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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Wrestling Pet Peeves

One of many pet peeves: general managers
Photo by WWE
By Chad Smart
@chadsmart on Twitter

As I mentioned in the last blog, my interest in wrestling has been on the downward slope for the past few months. Outside the monthly Chikara shows, I am not excited about the weekly wrestling shows. I’ve been trying to figure out why I don’t look forward to Raw, Impact or Smackdown anymore. This week on From the Rafters Radio, the roundtable discussion is wrestling pet peeves. After some thoughts, I think I’ve come up with why wrestling doesn’t excite me. Here are 4 of my top 5 reasons. For the number reason, you’ll have to listen to From the Rafter’s Radio. You can listen live at 7pm CST at wggh.net or find the show on Itunes once it’s archived. If Kevin proofreads this, I’m sure he’ll put in links to the archives.

5: REFEREE BLINDNESS IN TAG MATCHES: This is something that’s been a pet peeve since the ‘80s and is still happening. In a tag team match the referee will not see the Face team make the tag because the Heel who is not in the ring will distract the referee. When the referee turns around and sees the now legal member of the Face team in the ring, the ref will block the Face from attacking and force him out of the ring claiming the ref didn’t see the tag. As the ref is getting the Face out of the ring, the Heels will switch without making a tag. When the ref is done with the Face and turns his attention back to the action inside the ring, he will ask the Heels if they made a tag and let the action continue. I understand this, and other referee incompetence, is supposed to build drama in the match so when the Faces finally make the hot tag the audience will erupt in cheers. That doesn’t mean it’s still not annoying and outdated.

4: What? Yes! What?: Two of the most annoying chants in wrestling. The Yes! chants were amusing when they first started but quickly evolved into an overused crutch. Since Yes! can be chanted at any time no matter who is wrestling or what is going on, it has lost it’s original purpose of showing support for Daniel Bryan and now is simply a way for wrestling fans to yell whenever they get bored or when nothing is going on in order to draw attention to themselves. The What? chant was never interesting or productive. It was an annoyance from the beginning and has out lived its shelf life. For some reasons fans continue to chant it whenever someone is in the ring cutting a promo no matter who’s talking or what is being said. To me it is another example of fans trying to get themselves over at the expense of the show.

3: TOO MUCH WRESTLING ON TV: With the addition of the new WWE show “Main Event,” WWE now has five and a half hours of shows on television. They also have two hours of shows online with Superstars and NXT and the three hour monthly Pay Per Views. That’s 33 hours of programming a month. For die hard wrestling fans there is also the weekly two hour Impact and TNA’s monthly PPV as well as Ring of Honor’s weekly show and shows from companies such as AAPW, Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, SAW and other companies I’m forgetting that can be watched online. The oversaturation of wrestling hasn’t led to more stars being created or better stories being told. It has led to mostly spinning wheels. Which leads me to..

3.1: REPETITON: Every week the interaction between wrestlers is about 90% the same as the previous week. Whoever is going to be fighting on the PPV has to have an interaction with his opponent whether it is verbal or physical. By the time the PPV rolls around, I am usually tired of seeing the opponents in the ring with each other that I question why I should pay to see something I’ve been seeing for free for the past month.

2: GENERAL MANAGERS: Maybe it’s the old school fan in me, but I remember a time before 1997 when wrestling Presidents or Board of Directors were only seen when there was a major announcement to make. Now GMs get more airtime then mid-card champions. All GMs also seem to become corrupted by their power and instead of simply presiding over a show, enter into feuds with the top wrestler. The position of General Manager, much like the What? chant, has overstayed its welcome and needs to be retired.

As for my number 1 Pet Peeve, as I said, you’ll have to tune in to Rafters Radio to hear it. You’ll also get to hear what the other hosts find annoying in today’s wrestling environment. If you have any Pet Peeves of your own that you’d like to share, post them on our Facebook page or Twitter feed.

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