10 Most Harmful Trends In Wrestling Today 9

9. Competition With MMA

UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and its ilk are really just a souped up version of early 20th Century wrestling promoted like a boxing tournament. In this way, MMA (MIXED MARTIAL ARTS) is just pro wrestling returning to its roots, as ‘shoot’ or ‘catch as catch can’ contests.
How ‘real’ or how ‘worked’ mainstream MMA is, isn’t or may eventually become is not really the issue here, but the fact remains that a LOT of pro wrestling FANS are also MMA fans.
Why not? The two sports SHARE much in common. There really is no reason why you can’t enjoy both.
What appears to be happening today, however, is a bizarre competitiveness with MMA that is damaging the credibility of pro wrestling.
Promoters are fawning over anyone with an MMA background, regardless of whether they can work a good wrestling MATCH or not and selling MMA fighters as being superior to pro wrestlers in the process.
MMA guys that get into wrestling, or wrestlers that cross over to MMA don’t demonstrate that MMA is ‘better’ or ‘tougher’ than wrestling, merely that there are transferable skills that can be used in both forms of entertainment (same deal with amateur wrestling and MARTIAL ARTS).
The truth is that you have to be a tough guy to make it in wrestling and that any good wrestler knows how to put a hold on for real. WWE might dress a guy up in a black and white singlet and force him to wrestle as ‘Skunky McStinkington’ – but a tenner says that Skunky could still break your leg in five places if you messed around with him.
In addition, wrestling’s competitiveness with its tenacious younger brother has led to the rise of some very boring wrestlers, who, whilst they are undeniably very tough fighters, really have no place at the top of a wrestling card because they are about as entertaining as watching PAINT dry.