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The British wrestling business


Terje Rindal

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On the latest M2K comp I watched a match between Davey Boy Smith and Fit Finlay. Why isn't British wrestling like this anymore? My mum and dad actually sat and watched the match saying "this is what wrestling should be like". Surely British wrestling would appeal to a far larger demographic if it went back to the old school style?

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Guest Dave Pick

On the latest M2K comp I watched a match between Davey Boy Smith and Fit Finlay. Why isn't British wrestling like this anymore? My mum and dad actually sat and watched the match saying "this is what wrestling should be like". Surely British wrestling would appeal to a far larger demographic if it went back to the old school style?

T'would also lose a large amount of the new demographic.
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T'would also lose a large amount of the new demographic.

Yeah, but how big is that in the first place ?
Indeed - a demographic made up of 0.005% of the population offers far less audience growth potential than a demographic made up of say 5% of the population. Edited by Lower Occipital Proturbance
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Sports Entertainment (the crash TV era) has alienated almost as many fans as it has gained. Look at the amount of fans the British wrestling scene has lost. Look at the amount of fans who stopped watching wrestling as soon as WCW folded. The WWE lost about 2/3 million fans in a matter of weeks because hardly any WCW fans made the switch. Look at the flop that is Wrestle-1 and the continuing struggle of AJPW.There are fans of "traditional" wrestling across the world out there to be won over. Why doesn't someone produce a product that has a chance of doing so?I personally still like the WWE, but long for an alternative in the style of the NWA or 70's British Wrestling. The FWA and co should be looking at not increasing the "sports entertainment fans" demographic which is tiny, but looking at winning back all those fans who lost interest in wrestling when it lost a huge chunk of what made it great during the transition to the product we see today.

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Really good thread guys.Just a quick point, I think Alex Shane was spot on with his comments of people crossing over a line people, have digs at family, threatening you, sending you shit in the mail is just not on and just plain rubbish.The problem I see (and this is using the Australian Indy scene as an example) is that most of the wrestlers love to read praise about good matches or how they've improved etc, however if say you attend a show and wrestler As match had dropped from the last couple of shows and you mention some negative comments about wrestler As match, sometimes (not all the time) they seem to get upset and call you names etc.A good example is a friend of mine who was negative to a wrestler he went and saw live the blokes match was very disappointing and he let the bloke know, that he was disappointed by it.This wrestler then goes on his webpage and for his commentary starts having a dig and gets very angry at Australian internet wrestling fans and this one bloke in particular, who gave him some criticism.regards nate holynski

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I don't know if this is to the point of the topic when it started, but in terms of attendance, FWA seem to do very well with there "Americanised" product compared to the old days of British wrestling. My dad used to like British wrestling in the 60's and 70's and would go to watch it at the Bloxwich swimming baths, with IWA-MS attendance figures of about 50 people. And this was the supposed Golden age of British wrestling.

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There are fans of "traditional" wrestling across the world out there to be won over.  Why doesn't someone produce a product that has a chance of doing so?The FWA and co should be looking at not increasing the "sports entertainment fans" demographic which is tiny, but looking at winning back all those fans who lost interest in wrestling when it lost a huge chunk of what made it great during the transition to the product we see today.

Maybe because the risk is too great. I haven't watched enough FWA so using ROH as an example, I'd say the promotors would risk alienating the smark audience if they attempted a transition back to something resembling the traditional style. On the face of it that might not seem a bad thing: kick out the unappreciative smarks (I'm generalising here) and welcome back the traditionalists who embraced wrestling before sports entertainment exerted its influence. The problem is that there's no indication that the audience, say WCW fans would return at all. Maybe there is a lack of middle ground caused by the love/hate attitutes towards wrestlings polar visions. I'm sure the current ROH fanbase would react strongly in their disgust at a change in philosophy as a new direction would almost certainly mean RF would have to book maybe older (not old guys, just performers with more experience) wrestlers with different physiques, and history shows that the ROH fans can be rather harsh on the less spectacular variety of workers that pass through their rings. Look at BJ Whitmer, he blows a spot against CM Punk and the fans piss on him until he's so rattled that it seriously affects his performance and the quality of the match. And why? Assumingly because of his physical make-up they know he can't provide them with Sky Twister Presses and 720 splashes in the way that Red or the SAT or other guys wrestling a sports entertainment style would be able to. Because of shortening attention spans most of the ROH fanbase can go home happy if they see a wacky or dangerous spot and get the chance to pop for those spots and chant 'Holy Shit!' as opposed to concentrating on psychology. Take Styles v London from Night Of Grudges for example, that match featured some really impressive selling of the left knee by Styles (really!). Late in the after much struggling to cope with the injured wheel by AJ (I actually thought he did a better job selling the injury than Kawada in his Triple Crown match with Ohtani), London applied a figure four and instead of going crazy expecting Styles to tap the fans reacted with a few 'WOOO's' and not much else. Because they saw the submission as an unspectacular and antiquated 80's finisher of the long washed up relic Ric Flair. Symbolic of the fact that wrestling held little or no appeal for them before the days of 'crash TV'. The 'lost' audience that the promotors would hope to attract to their traditional approach would maybe be so alienated by sports entertainment that they simply wouldn't be interested anymore. The Attitude Era changed the perception of wrestling and lets face it, WWE IS the perception of wrestling to 99% of people. What was once seen as family orientated entertainment is now percieved as ....erm, family orien... , well forgetting the McMahon's you know what I mean: sleaze, lesbains, dick jokes, necrophilia, obsession with high-risks, soulless matches/feuds etc. I think the general perception of wrestling has changed so much that en masse, these long lost devotees of the grap game simply would not be interested anymore. Leaving a transition period where any fed attempting to revert to the glory days of yore would simply die as a result of alienating the smarks and failing to win over those who's tastes have moved on.

They don't get paid to be judged on forums but to entertain people on the night.

A wrestler doesn't necessarily have to work his ass of to entertain the fans though. At a house show all Rikishi has to do to send the fan's home happy is wiggle his backside and dance with some kids, entertaining the fans far more than a **** Benoit match in which The Crippler literally worked his ass off. And in that respect its right that wrestlers performances should be judged in the cold light of day when the fans offering critique are looking for something more fulfilling than a few hours entertainment before hitting the town.
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