By Jim Valley, PWTorch contirbutor

We all did it. Mick Foley did it. So did Buddy Rose, Bill Apter, and The Hardys. If you are reading this, you probably pretended to be a pro wrestler with your friends, brothers, or your poor sister. I'm not talking about backyard wrestling. That's different. Depending on your age, you were Buddy Rogers, Jack Brisco, Dusty Rhodes, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin,The Rock, Rey Mysterio, or John Cena. Me? I was Roddy Piper.

At this point, I should type the obligatory "KIDS, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME." But it may not be necessary. A new study says fans don't relate to wrestlers today like we did when we were kids.

The University of Kansas surveyed 400 WWE fans about what compels them to follow pro wrestling. Why would an actual college do that? According to the leader of the study, there was no research on the motivation of wrestling fans. No cure for Ebola; but now I know why you watch wrestling.

The number one reason you watch? New storylines and characters, followed by the wrestlers' athleticism, and the "enjoyment of physical aggression." Since I'm not writing a book, I'm going to leave that last one alone.

What's interesting is that, according to these findings, you don't watch wrestling to live vicariously through the wrestlers. You don't want to be Dolph Ziggler or Seth Rollins. Why would you? I've been watching them for years and I don't know who they are. I know Ziggler is a "Show Off" who wears 1980s Miami Vice colors, I know he moves around the ring quickly and he goes on extended losing streaks. That's pretty much it. How can I be emotionally invested in Ziggler if I can't relate to him?

I know Dean Ambrose is crazy, but that is about it. Randy Orton hears voices in his head. All the members of the former Wyatt Family are also unstable. Even the Daniel Bryan character was crazy for a time. In WWE you are either crazy, power hungry, or John Cena. That's pretty much it.

WWE has five hours of original programming each week and virtually no character development. When Andre the Giant feuded with Jake Roberts in 1989, fans learned Andre had a fear of snakes. It added a wrinkle to the feud, gave The Giant a weakness, and Jake a chance of actually winning. Today, a feud doesn't reveal anything new about a character unless you are The Guy.

No wonder the kids love John Cena. He's the only WWE character that is well defined and relatable (muscularity, good looks, and strong merchandise sales don't hurt either).

People clamor for the Attitude Era, I think this study shows that it wasn't about middle fingers and your candy ass. It was about relatable characters who did and said the things you wanted to do but couldn't. The Rock is so cool who wouldn't want to be him?

The next time you drive around your neighborhood, look around. I bet you don't see many kids pretending to be Dolph Ziggler. They may know who he is, but not why they should care about him.

-LINK TO UNIVERSITY STUDY

RANDOM THOUGHTS...

It only took a guy on Vine a week to do something WWE couldn't do in 11 years: make people care about Randy Orton. You've probably seen the 6-second videos of Orton transposed onto real life videos of people falling. Maybe WWE could Tout about that... To the people who think squash matches should come back as a staple of wrestling programming: If that's a good idea, why don't shows like Superstars, Main Event, and even NXT have a place on an actual TV Network? Or why do PPV events with fewer stars or boring match ups not draw well? What about house shows? How come they rarely sell out. Answer those questions and you will have your answer why regular squash matches would be a ratings and financial disaster...

EMAIL JIM VALLEY AT valleytorch@gmail.com.

(Professional broadcaster Jim Valley is a long-time wrestling fan, PWTorch subscriber, and currently PWTorch Livecast guest host and now a PWTorch.com editorialist. He won a National Edward R. Murrow Award and several regional awards during his 20 year broadcast career. He has done TV announcing for several independent wrestling promotions, hosted his own wrestling radio show, interviewed many top stars, and was flown out to Stamford to audition for WWE. He took second to Todd Grisham. His Attitude Era "Total Chaos" wrestling radio show is currently being featured on PWTorch.com's VIP membership website, with new episodes added each month.)

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