How Wrestling's Present Brilliance Has RUINED Its Future

Johnny Gargano is sad
WWE

This volley of defiance happens multiple times per week, but frankly, very few if any of these wrestlers are as good at it as Tomohiro Ishii. You rarely believe that they can get up and continue the fight, or scarcely believe that they somehow conspired to get back in it. That recent Pete Dunne Vs. Dragon Lee match on SmackDown was nightmarish. The soulless fighting spirit exchange was completely lost on a bemused audience. They weren't working for them; they were chasing some amorphous "acclaim" that has reached inflation. Years ago.

Fighting spirit rhythm, lucha libre-tinged action: this stylistic merge in the post-weight division age has not been remotely helped by the scenery-chewing dramatic shortcuts paved by the Shawn Michaels school of melodrama. The shocked kick-out face and internal reckoning of one's soul via hand-staring was lame enough, but now that the word "cinema" has entered the wrestling lexicon, half these f*ckers think they are Daniel-Day Lewis with their monologues. And what's worse is that, in terms of action, if you ventured back to the peak of All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling, they have more than half of this supposed golden generation licked.

All of the old cool tapes have been traded and watched, it feels like, and now all that's left is homogenised static and snowstorms.

At times, it genuinely feels like the bast majority of pro wrestlers have actually forgotten how to work a match without a chop battle. It's as instinctive to the pro wrestler as tucking their chin. The idea of genre is dead now. So why do they bother?

They bother because every style is in.

Look elsewhere, in the tiny crevices, and you'll find something that is different, but nothing that is actually new. The hipster choice for 2023 MOTY - Fuminori Abe Vs. Takuya Nomura from October 12 - was an incredible war with a level of violence and intent behind everything unparalleled elsewhere. But, good as it was, it revived something - Bat-Bat - that had lain dormant in the sphere of acclaim and influence.

Wrestling in its post-hybrid era.

So what's next?

CONT'D...(4 of 5)

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!