>>16119864>he comes across as a real person and not a stunted bubble athlete playing a bitThis is a huge x factor for any wrestler. He's lived a life out of the spotlight, done some things you may know about & some things you don't, and now he's here to be a star. That's what every good wrestler in the 20th century was like unless they were an obvious coddled nepo baby in which case everyone immediately turned on them (Erik Watts, etc.) The aura & mystique that comes from someone like even nepo baby CAWdy Rhodes going away for a few years and living life, even if it's just as a wrestler in other territories and promotions, is invaluable. Yes it gives them experience which makes them better and more versatile in the ring but more than that it gives fans something to wonder about and marvel at. Who is this wild man, what's his story, why is he like this? We may get told some answers but there's no way to convey all of what happened in a man's life over the course of years to shape him into who he is.
With a guy like Bron it's just, "his dad was a successful wrestler, he grew up middle class, played a little football in college, then trained to be a wrestler at the WWE's in house wrestling school and now he's a midcard champion in WWE." Fucking DOGSHIT story. Compare that to guys like Fatu, Batista, Cena, "woah who the fuck is this scary looking guy, he has my interest." The only way someone from the college to NXT to WWE pipeline can work is if they're a heel & make it part of their gimmick like Randy Orton - I'm rich, my daddy was a wrestler, I was hand picked to be the protege of The Man, and now I'm here to wear a suit and take my rightful place above all these guys who lived hard lives scrapping just to get here. That gets heat because fuck that guy obviously, fuck the boss's son coming straight out of college into a middle management supervisor position because of who he is, it's hard to cheer that guy no matter how nice he is or how good he is at his job.
