>>15611363It's because historic wrestling and modern wrestling are two different beasts.
Historic wrestling was mostly made up of carnies and failed athletes. These were rough men who often had alcohol/drug problems and a few screws loose. They often were all about looking out for Number One.
That had a large number of effects on wrestling itself. Their primary concern was getting over. These were not men who would hesitate to hit you or slam you for real. Sure, wrestling was scripted and worked, but if you didn't want them to hit you for real then you had better make their pulled blows look good. Otherwise, you were making them look bad and they would do everything in their power to punish you for that, inside the ring and out.
They led interesting lives, to say the least, lives that tended to lend themselves to more "real life" angles.
Most modern wrestlers have a different mentality. They became wrestlers because they were fans. Kayfabe no longer exists outside of shows and they've come to understand the business as a team sport. It's probably a lot healthier but the matches suffer for it, and it lends itself to less "real life" storytelling because, again, the understanding is that it's all just a show and they're not super interesting outside of that.
