So let me start this off by saying when I started school the WWE's infamous attitude era was coming to a close and things in some fans minds have never been as good.
But I now argue that we live in the true golden age of wrestling "BROTHER".
Let's start with obvious elephant in the room the WWE, whilst it's the market leader making more money than ever before, the "Disney" of pro wrestling seems to have had a hard time adapting to the current pro wrestling era.
"Sports Entertainment" has never sat well with many fans, the soap opera drama, the big muscle men and no "flippy bullshit" but now even the WWE has started to change bringing in indie darlings such as Ricochet, Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura.
The problem with WWE at the present seems to be the person running it Vince Kenedy McMahon.
Yes he can walk the walk as one of the greatest heel authority figures in the sports long history. But he seems to be out of touch with what his audience wants to watch. Take the Fiend character for example, a reinvention of Bray Wyatt that got the fans behind him even with an arguably goofy gimmick at first.
WWE looked to be cashing in on the Fiend by giving an opportunity at one of its top titles at the "Hell In A Cell" event but instead we got some terrible no contest finish. This isn't even mentioning falling ratings on both 'Raw' and 'SmackDown' the second episode of which on Fox drew around two million viewers on one of America's biggest networks.
So if WWE are in such a state why oh why am I calling this a golden age of professional wrestling. It's simple it's all down to choice!
Not since WCW folded in 2001 has WWE had legit competition in All Elite Wrestling (AEW), the new exciting promotion from wrestlers that forgoed the WWE roller coaster for the land of the rising sun in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Hangman Adam Page are all names that wrestling fans should know their ally is Cody the former Stardust in WWE.
AEW Dynamite might just be the best wrestling show on TV! But before you call me out as an AEW mark, AEW aren't the only resason why I say we're in a golden age of pro wrestling.
Because not only is their AEW Dynamite & AEW Dark but they're a whole host of different promotions out there bidding for your eyeballs, the latest one is a throwback to the last time when Jim Cornette last had a wrestling rager!
The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) have a new Youtube show called NWA Power and it's a throwback so if you're nostalgic for good old fashioned Rasslin' then you'll enjoy Power and you'd be in good company with non other than Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson heaping praise on the show.
And it was an amazing show, it's got the nostalgia factor like most things in current pop culture. It features talent such as "The Cowboy" James Storm, Nick Aldis, Mr. Anderson and Colt Cabana to name a few. Episode one is below so go check it out.
Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA) has become a much better show in recent months, going from a joke promotion that everyone thought would hit the wall to an actually viable wrestling promotion owned by a company that believes in the promotion so much they bought AXS TV to put Impact on a better channel. That channel is also the home of New Japan but more on them in a bit.
Impact have an amazing talent pool of Wrestlers such as the best women's wrestler in the world (in my opinion) Tessa Blanchard! They also have one of the best minds in pro wrestling behind them in Don Callis who was recommended to Impacts owners by non other than AEW World Champion Chris Jericho!
I know I haven't covered a whole wave of other promotions such as Ring of Honor, MLW, CZW etc... But this is already a long article and I haven't spoken about the company that has been the alternative for the longest time. New Japan Pro Wrestling!
NJPW was the place to go for an alternative take on pro wrestling for a long time.
The fact that some of it's biggest names are in either WWE or help start AEW show's the influence NJPW has had in the wrestling world. The former home of Finn Balor, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Shinsuke Nakamura and The OC (Gallows, Anderson & AJ Styles).
So much great talent has left but NJPW still has mega stars like Kenta, Kota Ibushi, Jay White, Juice Robinson and the Bullet Club. NJPW may have lost some star power but it's still the bench mark for some of the best technical wrestling matches in history.
In conclusion it is the choice of what to watch that has created a golden age for the pro wrestling fan. The only question is what do I watch first?
Commenti