>>10603772>And it worked because they were arguably the two biggest names in the business at the time. Now you get irrelevant 5'6" indie midgets fighting to prove they're "the best" when the aren't even the best wrestlers in their own company and they're just goddamn midcarders.This. Storylines exist in wrestling to give you a reason to care who wins. Yes, the wrestling, the athletic competition is the main draw, the main focus, the main event you watch for. But there is no drama in the match if there are no stakes. Ring psychology falls flat, maneuvers and near falls mean nothing because nothing is at stake and you have no emotional investment. These matches are fun from time to time, you get them in other sports like football and soccer, and they're interesting exhibitions of skill. But ultimately you need those big high stakes matches to really give you excitement. Imagine being a football fan and watching nothing but preps and friendlies.
You can throw all that out the window and work a match like this with limited build if you have the two biggest stars in wrestling history in Hogan and Rock. You could throw in Brock Lesnar, maybe The Undertaker. It can work without story on their name recognition alone. It absolutely doesn't work with the vast majority of wrestlers today who are simply not big stars, in any company.
Danielson vs Okada just about cuts it because they're the two best of their generation by a fair margin. The problem with AEW though is that they book every single show this way down the entire card. There is no reason to care about throwaway exhibition matches between AEW midcarders. It can be all the technical spectacle it wants, and it's refreshing, but then the novelty wears off after a few matches and people tune out when they realize they don't care who wins.
