You might wanna sit down, cuz I am about to blow your mind with what I have to say.
Okay, are you ready? Here it is………Wrestling.........
IS FAKE!!
Did you just shit your pants? I did when I found out. Who woulda thought that Hulk Hogan's Legendary, Earth shattering leg drop didn't really incapacitate someone for 3 seconds?, or that DDP delivering a Diamond Cutter out of nowhere to steal a victory stun a shocked opponent wasn't a persistent hero taking advantage of a villain's miscue, but rather a planned maneuver, scripted and practiced dozens of times prior to the match? This fact has traumatized many a fan. To them, it made finding out there's no Santa Claus look like having a threesome with a pair of Eastern European gymnasts.
For years, insiders within the industry vehemently denied this rumor, insisting that Junkyard Dog really did bust open Moondog Spot's head simply by ramming his head into a Styrofoam turnbuckle. Fans not only believed it, they passionately defended wrestling's realism to everyone who said otherwise. That was a much different, more innocent, less speculative time, though.
Wrestling fans from our daddy's day were very passionate, almost cult-like in some places. From its inception, professional wrestling had always marketed its performers as either good guys (babyfaces), or villains (heels). All the baby-faces were honest, hard-working, boy next door types whom you would want your daughter to marry. The fan base of each baby-face depended on where they were supposedly from and what they looked like. Almost every demographic and all major cities had at least one guy who represented them. Hillbilly Jim was the favorite of country-folk, farmers, fans of the Beverly Hillbillies and inbreds, while blacks, ghetto dwellers, gang-bangers and owners of scrap yards favored JYD, the Junkyard Dog. Hispanics were partial to Tito Santana; California dudes loved Sting, etc. Their counterparts, heels, were mostly generic; carbon copies of one another. All were dishonest, lying crybabies who had to cheat in order to win. No one likes a cheater, which is why the only cheers a heel got back then were from his mother, and that's only speculative. Top heels, like whoever was feuding with Hogan (Piper, Orndorf, Bundy, etc) as well as those from countries feuding with America (Nikolai Volkov, Iron Sheik), got the most heat, because they represented things Americans were taught to hate. They didn't even need to say anything, all the work was done for them.
To generate heat or a pop for a performer, WWF followed the old adage "Actions speak louder than words"- mainly cuz the words were Muted. Honorability and appearance determined the crowd's opinion, that’s it. Mic skills weren't in a wrestler's repertoire. When a wrestler was interviewed, it was rare to hear one speak intelligibly, much less get the crowd's blood pumping. That's why most big names had managers, so they didn't have to talk. Most wrestler promos just consisted of one opponent telling the other, in between grunts and muscle flexes, that they were gonna kick their ass. Don't get me wrong, some guys were great on the stick (Hogan, Piper, Flair, Jesse Ventura, Macho Man, Jake the Snake), but most of them were bland and boring when confronted with the challenge of doing a believable promo. If the company wanted the crowd to like someone, they portrayed him as a patriot from a blue collar family. If they wanted a villain, they dressed him up in red and made him a complete asshole.
It didn't matter back then, as the fans just cared about the matches. However, things changed in 1989. This is when Vince McMahon confirmed what pretty much everyone suspected for decades- that wrestling was fake. The proverbial cat was let out of the bag during McMahon's testimony to the New Jersey State Senate while he was being questioned regarding charges accusing him of supplying his wrestlers with steroids. This admission hurt wrestling’s popularity drastically at first. This is understandable, being that the sports athletes were basically made out to be frauds, more dancer/ gymnast than boxer/wrestler.
Then, in the mid-1990's, the WWF got some Attitude!, both figuratively and literally. Vince realized society had changed over the last 25 years. The human race, as a whole, was no longer made up of honest, rule-abiding citizens as it was during Bruno Sammartino’s day. To keep up with this, increasingly defiant American public, Vince and his staff drastically altered the entire operating procedure of the company in hopes of attracting this untapped audience. The programming was changed to cater to a p public who no longer wanted to root for a goody-goody that always did the right thing. The younger generation could no longer relate to people like this. If anything, watching someone with no moral flaws would just make these people feel bad about themselves, get depressed and shoot themselves in the head. Dead people don’t make a very good audience, as you can’t buy a PPV from 6 feet underground, there’s no phone in there with them. The only thing most of America had in common with wrestlers was alcoholism, drug addiction and beer guts.
The traditional good guy-bad guy recipe was ditched in favor of a more modern style, one in which the wrestlers, both good and bad, were made more edgy and bad-ass. They sported bad attitudes, potty-mouths and scruffy looks, almost overnight. They were no longer portrayed as church-going boy scouts who got big and strong by eating vitamins and saying prayers. Rather, their physique came from shooting 'roids, pumping iron and beating asses. Many of the heels had more character than the wrestlers who were marketed as good guys.
This was a bold move by the WWF, but it paid off in a big way. The severe change in company policy spearheaded a second, even larger boom in wrestling's popularity than the one it enjoyed during the Hogan-Piper feud in the early 1980’s. WWF Attitude! succeeded in attracting an entire new group of younger, rowdier fans. These curious individuals knew wrestling was fake, and that's why they watched. They tuned in to see juiced-up men in tights fake punch each other on a raised platform. The entire industry was turned on its head. Wrestling was no longer a redneck past-time watched by a small, passionate group of people. It had become a hybrid of sports and entertainment, watched by millions, the majority of them under 30. These new, younger fans had very different tastes than the beer swilling, wife-beating good ole boy fans from the previous generation. Morality and decency were replaced by athletic ability and charisma as the best way into these new fan's hearts.
However, wrestling’s new, explicit programming turned off many old school fans, who didn't like the fact that the “good guys” were not good at all, but rather mean, and, in some cases, complete assholes, not to mention terrible role models. Many also hated how the company was increasingly using sex in its programming. They thought scantily clad women, bad language and crude actions on Raw telecasts were dishonorable and had no place on television. Many of these longtime fans turned to WCW, which was at least a little more geared toward the athlete’s in-ring performance. Others just stopped watching the sport entirely and took up fishing, NASCAR or something else to keep them from spending time with their family. The loss of these life-long, intensely loyal fans didn't matter to Vince, however, cuz the young, horny college kids had already taken over as the target demographic for the company. They spent more money on merchandise, filled the arenas and were much easier to please. A weak storyline could easily be saved from a drop in ratings by simply parading Torrie Wilson, Trish Stratus or other diva around in tight clothes, showing off cleavage and seducing the crowd. Eventually, the actual matches became an afterthought. WWF events weren’t so much sporting events anymore as male soap operas. The similarities are striking. Storylines of both consisted of hot, slutty looking women, dressed in seductive clothing, getting into cat-fights while their drug using, physical men threatened one another with crude acts, which occasionally resulted in a fight. Both also had horrendous acting, too.
Many Veteran wrestlers hated these new, vulgar "standard operating procedures" as well. Many wrestlers who enjoyed great success in the 80's found their once solid gimmicks suddenly stale and irrelevant with these new, rabid fans. They either had to completely change their persona, or lose their roster spot and retire, or, worse, spend their Golden years wrestling in tiny auditoriums in West Bumfuck, North Dakota in front of 18 rabid, mentally handicapped fans.
Take Bret Hart. The Hitman had as much wrestling ability as any wrestler to ever live, but the longtime face of WWF struggled mightily to find a niche after Attitude took over, partly because of his weak acting ability. The Excellence of Execution in the ring was anything but excellent with a microphone in front of his mouth. It wasn't his fault, as he never needed to rely on his fast tongue. His amazing technical prowess, which earned him countless accolades, millions of fans and a great living for 20+ years, suddenly wasn't enough anymore. In-ring ability had become obsolete unless you knew how to talk shit and cater to the mob. Unfortunately, Hart never did find success in the new WWF. He left soon after, losing the Heavyweight Belt to HBK in the widely discussed Montreal Screwjob. HBK was the new breed of WWF athlete. He had mic skills, a bad boy image and a rock star look. He was the prototype wrestler in the new age of sports entertainment. In a way, this match was a passing of the torch of sorts.
My fandom crosses both generations, but I consider myself more old school, as I grew up during Hulkamania. The old school fans are still out there, and, occasionally, they make their presence known. Never was their collective voice on display better than in Wrestlemania 18, when The Rock fought Hulk Hogan. It was the most popular wrestler in the Attitude Era against the most popular wrestler of all-time. It was arguably the two biggest names in the sports' history pinned up against each other in an epic battle of the ages. This match had easily the biggest crowd reaction of any match in history. The passionate response by the crowd was literally nonstop. The newer fans popped for Rock and the old guard cheered with all their heart for the Hulkster, even though Hogan was a heel and Head of the nWo at the time. Both wrestlers got great reactions, but there was no stopping Hogan Nation in his first Wrestlemania in over ten years. Halfway through the match, Hogan got the loudest, deafening crowd reaction I've ever heard when he "Hulked up" on the Rock. The crowd went absolutely APESHIT! The match was won by the Rock, but that’s insignificant. Hogan got the TKO in terms of what the match was truly about, fan love. This match was an epic battle between two completely different groups of people who shared a common passion.
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| Hogan refused to smell what the Rock was cooking. |
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