10 Reasons Classic Wrestling Is Superior To Sports Entertainment
6. Lights Out!
For some reason, wrestlers of the modern era all have access to the house lights. When the Undertaker did it, the concept was fresh and it fit his gimmick. In today's wrestling, anyone can have the lights go out at anytime, even multiple times, during a show. For being a business that relies on suspension of disbelief, there is no need to make it any harder for the fans.
As the saying goes, it ain't what you do.
It's the way that you do it.
There are ways to use sudden darkness to add tension to a moment. That moment just has to make sense. Not unlike high spots and weapons, modern wrestling abuses the use of the arena light switch. Go watch some old Mid-South or Calgary Stampede shows. You could likely count the "lights out" moments on zero hands.
Not to pick on AEW (because WWE, WCW and ECW were all offenders), but current AEW star Malakai Black beats that switch to death. He turns the lights out to come to the ring. He turns the lights out to "suddenly appear" behind someone. He may even turn out the lights when he gets dressed in the morning.
The point is, once you've seen it, you've seen it.