Throw Away The Scripts By Southern Joe
By Southern Joe
I am stable mates with Lazza Johnson, Ken The Dazzler Dunlop, & NOW Vince Russo. But……
I know that I am probably the most modest YouTuber in the pro wrestling space in terms of viewership at the moment. I don’t run a successful Facebook page like my wrestling mate Larance “Lazza” Johnson (click here to view his great work!). Also, I am not a legend of pro wrestling like my wrestling mate Ken “The Dazzler” Dunlop, &, no matter what you think of him, I haven’t been a writer for WWE, WCW & TNA like pwdownunder.com’s newest contributor, Vince Russo. But what I have is over 5 decades of fandom to draw on. When I first started watching pro wrestling, it was seen as a legitimate sport. Results of big Friday night shows here in Australia would show up in the results page of the Saturday morning papers. I also lived through the eras where the curtain was pulled back and now we all know insider terms like “kayfabe” (You may also want to go on YouTube and search for my show “If You See Kayfabe”).
I read Mr Russo’s first offering to Pwdownunder.com with great interest.
I agree that character and storyline is very important, but not the entirety of wrestling. I agree that there are wrestlers who are either bland, a dime a dozen, or just don’t have that “IT” factor. But at the same time I’m not going to watch a sloppy wrestler just because he has a compelling storyline.
AEW are attempting to prove in some cases that story doesn’t matter & those instances are leading to a lack of interest in that block of their product. They do have amongst their roster some folk who can draw a rating with good stories and character development. I would name MJF & The Acclaimed as 2 prime examples of this.
I strongly disagree that just “anybody” can be a wrestler. I’ve seen tutorials and have spoken to a few wrestlers. The training can be brutal and only the hardiest of athletes survive the initiation period. They spend their first few days just learning how to fall properly and not injure themselves or their opponents.
I agree that all the wrestlers need to stand out character wise. I also agree that wrestlers are not actors (even though some do pick up that craft and have had success in acting).
However, this is where I have a conundrum with you, Mr Russo. When long time fans like myself speak of the famous promos, we think of things like Dusty Rhodes and “Hard Times”. Or maybe the “I’m Ric Flair! The stylin’, profilin’, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’ and dealin’ son of a gun.” promo. Even Scott Steiner gets praise for his “Steiner Math” promo.
Do you know what these promos all had in common? They drew ratings and crowds without a script writer. A booker had given them an outline of what direction the story needed to go to & the wrestler did the rest. No, they weren’t actors memorising a script someone wrote for them. They went out there and expressed their character their way! One thing that is heartening to see now that Vince McMahon is no longer heading the WWE, is that those that can perform off the top of their heads like CM Punk & Drew McIntyre are having the most compelling stories in the WWE right now and are given more free reign over their verbage.
The wrestling world needs to go back to bookers booking wrestlers into matches and taking advantage of wrestlers’ attributes based on their characters and how far they can take feuds. Whilst I agree with you about character development being important, that character development works a whole heap better when they are given parameters and put the story in their own words. And then go tell the story in the ring. In ring work is still very important, otherwise we may as well flip the channel and watch actors interpret some writer’s lines.
As for the flippy floppy stuff. Yes, it can be exciting to watch, but the wrestlers need to make it special by not doing it all the time. They also need to learn to make it look like its something that could be seen in a real combat sport. Not just flips for the sake of a niche audience chanting “This Is Awesome”.
Bring back bookers. Throw away the scripts if wrestlers are not actors.
For more interesting fan takes, please search YouTube for my show “If You See Kayfabe” A new episode is just around the corner.
