Why is there a reliance on older superstars/wrestlers?

Many who watch wrestling will look at older stars and say “what on earth are they doing?”, “They can’t wrestle..” and sometimes when you see an older athlete, for example to see an old, withered, Ric Flair bleed with nothing more than tights trunks or his boxer shorts on national television it’s more than enough to make you turn over the television to something more pleasant to say the least. But it begs the question? Why are there still people over fifty in the ring, competing? There is a saying in wrestling that if you don’t like it, lump it, but how can watching a man, or a group of men old enough to be your grandfathers getting destroyed in a wrestling ring enjoyable? More to the point, why do the bookers book it? What is there to gain from it, and what as viewers is there to gain from it?

Recently TNA (Total Nonstop Action – For some wrestling newbies) television has been invaded by a wave of the old guard. In October 2009, after years of success with X-Division (High flying, death defying) and Knockout (Women) competitors, TNA president Dixie Carter announced that Hulk Hogan would be joining TNA, and would be making his TV debut on January 4^th 2010. Hogan is a worldwide name, one of the most popular names in the world in fact, but was born in 1953 (Making him 57 for those who can’t quite add up). Hogan has had countless surgeries throughout his illustrious career, and nobody can deny it, Hogan made wrestling mainstream. As wrestling fans we ‘should’ be indebted to the Hulkster and his yellow and red rise of pro wrestling in the late 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s, which has made pro wrestling what it is today, but that’s what Hogan made it, and unfortunately for some he is still make that same history, but is what Hogan doing now going to further the business, or hold backs its very future? Hogan made his name in the WWF and WCW where he became a twelve time world champion, six times in each federation. He is famous for the red and yellow of WWF, his slam heard round the world against Andre, his WrestleMania heroics (And downfalls, against the Ultimate Warrior at WM XII) most proximately, and in WCW for his monumental heel turn and being the leader of the most famous wrestling faction of all time; the nWo. With that said, he has already passed the torch, he made it possible for companies to get exposure, but what the hell is he still doing in the business? What business does he have with TNA, a company which once prided itself on the young, rising stars such as AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Kazarian, who all now play second fiddle to Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff and Hogan within the company.

Hogan, along with Flair can no longer wrestle, wrestling fans don’t want to see it, but we got it anyway. After the painstaking January 4^th TNA Impact, where the fans in Orlando, Florida (Where TNA film their shows) where chanting “bullshit” in the very first match over a decision to have a DQ in a cage match should say it all. That night Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, X-Pac, Sting and a host of older talent stole the show. The one thing fans will remember though was the brilliant, five star, world class match between AJ Styles (c) and Kurt Angle for the TNA World Championship. The point being, Hogan can’t wrestle, others like Kevin Nash can barely wrestle, Sting has little and less desire each year to wrestle, Scott Hall just ends back up in rehab every time he returns to the ring. One suspicion is that those booking (Bookers are those that write the shows, script the matches, organise the shows and decide the winners from the losers) federations have little or no interest in current superstars and storylines, and they are closely aligned to the stars of yesteryear and know their capabilities to entice and draw a crowd. Wrestling is still about selling and making a profit, so having the names such as Hogan on your payroll will win you a bigger TV contract, video game deals, more interest in the company, more investors and with the big names from the past, more fans, right?.. Well no, not really. In this case, in 2010 TNA has on average got worse ratings than the same show was getting three years ago, when they still cared about the younger stars and heavily on the women.

However, don’t think I’m being biased. The WWE brought back Bret Hart the same night as Hogan returned, and heavily relied on old star power at WrestleMania XXVI to sell their biggest show of the year, headlined by Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker (A match which also happened at the previous Wrestlemania). Older wrestlers it appears have leverage in companies and can dictate their own future’s at the younger talents expenses. A look at WrestleMania winners this year will prove this point. In his match with Triple H, how much bigger would Sheamus be if he had defeated the King of Kings? Ring of Honour (A smaller, still independent based promotion, who have a contract on HDNet in the US) also have fallen victim to this trend. ROH appointed cash strapped Ric Flair as their ambassador and promoted shows around Flair over hugely promising talent such as Tyler Black, Nigel McGuiness and Bryan Danielson.

Another key concept is money. In the case of Hogan he had gone through a pricy divorce with former wife, Linda, so many would argue Hogan jumped  on the TNA bandwagon to promote his newly published book and leach off a prospering company, the same can be said for Flair and Bret Hart. Bookers know that if an older star is desperate they can have them on their books for even cheaper, so why shouldn’t bookers have the services of proven crowd-drawer Hulk Hogan for half price?

However this over reliance on old stars in mainly American companies is damaging the state of the wrestling product. TNA Knockouts Division, the very best women’s division in the world were only paying top stars such as Gail Kim and Awesome Kong (A proven TV draw for audiences) between $200-$400 per appearance not including travel and expenses such as car rental, whereas ex WWE cast-off Mr. Anderson is reportedly paid $2100 per appearance, covering expenses, and Anderson isn’t even an established main event superstar. Needless to say the women demanded a small pay increase, and TNA declined, thus losing two of their top stars in the process. Not only were Kong and Kim proven crowd pleasers, but the signings of older stars like Hogan, Flair, and modern, costly expenses Anderson and Jeff Hardy in TNA has actually decreased viewership around the world, making the cheque books unbalanced, destabilising wrestling further.

But it’s not all negative towards older stars. That’s all that’s been talked about. What about the new stars? The so called rising stars, where are they? That’s basically the point. No one has stepped up to the plate to the level of a Hogan, or has the leverage in management like a Bret Hart in any federation to change it. Stars of today are either not pushing their weight or actually cruising off the benefits stars from the Attitude Era (Mid 90’s – Early 2000’s) or are being purposely kept back by the older talent, just because they don’t want their own name tarnished. For me, the biggest let-down is that older stars believe they are actually watchable on television to the extent they were. Pay-Per-View buy-rates might disagree, but ask anybody what the most watchable stars in pro-wrestling are, and they will bring up names such as The Motor City Machineguns, Generation Me, Wade Barrett, Evan Bourne, Bryan Danielson, Tyler Black, The Briscoe Brothers, Yugi Nagata, Kurt Angle and Rey Mysterio just to name a few. If you’re a regular viewer, you’ll know the pain of watching an old star, but yes it is good to see them in the show in some format, but in the ring... No, no.

Will the wrestling audience be lost without the old names floating about, no? Will the older stars be respected as they should? Do viewers laugh at Ric Flair, of course, sometimes his lines are hilarious, but we live in a different time, a different generation, and there is a new audience as the WWE have found out with their PG programming. We always want to watch something new, its simple evolution. New over the long run, in this case in wrestling is better. I’m not saying that all change is good; some change like Robbie E. is bad, but hey at least it is something I can say will keep me in the chair longer than it will for Hulk Hogan to wipe his own ass, or until that mental image is firmly implanted in your heads. That way, wrestling in late 2010 will get its chance to breathe a new golden age, before it’s too late, and we have to sit through the “Same old shit” like John Cena winning the world title at the granddaddy of them all for the next ten years running.

Robert Austin

“In Ring Issues”