convinced to pay money to watch it, then you have to
capitalise on the personalities you have. Not
necessarily the main eventers, but the ‘out there’
unique personalities of some of the more flamboyant
stars.
Take a look at how big Razor Ramon Hard Gay was in
Japan. Ok, he’s not primarily a wrestler, but when he
joined Hustle in Japan, his presence on that show
made an impact because of his mainstream popularity.
Unfortunately, the lack of personalities is not merely
a UK based issue. Over in the US, there are a distinct
lack of real ‘stars’ in the WWE at the moment. If you
look at the main roster, as talented as guys like Cody
Rhodes, Ted Dibiase Jr, Evan Bourne or Kofi Kingston
are, they fall more into the category of ‘just another
guy who wrestles’, rather than ‘bonafide star who will
have mainstream appeal’.
I have a theory about why this is, and it’s a problem
that wrestling needs to face up to quickly.
Back in the 1970s, professional wrestling was seen
as a manly sport, and it was seen as being quite the
rugged occupation to be a professional wrestler.
Therefore, if you seriosly applied to be a professional
wrestler chances are you were physically
intimidating, and the promoter had many big
personalities to choose from.
Then everything changed. Wrestling became more
geared towards children, and to be an adult wrestling
fan, you tended to have to be more of a geek to
follow it. So the people that applied for wrestling
schools tended after a while to be these sorts of
wrestling geeks. It’s these wrestling geeks that now
populate the WWE, TNA and UK scene. Not everyone,
but enough to decrease the level of star power on a
show. For every Martin Stone, Undertaker or Randy
Orton, there are a dozen wrestling geeks on the
undercard trying to pretend they are stars without
actually having that ‘star persona’.
Wrestling desperately needs personalities that it can
push to the mainstream in order to gain mass
appeal. Rockstar Spud is one that has come to the
forefront recently. Hopefully Rockstar Spud will not
be alone. If he is, wrestling may fail in its resurgence,
and continue to be just as popular as it is now. And
we as wrestling fans will continue to have to explain
Leroy Kincaide
why we like it.
© SARAH BARRACLOUGH- britishwrestlingpictures.com
60 The online magazine for pro wrestling fans worldwide thewrestlingpress.com
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