Recently, legendary wrestling commentator Jim Ross made comments offering what I personally thought was a constructive criticism towards certain aspects of modern day wrestling when he said the following:
I told a kid the other day that everybody does the same fu**ing spot. All you guys go outside. You cluster up like coils. You stand there in a huddle, friends and foes together, side by side so you can catch some leaping idiot going over the top who never wins with this move. They are looking for the “holy s**t chant. They love to hear ‘this is awesome’. It’s a spot folks. It’s a trapeze act. I don’t buy into that. The DDT is a great finish and should be used as such.
No, that evolution of the business is bulls--t. Or that the business is evolving. How the f--k do you know that it's evolving? Not you Conrad, but in general. Yes, they should be protected. Of course they should. 'Well, we don't sell right hands. But if you hit me with your left, it will register.' What!? 'But if you hit me with that right, I'll sell it like a drunk man.' Come on; that's so stupid.
The DDT is a finish instead of a transition spot. Shawn Michaels, same thing… the superkicks are just a part of the flow of a match. Nobody wins with it, so what's that say to you? Does it say that back in the day guys were more proficient at delivering a DDT or a superkick than they are in this generation where things are evolving or changing? I want some proof of that s--t. I want somebody to prove to me that the changing of the wrestling business is what it is today and that it's making a difference. Maybe it is in some people's eyes, but is it making a difference? I say no."
They go, 'Holy s--t! This is awe-some!' It's a spot, folks. It's a trapeze act. Come on! …I don't buy into that," JR said. "The DDT is a great finish and it should be used as such unless you're not as proficient as Jake the Snake was and you can't execute it. What if I said it on commentary, 'Boy folks, do you remember those DDTs and when somebody hit that it was over? I guess these guys just aren't as good at it as they used to be.'That ain't gonna help anybody, but there's a thought there and same with the superkick. So yeah, I'm not big on that 'the business has changed.' Tell me how the business has changed that you can bastardize established moves.
My Views On JR’s Comments, I will say that I agree with him for the most part because there are so many matches nowadays in modern day wrestling in which the chemistry, psychology, storytelling, emotion, and selling are automatically thrown out of the window. When many small indie wrestlers deliberately go out of their way to perform risk taking and potentially career ending injuries when they do these overused and oversaturated high flying acrobatic gymnastic moves for the sole purpose of getting cheap pops which includes “Holy Shit” or “This Is Awesome” chants. When I see these small indie wrestlers doing these overused high flying acrobatic gymnastic moves especially when there’s 4 to 8 people standing outside waiting on someone to catch them doesn’t wow or impress me very much anymore because to me, it’s nothing special or unique about it.
The part where JR talks about small indie wrestlers overusing certain moves I agree with him on that because back in the day when I was watching wrestling, certain finishers like The Spear, superkick, and The Destroyer were extremely protected where kick outs from these certain finishing moves were extremely rare. But nowadays, there are so many indie wrestlers that have overused The Spear, superkick, and especially The Destroyer so much to the point of those moves being less impactful and not as special as they once were during their heyday throughout the 1990s and 2000s. They have been reduced so badly to transition spots that barely even gets a 1 count which is absolutely atrocious. How many modern day wrestling matches nowadays in which we have seen either a superkick or a destroyer being used as a transitional spot? The answer is way too many.
I have heavily critiqued in a few previous articles about the overusage of what I personally call the “crash n burn” style of wrestling in which many of these small indie wrestlers of today don’t care too for the elements of wrestling which is psychology, selling, chemistry, emotions, and storytelling for the sole purpose of getting a cheap pop from the hardcore crowd and to me personally, That’s NOT wrestling because that’s basically a acrobatic gymnastic contest designed to see which small indie wrestlers will outperform the other by doing the most acrobatic gymnastic moves. One notorious example of this is Ricochet vs Osprey from 2016 in which there’s no selling, psychology, emotions, or even storytelling in the match, just an acrobatic gymnastic contest to outperform the other to be honest.
The part where JR talks about the evolution of the business is something I partially disagree with him on because there are certain aspects of the business that has slowly changed over the past few decades where we’re beyond past the wrestling business from being this predominantly white male led “boys club” in seeing all these mostly sweaty white dudes from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s to seeing more black, latina, and gender non-binary wrestlers being featured on match cards and winning many titles in the process nowadays especially on the very hot indie scene. The style of wrestling has heavily changed from The Big Men Style of the 1980s & technical style from smaller wrestlers of the 1990s and 2000s to the oversaturated and overglorified “crash and burn” style that you see in so many matches in the current modern day era of wrestling.
And for these pro-WWE gatekeepers in The IWC who say that “highspots are only in certain wrestling promotions” are so miseducated and ignorant because for many years in the last decade with NXT and 205 Live, the “crash and burn” style of wrestling was running wild before many of these wrestling promotions even came into existence the last decade, so y’all pro-WWE gatekeepers in The IWC can miss me with that nonsensical bullshit argument.
Note: The overusage and oversaturation of the very risky and dangerous “crash n burn” style of wrestling is not just an AEW problem like these pro-WWE gatekeepers in The IWC tries their hardest to make it seem like it is, but it’s an entire wrestling industry problem nowadays.
The Conclusion - The purpose of writing this article was not to make you dislike the “crash and burn” style of wrestling, but if you’re one of those fans that likes it, that’s fine because there’s a particular style that everyone likes. For me personally being a wrestling fan for over 20+ years, I have always loved the slow paced technical style that has the elements of chemistry, psychology, emotions, storytelling, and selling. I’ll take that type of style over the typical “crash and burn” style match any day of the week.
By Kwame Shakir
