WHY WRESTLING IS MISSING THAT “WOW” FACTOR

[thedarkness214]

A couple of years ago, a show debut on A & E, and it was called, “Storage Wars”. Still going strong today, the show is about professional storage locker buyers who scoop up contents of units through auction–when their renters have failed to pay the storage fees. Even though there are many copycats out now, the show was quite unique when it first aired.

Obviously the buyers are a cast of characters that would have probably been over had they decided to lace up a pair of boots for a living, rather than chose garage sale treasure hunting. And, even though they are all true-to-life “gimmicks”, the one guy that stands out is a rather large, beer-bellied, loud-mouth called, Darrell Sheets. Darrell had been in the business for years, and has made it known to anybody that will listen, that he is always looking for that one thing in every locker that would make his gamble worth while. Darrell refers to it as the “WOW FACTOR”.

darrell-sheets

Since I got involved with social media, I made the choice to start watching professional wrestling on a consistent basis, in order to keep up with the product. To be honest with you, prior–-I wasn’t watching at all. Coming from writing and being a part of the “Attitude Era”, everything that has followed since has just been somewhat boring to me. I mean, how are you going to top the things we did in the late 90′s into the turn of the millennium? The cold, hard truth is that maybe you just can’t. Maybe during that era the business actually reached its peak and it just isn’t going to get any better than that–who knows?

But–-this is what I DO know. If I was still involved in the creative of wrestling today–-I would still be trying. My objective would still be to make this week’s show better than last weeks, and next weeks . . . better than this weeks. That’s just me–-that’s my make-up, work ethic, drive, passion and fiber. Always looking for that “WOW FACTOR”.

bw

And–-I think that’s what’s missing in the wrestling today. The shows are “good”, and they’re “solid”, but–-in my opinion–-they are just missing that WOW factor. And, to make it clear, I don’t believe that has anything to do with effort. I feel both WWE and TNA are trying as hard as they possibly can, but, I don’t know—there’s just “something” missing. While there are definitely moments of WOW, like the confrontation of Y2J and my boy Bray on “Raw” last week, or the spectacle of Dixie Carter going through a table which we’ll see on “IMPACT” in a couple of weeks–-the flashes are there, but to me they’re just coming very few and far between.

I don’t know–-maybe we’ve seen it all, and done it all in wrestling. Maybe it’s at the discouraging point of “it is what it is”. I mean, let’s face it, if next year Jerry Seinfeld decided to give his show another whirl for a season–-would it be the same? Would our expectations be so high based on what he gave us in the past that exceeding it, or even matching it for that matter, would be impossible? Is that the problem with wrestling today? Are we comparing it with an era that can not, and will not ever be repeated?

seinfeld

I don’t know the answer to that. All I do know is that I don’t want to think that’s the case. I think the key to once again bring the professional wrestling business to prominence, is to reinvent it for the time. It was reinvented for the birth of “WrestleMainia“, and it was reinvented for the “Attitude Era”. We are now going on to almost the 20th anniversary of that unique, and special era. Perhaps it’s the time to be “born again”.