Ask the Editor Ask the Editor: Wouldn't incorporating MMA-style holds into pro wrestling matches just be trying to be something it's not? May 20, 2008 - 10:33:55 AM

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By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

The following Q&A is from the PWTorch VIP Forum where PWTorch editor Wade Keller interacts with VIP members on a regular basis. You can submit a question via email for a future Ask the Editor article to pwtorch@gmail.com. Just include in the subject line "Ask the Editor" and the subject of the question...

Nutshell asks: Wade, I know that for a quite some time you have been in favour of the idea that wrestlers and promotors should look to incorporate more MMA style moves and holds into their shows, but do you not think that there is a danger in trying to fuse these two styles that wrestling will come of as a fake, inferior UFC-lite that will be ridiculed for trying to be something that its not.

Apart from a few younger fans, I doubt that there is anyone who doesn't realise that wrestling is scipted so what is the benefit in trying to make it look more realistic. Are you going to convince MMA fans to watch and spend money on the product - I doubt it since if they are MMA fans they will want to watch the real thing. If anything you are more likely to try to drive wrestling fans towards MMA.

Also if you start making wrestling more realistic, then the in-ring product will need to undergo a complete overhaul. A more realistic style will mean that almost all high spots will have to go (because they are not realistic), simple things like an Irish Whip will have to go - Matches will be won with an Orton-style headlock because realistically that would win most fights.

A more serious, realistic in ring style brings comparisons to UFC and other MMA organisations and wrestling is unlikely to come of well in these comparisons.

I know Eric Bischoffs book was less than perfect but one thing he said has stuck with me - (talking about rival organisations) -"you can be a) better than them, b) worse than them or c) different from them". Even the best booked realistic style wrestling match will always be worse than a real fight because no matter how well it is performed the inescapable fact is that it is scripted.

WADE KELLER REPLIES

I think there is a way to switch away from moves such as a lazily applied headlock where the victim can easily obviously escape and the moves they've shifted to over the last year where they're wrapping their legs around the victim and the victim is struggling to get out. That's what I'm talking about. I'm also talking about adding some variety to the submission holds, which they've also done. In fact, I think they've come a long way over the last year in deliberately improving the style. It seems more than half of the wrestlers are on board in cutting out the overly simple mat holds.

I was never in favor of making pro wrestling seem real; I wanted it to seem more interesting. I believe wrestling is more interesting to watch if you're not reminded unnecessarily of it being fake. But I've always said dating back to my original newsletter column on this subject last year that I would not eliminate highspots. This is not advocating a UWFI style. What I've always said it eliminate the highspots that are the most fake looking and stick with the ones that are both exciting and plausible. There are so many moves and holds to choose from, only unimaginative, lazy-minded wrestlers would resort to a move that is both fake looking and boring.

As for convincing viewers pro wrestling is real, that will never happen obviously. The goal, though, like a good action-adventure movie, is to not unnecessarily remind people by jarring them out of their suspension of disbelief. If there's a boom mic dangling above the action-heroes head due to bad editing, that's not being "different" in the way Bischoff meant; it's being shoddy. That mic didn't add to the scene; it took away from it. My point is to remove "boom mic" moves and tighten up and diversify the mat holds. If a hold works in MMA and has been established as a finishing hold, why not use that in pro wrestling instead of a fake-looking hold that every viewer can imagine getting out of themselves if they just do "this or that"?

Ironically, the Randy Orton headlock is the perfect example of what I mean, and it does not win fights - not against experienced, well-trained fighters. It might hold someone down in a street fight who might cry uncle, but it's not a common hold in MMA the way Orton applies it because it'd be easily escaped. The good news is it seems wrestlers in WWE, TNA, and ROH are all advancing the style and clearly incorporating MMA-style exchanges into the best of traditional pro wrestling exchanges. My argument has always been to skim the most unrealistic moves off the top, the most boring moves off the bottom, and instead choose from the 10 billion options wrestlers have that are both somewhat realistic and still exciting/compelling/convincing.

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