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A New Generation of Fans
Everybody has their own personal favorites. Even experts within the business have debated for years about which wrestler or superstar is greater then the other. A criterion has ranged from amount of arenas sold-out, caliber of matches, charisma, individuality, changing the industry, and so on. However, in today’s generation it feels like the superstars can’t break the mold. It seems as though a lot of superstars are aiming to be the next Hogan, Rock, and Austin, and not the next Flair, Race, or Steamboat. Then again that’s okay. Everybody has their own dreams, goals, and love for the profession. The question that should be asked though, is how are these goals affecting today’s generation of wrestlers and how is it changing the business.
Besides my love for professional wrestling, I’m a humanitarian at heart and try to help out whenever I can. This summer, I was a counselor at a sleep away camp. The kids that I managed were nine years old and it turns out about a third of them watch the WWE. Now, because these kids were young and innocent, not many knew of the backstage news of the industry, not many of them knew about the internet side of wrestling. Yet, they were smart enough to realize that there was an illusion in wrestling; that the wrestlers were “faking†it. “Gavin! Did you know that they hit the ground when they punch?†were some of their “inside†scoops. So, it was refreshing to see pure fans again. These days that’s a rarity.
Further more; I realized just how many of those kids looked up to the WWE superstars that we expect them to. The young kids truly loved John Cena and Rey Misterio Jr. They wore bathing suits of John Cena and if you said Cena sucked, well then you had to be ready to defend yourself, because those kids like Cena, Rey, and nobody else. Which brings me to my point; the WWE is smart, never mind wrestling, WWE is one of the most successful businesses in the world. They understand what the kids like and they exploit it. Even though Cena has grown on us, the reason we hated him was because WWE kept him as champion when he was inexperienced only because he was capitalizing on WWE’s new main market, the children. Today’s young kids are in fact the next generation of wrestling fans. They will decide in which direction wrestling will go. The young kids don’t know of the internet age, and perhaps a lot of them never will, which would bring a lot of purity back to wrestling.
But if we imagine a wrestling world dominated more by marks then smarks, we can imagine a world full of kayfabe. With a renewal of kayfabe, the wrestling world can slow down the matches, integrate more psychology and use simpler less shock value storylines. If you read the press, you will realize that this is already in the works. WWE is now going PG. In my opinion, this is great news for the wrestling world, but it depends. The reason this depends is because WWE and the wrestlers have a new responsibility. It is no longer about putting on A rated shows, it’s about shaping the industry. TNA has made a name for themselves, but that’s for the smarks. The marks of the business don’t like TNA at all and unfortunately for them, the marks rule. Let me explain how the young mark children of today’s wrestling scene think. They love John Cena because he always wins. They hate future Hall of Famers like Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels because their storylines are too mature for them. Therefore, they don’t understand what makes a good wrestler a good wrestler. They only understand the TV characters.
Here lies the problem. WWE can now teach these young fans about professional wrestling. They can show them exciting matches with captivating promos. They can listen to men who can truly tell stories with their promos and watch in awe as that man who talks about loyalty and honestly suddenly becomes a man of revenge and aggression. They can sit and feel the rush as a match based on ground work all of a sudden explodes into high spots. This is what we grew up watching, this is what the legends brought to the industry. This can rebuild the product so that the Flair’s of our era can get the opportunities that are eluding them, and the Rock’s of our era can still shine and do what they’d be doing either way. This helps the marks have a greater product, smarks can love wrestling again, and the product will be stronger and better for business. We all win.
However, the danger lies in laziness. If WWE doesn’t want to grow, doesn’t want to take a step back so they can take two steps forward then they will simple put more gimmicky characters like The Boogeyman, and more childish storylines. This will work for them in the short run, but once those kids grow up, they will grow out of that style of product. So, the older fans will be alienated, the children will have grown up and the WWE will still be worse then they could be. If WWE is the genius company that I give them credit for, then they will rebuild the old-school mentality into today’s children and leave behind the attitude era to where it belongs- history.
In my next column, I will continue this train of thought and explain what the criterion is for a successful wrestler in today’s product.
“The Wild-Heart†Gavin Schwartz
