Last week, while talking about tag team wrestling, I briefly mentioned cheating, and suggested it was a topic which required an article all of its own. This week, I hopefully deliver that article.
I am at an age where I can remember when wrestling from the UK was on our TV every Saturday, and it was big business. It would come from a town hall somewhere, and the audience would be a real mix, from kids right through to pensioners. Every match I can remember would be extremely similar, every story the same. Good Guy V Bad Guy, and it would be watched by millions.
Now stories were not built the way they are these days, all you really got were matches, so how did anyone know who to cheer? It was pretty straightforward, the heel had facial hair, and cheated, a lot. The face would cheat as well, but only after extreme provocation, and would always get caught. the heel seldom did.
Now wrestling in the UK had slightly different rules to its American counterpart, there would be no 5 count to let you know the ref was unhappy with your actions, if you were caught cheating, you got a public warning. You got two of those warnings, third strike you were out. The good guys would get caught EVERY time they cheated though, while the bad guys would only get caught after the ref had worked out what they had done ten times in a row, and caught them the eleventh time.
Now, those bad guys were hated. Giant Haystacks would get booed out the building every week. Rollerball Rocco got the same treatment, and sometimes these guys would be attacked by handbag wielding grandmothers. But the only way to tell the good guy from the bad guy was how often they were caught cheating, and that worked really well.
Fast forward a few years and American wrestling hit our screens. Apart from the five count v public warnings, things were basically the same. Wrestlers would cut promos, but it was what happened in the ring that distinguished the good from the bad. There were clear rules, and consequences if you were caught breaking them. So the bad guy would distract the ref, then cheat, and never get caught.
Personally, I think the public warning system works better, it gives more leeway and can add to the story of the match, but either system will work if the rules are applied, if the ref calls what he sees.
Rules can even be made for specific situations, WCW once declared the Jackknife Powerbomb to be illegal, just so the fans would want to see it more. Just meant we needed a ref bump first, and that could not happen in EVERY match. (this was pre Russo, ref bumps were quite rare.) It was a rule brought in by a heel authority figure, to prevent a face from using his signature move, so when he did get the chance and use it, the crowd went crazy for it.
ROH I believe currently has rules about throwing wrestlers over the top rope, WCW had a similar rule before them. The only reason for this is, again, to give wrestlers a rule to break, or it should be the only reason.
Nowadays what we have are rules that are never enforced. Sheamus has that ten beats move which has him club someone on the chest while in the ropes, the ref does not even bother with a long five count. Fighting outside the ring gets you a ten count, you need to be back in the ring before ten…. but only when the ref remembers about that rule.
Closed fist? that is fine. pulling hair? cool. Using a chair? apparently not cheating unless you actually brought the chair into the ring.
Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that refs are only doing what they are told, if they don’t disqualify someone, that is because this match just does not end that way. But wrestling NEEDS rules, and needs them to be applied. If you cant work round those rules, you are not really trying hard enough.
Commentators used to claim the ref was being more lenient in Championship matches, and that was as it should be. Any other sport where that would be the case?
Would the world Cup Final be better if there were no rules? Would boxing be better if Tyson had been allowed to bite ears off if the title was on the line? Would the superbowl be improved if one team brought their mates along to help against the other team? Would cricket be improved by… wait, yeah, cricket would be better if anything happened…EVER.
So why have the rules been relaxed so much?
That would be our fault. Our thirst for more and more pretend violence meant that those championship matches got more pretend violent. Those ECW chants let everyone know we want to see blood, we want to see chaos, we want to see boundaries expanded and envelopes pushed. So title matches had relaxed rules, and that spread to every match.
Now cheating is not only expected, it is guaranteed. Remember what Brock did to Big Show? Why did the ref not just ring the bell and start a ten count? Why was Santino allowed what was essentially a foreign object in every match? Any match booked by Russo… just why?
Now when fans see a count out, or disqualification, they boo. Because they see the same thing happen in ten other matches, and the match continues. Why count out these guys when you don’t count out others?
Cheating is a tool that is being ignored, and it is a tool that historically, created massive heat. Nowadays it goes unpunished 99% of the time. Bring back those rules, and enforce them. Make the heels be inventive and sneaky about cheating, and then let refs catch them doing it and give them the five count. Then make the ref look smart by catching them as soon as they try it again.
Have the face get caught pretty much every time he tries to cheat, have the ref stop him from throwing a punch, while allowing heels some leeway. Create an unfair environment, and give Cena even greater odds to overcome. Give us a sense of injustice, and give us heels people can hate.
Cheating has always been a big part of wrestling, and if done properly, can enhance the story telling. If it is done all the time, in every match, it devalues it to the point of insignificance, and that is a shame. When I was growing up, I saw pensioners go bright red with rage, shouting at the heel, and I miss that, and wrestling is not any better for the absence.
Now I need to go, I am past my deadline, although I blame the new job for that, so read the articles, listen to the shows, and DO NOT follow me on twitter @GrantCookDFC
Wee bit of reverse psychology there…or is it?
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