Spot The Spot, Dr. Spock!
For me personally, I could watch guys like Finlay, Regal, & Benoit go at it all day because that's my style of wrestling. I'm not one for the razzle-dazzle high spots in wrestling, but I do respect the athletes. The thing I would like to point out is the distinct lack of fundamentals in wrestling, simple things like drawing heat and building for each hold making each individual move mean something. Throughout this column, I am going to make examples of what I like and dislike. Many of you may agree or disagree, but healthy discussion is always a good thing and can often be enlightening if you are open minded enough to accept differing opinions.
Let's go.
My understanding of wrestling is, has, and always will be moves should never be used for the sake of having a move; a move should be sold and used on its merits. If it's high impact, it should be sold as devastating; nothing more, nothing less. Simple, right? Apparently not. More and more high impact moves in wrestling have become normal and just part of a match. While I do accept this as part of wrestling's evolution over the last ten to fifteen years, there is a limit before it becomes ridiculous and simple unbelievable. Professional wrestling is simple: create the illusion of a real fight situation while drawing emotional responses from the crowd; but the more and more high impact becomes the standard, the more and more you kill the art by making the match simply unbelievable, which ultimately will kill any emotion you are trying to build with the audience. I can remember reading an article that Fit Finlay wrote about wrestling and "spots." He described them as reactions. If you do something in a match that doesn't garner a reaction, it's a wasted spot thus the term no wasted movement (I think this is something that needs to be preached and taught), but big moves and big spots are a simple cheap way of garnering this and has no real lasting or emotional connection with an audience.
I've got a story to tell!
Over the last ten years, we have seen a lot of what can be described as "Holy Shit" moments, but those certain moments, while great for that instance, generally leave no lasting affect on the viewer. I believe in strong storytelling in the ring and emotionally engulfing the viewer. I use Bret versus Owen at WrestleMania X as a perfect match in my estimation because you had a brilliant back story with, pardon the pun, excellent execution of the story in the ring and the crowd on the edge of their seat the whole time without a "Holy Shit" moment. The beautiful thing about this particular match is how everything flows; each move builds to the next, each facial expression shows the emotion or pain of maneuver, the body language shows anguish pain, happiness, bravado, and anger. You have younger brother Owen trying to step out of the shadow of older and more successful brother Bret. You have Bret reluctant to fight his brother yet wanting to prove he is the best. All this makes for a compelling story and this is all achieved in twenty minutes through the art of pro wrestling. This to me is the essence and purpose of pro wrestling. Not all stories have to be as emotionally complex, but I used Bret versus Owen as what I think is a pinnacle in storytelling and you know what? There isn't one "Holy Shit" moment except the ending and it wasn't flashy or high risk, just unexpected and fitting. Now that leaves a lasting memory.
Too much of anything is enough.
Now I am not saying those specific types of high spots have no place in the business, rather they are used way too often as a clutch to get a reaction rather then specifically special moment. If every Hell In A Cell had someone go off the top, then Foley's fall wouldn't be so memorable. If people jumped of the top of ladders all the time, Jeff Hardy's Swanton wouldn't be as special. Not only does it kill the big spots for the future, it also kills the credibility of wrestling as a whole especially when the guy has to lay on the floor waiting for a minute for the other guy to pull of a ridiculous self indulgent maneuver. The general counter argument to people using high spots, in particular cruiserweights or smaller wrestlers, is that they need high spots to stand out in which I couldn't disagree more. The Dynamite Kid is generally considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time and a true innovator of the high flying style, but he never did anything that stretched the imagination of beyond a point of believability and proved you could be a smaller guy and still be recognized. What Dynamite did was wrestle a speedy and high impact style which made him stand out. He performed quick exchanges and furious strikes that the heavyweight could not pull off. Everything was done quicker. Snappier, & with more impact and his matches are still above and beyond what cruiserweights are doing nowadays, which leaves no excuse for senseless high flying moves. The more and more common high risk daredevil moves become, the less and less they stand out.
Everything is good in moderation it. Once you over indulge that, it becomes a problem.
Thank You
Matthew James
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