"You Don't Watch Wrestling?!"

One of my biggest pet peeves as a wrestler is hearing another wrestler say that they don't watch wrestling. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Would you be in a rock band and say you don't listen to music? Or maybe you're an aspiring professional basketball player but you don't watch the NBA. One of my favorite sayings is "To know where you're going, you have to know where you've been" but by the same token you have to know where you are. You have to know what is going on in the present and if you're not watching then you are behind the curve.

Most of those who utter this phrase give the same excuse. Its not as good as it use to be. What that really means is, its not as good as it was when I was 8 and because I supposedly know the ends and outs of the business the magic is gone. I myself have the opposite opinion because I know the ends and outs it has opened up whole other realm that I didn't know existed when I was 8. However don't misunderstand, nothing is greater now then when even I have suspension of disbelief when watching a great match. Most recently Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXV.

When a younger wrestler asks me for advice on how they can get better my first response is always "Watch as much wrestling as you can". Between RAW, Smackdown, Superstars, ECW, TNA there are 8 hours of original wrestling programming a week. If you have satellite then you could possibly watch AAA lucha libra, NWA Showcase or ROH. Although just watching isn't the main goal, its studying it. Whether you're a wrestler, booker, referee, commentator, ring announcer or anything else in between you can learn something from somewhere each week.

Now am I saying that I love everything that is put on television in today's wrestling? Of course not, I have my own opinions just like many do. Just like many within those same companies may not like some aspects. I was working at a wrestling show and I was in the locker room watching the monitor as a match was taking place. Bill Dundee was there that night and he asked me in that unmistakable Bill Dundee accent "What are watching this shit for, kid?" and in a quick witted response I said "Sometimes to know what does work, first you have to know what doesn't." Bill mumbled something and kind of just shuffled off.

The phrase I hear more often than not from past generations, the generations that most were able to make a living at pro wrestling is learn your craft. That means get as much ring time as you possible can but when you can't be in the ring then try to learn from the next best thing and thats studying. Watching Flair, Michaels, Jericho, Ted Dibiase Sr, Arn Anderson(just to name a few) is going to do more for you then working a 10 minute "Blind leading the Blind" match every week.

During one the seasons of WWE's Tough Enough there was a super athletic guy trying out. Physically he could anything you asked him to do. Jim Ross asked him if he could do The Spin-a-roonie. The guy asked "What's a spin-a-roonie?". Jim Ross became frustrated that this guy didn't even watch the product. He wasn't a wrestling fan, he was just an athletic guy. If you're not a fan of wrestling, if you don't love wrestling then you won't last long in wrestling and if you don't watch the product then Jim Ross might ask you do something you've never heard of, I promise and when "The Golden Boy" Greg Anthony makes a promise its as good as gold