>>19857440>longevity is by far the most important thing in wrestling. It shoot is, though.
In a business of telling stories, you need material. And the “type” of material that resonates best with audiences is character background and origin stories. It’s infinitely easier to do that with older veterans who have historical feuds and alliances to draw from.
Case in point, we’re literally seeing it right now with Punk and Roman. The RAW promo Monday night was only powerful because they have a decade of history to reference. At the time, fans probably didn’t give many shits about Punk and The Shield, but now that it’s lore, it provides a bank of motivation that Punk, Roman, and Seth are all still drawing from.
It also doesn’t really matter whether the feuds, alliances, and stories that happen early in a guy’s career are even all that GOOD. What matters is that they happen, and you add it to the experience bank for this character. A decade on, fans will (mis)remember those early years more fondly anyway and treat them as more character-building than they actually were.
The longer you go, the more feuds you have, the more drama and storytelling variety you can tap into between ages 37-43 when most guys are established as gigadime main eventers.
It’s hard to do that with young guys. People just don’t care enough yet.
By the time he was leading the A-Block, HHH had several different storylines to draw from that made it make sense why he was in those main event spots. It didn’t really matter whether he was any “good,” lol.
