Here’s an excerpt from Lance Storm’s Blog:
‘The business is better off post kayfabe argument is an easy one. If you use Montreal as the water shed moment when kayfabe died you need only look at the business boom that followed. The Attitude era in the WWF and the Monday Night Wars can be directly attributed to the breaking of kayfabe. The business came clean and admitted to its fan base what it really was. There was no more shame in admitting you were a wrestling fan, because wrestling openly admitted it was entertainment so fans no longer had to worry about others looking down on them for being wrestling fans. I honestly believe coming clean was the key to our industry gaining main stream acceptance. No one felt like anyone was trying to pull the wool over their eyes so they were willing to accept and even embrace the Sports Entertainment industry for what it was, great entertainment. TV ratings went through the roof, PPV buy rates were huge, live event were selling out, pro-wrestling became a legitimate form of main stream entertainment, and wrestlers were making more money than anyone in the history of this business ever had. How could anyone think the death of Kayfabe could be anything but a good thing?
Like any good argument, there is always another side to the story. You need only read Jim Cornette’s Midnight Express 25th Anniversary Scrapbook, or listen to a Jim Cornette interview to hear a very compelling argument for the wrestling business being better off back in the kayfabe days. One could argue that the post Montreal “Wrestling Boom†is over and business has been deteriorating ever since. Fans don’t care about the product like they used to. During the territory days (you know back during the kayfabe era) there were far more wrestling fans following the sport on TV and attending live events. When fans truly believed in their wrestling angles/storylines, programs legitimately drew money. Hot angles drew sellout crowds week after week, month after month, in the same towns all over North America. Stampede Wrestling would run Western Canadian arenas; World Class Championship Wrestling had Texas, the AWA ran Minnesota, Deep South Wrestling ran Louisiana, and so on all over North America. There were literally millions of wrestling fans across North America who cared enough about their pro-wrestling to go out and pay to see wrestling events on a monthly and sometimes even weekly basis. ”
For the whole article, click here. It’s worth a read.
