10 Things Nobody Has Told You About Wrestling Yet
9. Wrestling Matches Don't Always Need A "Story"
The objective, for a professional wrestler, is to rack up a series of wins, enjoy the rewards at the pay window, and to enter contention for a championship.
This is the fundamental narrative framework, one that is vital for any wrestling promotion to function as a credible entity.
Now, for this framework to work, it needs to actually be put in place. It is often mere pretext to orchestrate a blood feud, which is where the money is, but the blood feud makes no sense or feels woefully contrived if the heel isn't preventing the babyface from achieving such a goal. The babyface can't hate the heel just because they're a heel.
To make it work, a wrestling promoter should book certain matches that are "cold" from a "storytelling" perspective (even if babyface develops winning streak and guns for gold is itself a storyline in the context of pro wrestling as an emulation of sport). Around that framework, storylines can be weaved. In the most obvious example, the heel might cheat the face on his quest, and infuriate him to such an extent that he loses focus and is now hell-bent on revenge. The sport has to happen before the grudge, otherwise the grudge, the "story", has no real weight nor purpose.
This core purpose has been lost because WWE conditioned a generation of fans not to care about wins, losses and championships.