Professional Wrestling in the Media
Embed from Getty ImagesWhat you are reading here today is a rarity, a wrestling article on a sports website and I can guarantee that this isn’t how you get your regular news updates on all things pro wrestling.
You cannot go to a sports website to read over the events on Monday Night Raw or look in a national newspaper to see a former wrestler’s weekly column. It is very rare that any positive news about wrestling is ever written in the mainstream media.
The last coverage I saw of professional wrestling in a national newspaper was when Hulk Hogan was fired by WWE for racism. Before that, I would have to go all the way back to the horrific incident of former world champion Chris Beniot massacring his own family in 2007 to find anything at all.
Are you starting to notice a pattern here?
So why is a sport so beloved by millions of men, women and children across the world almost completely ignored by those in the media? Well, I can’t answer that. However what I do know is that when you mention WWE, or even wrestling in general, to someone they will almost instantly start to patronise you, calling it fake or stupid. It’s simply not recognised as a legitimate sport by anyone except for us fans. I’m sure the wrestlers themselves would have something to say about that with the countless bruises, scars and more serious injuries they receive on a weekly basis.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe issue is wrestling is still considered as something for kids, even though a large portion of live crowds and angry bloggers on the internet are adults. I would love to see a day in the future when I can browse a sports website or app and see a category called professional wrestling, full with articles, results and reviews.
I feel wrestling really is starting to become more mainstream!
Every single time I see an RKO vine or John Cena ‘meme’ I hope that it might turn someone to the world of sports entertainment and they may become as obsessed and passionate as I am, one day. Then maybe, just maybe we’ll talk about pro wrestling in the same way we do other combat sports.
5 Insane Wrestling Gimmick Changes That Actually Worked
Wrestling is weird isn’t it? Where else could you see a creature from the underworld vs. A stock broker (see the Boogeyman vs JBL) or men with unicorn horns dancing to a gospel choir?
It’s the suspension of disbelief that makes wrestling beloved by millions across the globe. It is the only place in the world where somebody can change overnight and nobody will bat an eyelid and sometimes, just sometimes, completely out of the blue, a gimmick change will be a huge hit with fans and completely revitalise a wrestler’s career. Here are five of the most extreme gimmick changes that worked.
5
Broken Matt Hardy
Embed from Getty ImagesWhen a gimmick can completely kill internet fans complaints about somebody you know it’s worked a treat and that’s exactly what happened with Matt Hardy in May 2016. His heel run with the TNA world championship had not gone down well with many fans referring to him as ‘Fat Lardy’ because of his stale persona and slightly out of shape figure. Then, overnight, he completely changed. He returned after being put through a table by his brother Jeff, now claiming he was broken and the rest is history. There are so many twists and turns to this storyline and so many different characters in the broken universe that it has done the unthinkable and put TNA back on the professional wrestling map.
4
King Booker
Embed from Getty ImagesKing Booker was such a drastic difference from the Booker T we knew, that fans could barely believe their eyes. Here was a man who went from doing spinaroonie’s to wearing a crown and speaking in a brilliantly bad English accent. His obnoxious entrance theme and his wife Sharmell screaming “All hail King Booker” drew some amazing heel heat and he even went on to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Who’d have thought a cheap robe and crown could be so successful?
3
John Bradshaw Layfield
Embed from Getty ImagesRemember that stock broker I mentioned earlier? What if I told you he was once a bar fighting, beer drinking tough man with a thing for legitimately beating people up? That’s how JBL came about. He left behind his Texan roots and became, in his own mind at least, the king of Wall Street. This gimmick enabled JBL to become the longest reigning world champion in Smackdown history and one of the most despised wrestlers on the entire roster throughout the ruthless aggression era.
2
Kane
Embed from Getty ImagesYou know the ‘Devils Favourite Demon?’ What if I told you he was once Jerry Lawler’s personal dentist? Before he was the Undertakers brother Kane was Dr Isaac Yankem, a dentist with a love of hurting patients and causing misery wherever he went. However, in April 1997, during a Hell in a Cell match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker the lights went out and alongside Paul Bearer was Kane, a 7-foot-tall masked monster and the kayfabe brother of the deadman. Since then, Kane has been through almost every storyline imaginable but has stuck with the company in its darkest times and now nearly 20 years later, aged 49, Kane is still one of the WWE’s most reliable performers. I don’t think we’d be saying the same thing if he stuck around as a dentist, do you?
1
Sting
Embed from Getty ImagesSting was once a smiling, brightly coloured warrior with a glittery cape and bleach blonde hair but in 1996 one of the greatest characters ever was born. He was darker, he wore black and spectated matches from the rafters and was seen as WCW’s only hope of stopping the New World Order from destroying the company from the inside. This former ‘happy go lucky’ superstar was now standing in the way of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hollywood Hogan and the whole army of NWO members. He was no longer seen as just another WCW wrestler. He was now the fans one true hope of taking down the outsiders and was viewed as WCW’s saviour. He may have now retired after a questionable WWE run but one thing is for sure, changing from Surfer Sting to Crow Sting was the best thing he ever did for his career.
3 Things WWE need to do to revive the Cruiserweight Division
The Cruiserweight Classic was a highly successful event when it aired on the WWE Network. It was a showcase of some of the world’s greatest wrestlers and most WWE fans had never seen anything like it before. It all culminated when TJ Perkins won the brand-new Cruiserweight Championship after months of high energy matches. But since then things have gone a little downhill. Perkins was booked absolutely horribly after the debut of several of the cruiserweights on Raw and surprise surprise, the creative team didn’t know how to handle so many call ups at once, so they just began throwing very talented wrestlers into utterly meaningless tag matches. The creation of 205 Live seems to show that WWE really want to make this a success, so here are three things that WWE could do to revive the cruiserweight division.
1. Put some established stars on the roster
One of the biggest complaints that fans have with the Cruiserweight division is the lack of well-known superstars competing in it. The Brian Kendrick is one of the few names that fans would quickly recognise and despite the amount of talent on show it’s hard for fans to get behind superstars they don’t know, adding somebody like Sin Cara is a start. However taking a quick glance at the Raw roster it’s easy to see wrestlers that aren’t being utilised properly. Why not put Sami Zayn or Neville on the roster and let them have some meaningful storylines for once? It would definitely get the crowd more into the action and help establish some more competition for the division’s top stars.
Embed from Getty Images2. Move the entire division to Smackdown
205 Live is a great idea, it gives the Cruiserweights their own show and actually gives them time to put on some good matches. However, it doesn’t really make sense to air the show right after Smackdown, when the division is featured on Raw the night before. It would make much more sense to move the division to Smackdown, so that 205 actually has some consistency in its storylines and when it airs right after the Tuesday night show, fans can stay invested in the action instead of having to wait an extra day.
3. Actually let some of the Cruiserweights have a personality
Beyond The Brain Kendrick being a bitter veteran and TJ Perkins truly awful ‘I like video games so I must reference them at every opportunity’ gimmick very few of the wrestlers have been given a chance to showcase their personality’s much, since they debuted on Monday Night Raw. Noam Dar hasn’t been able to show that he’s more than just some random Scottish guy so far however, hopefully with the introduction of Jack Gallagher this is all about to change. High ranking WWE officials are reportedly very positive about the British grapplers style and he could be the catalyst to finally help the Cruiserweight division take off.
Embed from Getty ImagesHas the WWE Women’s Revolution Actually Worked?
It’s one of the most maligned and talked about WWE screw ups in recent years. The women’s revolution (then divas’ revolution) got off to a very promising start in 2015, with three of the so called ‘four horsewomen’ being called up to the main roster from NXT. Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks all brought something completely new to Raw and Smackdown that fans had rarely seen outside of Full Sail University.
Then, the tag matches started, endless, pointless tag matches that did absolutely nothing to build the characters of any of the three women and that were clearly just there to stretch out Nikki Bella’s championship reign as long as possible. The three teams of PCB, BAD and the Bella Army seemingly only existed because the WWE creative team couldn’t find a way to implement all of the women at once and it fell completely flat. Fans were quickly losing interest and grew extremely tired of watching Nikki Bella’s title reign close in on AJ Lee’s record.
Embed from Getty ImagesHowever, once the record had come and gone it was clear that Charlotte was the woman who had been chosen to defeat Nikki for the divas’ championship at Night of Champions 2015 and once that happened it injected new life into the women’s division. Then followed a few months of pretty good matches and storylines (Reid Flair name drop aside). We had a truly incredible triple threat match at Wrestlemania and now we’re coming to the end of an amazing back and forth feud between Charlotte and Sasha Banks. That’s before we ever mention the well-balanced women’s division on Smackdown. So it really does beg the question, was the women’s revolution really so bad after all?
Sure, we sat through countless dull moments at the beginning, but as soon as the Divas’ Championship became the Women’s Championship everything changed. Gone are the two minute matches of a few years ago, now we have Hell in a Cell and tables matches, along with well-constructed storylines and characters that don’t make the women come across as bitchy schoolgirls. Then you have to look at some of the more recent NXT call ups from the brand split. Bayley and Alexa Bliss have been the standouts but even then, women like Nia Jax and Carmella are just waiting in the wings for their big opportunity, the amount of roster depth is truly astounding.
Embed from Getty ImagesBack to my original question then, has the WWE women’s revolution actually worked? Well it certainly wasn’t helped by idiotic booking in the summer of 2015, but since then it’s matured and now for the first time ever women are considered superstars instead of a separate entity in WWE. They’re the main eventing pay per views and putting on five star matches that are being talked about around the world, whilst still cutting great promos and representing the WWE in the mainstream media. I’d consider that pretty successful, wouldn’t you?
The 2016 WWE Brand Split-5 Months Later
Many wrestling fans believe that 2016 was the year WWE finally started listening to its universe and gave them many of the things they’ve been crying out for since the PG era began. One of these things was the brand split, fans believed that by having separate rosters for Raw and Smackdown it would give more superstars a chance to flourish and get some exposure on TV and in some occasions this has been the case. Who could have ever predicted that Heath Slater would win a championship in 2016? Without the brand split, there would have been very little chance he would even get on TV let alone with the tag team titles.
Embed from Getty ImagesHowever, it’s certainly not all been plain sailing for WWE. After a positive first week of the split, every episode of Raw felt cobbled together and samey, with the same superstars getting the same opportunities week after week to such an extent, that very few people care about the raw tag team division anymore. It’s very clear that now we’re just patiently waiting for The New Day to break Demolition’s tag team title reign of 478 days so we can have some fresh champions.
Another issue with Raw that seems to be continuously irate fans is Roman Reigns. Whatever WWE try to do, they just can’t get him over and the hostile crowd reactions that have plagued him since early 2015, are still looming over him despite the fact he’s supposed to be on the company’s top faces! Fans just can’t relate to Reigns in anyway, even though he’s put on some truly fantastic matches this year. His unstoppable powerhouse gimmick just isn’t working and everybody outside of WWE can see that a huge heel turn is needed to freshen up his character and to take him out of this rut that the creative team has put him in.
Embed from Getty ImagesSmackdown on the other hand has been largely excellent. AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose have put on some excellent matches in their feud. The Miz has made the Intercontinental championship prestigious again, with some great heel work and the women’s division is running along very nicely thanks in part to, the most recent NXT recruits and Becky Lynch as champion. There have been some misfires though it must be said, whilst James Ellsworth was a novelty at first and very relatable to many fans, it seems this short fairytale has run its course and it won’t be long until he’s taken off of TV all together.
Five months on, both shows now seem to be on a par with each other, with Smackdown giving consistently interesting storylines and good character development and Raw improving every week. It’s finally turned the Tuesday night show into something more than a repeat of Raw and we’re getting a taste of the old rivalry we used to see in the early 2000s. Now if only we could cut down on the authority promos like Shane McMahon promised.
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