8 Reasons Why Ricochet And Ospreay ARE Pro Wrestling
6. They're Wrestlers, Not Gymnasts
The most common refrain amongst negative critics of the match was a comparison between the athleticism and acrobatics on display and ‘real’ wrestling, with constant variations on the same snarky muttering that “this is wrestling, not gymnastics…”
Again, it seems a deliberately obtuse thing to say unless the person saying it hasn’t actually seen the full match, only the GIFs that circulated afterwards. After all, flips and somersaults were only a fraction of the action on display here, and both men appeared to be working pretty snug.
Certainly there was nothing in the striking evidenced that would embarrass New Japan’s strong style past: both men can throw a forearm and a kick with the best of them. It's not just two men pirouetting around one another, and you can see them calling plenty out in the ring, so it's not a completely choreographed dance routine either.
There’s a metric f*ckton of personality on display here, too: this isn’t some robotic, overly choreographed, highly processed match between two expressionless spotmonkeys. If Ricochet’s trashtalking throughout the match was on a par with Jericho’s, then Ospreay played the part of the charismatic young swashbuckler to a tee and gave as good as he got, shouting “Cheerio, motherf*cker!” as he executed a perfect springboard forearm smash in tribute to his hero AJ Styles.
It's completely ridiculous to dismiss an entire seventeen-minute match based on a few GIFs of a some out-of-context spots within that match. Ironically, by obsessing over two or three isolated sequences that are only being shared because of the performers' breathtaking athleticism, the critics are doing exactly what they claim Ricochet and Ospreay are doing: reducing a proper, full-fledged professional wrestling match with a beginning, middle and end to a series of isolated high spots.
It's not just this match in isolation that's being disparaged, though. It's the wrestlers themselves. One high-profile pundit (who shall remain nameless so as not to embarrass him more than he already has himself) tweeted that “Thousands upon thousands of 8 year old girls can do corkscrew planchas but nobody is calling them great workers.”
That's just bloody disrespectful, not just to them, but to all of pro wrestling. You may not like what you've seen in a few clips that went around Twitter like a social disease, but to sneer so contemptuously at the careers and livelihoods of two men who've made pro wrestling their passion is to !*$% on the business itself from a great height.
Ricochet, also known as Helios (under a hood in Chikara) and Prince Puma (likewise in Lucha Underground), is a twelve year veteran of professional wrestling, not Cirque du bloody Soleil. Ospreay may have less time under his belt - he's only twenty-three - but he's been a mainstay of the UK scene for three of the four years since his professional debut, and he's risen to become one of Europe's most sought-after independent wrestlers.
Even if they’re not your favourite wrestlers, they've made the exact same sacrifices for the business that your favourite wrestlers have. They've shown the business just as much respect, and they don't deserve the casual derision that's rained down on them in the last few days.