“The Moves don’t matter…………. But” ……….

By Johnny Starr

That’s right, how many times have modern day wrestlers heard this sentence. Legends of the industry say it all the time, veterans say it, but if you ask the modern-day fan or talent, they will most likely disagree, and that’s fine, it just means they like a different flavor of ice cream (reference to my last article if you missed it, go check it out, now! HERE).

But what they fail to tell you after it, is what DOES matter. If the moves don’t matter, what does? The answer is the connection with the audience, if you weren’t sure. The audience won’t respond if there is no connection or feeling behind what has happened. Have you ever seen a spot, or put a spot in a match, nailed the spot, but received no reaction from it, or not the desired reaction? You go up top for the big 450 splash and it gets a slight sound and not the roar you hoped for, or you counter your opponent’s finish and nail your big finish after a magnificent sequence, to no response. Whether you like it or not, it’s because there is no connection with the audience prior to the spot. They may even be thinking, why did that happen? The audience is more educated these days and will be picking things apart.

But we all love doing moves, right? Doing the stuff, we grew up on, trying new things. What if I told you, the moves don’t matter, but, with the right connection, they will start to matter and mean more.
If you build emotion into your work, your character and acknowledge the crowd more and more, those moves you want to matter, will start to mean something and matter. Educate the audience that when you do this, it means that is coming.

To draw on a recent example, I had a match recently where we missed a big spot that we thought would get over well, because it added to our story. We missed the spot, and the finish got a sub-par reaction, more of a, oh, is that it reaction, because we missed an important part story wise, so the connection with the audience was not there when we went home. And this also leads me to saving certain things for when it matters more. We were bummed we missed it, but we can always do it again and somewhere bigger where the crowd is more familiar with us and who we are as characters, so it will mean much more.
Some of the worlds most simple moves, got the biggest reaction due to a connection and the audience knowing who the person was and what they stood for, and what was about to come. No bigger move for mine comes to mind, than the people’s elbow. An elbow drop. Running off the ropes, twice, that is all. Stripped back, that is what it is, but we all know, it’s so much more than that. When the rock set up for it, he would look out at his people, which at times probably felt like an eternity, but reality was he was standing still for maybe 5 seconds, then, the slow removal of the elbow pad, ohhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhh$$$$$$$t, here it comes! The drop or throw of the pad, the arms swing both ways then off he shoots, once, twice, slow pause, then WHAM! THE ELBOW DROP! And the crowd would go, absolutely……nuts…….

I’ve seen workers hit high risk top rope moves, flip pile drivers, any move that most would say is bigger than an elbow drop and get nowhere near the same reaction. Ok, I know what you are thinking, we are talking about the rock, I get it, but strip back the person, think about the connection the rock had with the audience to be the rock, and to make that move work. Hogan’s leg drop is another example, sure, its Hulk Hogan, but it’s another example of the connection he had with the audience to be Hulk Hogan and for that move to work.

If you want your moves to mean something, to get that reaction, connect with the audience first, give them a reason to care. How many people have used a tombstone pile driver, but we all know the person who gets the best reaction when using it. In a more modern time, the super kick. So many people use it, but the one person who used one and one only, had arguably the greatest connection with the audience in the history of professional wrestling, so his one, meant so much more and always got the desired reaction.

There are so many names that come to mind that did this, with bigger moves, or smaller moves, but one thing they ALL had, was that audience connection.