Working vs. Performing (Repost from May 31, 2003)

Working vs. Performing After reading all the various columns everyone is writing nowadays I thought I would write one of my own talking about the things that bug me about the business. I've read most of Storm's columns and I must say I pretty much agree with them. However this subject hasn't been covered so I thought I would, now I'm sure there are several people right now saying, "You don't know shit, who cares what you think?" Well apparently you cared enough to come read what I have to say so hear me out and afterwards tell me I'm wrong. There are way too many "wrestlers" in the indys right now who do not understand the business. They don't know what it is about or why they are out there. Or they do know and they just don't care. In my opinion there are only a handful of people in Mississippi and Alabama right now that know how to "WORK", notice I didn't say wrestle or perform, I said "WORK". In the past I've told people they can't work and they've responded with, "I can work, I can do a moonsault, swanton bomb, etc etc......." Well that doesnt mean you can WORK, it means you know how to perform some moves, well big fuckin deal so does the kid that lives next door to you who has a trampoline and is the "Game" of the "Backyard Extreme Undeground Deathmatch Federation", he can do a shooting star off a Winnebago onto broken glass, Does that mean he's a WORKER.....NO! What wrestlers and promoters should realize is people don't pay their money to come see teenagers PERFORM high spots, if they wanted that they would stay home cause there is plenty of wrestling on TV for free, as well as videos and DVD's of guys who can perform way better than some guy on an indy show who works twice a month, they come to the show to be entertained, to be part of the show. Back when I first started I(like so many now) had the wrong mentality, my first couple of matches were coreographed, and we tried to work it move for move as planned, we would have a pretty good match but the crowd would be dead through most of it, then later Sammy Hall would come out, take one bump and work a chain for 20 minutes and the crowd was up the whole time, then I realized, it was because he was working the crowd. So I changed my whole philosophy, I started working the mic, and interacting with the crowd, listening for their response and working off them instead of some scripted match. There is a huge difference between the best WRESTLING match on the card and the most OVER match on the card. Workers would trash me and get mad and say my matches were bullshit, and I didn't take enough bumps. Yet my matches always got a reaction, I always had heat. My favorite example of this. We went to a show in Rolling Fork, MS for Wesley and Danny. Opening match was Ken Massey and someone I don't remember, may have been Brother Love I don't remember and I doubt anyone who saw it remembers either. Anyways they go out there and put on a wrestling clinic that would have made Benoit and Malenko proud, and the crowd was DEAD! They were comatose. Massey comes back, "well that crowd is dead you can't do nothing with them." Well after about 4 more heatless matches, Chris(Kilgore) walks over, "let's go out and get these folks going during intermission." So he goes out to sign autographs and I come out and get on the mic and tell them to get his autograph while they can I'm about to put him out of the business....blah, blah, blah, typical heel bullshit, and the crowd got up. We come out for our match their on their feet booing their ass off, Kilgore comes out and they pop like hell, the first real pop of the night,.and we procede to work a basic match, nothing fancy, just your typical "War Machine match" and they were up the whole time, just because of simple stuff like Chris looking for their reaction before punching me, or me taunting them while cheating behind the ref's back, just basic 'old school 101' type stuff, and they ate it up, meanwhile Massey is in the dressing room door calling it "bullshit", and a joke, while having to yell over the crowd. We get back and while we're changing I hear Massey tell Don Brodie, "Hell I would have worked the mic, and got them going if I knew thats all they wanted" and I'm thinkin you've been in the business damn near twenty years and you didn't know how to get a reaction, or what they wanted. Christ at that point I had only been in it a couple of years and knew enough to know if they aren't reacting to what you are doing, DO SOMETHING ELSE!! He called our match bullshit, yet what match do you think people remembered? I can see them in the car on the way home, "You know Bill my throat sure is sore from screaming during that main event, but it really sucked from a technical standpoint, and I didn't feel the fat guy took enough bumps." "Yeah I know what you mean, that first match was great, even though they didn't acknowledge we were in the building and really gave us no reason at all to care who won, It was a very technically sound contest, far better than the workrate of the main event." I'm not saying it's bad to have a great wrestling match, I'm not saying it's bad to do high spots, all I'm saying is, don't lay out a match in the back based on the moves YOU wanna do, or the stuff you think is entertaining. Go out and listen to the crowd and give them what THEY want to see, if it's a wrestling match, give them a wrestling match, if it's high spots, give them high spots, if they wanna laugh, give them comedy spots, if they want violence, lay it in. Just listen to the crowd and give them what they want, thats the difference between WORKING a match, and performing a match in front of a live audience. Make them care who wins or loses, and they will come back. They always do. I would like to hear feedback on this be it positive or negative. This was not meant to step on anyones toes, I'm simply throwing my opinion out there with everyone elses. Thanks for reading, Gene