 'it'" and theres not really a word for it... thats the charisma aspect.

but then again, richard simmons is charismatic. so are the heart throbs, so is rico, scotty 2 hotty, etc etc the reason they never went over big time (or havent gotten over yet) is because they havent demonstrated exceptional in-ring work, the ability to put on a great match. benoit may not be the best talker or have the most charisma, but why do you think people always end up chanting his name after his matches, even when he loses? because he knows how to put on a great match and keep people on the edge of their seats.

i think theres a third aspect to it though, and thats gimmick. perfect example: the undertaker. hardly ever talks, but will always be remembered as a legend, one for his ring work and two for his kick ass gimmick that people cant seem to get enough of.



in conclusion, i dont know. the two are like ice cream and cake (sorry, i struggled for a few minutes to come up with a better analogy but couldnt. i guess i dont have "it")

it's still real to me, dammit!

thirty7

You we're doing good up until the ice cream and cake. Lol, just kidding.

I think you're right though about gimmick. I mean Cena has the charisma before he became a "rapper" and people were still yet to take to him. When Christian had the losing streak storyline before WM 18, he still had the charisma and the workrate, but not the right gimmick.

At the end of the day, the fans will rally behind the more charismatic wrestler over the better athlete, but in most cases will still respect the great worker. Personally, i would choose charisma, because it's more than likely to entertain me weekly on RAW, rather than a great athlete, who would only be given 5 minutes or so.

I wish my sex life was like ECW, first you get a One Night Stand followed by 2 months of nostalgic orgasms and then 6 months of constant sucking.

Jackie Pies

you are right about charisma being more important b/c of length of matches today.
I am so sick of 5 minute matches, from both brands.

thirty7

Exactly, if Chris Benoit, William Regal, Paul London, Chavo, the former cruisers and so on we're allowed to go for 10-20 minutes each week, then definitely i would pick in-ring skill over charisma. But because of the nature of the product as it is, you need Charismatic wrestlers to entertain you right away in the short time that they have.

I wish my sex life was like ECW, first you get a One Night Stand followed by 2 months of nostalgic orgasms and then 6 months of constant sucking.

BrownSugar

Yea, I would prefer charisma over technical skills...If you aint good on the mic and can't cut good promos, I probably won't be interested in watchin you...like whenever Benoit wrestles, as good as he is, I'd still rather watch someone like Hogan or Flair...it just seems more appealing and they stand out more...if a wrestler can't show his personality or character on the set, then he won't get as over with the fans as those wrestlers who can...but on the contrary, even if a wrestler is charismatic, he can't expect just to go off that and have crappy in-ring work...if he can't perform in the ring, then the fans will eventually lose interest...

Tyler Durden

For TV it's fine to make programmes built around charisma more so than skill. Raw was a lot like that in the late 90's but in truth what it meant was whilst the TV was "must see" the PPV's were more often than not one match shows (much like they are now!!). The true perfect mix (for me) came in 2000 up to 2001 when the Radicals joined. This gave the company that terrific mix of charismatic performers and in ring talent that they have never again matched.

3D

HAHA, The Heart Throbs, charismatic? Just reading that discredits anything else you said. They have NO charisma, they just prance around like a pair of idiots.

Charisma is humour, personality, character.. you were right when you said Rico had it - he did. But on your other point, his gimmick sucked. He still managed to get over for a period with Haas. So charisma seems more important now.

3D. Wrestling Clique, Monksdiner, JimmyVan and KnowYourNews' Crafty Old Veteran.