What makes a popular Pro Wrestler?

‘Hey Dad,’ I asked, “Have you ever heard of Daniel Bryan?” He shook his head and continued singing the Neil Diamond song I brought up on Spotify. “What about CM Punk?” “Who? What is this, a survey? I don’t give a damn,”. In defense of my dad’s Pro Wrestling knowledge, his frame of reference is essentially teasing me about “how fake it all is” during my middle school days. The joke was on him, of course, as the fakeness he was teasing me about cost him somewhere in the neighborhood forty dollars U.S.  depending on which PPV that was hogging the TV on Sunday nights.  “What about Hulk Hogan?” “Yess of course,” he paused.  “Don’t go putting me into whatever it is you’re doing,”. Oops

Personally, I consider myself a pro-wrestling aficionado. I’ve always loved the business, the product, the figure-skating esque, largely improvised programs workers put on night-in and night-out. I’m by no means an expert, but I like the wrestling for the, well, wrestling. My Dad doesn’t like it at all.  


“Stone Cold?” Dad nods. “The Rock?”  “Yeah,”.  “John Cena?” He grunted a negatory.  “Triple H?” He had a vague recollection.  “Vince McMahon?” “Thats the manager guy, right?”. He’s probably heard these names peripherally. But in terms of “The Business” getting a fifty year old man who drives a truck to know who these people are is probably as close to a brass ring you’re going to get from non-fans. If you get a pro wrestler’s name and likeness to occupy space in a non-fan’s brain, you’ve probably done something right.

He’s never heard of Shawn Michaels, nor does he particularly care about *any* of these people, but it’s interesting none-the-less. As he took over the music that was playing, demanding I play Tina Turner because “It’s his house too” I had something of an epiphany.

Larger than life is where it’s at. If you want to break through in pro-wrestling,  It’s a combination of look, charisma, and a memorable name. I’ve heard of Tina Turner, but don’t particularly care about her, but I know what she looks like, a couple of her songs, and remember Ike Turner used to beat the crap out of her.  If she was on TV, maybe I’d pause to see what she was doing. Much like Dad would if he saw “The Rock” on Leno.

Unfortunately, unless you know what you’re already a fan, whether or not any of these people are good wrestlers is a moot point, because you won’t care about a match until you care about a wrestler. This is probably why WWE trots out The Great Khali every so often. This is why The Big Show gets a push. This is why it Brodus Clay’s entrance is longer than his matches.  If you manage to catch, four or five non-fan’s eye with something out of the ordinary, you may make a fan out of one, then they may give a damn about the product.

Which is why pro-wrestling is kind of sucky for us hardcore fans at the moment. WWE probably knows it needs something to cling on too, and ride into the ground, and is probably the main reason for the generally inconsistent nature of the product these days. They need *something* to hitch their wagon too. People who sing the praises Zack Ryder or bemoan why current U.S Champion Santino isn’t being used properly, are, more or less, going to watch wrestling because they’re already fans.

So, unfortunately, until WWE finds “The Next Big Thing” (It’s not Brock Lesnar, though it’s a start and the sort of thing that will bring WWE into the frame of reference of non-fans), we’ll have to take what we can get, which is some great workers that put on great matches, but are never *really* given the ball to run with, simply because no one outside of the WWE universe has heard of them.
 
One last question for Dad, though.  “Kevin Nash?”  “Is that the tall guy with the good hair?”