Last night’s WCPW show was good right up to the end which was…disappointing. The group I watched with ended the evening seriously discussing whether to cancel our Whatculture Extra subscriptions and turned it into an overnight on video games.
It was fine up until the last match, where Martin Kirby received a (worked or real) concussion, and his opponent proceeded to attack his head repeatedly. It was not fun to watch. The crowd on site wanted the match stopped. We turned off. Twitter and Reddit blew up afterwards.
You see, whether it was storyline or real, the WCPW crowd is smarky, and what they showed was not taken as a heel beating an injured face, it was taken as a wrestler failing to know how to work a good match with an incapable opponent, or show the judgement to end it quickly.
Exhibit A: How to have the best match of all time with an opponent who is beyond concussed. Hell in a Cell ’98 after Foley’s second fall. Note the lack of shots to the head, the Undertaker taking time over moves to let Foley recover after the drop through the cage, and the fact the crowd are still completely into it.
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf5c2VZ-pCo”]
Exhibit B: How to end things fast on an incapable opponent? Jeff Hardy vs. Sting at Victory Road. Was that a bad match? Yes, but the difference between Victory Road and this is that in this case the fact one participant could not continue was bloody obvious and the crowd wanted it ended.
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFNfv_ufizo”]
Otherways to end it fast include getting a submission hold on the injured man, grabbing his hand and tapping with it, or tapping with your own hand where the audience can see it is you but not the ref (Bad guys cheat. Who knew?), allowing a countout (no title, but no further damage to the opponent), punching the ref, outside interference, and a humiliation pin (foot on chest etc.). He chose “belt an injured man in the head repeatedly”. He got heat but as far as our group goes, it is what is called X-pac heat. We don’t want to see him win. We don’t want to see him lose. We don’t want to see him at all.
And whether real or storyline, seriously, there’s something from my TV days that applies here.
If you don’t show what people want to watch, they will turn off.
This blog has now moved to http://www.rablogs.co.uk/tirial, where the original article can be found. Hard to watch... - http://rablogs.co.uk/tirial/2017/05/06/hard-to-watch/ was published on May 6, 2017 at 7:51 am.
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