>>11629885True. I just finished watching Mankind vs Shawn, and it's these little things that both of them do that make it so much better. Even the last big spot, is a bit sloppy (Superkick to chair one the top) but again, it looks like they're trying to actually put the other down, rather than wait for them to get up so they can do more moves. Bret, is a master at having little things that count as well. It felt like everything he did was meant to put the opponent down, rather than "I'm doing this move because it looks cool".
Okada at his peak (2017-18) was the last time I felt about this. Someone that can go out, have the opponents best match and try to keep them down and win. It's a shame wrestling seems to have gone the other way, where guys wants to have a "good match" without understanding what makes a match good. (Actually trying to win the fucking thing)
But to answer OP, I still love matches. I think matches are the most important part. No matter how good the story is, if the matches suck, I feel like it does more damage than anything else. With that said, do I think TV should have long matches? Not really. I think one match should go long (10-15), but the rest should advance a story until the eventual long match.
It's what I feel AEW lacks and tries to do. They do long matches, but nobody actually cares anymore because there is no story and since everyone is doing long matches, it doesn't feel like anyone is outright better than someone.
