Pro wrestling has a real problem with believability (April 7, 2021)
On My Mind This Week
Would you believe it? There are still prominent people in professional wrestling who don’t know the basics of what makes it work as an entertainment form. Some people used to know, but got so deep in with the others that they forgot the basics, too.
To given some explanation, the initial tweet here from @GFunkWasAThing is protesting at the lack of selling in modern wrestling, and in a further tweet, he goes on to reference Wrestling Observer favourites The Young Bucks as guilty parties. The counter-argument, from Observer’s owner, Dave Meltzer, is that Road Warrior Hawk used to no-sell piledrivers and Hulk Hogan used to no-sell every heel’s finishing move.
You will already have worked out the difference between the examples, but I’ll elaborate anyway.
Since pro wrestling matches began to have pre-determined outcomes sometime in the late-1800s, their basis has been in believability. Critically, however, how believability was achieved varied from audience to audience, or city to city, depending on the expectations of the spectators. It would also depend who wrestled the match: wrestlers with a high level of visual believability - perhaps because they seemed stronger or particularly aggressive - could get away with their matches being more focused on entertainment, simply through the power of suggestion.
Over time, of course, the audiences and wrestlers evolved, and so did the trade-off between believability and entertainment, as in return for more of the latter, audiences were happy to concede some of the former, but never so much that they couldn’t believe in what they were seeing.
It is here that so many commenters slip up, by not recognising the difference between believability and realism. While realism is wedded to legitimacy, believability is tied to what people allow themselves to accept to be true.
In other words, the manner in which believability can be achieved in professional wrestling is exactly the same as in film, theatre, and other genres of entertainment, which is by offering the audience enough of an emotional experience to get lost in the plot.
Pro wrestling does not have to be realistic to be believable, but it does have to have elements of realism, as a logic that underpins it.
In the 21st century, pro wrestling has lost a little too much of its realism, but also its believability, because it doesn’t have the big personalities or the storytelling logic to repair that bond with the audience. Hulk Hogan’s matches in the 1980s were hardly realistic, but his charisma and larger-than-life presence, along with basic storytelling elements, allowed him to be one of the genre’s most popular figures.
Hogan himself was rightly criticised for not selling his opponents’ finishers in the ‘80s (and ‘90s), but there’s no denying that what he did struck with the ticket-buying audience to an enormous degree. The Road Warriors ought to have given more to their opponents in certain situations, but their positive effect on the business’ popularity is not in doubt.
So far, AEW has peaked at one million viewers for Dynamite - a fraction of the number of people who tuned in to see Hogan, in particular. There are many factors behind this, from the fragmentation of popular culture to the viability of streaming, but stripping wrestling of one of its best assets, its believability, is certainly another.
Let’s hope the right people read this, before it’s too late.
On My Screen This Week
Another very random selection of matches this week, partially dictated by my young son. He didn’t do too badly!
The Million Dollar Man was a very tired gimmick by 1994, but he must have fronted up a lot of money for this tag team encounter, because it is much more lively than anyone could have expected, even given the undoubted ability of the participants.
Right at the beginning, Bam Bam Bigelow becomes the Kawada to the 1-2-3 Kid’s Misawa, spinning behind him and throwing him recklessly to the canvas, just as “Dangerous K” did to the Triple Crown champion in their first meeting for those belts. The Kid did at least get some retribution, with a stern connection on a top-rope dropkick and spin kick to the face, before hitting a cannonball plancha on the outside.
When IRS gets in and inevitably slows things down with a chinlock, it’s not an instant killer to the match, as the hold actually achieves its goal of letting the audience have a breather so that they can rise back up with the babyfaces. After a rapid airplane spin from IRS and a classic false tag spot, the Kid takes a brutal fall off a version of the old Demolition Decapitator, as he is knocked from atop Bigelow’s shoulder. A missed moonsault then allows the Kid to tag his partner (still not yet known by the more palatable name, Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly”), but after a very brief flurry, Bigelow makes a remarkable catch as Plugg comes off the top rope, slamming him down for the abrupt three-count.
With an extra minute or two of a finishing sequence, you could probably have added another star to the following rating. (***)
The 1-2-3 Kid vs. Razor Ramon (WWF; taped August 28, 1995)
This, of course, is not the rematch of the famous 1-2-3 Kid win over Razor Ramon on Raw in May 1993, but rather a bout from two years thereafter, which played a small part in the 1-2-3 Kid turning heel on Ramon in November 1995.
And so it is that it’s the Kid who attacks Ramon before the bell, although his offence is short-lived, cut off by Ramon with a version of his “sack of shit” fallaway slam, this time rather concerningly from the second rope. As usual, the Kid takes the kind of exaggerated bumps that suit his work, selling big for punches and a hard chokeslam. To get back on top, he sidesteps Ramon and attacks him with a plancha into a single-leg dropkick, before locking on a sleeper that’s sold with rather too much melodrama.
When Ramon himself rallies, Earl Hebner gets in the way and takes one of the better bumps of his WWF career, which allows Dean Douglas to saunter to the ring in his dad jeans and splash Ramon from the top rope, allowing the Kid to get the pinfall.
The action is quite good here when it’s just left to the Kid and Razor to make things happen, but it wouldn’t be one of their matches without some shenanigans, all of which keep this from reaching its potential. (**)
The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, Gran Naniwa & Masato Yakushiji vs. Taka Michinoku, Men’s Teioh, Dick Togo & Shiryu (Battlarts; January 21, 1997)
(NB. Match recommended by @BootsTrunks)
Much like Tsuruta-gun versus Super Generation Army in early-’90s All Japan Pro Wrestling, in Michinoku Pro you could book any combination of these feuding heels and babyfaces together, and rely on the magic to do the rest. Here, teams captained by The Great Sasuke and Dick Togo are pitted against each other for the umpteenth time, and there’s not a complaint to be heard anywhere.
If there was time for a sharp word, it couldn’t have been during the action here, as it’s fast, wild, and hard-hitting. After a little bit of aggravation between the two before the bell, one of Togo’s first acts is to throw Sasuke into the fifth row of ringside, while Masato Yakushiji and Men’s Teioh battle in the arena hallway. What threatens to turn into an FMW-style building-wide brawl, however, gets back to technical brilliance soon enough, especially in the form of 46-year-old Gran Hamada, who is as smooth as silk, particularly when opposing Togo. In one particularly noteworthy move, he counters being launched into the air by Togo with a beautiful hurricanrana.
Although the action to this point is entertaining, the bout switches on a back suplex by Gran Naniwa from which Shiryu doesn’t quite flip over, causing him to land on the top of his head. It’s a brutal bump for which Naniwa is then made to suffer, as he’s punished with slams, stomps, and sentons by the heels, before Shiryu gets back into the ring and rips Naniwa’s mask off his face. “The Crab Man” is then draped over the second rope for Teioh to hit him with a hard chair shot and, conspicuously, Togo to blade him in the hairline on his right side, causing a disgusting dark red deluge of blood to pour from the gash.
Still, this isn’t the end of Naniwa, nor the mask-ripping, as he gets his revenge on the perpetrator by ripping Shiryu’s mask off, too, after which Yakushiji really gets to show his wares with rapid, graceful suplexes and aerial manoeuvres.
Sasuke hasn’t featured in the match since its opening, which is notable, and seems to foreshadow his entrance. It’s Taka Michinoku, though, who really gets him involved, blasting him in the back of the head with a springboard dropkick, after which Sasuke recovers to hit a springboard moonsault press and then an incredible Asai moonsault onto Teioh, as he avoids Togo’s swing of a chair. Togo’s choice of weapon then backfires on him when Hamada bulldogs him down onto it, and strikes with a perfect tornado DDT.
The match has broken down by this point, but in a good way, as the drama escalates into big near-falls. Naniwa is twice close to finishing Shiryu with powerbomb variations, with the second pinfall attempt broken up by Teioh. Michoinoku and Teioh are then taken out by Sasuke, the latter with a soaring top-rope topé. Naniwa then finally grabs Shiryu and drives him down with a beautifully rough Doctor Bomb, capturing the three-count.
This encounter may not be the peak of the style, but it does exemplify the beauty of Michinoku Pro and the Japanese-lucha scene. Go out of your way to watch it. (****1/4)
Though this Ladder match from Summerslam 1998 is fondly remembered, it’s easy to forget that Triple-H was at this point still far from the finished article. Although he’d admirably led D-Generation X after the retirement of Shawn Michaels, with the addition of The New Age Outlaws, X-Pac, and the constant crotch-chopping, the group had become known for comedy rather than main event programmes. That was certainly the case when it came to the feud with The Nation of Domination, most infamously noted in DX’s parody of the African-American group.
Indeed, Triple-H arrives for this match rather unconvincingly, the live rendition of the familiar DX theme lacking the power of the original. When Triple-H then knocks over the drum kit, it’s in a manner that is more Spinal Tap than The Who. The Rock is there to bring it, if you will, visibly mouthing, “Motherfucker! Fuck you!” during a pre-match staredown.
They start out hard and heavy, too, although Triple-H does rather launch himself into the ladder on the outside in the early going. The early portion of the match is built around The Rock attacking Triple-H’s knee, though this doesn’t stop him taking a lazy comedy bump off a catapult. He absorbs a much nastier one in being backdropped onto the ladder, and again when The Rock pulls the ladder out from under him as he thinks about retrieving the Intercontinental title belt.
By this time The Rock is bleeding from his adversary’s baseball slide into the ladder, but the pair then opt for a bit more comedy, taking exaggerated pratfalls after being pushed off the ladder by the other. To be fair, however, this elicits the pop of the match. Triple-H recovers from a People’s Elbow on the ladder, and a Rock Bottom, to strike with a Pedigree, but when he begins to think about climbing up, Mark Henry throws powder in his face. Valiantly, he still tries to ascend, but he is slowed significantly, allowing The Rock time to scale the other side. Furious at the previous interference, however, Chyna sneaks in for a popular low-blow, allowing Triple-H to capture the belt.
This is a match that features a lot more entertainment than sport, and can’t hold a candle to the biggest Ladder bouts of the early 21st century. Still, it’s an important match for Triple-H, who will be WWF champion just 12 months later. (***)
Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston (WWE; April 7, 2019)
I know my review of this match will seem deliberately contrarian, but it more speaks to my distaste for the unconvincing, inconsistent characters in WWE. For example, the commentators are here at pains to talk about Bryan’s heel traits, and none of it rings true. As much as he is one of the finest wrestlers of his generation, Bryan has to take his own share of blame for that, too.
After some early mat wrestling, Kingston bursts out with an astonishing Fosbury Flop dive over the top rope, but on his next big move, a springboard dive from the top rope to the floor, he crashes and burns against the commentators’ table. These are big highspots, but the match doesn’t have enough real contact, and includes far too much obvious co-operation, to make the prize seem meaningful.
The main focus is on how Bryan can so often see Kofi’s offence coming, catching him on several occasions to apply holds. These segments with Bryan on top are drawn out, and even when there is a hope spot for the challenger, it lacks focus in the overall story of the contest.
Still, as the finish approaches around the 20-minute mark, the pair do get the crowd to its feet, particularly when Big E. and Xavier Woods take out Rowan at ringside. This proves to be a missed opportunity to go to the finish, however, as Rowan has to take a nap while the remainder of the action plays out.
Eventually, Kingston hits the Trouble In Paradise, which is beautifully sold, for the three-count and a scene that clearly means a lot to a majority of the audience. (**1/4)
On My Podcast App This Week
This is a packed show despite clocking in at over four hours in duration. In the highlight of the programme, Cornette brings some fascinating stories out of former Pro Wrestling Spotlight host John Arezzi, and also discusses Peacock’s editing of WWE Network content and the latest episode of AEW Dynamite.
There’s no getting away from the WWE Network/Peacock chat as co-host Joe Lanza explains why he won’t be subscribing to the service in its current U.S. form. More interestingly, there’s some detailed discussion on the New Japan Cup finals and the surprising All Japan Triple Crown title win by Suwama.
Linked above is the latest episode of the free edition of Between The Sheets, but I’ve actually been listening to Kris Zellner and David Bix’ Patreon special on the sale of WCW. As usual, the detail is extensive, and it is fascinating to review how wrestling newsletters covered this on a week-to-week basis, whether you were reading them at the time or not. Also included is some fascinating discussion on whether Fusient Media Ventures was ever likely to purchase World Championship Wrestling at all.
On My Reading List This Week
This week I’ve been going back over some chapters in the Tim Hornbaker book, National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story Of The Monopoly That Strangled Professional Wrestling. The book was first released in 2007, and ever since then its prose has been maligned as dull by those who don’t understand the book’s goal, which is largely to share the 10 years of research, including many previously unpublished congressional and FBI documents.
If you’re disappointed by the lack of frivolity, that might just say more about you.
In any case, one of my favourite chapters in the book is entitled Sonny Myers v. The NWA, which details the lawsuit brought by Myers against NWA founder and president, P.L. “Pinkie” George. It’s a back-and-forth tale worthy of a pro wrestling match itself, with more than one run-in from a judge who clearly despises pro wrestling as much as he fails understand it.
While National Wrestling Alliance may not be for everyone, it’s a must for those who are serious about studying the history of the sport.
On My Twitter Feed This Week
A Little Bit Of Housekeeping
I’m really interested in your feedback to the first several issues of Riffing On Wrestling. Please comment here or reach out to me at brian(at)hardcopy(dot)ie.
I am available for further editing and occasional writing work. I have credits for various international newspapers, news agencies, and websites, and also a decade of magazine editor’s experience. You can inquire about these, and my rates, by emailing brian(at)hardcopy(dot)ie. I can also provide professional editing feedback, or offer advice or mentoring, by prior agreement and through the same email address.
I really liked the main article here and agree with basically all of it.