I was watching the WWE Macho Madness Ultimate collection stream on Netflix. The VERY FIRST MATCH showed Savage vs. Quick Draw Mcgraw. I had no idea who the challenger was. It's possible he was a huge name and I somehow missed it based solely on my age. But man. I was getting so into that match by the end. The suplex onto the concrete had me put my hand over my mouth and say. "Ooooh!!". Now this is a guy I have never seen, but I was still invested in the match. I didn't know who would win. I actually cringed and had an emotional reaction to the outcome. So my question is, why the hell can't the WWE make me do that today? Is it pacing? Is it talent? I didn't know the other guy. He could have been a jobber for all I knew and yet I cared. has the WWE lost something? If they have can you name what they've lost?
Rick "Quick Draw" McGraw was pretty great, dude. He would have been a player in the midcard for a long time if he didn't self-destruct in spectacular fashion.
But yeah, it's a totally different product now. I know we always make fun of how they're "telling stories" and stuff, but that's really what their focus is on now, not crafting professional wrestling matches. Having a great match is considered to be a pleasant side-benefit to increasing ratings or getting your character over these days. And the thing is, the more removed from that generation we get, the less guys are going to have that connection to those who can train them to recapture it. Dolph Ziggler for the longest time was like someone doing an imitation of Curt Hennig without understanding WHY the big bumps were so effective when Perfect did them. It's like the young guys now are doing imitations of stuff they remember from their childhood, but they've got no one to show them how to do it. That's what's lost, I'd say.