On Believability
About one hour before I wrote this, Texas Stadium was imploded. Replaced by Cowboy Stadium last year, the Dallas landmark was home to both Super Bowl Champions and Worlds Heavyweight Wrestling Champions.
I have no real love for the building or the Dallas Cowboys. But it's a site of wrestling history and it's what finally lit the fire for this piece. After watching weeks of historic wrestling I can finally talk about believability.
Ages ago, before the fans were smartened up, it wasn't difficult to get the fans to buy into what you were doing. Jim Cornette talks about how the silly things they did in Memphis for comedy would rile the fans in Mid South.
In World Class Championship Wrestling, once as revered an organization in Dallas as the aforementioned footballers, the fans there hung on the words and motions of the babyfaces. Particularly the Von Erich brothers. David, Kerry and Kevin were quite possibly the biggest babyfaces I've ever seen.
At a Texas Stadium show, Kevin Von Erich was hit with a chair wielded by Chris Adams. Today, this happens frequently (some would say too frequently) and the wrestler generally gets back up and leaves on his own accord. In Dallas in the late eighties, it was the most horrifying thing ever. An ambulance drove up to the ring and Kevin was carted out on a gurney. Teenage girls were crying. Grown men wanted to kill Chris Adams. World Class had them.
Eventually, the now well-documented exploits of the Von Erich boys became public, they boys started dying off and the territory followed suit. Promoters today would sell their grandmothers for the kind of heat World Class generated.
Fans today, on the other hand, typically shy away from getting that involved. They either know enough about the business, or at least think they do, that emotional attachments do not happen often, if at all. Why get into it when you know it's a work?
The fans, smart or otherwise, that are willing to go that far don't get presented with programming that can get them there. They see the same stories presented repeatedly with differently players, many of whom they cannot get excited about. They see story-lines that go beyond hokey, become illogical and eventually whatever heat they have fades instead of being blown off.
I often wonder if this is the key component missing from today's wrestling product. Yes, WWE makes money. Yes, there are now two companies in competition with cable television with a third on the rise. Yes, WrestleMania sold out this year in a very large building.
Imagine how much better they could do if they had believability.
I'm not saying that they should overtly try to convince everyone that wrestling is a shoot again. We're long past that now. The goal should be to tell stories, with both promos and wrestling, that reel us in, make us want something to happen, and yank on our emotions at the same time.
To experience this in a non-wrestling environment, go watch Where the Wild Things Are. I think I cried for 55 of the 94 minutes the film runs.
So can pro wrestling get back to where we were at Texas Stadium in the late 80s? No. The implosion of the building is almost metaphorical. Reunion Arena and The Sportatorium are also long gone, as are the days of Von Erich heat.
But I know we can have wrestling that can get fans emotionally involved, at least in small doses, like well made films based on children’s books. I know, because in the last few weeks I saw it twice.
The Ring of Honor Big Bang Internet PPV from last weekend had it sprinkled throughout the card. This company tends to attract smart, internet savvy fans. Yet they felt all the near falls between Davey Richards and Kenny King. They wanted more than anything to see El Generico finally put his hands on Kevin Steen. Seeing Chris Hero use a loaded elbow pad to win the World Tag Team Championship drew heat that would have made Fritz Von Erich and Bill Watts jealous.
Okay, so the fans in Charlotte weren't looking to slash the tires of the Kings of Wrestling's car. But they were so into the match. The rising expectation and immediate deflation from every false finish was visible and audible from everyone I could see on camera.
It reminded me greatly of this year's WrestleMania main event. The build for the match was very good and fans tuned in just to see what they expected to be Shawn Michael's last match, at least for a while.
What they got was the purest example of why I love professional wrestling.
The match told a story. It built and built and built. They'd each kick out of finishers. They destroyed each other on the outside.
I may not have been in the building, but I could feel what they live fans were feeling. The Buffalo Wild Wings had actually attracted more viewers for the main event, and they were just as into it. Every single near fall was follow by the loud deflation it should be followed with.
They wanted it. Some wanted to see Undertaker's streak be broken by their longtime hero. Others wanted to see that streak be kept intact, putting Michaels out of wrestling. Nobody wanted it to stop.
When the finish finally came, we all knew it was the finish. Nobody takes a Tombstone like that and kicks out. But that's just it: nobody takes a Tombstone like that and kicks out.
It was a masterpiece, the closet to perfect wrestling you can get in 2010. They had heat, they told a story and the finish was satisfying. We hung on their every move and every false finish. They had us.
And we can be had again. Promoters of today and stars of tomorrow, HBK-Undertaker 2 is your goal. The Ring of Honor matches I mentioned are your starting point. We're here, waiting for you. Make us believe.
Fans, do what you can to see the matches I mentioned and let yourself go. It's entertainment. Give yourself to it and enjoy it. If you can let yourself cry during Up, or laugh at a stand up comic, you can stand up and cheer for very good pro wrestling. If we, the wrestling consumer don't bother doing so, we don't give the wrestling creators the impetus to create good wrestling.
This post was heavily inspired by the Jim Cornette shoot interviews I've been listening to. Jim, should we ever meet, I want to shake your hand and thank you.