New Experience Wrestling
I know I've been scarce around here for the last little while and there's multiple reasons for it.(including battling pneumonia and barely being able to talk all while working 10 hr shifts at work) However the biggest reason I haven't made it a point to write anything or do any radio shows is because I have had NO inspiration to do so. Wrestling is just the pits right now, I'm just completely sick of beating the dead horse of how bad 'Memphis Wrestling' is and I really don't care about WWE or TNA these days so there's not much to talk about wrestling wise. Indy wise it's the same guys working the same shows week in and week out, why talk about it?
Then I heard that Ken Wayne was starting a wrestling show out of his school and I was intrigued. I have tremendous respect for Ken Wayne and really enjoyed interviewing him earlier in the year and he made a lot of great points about how wrestling needs to EVOLVE in the future. That's the part that I find interesting is that Ken realizes that wrestling in the south needs to evolve into something new. I just listened to both of the 'Shootin the Shiznit' episodes before and after the show this past Friday and read the arena reports about the show and read postings here and at Wrestling Classics from people who attended the first show.
I know Brian said that he bases his ratings of matches on use of psychology and following the age old cookie cutter format of how a match is supposed to work. I agree there needs to be "psychology" but as for following a format of "how a match should work" i.e. "babyface shine", "heel heat", "comeback", "finish" etc I think that's a big part of what's wrong with wrestling. Eventually even the most dense mark can figure out that pattern and it really kills the drama or the competitive feel of a match. Now don't get me wrong there are plenty of guys who don't follow that and just do high spots, that's not what I mean. But notice when wrestling's last "boom" period happened it was because Raw and Nitro started booking the other way from what the norm was and you had ECW with no psychology for the most part and 100 false finishes in every match which made the product unpredictable and exciting but over time you run out of crazy stunts and you can't go anywhere else with that type of stuff. From what I've read (I haven't been able to get the video to work on the site yet) the show is trying to bring a competitive feel, something like WRESTLING (notice not rasslin) but WRESTLING meets MMA. Where there's an element of respect and competition amongst the competitors and not just the old "good guys" vs. "bad guys", you know where the fans go, "oh he must be the bad guy cause he came out first and he's insulting our local football team and said we need to take a bath." Well notice the use of the word "competitor." I know I've talked about this before on the radio show but when is the last time you saw an indy match where you really got the feel of competition? It's usually just guys going through the motions of a match then going into a finish.
It's not like it's a totally original concept that's what Ring of Honor was going for at least in the beginning but it's a new concept for this area because as Ken said on the radio show everyone around here wants to cling to the glory days of "Memphis Rasslin" but those days are over and they ain't coming back....ever. I'm really excited about the prospect of N.E.W., I really wish I lived close enough to go to the shows and I really hope they do well but I think they are on the right track. I think the future of wrestling lies somewhere in between wrestling and MMA. You can't convince people wrestling is "real" but good WORKERS can ENTERTAIN people and make them suspend disbelief long enough to get into a show and enjoy it and I wish these guys the best of luck and I look forward to following the shows and writing about them.
Look for the return of Cheap Heat Radio in the coming weeks, more on that soon.
thanks for reading. feel free to post your thoughts on NEW and this column on the kayfabe board.
