When Hulk Hogan defeated Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania 3, that catapulted Hogan from star to legend. Shawn Michaels famous ladder match with Razor Ramon, coupled with his amazing feuds with Kevin Nash and Brett Hart. Stone Cold becoming the fan favorite during his feud with Brett Hart, where he was supposed to be the heel, and the company getting out of the way and letting it happen gave way to Stone Cold mania. That and the fact that in his heyday Steve Austin would fight literally EVERYBODY. And the Undertaker became the legend, the phenom because of his incredible prowess, his massive physique, his commanding presence and the TRAIL OF BODIES HE LEFT IN HIS WAKE.
Casket matches. Inferno matches. Hell in the Cell matches. But it wasn’t just because he was feuding with the fan favorite of the week. He was fighting other legends. Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan, Kane, Brett Hart, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, the list goes on and on. But these victories had to mean something. Those legends got their status by the immense number of great matches they had, with opponents they defeated. And that brings us to the sad reality of creating legends and superstars in wrestling.
Someone has to lost. And to make a real superstar? Lots of people have to lose. Lots of matches need to be won to really create a star. Stars have to lose to other stars to create a superstar. And something momentous needs to happen to create a legend.
This means jobbers, midcarders, etc.
And with the current company model of “every WWE wrestler is a superstar” you’ve really just created an entire roster of midcarders.
Am I saying these wrestling aren’t great? No. Am I saying these wrestlers don’t deserve accolades? Not at all. But you can’t have a superstar when everyone is a superstar. That’s just not how it works.
Even by the mid-90s when their rival WCW was amassing an impressively large roster, WWF/WWE had trimmed down theirs to a very lean roster. (I remember several years when being Tag Team Champions means you beat the one or two other active tag teams still employed by the WWE.)
But even as Vince trimmed down the roster, you already had established superstars by then like Shawn Michaels, Brett Hart, Undertaker and others. Then Vince would use older stars (sometimes in awful ways) to boost his young and upcoming stars. (I think here of the incredibly terrible way Vince tore down the Legion of Doom to boost the New Age Outlaws.) And even then, you still had a lot of midcarders like Gangrel, Midion, Mabel, the members of the “gangs” of DOA, Los Boricuas, and everyone in the Nation of Domination that wasn’t Dwayne Johnson. So the superstars of that era would run around causing mayhem, beating up all the midcarders, so that when the superstars went toe to toe, it was a BIG DEAL. It meant something. Status was on the line, legacy. These are things a title match just can’t replace. A battle between John Cena and Dwayne Johnson was its own main event, no title involved.
Now, Vince still needs to hire an acting coach to really help his male wrestlers develop their personas. (I pick on the guys because the ladies are killing it right now. Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, Asuka. They’re doing it right already.) So yes, the wrestlers need to come up with personas that speak to the crowd. But they also need to distinguish themselves from the crowd. The formula has already been laid out for us.
But it’s not a quick fix. Vince can’t just bring Shawn Michaels and Kane back in to lose a few quick matches to catapult a new ‘superstar’. This will need to be built up over the course of a year or more. There need to be a handful of wrestlers that have the charisma (I’m sorry Roman Reigns, I really like you, you’re just not “the guy.”), the presence, and the free reign to wreck the shop from week to week so they are standing on top of a pile of human rubble. So that the next superstar that does the same has something to lose when these two juggernauts collide. That’s how you create superstars. That’s how you create champions that have a legacy. That’s how a wrestler gets ‘all the way over’.
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