The Goodness 05.30.07: Wrestling Needs the Kids
Posted by on 05.30.2007
I fell for pro wrestling as a kid and I can't help myself as an adult. Will fans like me exist in 20 years? Are new lifelong fans actually being made?
I apologize for my absence the last two weeks, it's been a little hectic. It started two weeks back when we found out my dog had a tumor on his brain and there was nothing left to be done. He passed away and, needless to say, I didn't really feel like writing a wrestling column. Last week was the absolute opposite because I had a second interview for a new job and I got it. So again, I didn't feel like writing because I was too busy celebrating. Like I said, it's been an interesting two weeks. But let's get back into the flow, shall we?
The Goodness 05.30.07: Wrestling Needs the Kids
Over the Memorial Day weekend and nursing quite the hangover on Sunday, I ended up watching an HBO Sports documentary on New York Yankees great Mickey Mantle. It was a couple years old and I'd seen it before, but it was well-done and I find the story of Mantle interesting. It was as I watched this that I realized the importance of Mickey Mantle to a generation of New York kids that are now middle-aged. They talked about Mantle in hushed tones, with reverence and with love. Mike Francesa, the excellent New York City radio host, said that his love for Mantle as a child will never go away because "nothing you love in your childhood ever goes away." It was quite the insightful statement. Mickey Mantle single-handedly created a generation of Yankee fans, who in turn passed it on to their youth just as their fathers took them to Yankee Stadium because of Joe DiMaggio or Babe Ruth before them. The reason the Yankees are the most well-known athletic team in the world is simply because of its history, because most Yankees fans fell in love with the squad as a youth. I must admit, as a Mets fan, I'm getting pretty close to making myself sick but I have a point.
Thanks to the wonder that is WWE 24/7, I watched a Legends' roundtable with Mick Foley, Michael Hayes, Eric Bischoff, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross as they discussed their favorite rivalries, their favorite feuds. Obviously, Foley talked about the Jimmy Snuka/Don Muraco feud that he wrote about in his first book and has been revealed a thousand times over as the reason he became a wrestler. But to see Foley talk about it, not in a gimmick but as himself, was startling. He had the same look in his eye, the same uncontainable smile, the same joy in his voice that Francesa had when he talked about Mantle. That was Foley's defining moment. It is why he loves wrestling today.
Of course, it got me thinking about myself and why as I near the age of 25 I can't stop watching wrestling. What is it about a form of entertainment that so many loathe that has me completely enraptured? It's simple. I loved it as a kid. From the first time I caught a Saturday morning wrestling program in the late 1980's, I was hooked. By the time 1992 hit, I was a full-blown, 10 year-old wrestling addict. That's why WrestleMania VIII is the most important wrestling show I've ever seen because, now I didn't order it live, renting that Coliseum Video from the local video store was the best moment of my life until that point. To see a dome filled with people for a wrestling show, to see Bret Hart and Roddy Piper put on a classic, to see Randy Savage and Ric Flair do likewise, heck, just to see Hulk Hogan stroll down that aisle one more time. I was in heaven. I couldn't stop thinking about it; I couldn't stop waiting for each Saturday to come along so I could get my wrestling fix.
What in the heck does any of this have to do with today? Well, since the Attitude era hit in the late 1990's, the WWE has actively gone away from the children's market. In fact, the entire entertainment industry has basically shied away from the younger kids and it might be part of the reason so many television shows, movies and music artists fail to make bank like those 10 to 20 years ago did. There's a huge market out there that is completely ignored. Every once in a while, a show like American Idol or a movie series like Harry Potter or Shrek will come along and make a bazillion dollars. Everyone will call it a phenomenon and move on. What they really are, though, are examples of great entertainment. If you're 10 years old, you can watch Harry Potter or American Idol. If you're 30, you can do the same thing. It's really that simple.
When the WWF exploded in the 1980's, it was the same phenomenon. Everyone from every age group could watch pro wrestling and it was okay. It was cool for the kids, it was cool for the grown-ups, it was cool for women and it was cool for teenagers. There was no problem. Things changed dramatically in the early 1990's when the WWF and, to a lesser extent, WCW tried to specifically market to kids. In essence, they were turning pro wrestling into a kids show, even though it always had been, now it was obvious. In the process, they alienated all the fans that grew up with Hulk Hogan and didn't want cartoon characters. The business went in the toilet until the nWo and the Attitude era brought back all the teenagers while in the process effectively eliminating the children's market.
When business is good, it doesn't matter what you do really. The WWF and WCW were so hot in the 1990's, losing the kids didn't mean a thing. Why would it? When your ratings are through the roof, when your attendance is sky-high and your merchandise sales are breaking records, who cares? If those teenagers want some breasts, let's give it to them. If they want more edgy wrestling, let's give them more ladders, tables and blood than they can stand. Let's milk this puppy for all its worth. To be fair, I don't blame anyone in the wrestling industry at the time, there was an opportunity to make money and they made it. It's what happened after the boom that has been so damaging to pro wrestling.
For the last six years, since WrestleMania X7, the WWE has constantly, continuously and sadly tried to corner the teen market. They made their money with them in the 1990's and they're just waiting to hit upon another Rock, another Austin, another Hogan to make another boom happen. The fact is there may never been another Rock, Austin or Hogan. If there is, he may not come along for 10 or 15 years. The irony is that the fans that are around now, the fans that make up the core audience, they become fans as children. I stood outside the Hartford Civic Center before a Raw taping (I believe, may have been SmackDown) a while back and watched the crowd pour in. It was an older crowd. When I went to Raw in 1999, it was a high school/college party. This was different. These were people my age, with a few teens mixed in and some kids that were going with their parents. It was an odd sight because it didn't make sense.
What the WWE needs to do is go back and start creating wrestling fans for life again. They have been so concerned with creating wrestling fans for the right here and right now, they've forgotten about the future. I wrote a while back about wrestling matches and angles that mean something. Every fan has that one angle or match that meant so much to them, usually as a kid or a young teenager, that takes hold of you and makes you a fan. If you're a kid today (assuming your parents would let you watch Raw), what is that moment? Where is the WWE's defining moment of the past few years? I can't think of any that are even in the same universe as Austin's win at WrestleMania 14, Hogan's at WrestleMania 3 or even Savage's triumph at WrestleMania VIII. Heck, Cena's last two WrestleMania wins have been met with boos by the overwhelming majority of older fans – like myself – that are sick of Cena, sick of non-gimmick, sick of his lame jokes and sick of him being shoved down our throats.
Now when I say the WWE needs to attract kids, I don't mean they need go back to the cartoon era. If I were to lay a template down for the WWE, it would be 1987 or 1997. In both of those years, the angles were hot, the matches were good, the crowds were pumped and it was for everybody. There were few, if any, truly distasteful angles. Triple H wasn't humping mannequins masquerading as the dead. Mae Young wasn't giving birth to a hand. Vince McMahon wasn't challenging God to a match.
In those two years, it was about pro wrestling. It was about the emotions behind two men feuding. It was Steve Austin's jealously at Bret Hart. It was Bret Hart's pain of being rejected by the United States. It was Randy Savage's unyielding desire to be champion. It was Ricky Steamboat's need for revenge. There's nothing R-rated about any of that. In fact, those are themes as old as literature itself. It was simple enough for a 10 year-old, it meant enough for a 30 year-old. The WWE needs to stop everything its doing. It needs to change the Raw set that has looked basically the same for a decade. It needs to tone down the sex, especially considering there is T & A on every channel in the world today, and focus on what really brings people to the arena.
Sooner or later, that core group of wrestling fans is going to start eroding. As time passes by, so does the things we loved in our childhood. One by one, they get replaced with more pressing matters. As pro wrestling the way the WWE presents inches closer to irrelevance, its time as a part of my life may be nearing its end too. I'm sticking around because I can't let it go. The WWE needs to start creating more fans like me instead of losing fans like me.
