Old School vs Today's Wrestling

       Old School vs. Today's Wrestling

       To me, it's a no brainer. Wrestling today can not compare to the type of product that we had back in the day. The wrestlers back then sold the sport & their personality both in ring and out. If Jerry Lawler was heel at the time then in public he would play it the same. Rick Flair was that limousine riding, high flying, kiss stealin' wheeling dealing sonofagun out in public just like he was on TBS when NWA had their 2 hour time slot on Saturday evenings. 


   As kids we would talk excitedly with each other about what had happened this past weekend on wrestling and we all had our favorites. Memphis wrestling would come to Nashville Fairgrounds as well as smaller venues all around the stat and into other states as well so I grew up watching that the most. The Fabulous Ones Steve Keirn & Stan Lane were my favorites at tag team along with The Rock n Roll Express which was made up of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson. Back in those days, tag teams were huge! The 80's brought us the 2 above mentioned teams along with other federations tag teams such as The Freebirds, The Road Warriors, The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, The Fantastics, The Moondogs, The sheepherders and SO many more. I could type an entire article just on names alone.


   Not that I want to take anything away from the singles category. I mean, we had legends like Harley Race, Rick Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Jerry Lawler, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage etc etc etc......     The feuds between wrestlers would just be from one pay per view to the next or maybe 2 in a row they would go on for a year or two. And that bad blood would carry to another time down the road. Jerry Lawler & Superstar Bill Dundee were either the best of tag teams or the best of enemies and it went over a long long time back and forth but no matter what they did they did it great for the fans and you believed it when they did it. 


   Hardly anyone today can display a rage of anger during an interview like a lot of those guys did and make you feel it and believe it. Blood was a thing you seen at every venue, some of them were fights that went all the way back to the concession stands and locker rooms. Check out this fight that went back to the concession area and back stage with what started out as Moondogs vs. Robert Fuller & Jeff Jarret and ended up with Jerry Lawler getting in the mix:

   Now let's go to today's business. I stress the word business. It's all about how many PPV's you can sell. How much merchandise can your character bring in. The plus side is though that the sport has become more athletic and these guys stay in tip top shape. You have high flying guys that do things the older guys never dreamed of doing in their day! I remember a guy named 2 Cold Scorpio that came into the WCW and totally amazed me by doing a complete 360 flip into a splash from the top rope. Rey Mysterio has always been amazing in ring to watch with his high flying antics as well as numerous others.

   The business started taking a downfall though when it became a competition to see who could run the region. Roy Watts had his area locked down until Vince McMahon started going outside of the territory and challenging. I can't say that was a complete bad thing because it is a business and you are in it for the money. But I really wish that the money would have translated to better paid wrestlers top to bottom. Fritz Von Erich OWNED Texas wrestling hands down but even they started to go down with the introduction of cable television. Smaller federations like my beloved Memphis wrestling were starting to show signs of suffering but they brought in a lot of major talent through there. The Undertaker wrestled there for a while just as Stone Cold Steve Austin. Randy Savage spent time there, the Road warriors did. Sting & T he Ultimate warrior formed a tag team there called the Freedom fighters I believe and the changed to heel as the Bladerunners.

   The PPV's are the biggest thing these days. Monday Night Raw is 75% talk and 25% wrestling just to build up to the big money event. The WWE has however come out with their own network that provides us with the ability to buy membership & see all the PPV's free along with classic & original content. While a part of me can get into wrestling today, a major part of me would love to see it go back to way it was. Hopefully, I have found a number of wrestling fans out there that read this and agree but if you don't I wanna hear from you as well. Please leave a comment of your view and share this with your friends and wrestling groups. Together we can Bodyslam the Competition!!!!