Is Wrestling Missing Larger Than Life Figures?

 

Right now between Dark Side Of The Ring and A&E's biography series there are an abudance of wrestling documentaries available. Watching the A&E biographies which has covered legends Stone Cold, Booker T, HBK, Roddy Piper, Macho Man, Ultimate Warriror, Mick Foley and coming this week Bret Hart. Along with Dark Side Of The Ring covering Brian Pillman and Ultimate Warrior, and Stone Cold's recent Broken Skull Sessions with The Godfather. Throw in guys like The Undertaker, Vader, Goldust, Abyss, and Kane and something occured to me I think pro wrestling is missing the larger than life characters right now.

The names mentioned above are legends in the business for one reason or another, and when you look at most of them you notice an commonality. They all have outspoken, outsized, step into an room and everyone will take notice colorful type of personalities. Some more than others and some maybe more subdued than others but they all carry that trait. If they didn't have those traits then they were built as unstoppable monsters, like Vader during his WCW run and even Goldberg with the streak, being escorted by security, and exhaling smoke from the pyro he inhaled during his entrance and looking unstoppable was presented as larger than life.

Looking at the landscape of wrestling today and the roster's among the bigger organizations I do not see anyone having those personalities. In WWE Velveteen was the closest modern wrestler to having that personality, but he couldn't get out of his own way with his reported troubles. Bray Wyatt aka the Fiend had potential in the beginning but WWE has squandered away any opportunity to grow the mythology of that character in a good way. Braun was looking like an larger than life wrestler, then he won championships with a kid and bought up how he was bullied as kid...killed all his momentum. 

Roman currently has a larger than life character with his Tribal Chief untouchable boss persona, but look how long it took him to get there and his role is more of the reserved quiet type.

In AEW and Impact I don't see anyone on their rosters with that type of personality. Even The Elite don't give me larger than life vibes like those guys do, I compare them to rock stars that cater to a certain demographic more than anything else. While ROH and MLW are not as character focused as the other organizations preferring to let their in ring action sell the brand which I appreticate we need variety in wrestling just like anything else. It seems to me wrestling gimmicks today are more personas and not actual characters.

Evaulating this scenario I have to ask, is anyone at fault here or it's a myraid of things of how the industry is today? It's common knowledge now that McMahon and company dont want any superstars to be bigger than the brand so that likely plays a factor. Is it just the industry has moved away from the character act to make wrestlers more relatable? Is social media the biggest factor? in that it blurs the lines so much, fans wouldnt buy anyone portraying an character thats truly "out there?". Are todays wrestlers just not thinking outside the box enough to come up with an compelling character? Or they are and the powers that be arent giving them a chance?

Depending on how these characters are presented they can come off rather hokey. That's where it's the job of the wrestler and the creative time to ensure that does not happen through proper protection of the character and not overexposing them should it become an successful act. You don't need an abudance of them on a roster but anywhere between 1-3 over the top characters I think brings a good balance to promotions.

What are your thoughts? Do we need more larger than life characters?