Undertaker had this to say about the modern day business.
While on an episode of Nightcap. The Undertaker was the guest of the hour, and he talked back about the philosophy of professional wrestling where he doubled down on his words that pro wrestling isn’t about the moves you can do in there, it’s about the stories that you are telling the audience watching in the arena and at home.
“Again, it goes back to that connection that I was talking about, if they’re invested in you and they care about — one of the things that a lot of the guys, it takes them a while to figure out, because they’re so athletic now, right? That’s what they want to display. They want to display their athleticism. That’s great, right? But at the end of the day, your audience will get desensitized, or you have to continue to push the boundary right, like, Okay, I’ve seen you do a double back flip off the top rope onto the floor to somebody, and I’ve seen that a couple times. Now, what do you got for me, right? But if you can get them invested in the character, and if somebody does that character wrong, now you’ve got them, because that’s what it’s all about. If you love somebody, you’re gonna pay money to see that dude kick the other dude’s ass, right? Or, if you don’t like that guy, for a reason, I want this guy to whoop his ass.
“That’s the gist of what we do. We storytell, and we try to get people invested in the characters. I tell people this a lot, especially the young guys, wrestling isn’t about wrestling moves. Wrestling is about telling stories. We use the moves to help tell the story, but it’s all on a connection. That’s the biggest thing, once that light bulb goes off, then you’ve got a good chance of doing well.”
Undertaker has served as a coach on the WWE’s LFG show on A&E (Future Legends & Greats) where he has helped young stars like Tyra Mae Steel understand what kind of journey she can go on if she sticks her mind to the right places.
(h/t to Fightful for the quotes/transcriptions.)
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