8 Reasons Why Ricochet And Ospreay ARE Pro Wrestling

Part of the reason that people react so strongly to being told that matches like Ricochet/Ospreay are part of the evolution of wrestling is because people keep thinking of evolution as a steady curve up, up and away from a more primitive state.

They’re under the illusion that each successive evolutionary paradigm shift goes in an upward direction until, like some bullsh*t aliens on Star Trek, we all become beings of pure energy and f*ck off to the distant stars.

That's just not how it works. Evolution is about adaptation, becoming better suited to the environment around and about us. 'Survival of the fittest' is nothing to do with strength or weakness: in the context of evolution, 'fittest' means 'most appropriate for the purpose required'.

The business has survived all kinds of shake-ups in the last century: from the move to completely worked matches, through Toots Mondt and the Gold Dust Trio's incorporation of movesets, finishing moves and storylines to link match-ups together into feuds and angles, through the death of kayfabe and the rise of sports entertainment.

Television changed pro wrestling forever in the 1940s, and cable television changed it all over again in the 1980s. Today, the internet and the globalisation and democratisation of communication and content is having an effect we're only now beginning to see.

But none of these historical catalysts have come close to killing or ruining wrestling. There's a good case to be made that nothing can kill wrestling. Why? Because, like the human condition itself, wrestling evolves to stay alive.