Post by HMARK Center on Jul 7, 2017 22:50:45 GMT -5
This thought hit me recently while listening to some discussions about The Elite, though mainly the Young Bucks:
Obviously, the Bucks have long been labeled "spot monkeys", and they will certainly roll with the jokes on that front. Yet for all of the complaining by some concerning a lack of in-ring psychology, the Buck have actually become pretty damn good, at least in my opinion, at telling stories with their matches. As the most recent example, the G1 Special match against Roppongi Vice had the simple story of the build-up to "the greatest Meltzer Driver of all time", which doubled as both a tribute to Dave Meltzer's recently deceased father and as a big part of the send off of RPG Vice as they hit their end as a team (including the Bucks kicking out of their Strong-Zero finisher). Each match also tried to work in some details of the previous matches the teams have had going back to Wrestle Kingdom this past January, so the conclusion would carry some of that history.
Now clearly the Bucks' matches still often revolve around slick moves, rapid movement and combos, and the "Do something crazy!" call they'll make sometimes. Yet despite all that they still manage to tell those stories, plus they play up their characters to the hilt, speaking, acting, and reacting to things as their characters should.
Still, you'll hear some say that the lack of slower-paced matches on their part and the actual match structures disqualify them from being a team that could be considered ring-psychologically-sound. Is this a fair thing to say? Are some a bit stuck in the mindset of traditional "work a limb" or "get the hot tag" psychology, or is there a problem in losing sight of some of those concepts too much? Does one work better in one promotion/country, one better in another?
Basically I'm curious what everybody thinks of this, especially as international wrestling starts to gain a stronger and stronger foothold in foreign markets, e.g. how the US is now getting more exposure than ever to puro via NJPW, lucha via Lucha Underground, and even UK-style wrestling via the boom across the Atlantic, or as Japanese audiences get to watch full CMLL shows on NJPW World, things like that. Each culture and type of wrestling seems to come with its own style of storytelling and psychology, and it's interesting to watch people who are more used to, say, US style wrestling get exposed to something different and come to grips with the reaction they have. Do you have a style preference? Do you want to see some promotions work in the psychology or storytelling style used in another a bit more? Is there potentially a one-size-fits-all approach (I'm speaking overly simplistically here) that could possibly work?
tl;dr - ITT we discuss what makes for good psychology, storytelling, and character in professional wrestling matches.
Obviously, the Bucks have long been labeled "spot monkeys", and they will certainly roll with the jokes on that front. Yet for all of the complaining by some concerning a lack of in-ring psychology, the Buck have actually become pretty damn good, at least in my opinion, at telling stories with their matches. As the most recent example, the G1 Special match against Roppongi Vice had the simple story of the build-up to "the greatest Meltzer Driver of all time", which doubled as both a tribute to Dave Meltzer's recently deceased father and as a big part of the send off of RPG Vice as they hit their end as a team (including the Bucks kicking out of their Strong-Zero finisher). Each match also tried to work in some details of the previous matches the teams have had going back to Wrestle Kingdom this past January, so the conclusion would carry some of that history.
Now clearly the Bucks' matches still often revolve around slick moves, rapid movement and combos, and the "Do something crazy!" call they'll make sometimes. Yet despite all that they still manage to tell those stories, plus they play up their characters to the hilt, speaking, acting, and reacting to things as their characters should.
Still, you'll hear some say that the lack of slower-paced matches on their part and the actual match structures disqualify them from being a team that could be considered ring-psychologically-sound. Is this a fair thing to say? Are some a bit stuck in the mindset of traditional "work a limb" or "get the hot tag" psychology, or is there a problem in losing sight of some of those concepts too much? Does one work better in one promotion/country, one better in another?
Basically I'm curious what everybody thinks of this, especially as international wrestling starts to gain a stronger and stronger foothold in foreign markets, e.g. how the US is now getting more exposure than ever to puro via NJPW, lucha via Lucha Underground, and even UK-style wrestling via the boom across the Atlantic, or as Japanese audiences get to watch full CMLL shows on NJPW World, things like that. Each culture and type of wrestling seems to come with its own style of storytelling and psychology, and it's interesting to watch people who are more used to, say, US style wrestling get exposed to something different and come to grips with the reaction they have. Do you have a style preference? Do you want to see some promotions work in the psychology or storytelling style used in another a bit more? Is there potentially a one-size-fits-all approach (I'm speaking overly simplistically here) that could possibly work?
tl;dr - ITT we discuss what makes for good psychology, storytelling, and character in professional wrestling matches.
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