MickeyProWrestler's blog

“Nothing is as good as it used to be, and it never was. The “golden age of sports,” the golden age of anything, is the age of everyone’s childhood.”
― Ken Dryden, The Game

This statement by former NHL Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden is so true. So true in fact, that when I wrestle, I try to recreate what pro wrestling looked like to me when I was young. The look, the sounds, the feel, the mood, the emotions, I try to recreate what I saw when pro wrestling had heels and jobbers, squash matches on Saturday wrestling on tv, and larger than life personalities in wrestling.

Pro wrestling on tv and in arenas is very different now. It doesn't appeal to me at all. Some indy wrestling shows are closer to what pro wrestling used to look like. But those promotions are few. That doesn't mean that pro wrestling today is bad or isn't good, it's just, well, different from what I like to watch and the way it used to be. (thanks to Youtube I can watch classic pro wrestling as it used to be). But I can say that about a lot of things in life. It doesn't mean things are better now, or worse. And, I like a lot of things today in life compared to what they used to be. But if you're young, you will feel the same way about some things when you get to my age. It happens to all of us.

As Dryden says, we think things were better in that "golden age". Things weren't necessarily "better". It's just that we like some things the way they were, not necessarily as they are now.
As for pro wrestling, I used to watch it every Saturday on tv. There were 6 or 7 different wrestling shows that I used to watch, 2 or 3 from Canada and the rest from various parts of the U.S. All from different promoters, so they all had different wrestlers and territories. But they were all similar in the structure of the show. All featured mostly heels that were being promoted as "invincible", as they beat up on inexperienced "enhancement talent" "workers", or "jobbers". The heel would "squash" his opponent, and then usually be interviewed by the host. Other matches would feature a "face" or "good guy" wrestler, who would usually experience a brief moment of difficulty in his match, only to go on to a convincing victory, with the studio audience happy that he won.

After the match, the heel or jobber would be interviewed by the host, and they would play up the rivalry between the good guy face and the bad guy heel, setting up a big arena match in the near future. Usually there would be one or two feature matches on the tv card, to keep the fans interested and build up the rivalries.
Wrestlers back then came in all shapes and sizes, and experience was more important than physique. In a squash match, the experienced heel would use all kinds of dirty moves, and sneaky legal moves to take advantage of his lesser opponent. The matches would last 2-4 minutes with the heel easily beating his opponent, usually finishing him off with a signature move or submission hold. The heel would annoy the studio audience, and the fans would just eat it up, as they were part of the show, screaming and yelling at the heel the whole match.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. We all have things that we thought were better in our "Golden Age", and we all have things that we think are better today. It doesn't mean that anyone is right or wrong about these things, it just means that we value things differently at certain stages of our life.

For me, I happen to love classic pro wrestling, and always will.