Pro Wrestling Power

Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair are legends. They are probably the two greatest professional wrestlers or all time. But like so many other guys who are way past their physical prime, the Internet wrestling community can’t wait to kick them out the door.

Why is this the case? Why does the IWC not want to see the biggest names in wrestling history to continue to grace us with their presence? And when I say grace us with their presence, I’m not being sarcastic, I actually mean it.

The reason is fairly simple, although incredibly stupid, which is the norm for most IWC morons. Hogan is 56 and can barely walk. Plus, the IWC will claim that he could never work well anyway. Flair just turned 61. He was past his physical prime 15 years ago. Neither of these guys are the “future” of wrestling. Nor are they able to put on athletic spotfests with the younger guys, obviously. Therefore, to the IWC, they are useless. Sure most Internet fans may respect Flair and liked him when he was in his prime, and a small minority might even respect Hogan, but these guys shouldn’t be hogging the spotlight, they’ll claim, and not only that, but they are both at an age where they should just retire and never be seen again…Bullshit.

Hogan and Flair, along with Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Bret Hart, Mick Foley, Sting and the other legends in both WWE and TNA right now deserve to hang around the wrestling business until they are dead. Maybe they shouldn’t be actively wrestling, maybe they shouldn’t be getting physically involved at all when they reach a certain age or state of physical weakness. But should they and other legends who real fans respect and love still be involved in the business in a non-wrestling capacity? Absolutely.

To claim otherwise is absurd. I think the problem with most IWC idiots is that they think wrestling is a real sport. No really, they do. They think professional wrestling is a real, legitimate, competitive sport that requires guys to be anywhere from in their early 20′s to late 30′s so that they can physically keep up with the current stars of the day. Well I’m here to let them in on a little secret. Pro wrestling is NOT a competitive sport. It is scripted. Therefore, a wrestler’s level of athleticism and “technical” ability essentially mean nothing. The only things that really matter in this business are: Does the crowd find you entertaining? Do you draw (help your company make money)?

NOTHING else matters, despite what the typical Chris Benoit fan will tell you. Sure, one or two super athletic or technical matches on a card are fine. So is a hardcore match, a cruiserweight match, a super heavyweight match, and most of all, at least one match that features two guys who can’t necessarily work well but have compelling, charismatic characters and are engaged in an interesting feud. This type of match is the biggest money maker in all of pro wrestling. The rest is all filler. It’s fine for what it is, but it’s not generally main event material. That’s why the vanilla midgets (Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn) had the perfect roles during their entire WCW run. They were career upper mid carders who didn’t belong in the main event. And when Vince put them there, the WWE saw the consequential downfall in profits.

Chris Jericho was and is different because he has PERSONALITY. He has charisma, plus he can work. Not that I’m a huge fan of him or anything, but at least his main event pushes were justified.

So with all of that being said, your age and athletic ability don’t really mean a whole lot in pro wrestling, ESPECIALLY when you are a legend or a big name from the past. Which leads me back to Hogan and Flair and the other old guys in both TNA and WWE right now.

The only reason TNA is on the map right now and has a chance of competing on Monday nights with the WWE is Hulk Hogan. He is the most popular professional wrestler of all time. Having Ric Flair, along with Eric Bischoff, Sting, Mick Foley, Jeff Jarrett, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and even Sean Waltman are all huge advantages for this young company, because they have name value and they are stars that fans care about. You can add Team 3D to that list as well. These are big names from the past that fans can identify with.

Now, if they are relied upon to carry the company for an extended amount of time, then it’s going to end up hurting them in the long run. But if they are used properly, and I believe they will be, then they can all be huge assets. Hogan and Flair have already been put into perfect roles and are executing them flawlessly as well, and if you think these guys wrestling every few months wouldn’t help TNA get short term attention, you’re out of your mind. These two guys have bigger built in fan bases than any wrestlers in history except for maybe Steve Austin, The Rock, and now John Cena.

As far as the WWE is concerned, I don’t hear too many people wanting to push Shawn Michaels and Undertaker out the door, and with good reason. They are still both among the best at what they do. But if they hang around a couple more years, you’ll start to hear major complaining about them too. They’re too old, they’re holding back the young guys from main eventing, they can’t work anymore, get them out of here and off my TV screen. This type of thought process makes me wonder how I can ever relate to the smarks of the world, or if I’d even want to for that matter.

As I said before, there is no reason to shove the legends out the door because they will always be relevant. If they can even put on a passable match, with each other or with younger guys, let them do it. And if they want to make positive contributions to the business in a non wrestling capacity for the rest of their lives, by all means, let them do it. They have tons of fans and they do in fact help business. They even help the stars of the present and future get over by their mere presence.

If the younger guys are having trouble grabbing a share of the spotlight, TOO BAD! They have to fight for it. They have to connect with the audience. It’s their responsibility to get over with the fans as faces or heels, with a reasonable amount of assistance from the old guys. People think WCW went under because the old guys like Hogan and Nash wouldn’t give up their spots. Wrong again. It went under purely because of the worst booking this business has ever seen by men like Vince Russo, and because of the worst financial decisions this business has ever seen.

So, as with most topics in the wrestling world, I’m glad that Vince McMahon, Dixie Carter and the other major promoters don’t actually listen to the idiotic fans on the Internet, who probably make up less than 10% of the paying customers. Because if they did, we’d have a 40 years old and under policy in effect, with all legends being sent home to rot forever. And we’d have a wrestling industry that would be suffering 10 times as bad as it is now as a result.