What came first, the boom or the A+?
By Scott Keith on November 6, 2013
Hi Scott. Forgive the rambling nature of this question but it needs a bit of explaining.
The "Who is A+ in history?" conversation has got me thinking. The only two unanimous choices were Hogan and Austin, with everyone from Rock, to Flair, to Sammartino to Cena argued down by plenty of people. The closest anyone got to being a third A+ player was Savage. Now, that's interesting.
I love Savage, and he had plenty of great matches, promos, title runs etc to justify the choice. Having said that, he normally comes below the likes of Flair, HBK and Bret when you're talking about the best ever. So why are we so quick to say he was one of those icons that is so far above everyone else?
My opinion on that is we think to be "A+" you have to transcend the business, and be one of those guys that every man in the street knows. You say 'pro wrestling' to someone who doesn't watch it, and they could talk about guys like Hogan, Austin, Savage, Undertaker and so on. But to me, that's just because these were the top guys during wrestling's boom periods (Rock 'n' Wrestling, and Attitude). So that got me thinking more.
Here's my point: We always give Hogan credit for the first mega-mainstream boom in the mid-80s, and Austin similar props for carrying the company to the same stature (and even more profit) in the late-90s. Sure, those two personalities were a big catalyst in that, and no-one's arguing their ability/success. But what if it was more to do with the fact that they happened to be the #1 guy when the company as a whole was getting it right?
Rock 'n' Wrestling and Attitude were the only two eras I can remember when WWF/WWE landed in terms of connecting with pop culture. In the times when their perception of what the people wanted was wrong (the family-friendly stuff in the post-Hogan period, the same-old pro-wrestling formula in the mid-to-late-2000s), it didn't matter which guys were at the top of the card, they were never going to sell more t-shirts than Hulk or Stone Cold. Sadly, the nearest they've come to getting their finger on the pulse of modern culture since Attitude finished is probably the Total Divas stuff now.
So, my hypothesis: People like Rock and Cena had all the tools to be just as A+ – if not more so – than Hogan and Austin, but were never going to get there while the product was what it was (I'm qualifying Rock in that statement by saying his peak should have come a few years after Austin's, when he went the movie route). And until wrestling can get to that place again where it is culturally relevant and even somewhere on the 'cool' scale, we'll not get another A+ guy.
Apologies for the length and depth of that. I will enjoy being shouted down in the comments section.
pbreathing
In what universe is Rock not an A+ guy?!? I don't even get the argument against it!
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