10 Uncomfortable Wrestling Truths
The world is watching (a product made for an audience of one).
2017 has never been anything less than fascinating.
WWE's ability to retain a monopoly over the industry, despite ritually antagonising audiences, is as impressive as it is totally depressing. This Jinder Mahal business, after SummerSlam, moved even the jaded into a state of despair. Shinsuke Nakamura, now just another wrestler, took just one botched finisher en route to yet another Singh Brothers-assisted Maharaja win. The guy the hardcore fans love was defeated by the guy the hardcore fans hate in an era in which WWE gears its business model exclusively towards the hardcore fans. The logic is impossible to parse. Only one person gets it. We feign to dislike him, and yet throw our pounds and dollars at him on a monthly basis. But not our rupees, given that WWE pay-per-views are free in India, and WWE has no immediate plans to promote shows in that country - despite installing a man of Indian descent as WWE Champion in an attempt to monetise it. Presumably. At some point.
That WWE seems to either misunderstand - or loathe their audience entirely - is just one of several uncomfortable wrestling truths...
10. Selling Is Dying
We live in an era in which the fighting spirit psychology of puroresu has been co-opted and mangled by North America, creating scope for terrifically dumb no-sell spots like Lio Rush instantly shrugging off the effects of a powerbomb through a table from a ladder.
We live in an era in which content largely trumps psychology. We live in an era in which the finisher is as dead as the test of strength; moves that used to end matches are instead dusted off for the sole purpose of a cheap pop, fraying the concept of suspension of disbelief. The effects of a wrestling match have been diluted so much in recent years. Contrary to the vanguards of the #...dive debate, wrestling has never looked realistic - why would you ever bounce back into the path of your opponent following an Irish whip? - but the key to the contrived premise was authentic selling. That's how they made you believe; that's how the babyface forged a lucrative bond with the audience. The purity of selling, when mastered, sold tickets for years and years. Babyfaces don't generate support when they're winded anymore. Their pain is "awesome". The only company to have calculably grown this year is New Japan. And their guys are actually hurting themselves to grow it, undermining the premise entirely.
You'll never see a pure Ricky Steamboat babyface ever again. The correlation between the fading art of selling and the shrunken hardcore audience is telling.