Being stuck in my flat due to the current lockdown I have been watching a lot of Memphis wrestling. Whilst Memphis, Mid-South, Georgia Championship Wrestling and most of JCP were before my time this is my favourite period of wrestling and has solidified in my mind why I don’t enjoy the modern product. The reason these promotions (and others like WCCW) were on fire were three main reasons:
- Personal issues. You just need to watch the above clip to get a sense of how much Lawler and Dundee appeared to hate each other. That sense of personal animosity is completely missing in modern wrestling.
- Characters and talkers. And by characters I don’t mean someone performing as a character. I mean the wrestlers were characters in real life which carried over to the ring and this came out in their promos. No painfully recited writers scripts here.
- Clear babyfaces and heels which lent to the crowd really getting emotionally invested in the matches which created an atmosphere that enhanced the matches rather most of the modern crowds (Japan excluded) who detract from the match as they are more interested in getting themselves over.
Looking forward to considered responses.