A British Point Of View:Current Situation w/ Wrestling Today

Hi there!

Welcome to “A British Point of View” with me, Martyn Nolan.

I always thought if I got an opportunity to do something like this I have to do something substantial that everyone will want to read and talk about. Then when you finally get the opportunity your mind comes up blank! Typical!

Before I get started I just thought I would give you a bit of information about myself. As you might guess by now I’m… British and I live in Manchester, England. The first ever wrestling PPV I ever watched was the 1996 Survivor Series as a youngster and I’ve been addicted ever since! I have watched intensely from this point on and gone through as much history as I can. I have had the privilege of being able to fly to the good old USA to watch the last 4 Wrestlemania’s in person and look forward to one day where WWE may put another extraordinaire on in the United Kingdom as they did with the 1992 Summerslam in Wembley Stadium.

So now you know me a bit more I guess I’ll have to come up with an interesting and debatable topic for you good wrestling fans.

As the editorial title suggests I wanted to provide you with my views on current situations and issues within the wrestling industry today. From your feedback it will be interesting to see if the “British” view is similar or very different to people from around the world.

One of the main points I wanted to discuss is the current state of the industry today.

Why is it wrestling within this climate is currently struggling for ratings?

Has the wrestling industry changed? Is it being forced to tap-out to the big up and coming heavyweight that seems to be the UFC? Has the audience changed? Is the current roster lacking stars? Or has the internet changed your opinion of the industry thus changing your interest?

All these could be contributing factors so I will be looking more into them as separate subjects in the upcoming editorials to try and get your opinions regarding these issues and try to provide as much feedback as I can.

Obviously the wrestling industry has evolved over the years but has it really changed enough to have had such rapid drops in ratings lately? OR is this the issue that the wrestling industry HASN’T changed?

I think the main issue with the product of today is the lack of variety. We are currently stuck in a situation where nearly every PPV has the same people participating in the main events. The last time I got excited that someone new in the main event of a PPV was when Brian Kendrick adopted his new heel character and got a shot at the title at Unforgiven in the Championship Scramble match. Other than this it has been Randy Orton, Triple H and John Cena seemingly dominating the main event scene.

Now I know that WWE has started to make motions in the last few weeks with Kofi Kingston and Sheamus but why has it taken so long for Vince McMahon to realise that these stars need making… and quick (even though we are moaning that Sheamus is being pushed too quickly!)

If we think back to 10 years ago in the WWE they had a bit more variety within the product. You had the Women’s division first taking off, the Hardcore Title on the line in the 24-7 ruling and you also had small segments like the Brawl-4-All which wasn’t particularly great but at least it provided something different and varied the action.

What are we treated to these days? 8 weeks worth of Hornswoggle vs Chavo Guerrero in a stupid stipulation match which makes me want to turn the product off just out of embarrassment.

The golden era for me with the WWE was when you had a great top tier talent such as Undertaker, Bret Hart and HBK competing for the heavyweight championship and great feuds (which were often better than the main event) facing each other for the Intercontinental Championship) with upcoming wrestlers such as Austin, HHH and The Rock.

Do you feel that a lack of variety in today’s product is the problem with WWE or do you feel that the current young roster could not hold the ratings of the bigger stars at the moment?

My email address is beansontoastuk@msn.com and any feedback from this editorial would be greatly appreciated and I will look at some responses in my next edition and I will try to respond to all of your messages.

Thank you for taking the time to read this editorial and in the words of Mick Foley:

Have A Nice Day!

Visit Wrestleclubforums.com for exclusive wrestling discussion!