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**James Steele** · 04-20-2007, 03:21 AM

I'd bring back the emphasis on the actual wrestling. All these Hollywood fuckwits forget that this is pro wrestling (no matter how much paint you throw on it to call it sports entertainment it is still pro wrestling to the masses.) You don't need 20 video packages and 1 four-minute squash match to get somebody over. That is just a great to to generate buzz and have it fail 9 out of 10 times. Every major star had wrestled for a long time and had earned their respect and reputation from the fans. Kurt Angle and Goldberg are exceptions, but they had credibility from their "real sport" experience.

That is why the NWA stuff holds the test of time, while the shit from the WWF in the 80s gets laughed at except a handful of great storylines. Flash and sizzle is great for a temporary buzz, but it takes great stories in the ring to keep wrestling going. Chris Masters does have main event potential, but all the video packages and squash matches aren't going to make me give a fuck about him long term. He had his moment in the sun for a year before he was a glorified curtain-jerker. Chris Masters is green, but he is improving over time and I can see him as a upper midcard/occasional main event heel in 4-5 years.

Wrestling needs to learn that booms aren't built in a day or a week or a month or even a year. It takes years for a boom to get started. "The New Generation" in the WWF was boiling away and making something great and it just took that one thing to light the whole industry on fire. That spark may have been ECW or whatever you want to claim it was, but all those guys busted their ass for years and once the spark was found everything fell into place. People don't pay money to watching wrestling video packages, they pay to see wrestling matches.

WrestleMania 17 (the peak of the Attitude era) was the perfect example of this: all those matches had great storylines but you didn't need 20 video packages to tell the story, because they told the story in the ring. Stone Cold Steve Austin told his story of his passion for the WWF title. He told the story of how he loved it so much he sold his soul and joined up with a man he hated more than anyone on this earth. The Rock told a story about how he wanted to keep the title so much that he would kick out and do anything, but even he had his limit. You didn't need a video package to tell you that because the match told you that.

Wrestling should be like a movie with no words. You see the emotion, you see the struggle, you see the story. The video packages and "flash and sizzle" should just help build up the story to the climax, the match. The highlight of WrestleMania shouldn't be "that video package before the HBK/Cena match was awesome!", the highlight of WrestleMania should be the HBK/Cena match itself.

04-20-2007, 03:21 AM	#5
James Steele TPWW's HHH Mark Since '04 Posts: 29,886	I'd bring back the emphasis on the actual wrestling. All these Hollywood fuckwits forget that this is pro wrestling (no matter how much paint you throw on it to call it sports entertainment it is still pro wrestling to the masses.) You don't need 20 video packages and 1 four-minute squash match to get somebody over. That is just a great to to generate buzz and have it fail 9 out of 10 times. Every major star had wrestled for a long time and had earned their respect and reputation from the fans. Kurt Angle and Goldberg are exceptions, but they had credibility from their "real sport" experience. That is why the NWA stuff holds the test of time, while the shit from the WWF in the 80s gets laughed at except a handful of great storylines. Flash and sizzle is great for a temporary buzz, but it takes great stories in the ring to keep wrestling going. Chris Masters does have main event potential, but all the video packages and squash matches aren't going to make me give a fuck about him long term. He had his moment in the sun for a year before he was a glorified curtain-jerker. Chris Masters is green, but he is improving over time and I can see him as a upper midcard/occasional main event heel in 4-5 years. Wrestling needs to learn that booms aren't built in a day or a week or a month or even a year. It takes years for a boom to get started. "The New Generation" in the WWF was boiling away and making something great and it just took that one thing to light the whole industry on fire. That spark may have been ECW or whatever you want to claim it was, but all those guys busted their ass for years and once the spark was found everything fell into place. People don't pay money to watching wrestling video packages, they pay to see wrestling matches. WrestleMania 17 (the peak of the Attitude era) was the perfect example of this: all those matches had great storylines but you didn't need 20 video packages to tell the story, because they told the story in the ring. Stone Cold Steve Austin told his story of his passion for the WWF title. He told the story of how he loved it so much he sold his soul and joined up with a man he hated more than anyone on this earth. The Rock told a story about how he wanted to keep the title so much that he would kick out and do anything, but even he had his limit. You didn't need a video package to tell you that because the match told you that. Wrestling should be like a movie with no words. You see the emotion, you see the struggle, you see the story. The video packages and "flash and sizzle" should just help build up the story to the climax, the match. The highlight of WrestleMania shouldn't be "that video package before the HBK/Cena match was awesome!", the highlight of WrestleMania should be the HBK/Cena match itself.