I haven't really caught up on the wrestling Indy scene since the early part of the last decade, but decided to give it a recent gander this past year. The sad truth is that the scene is not really looking all that good. It's kind of sad, really, because I think Professional wrestling is legitimate art when it's done right. It's got emotion, action, and all the glitz and glamour you could imagine. It's truly beautiful and not something I see being taken seriously... it could be that the glut from the 90's sort of killed the art of the game, or it could be that the WWE cornered the market, or it could be any number of issues. But, seeing as how this is my fucking blog and my fucking opinion, this is what I think:
1. PRODUCTION: Beyond the WWE, there really isn't much with regard to production values on any of the alternative products. TNA is supposed to be the WWE's most competitive alternative... but it's really not. While they have the budget to do better television than Ring of Honor, Chikara, or various other companies they just sort of fall into an overdeveloped sense of what the production team is supposed to do.
But, when you start getting involved with the lower rung promotions you start seeing a severe cut in the production values. The sound quality is absolute shit, the camera angles keep getting over exposed when they're pointed RIGHT AT THE LIGHTS, and the announce teams are terrible. Chikara probably has the best sound and video quality from the shows I've seen so far, but that announce team is something wretched to listen to. They don't know how to tell a story or add to a match, so it just becomes this rambling high pitch reaction scream to every spot move they see. And the majority of Chikara are spot moves. Ring of Honor suffers from a dark arena and pointing the camera at the light... and on and on. There isn't really an appreciation for post production work from any of these companies and none of them seriously want to even elevate their status to contend with WWE.
2. STARS: At the early part of the decade there were a ton of big name wrestlers who had a strong chance to be that next "big thing" in wrestling... the politics, the lack of competitiveness, that all added to chip away at alot of these guys and left them at the bottom of a very big pool of indy promotions. Now these guys are growing past their prime and anyone younger that comes into the business doesn't seem to have an appreciation for what the business was for a very long time.
Where is the next Samoa Joe? Where is the next CM Punk? AJ Styles? Heck, where are they currently? Other than Punk, whose meteoric rise this past year seems doomed for a major fall with a look at current ratings.... none of these guys have been allowed to really shine. TNA Booking took the rug right out from under these young talents and thrown them in the shitter in favor of people with big names from the 90's. ROH isn't capitalizing on the National Broadcast time they have to introduce something beyond the "UFC"-pseudo-wrestling design.
3. MATCHES: A good match is more than a spinning back flip triple jump springboard huuzamagigit from the highest balcony. It's about telling a story, it's about yanking the audience out of the "It's fake" mentality and making them belief that something is on the line, that there's a heel and a face and that these people aren't just sharing beers after every show. It's not just about glitz and smack talking, it's about selling and understanding ring psychology. And none of these smaller promotions are promoting this... they've become display cases for acrobatics. It simply isn't really all that much fun to watch the same flippy flappy nonsense from one match to the other... I want to see anguish on the faces, glory in a victory, and a heel who revels in hurting his opponent. Psychology works and that seems to be missing in the independent circuit as of late.
4. SOLUTIONS: Well, how do we solve any of these problems?
First off, Smartmark video could try to attend a few video production classes and learn a little bit about lighting, framing, and sound balance. Beyond that, everything else is an intangible... the WWE owns a brilliant library of classic matches that I'd like to see put into the market for history sake. Also for my own collection... as it is, I have a subscription to WWE Classics and you know what? I'm able to see the production quality on pre-high def quality video cameras during the Territories era... and these smaller companies really have no fucking excuse.
Secondly: Stop guarding your friends and trainers and students and make them earn the crowd reactions. Listen to your audience because that's where your bread and butter is, not in the politics of a company. Don't be afraid to have a big name walk in and beat your big face, and don't be afraid to job out a big name when you're paying his air fare. A big name is supposed to get your guys over, and your guys are supposed to learn something from wrestling with a big name.
Finally: Watch matches. Watch your own matches, watch classic matches, find out what works and really what makes no fucking sense.
Just my humble thoughts on indy wrestling.
No comments:
Post a Comment