When we talk about wrestling, especially the 30 to 40 year old demographics, as a community, we always boast about how good the attitude era was. The wrestlers and
their personas were larger than life, the stories gripped you and we will always remember the Monday Night Wars. It was a very memorable time for the sport. And I am going to crap all over that belief right now.
Don't get me wrong, the attitude era is the most memorable for me, it was when I became fully captivated with wrestling. You tuned in and heard swearing and saw a lot of blood, there was female cleavage and amazingly strong men. It was fantasy come to life for all of the audience. Stone Cold beat up his boss, Rocky, had that swagger that just drew you in, Mick Foley, Al Snow, Terry Funk, the whole hardcore collection, and the ministry of darkness. (my favorite stable) I remember all of it, and I do kind of miss it.
Go back and watch the matches though. They weren't constructed like they are today. Sure you had your technical wrestlers. Not everybody was Eddie, Benoit, Malenko, Hart, or Angle though. Technical wrestling wasn't a requirement, it was brawling and chair shots and blood and sex. Vince pushed incest and infidelity every week on the show. Half the time it just made little sense. Storytelling in the ring wasn't in a lot of the matches, you saw chair shots and blood and just wanted more of that, we were addicted to the violence. And I miss that too.
Turn on wrestling today, any promotion, anywhere on the globe, yes the earth is round Flip Gordon, but wrestling today is technical. Wrestlers today are so much more athletic, guys like Braun Strowman and Brian Cage shouldn't be able to move the way they do, but they do and its beautiful. High flyers these days are incredible, Will Osprey and Ricochet put on my favorite matches ever at battle of super juniors two years in a row. They flew all over the arena, but were still able to tell a story in the process, thats incredible. Today's storylines aren't perfect no matter what promotion you watch, but wrestlers these days capture our attention, they speak and you listen, the moves they perform make us chant holy shit, they give us their all, when they succeed we succeed, when they fail, we fail. We are closer to our favorites because of social media, it is a wonderful time for wrestling, and I believe that we are in the golden age of wrestling. We are always gonna love the era we grew up watching, I loved the attitude era, but it doesn't hold a candle to how good wrestling has become.
The women today, how to start, and how far it has come. Women in the industry are not subjected to embarrassing and exploiting bikini contests. Our women now are main eventing pay per views, they have their own promotions, getting their own tournaments. Where was this in the attitude era? They had good female wrestlers, but just because we had Trish, Ivory, Lita, Chyna, and Jacquelyn, its not the same caliber as they are at today, the women are beautiful, but they are amazing wrestlers. They wrestle men, they beat men, and they look convincing in doing so. We are pushing women as stars, and as fans we want to see them in the same slot as men, its truly amazing. We are gonna see women main event Wrestlemania very soon, and as a consumer of the product I cannot wait, so to all the females, fans and athletes, thank you for carrying the torch.
We are in a generation, where the wrestling is so good, it doesn't require blood. Matches are clean, just because we want to see a fight, doesnt mean we require blood in doing so. New Japan, WWE, Roh, pwg, etc. do not require blood to make the story, all they require are technicians between the ropes. If you can sell your spots, if you can make the fans feel the pain, you have our attention, wrestling today is beautiful, its art, and it has our attention. When I see a wrestler, writhing in pain, I am sympathetic, whether it be a heel or a face, you sell it so well. I text friends often and have to ask if it is a work. We are in a work the limb era, we have incorporated mma into the wrestling, and its wonderful. We don't need Ken Shamrock to make it believable, we just need good, skilled workers, and they are everywhere. Wrestlers these days are proving you don't need WWE to be successful, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, hell Joey Ryan just had an article written because he bought a half million dollar house with independent wrestling money. Today's wrestling is so absolutely incredible.
So in conclusion, we don't require the attitude era anymore. We have wrestlers of all shapes and sizes. They do so much more than flash cleavage, swear, and bleed. They tell us a story, a physical story, but what a wonderful story. We are all hooked. I hope that this is a good portrayal of where wrestling has gone, and I as the writer would love to hear your input.
-Matt
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