BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) CROWD CHANTS
I really think most people sleep on this. The chants of a wrestling crowd have shown up in other sports. The dueling chants, the loud loud pops, the boos, the gasps, “she’s a crack whore!”, “you fucked up!”, “this is awesome”, “please don’t die!”, “holy shit!” and all the random chants are great. I’ve sat in arenas for other sports, but a 100 wrestling fans chanting and popping is way cooler than 10,000 fans at a hockey game or baseball game. It’s that electricity and interactive togetherness.
(THREE) LOSER LEAVES TOWN
They always come back. In wrestling they have a long running tradition of “loser leaves town matches”. It’s when a rivalry and feud go to that extreme point. Typically, a wrestler is leaving, hurt, or contract is up. So they have a “loser leaves match”. The loser leaves and is banished from the company. They seem to always come back though. Shawn Michaels is probably the only guy to do it right so far. Even then, anything is possible.
(TWO) CONSISTENCY
Every week, wrestling IS there. RAW is on Monday. Smackdown is on Friday. These are things we can rely on on a consistent basis. Pro Wrestling isn’t a sport where folks care about stats, it’s an ongoing story. The story goes on and on. It’s always there and is dependable. I can honestly say that Monday Night RAW was a crucial part in the structure of my upbringing. No matter what, RAW is on Mondays. Over the years it became less “must see” for me, but it’s there. It’s always there.
(ONE) CAGE MATCHES
The old school WWF cage was awesome. It was a big metal structure with big open spaces. NWA, WCW, ECW, and later WWE would use the normal cage. The normal cage is made up of a steel frame, but covered with mesh fence. It’s sold as “no one can enter, no one can leave” and it’s a great spectacle. There are seriously only like three cage matches I can think of that are really great off the top of my head. It’s the “in the moment” excitement and the big spots that make these matches so special. The ones where they end with someone climbing over and escaping are the best. The anticipation is what makes it. You can put two horrible wrestlers in a cage and still get a horrible match… but hey, it’s in a cage! It’s like pizza and sex.
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