Pro Wrestling: Where Do We Go From Here?

[Destor]

The current state of pro-wrestling is dire in a lot of ways. And something has to happen if the mainstream value of pro-wrestling is to increase, a drastic change has been the case in the past.

To understand where I feel we are going, we need to see where we came from. Wrestling cycles through popular culture just like any other social trend. This process is coupled to the aging and general experiences of ourdemographic of males in particular.

This is fairly common knowledge amongst us. Back in the day it was an old mans sport. Slow. A Body Slam was the end of the match. It became more grand as time went on. More high impact moves and Drama.

But then in the 70s things started to change to more flamboyant characters. All the way until the story-telling in wrestling (WWF especially) resembled that in a classic comic book (80s,) filled with epic battles between super heros. Hulk Hogan's catch phrase explains this era in a nutshell: "exercise, say your prayers, and eat your vitamins." They could easily relate.

The older they became, the less this type of product appealed to them and the popularity of wrestling suffered accordingly. They wanted something more obscene, something that "responsible" parents wouldn't want kids to watch. This came in the form of ECW-style hardcore wrestling and more importantly, storylines about defiance of authority, e.g. NWO, DX, Steve Austin. Those young children, the former Hulkamaniacs, were joining the workforce and could relate. Especially to the weekly deprecation of Vince McMahon.

We can very much relate to the theme of rebellion from this era, but no longer in the form of pro wrestling. Why is this the case? Well, this is kind of an open-ended question. All I know is that whenever I re-watch a film I never fully get the same cathartic experience as the first time. I may have enjoyed watching ECW and following the DX storyline back in the day, but any attempt to recreate these experiences in the same way hasn't really panned out too well.

Something has to change. MMA... I think the natural progression of the wrestling cycle is already under way. MMA will soon be integrating more fully into pro wrestling for the next logical evolution of the sport. Paul Heyman is trying that with the "new" ECW, and Eric Bischoff has pitched it a few times, too. I think we are seeing the next step, realism from our soap opera. A reality base for our fake violence. Could the next boom be caused by this?

Look at the ECW product. They were the precursor to the attitude of the Attitude era. Now look at the ROH American strong style, could this be the same thing but in its infantile stages? History likes to repeat itself.