10 Lessons WWE Shouldn’t Forget From WCW’s History

5. Pay Attention To The Match In The Ring

During their prime, WCW took a lot of heat from fans for violating one of the most basic rules of wrestling: Ignoring the match in the ring. WCW commentators Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Mike Tenay would completely ignore the action going on inside the squared circle and would instead talk about Hulk Hogan, the nWo, Sting, Goldberg, the weather outside, or any other number of pointless subjects. The purpose was to try to get viewers to stay tuned for the main event but actually it just made fans think the match occurring was pointless. Imagine if the NFL did something similar. Can you imagine a play-by-play announcer basically saying "well, this game is pointless but I tell you what, later tonight we're going to get to see Tom Brady! Make sure you stay tuned for that!" They would be fired instantly. In WWE, the announcers do something worse: They completely ignore every single wrestling move. Growing up in the 1980s with Gorilla Monsoon, Jim Ross, and Gordon Solie, a wrestling fan would learn the name of almost every single move performed in the ring. The matches were called like they were legitimate sports with the commentators explaining the importance of each move and hold. Nowadays, we are treated to endless stupid jokes while the Lawler-Cole-King team desperately tries to make us care about another new storyline. They should instead focus on selling what's happening in the ring because, as Arn Anderson used to say, the marquee says "wrestling".