First and foremost, while I am still a regular viewer of both TNA and WWE wrestling, the reason is not because wrestling is one of the most enjoying shows on television right now. I've watched wrestling since I was a kid and fell in love with it because of a few guys like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Razor Ramon, Mr Perfect and the Ultimate Warrior. Some of you might be thinking, not Hulk Hogan?. To be honest I never liked Hogan and I don't know why, but I didn't actually like Hogan until his days in the N.W.O as a bad guy.

Regardless of who I liked or didn't like I was drawn into wrestling as a fan by most of the names mentioned and most of them were good technical wrestlers. Although back than if you were a real good technical wrestler it didn't always matter, as the Warrior, Hogan and Psycho Sid, back in the early 90's when I really started watching it regularly were some of the most popular wrestlers. Warrior was probably my favorite because he had such a powerful, intense and rocking entrance like no one other at that time and the fact that he was different than any other superstar the character itself won me over.

Wrestling back than had a lot to do with gimmicks and if you had a good one, whether or not you were a good wrestler, you had a good chance of getting over with the crowd and becoming a star or rising star. On that note, let me point out that, that was than and this is now. These days a good or even great gimmick won't get you over if you can't step it up and compete within that ring. Truth be told us wrestling fan's have become quite wiser and more knowledgeable about what wrestling really is and what use to be is no more and is no longer something that can be done or used to attract us to a wrestling show/program.

The flat out truth is, the majority of wrestling fans today appreciate a good technical wrestler and a good all around wrestling match more so than a good gimmick. Simple examples have been when the WWE tried so hard to put over the Boogeyman and every time it failed, because fans just weren't into it, or when they brought back Goldust and fans just didn't care for his character anymore. Although it's not just that the fans weren't into the ridiculous gimmick of a guy who eats worms or someone who takes a deep breath wearing tight queer looking golden ring attire while touching himself in a disturbing sexual way, both men weren't very good as far in ring ability goes.

So while we are on the note of myself and other fans wanting to see more “wrestling”, when I tune into to watch TNA or the WWE, I often ask myself, why is that wrestler even on the show?. Sometimes I get so frustrated seeing certain wrestlers that I change the channel immediately and go back later or just feel like spitting at the television(although more than likely option is my choice every time).

Guys in which I am speaking of are guys like The Big Show, Chris Masters, Mark Henry, The Great Kali, Mike Knox Kane(although read my article on “Kane Reborn” and I think he can actually be something exciting again) that are in the WWE. In TNA guys like Jesse Neal, Rhino, Brutus Magnus, Kip James and Scott Steiner/Nash(only when either wrestle, they are good on the Mic). Truth be told when I see any of these guys on either show, I ask myself what are the bookers thinking?. None of these guys can offer us as fans a good quality wrestling match and yet they are given a push above guys who can. If this were 10-15 years ago this might be acceptable, but no more. Plain and simple I am tired of watching guys wrestle that just bore me the whole time they are in the ring.

Before I move on I want to just mention that sometimes I do see exceptions for certain guys who don't have quality wrestling skills, still being on a show. Examples are guys like The Miz, Batista, Santino Marella, Sting, Team 3D, Matt Morgan to name a few. The Miz, Marello and Matt Morgan are all entertaining on the microphone and have shown improvement in the ring. While Sting, Batista and Team 3D are established wrestler's that I see being able to still offer something to their companies, especially if they are used to put over younger wrestler's and help build rising stars.

Before I move on to my last topic for this particular column I just want to say that I tune in every week hoping to see not just one or two, but at least three or four good all around wrestling matches on any wrestling show and when I see anything less I'm disappointed and in a sense feel as if my 2 hours of viewing was a complete waste. Sometimes there are more than two good matches and sometimes there isn't. All in all if there are no more than two good wrestling matches on a show, I'm normally left disappointed and it's just not good enough or acceptable enough to give me my wrestling fix. She never want more feeling disappointed, but wanting more because what you saw you just so exciting that you watch it for hours on end.

Moving on beyond the fact that we want to see more wrestling and less gimmicks. I speak for myself and as I have conversed with other wrestling fans, I believe I am speaking for the majority of fans when I say there are many other things that need to either disappear from wrestling or be used quite less in order to make a wrestling show a more enjoyable program. Let run through those things briefly.

Outside interference in matches: I personally feel this is not something that should be used as frequent as it is. It can be useful at times, but I rather see more uninterrupted matches with an actual ending that doesn't result in either a disqualification or an unclean win. TNA tends to do this more often and I can't stand it ruining the end of the match not giving us any type of closure. As I said it can be used to set the tone sometimes, but should only be used on occasionally. If you really think about it , the less interference you see the more they will mean when it actually happens. If I were a booker of any show do something like a long the lines of if you interfere in a match you get an automatic suspension for say 1 week, you do it again a month and again the months(so on...). That way if a wrestler does it you know there is a good reason behind it, why else would they take a suspension. Either way suspension or not suspension I rather see less of this.

Clean finished matches: This goes some what hand in hand with the outside interference, but I want to see more clean finishes in matches. I hate when wrestler's win because another helps them, again especially when it's a frequent thing. Why is it if your a heel you have to cheat to win or need to help to do so?. It's unrealistic in many ways for the simple fact that, can a wrestler who is a bad guy still be a bad guy and out wrestle his opponent for the reason on that night he wrestled better than his opponent or is a better wrestle in general than his opponent? If I dislike a wrestle for being a good heel, I'm going to dislike whether he has to cheat to win. Also why is it that only heels cheat?, Wouldn't it be cool to see a face cheat every now and than? Again this is a new era of wrestling some things can and should change, I think this is another.

10 minute matches: In particular this is TNA more so, but WWE does do it too. I don't mind short matches and I understand that each company tries to get all their wrestler's on a show on weekly basis, but I am tired of seeing short matches. TNA puts on a lot of good matches on Impact but everyone is ten minutes or less, it annoys me especially when they have two very talented wrestler's fighting, because I want to see more. I see this good only if they are going to put them against each other at near future pay per view, because than it's necessary tease that makes you want more and your going to get it, otherwise it's just an annoying tease. How about less matches with longer limits, and the guys that don't wrestle can do short segments either taped or in ring. Like 2(15 min) matches with a (20-30min) main event match and the rest is in ring segments and taped segments to build up pay per views. This can be done in a way of say one week it's Daniels vs Joe in a match on Impact, the following week they both do segments and do wrestle while Hernandez fights Eric Young who both the following week don't wrestle but do some sort of segment/interview. I think the less you see people wrestle on a regular basis, the more you will want to see them come pay per view time or the occasional time they wrestle on Impact. On top of that I think this will bring more value to house shows cause you are seeing guys wrestle you don't see on a regular basis and it might make people value a house a little more.

Lack of fan support: I know either wrestling show will not be able to determine what the fan reaction's are going to be, but as I have watched wrestling over the years I've seen such loud reactions for guys like The Rock, Stone Cold, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Taker etc. I remember watching the Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan back in the day come out and fans went absolutely nuts, whether or not I liked the wrestler who is getting cheered the electricity in the fan reaction itself got me into the show even more and either caused me to like the guy more or hate him more. I disliked Hogan and it pissed me off that fans cheer even more so that I wanted him to lose more, as opposed to the Ultimate Warrior who I loved so his fan support did the opposite. Even seeing a heel get booed so badly was exciting to see and you fed off the boos and either loved to see the guy booed or didn't.

With this all being said, I can't remember the last time I've actually seen crowd reactions that I'm talking about. There is still fan reaction, but its not the same and maybe the reason is simply for the fact that, that a particular star that excites the fans that way has yet to be built or maybe wrestling needs an approach like UFC has, where you don't always see the same guys wrestle week in and week out, because the less you see them the more you will want to see them or will value the time you do see them a little more. So when they wrestle, because of the longer wait, the fans will be more excited to see the wrestler and it may cause a louder reaction. Either way I miss the reactions from the fans where you can't hear anything but the boos or the cheers throughout the arena so loud that you can sometimes barely even hear their theme music in the background.

Gimmick matches: I don't mind the here and there gimmick match but again when they are used to frequently as opposed to rarely it doesn't make the match mean much because its been done before and it's nothing new and exciting. If it's matches of the sort(ladder, steel cage/hell in the cell, brawl, submission, last man standing etc.) were used rarely than it would make the match itself more special and meaningful to watch.

Thanks for reading my perspective and I hope you all enjoyed another edition of the whole scoop.

Please feel free to email with any comments at andrew_vincent@live.com
till next time wrestling fans,
God speak and have a great week!