Despite what many believe, professional wrestling is a sport.  

The most important part of a sport is athletics, which is why I believe that the athletic and wrestling portion of professional wrestling is more important than the stories.  

World Wrestling Entertainment relies too much on stories. I have slowly gotten bored with WWE as every show seems like a soap opera and not a sporting event.  

Matches are the cornerstone of what professional wrestling is. WWE has tried to make people forget about that, but at the end of the day, wrestling is more about the matches than the storylines.  

Stories can add to wrestling, but the story should not be why a show or match is good.  

Wrestling is at its best when its two people are showing their athletic abilities while fake trying to kill each other.  

The stories should stay in the ring.   

An example of the story being better in the ring is Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay’s Forbidden Door match from 2023. The story itself is not amazing as it is just about two of the best wrestlers in the world meeting for the second time.  

However, the story and the action in the ring make it more compelling than any soap opera story on WWE.  

In the match, both men go all out for the win. The story of the match is how both guys must increasingly use more powerful moves to win even though nothing is working. At one point Omega is hit with his own finisher, but he kicked out at one count.   

At that moment, I felt more emotion than any storyline in WWE has made me feel. The actual wrestling was far more powerful than just stories.  

A good story can enhance a wrestling match, but a bad match will make any story obsolete.  

In 2009, at WrestleMania 25, the main event of the show was Triple H and Randy Orton. The storyline of the match is one of the best in WWE history. The story was a blood feud between to the two men and the match should have been a hard-hitting affair.   

Instead, we got a snooze fest that made a great story into a forgettable moment in time.   

A bad match is much worse than a bad story. There are so many good stories and builds that people do not talk about anymore because of the match. That Triple H and Randy Orton match is one of them.  

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the story of hometown heroes and lovable good guys dominated wrestling. However, hometown heroes do not draw people anymore.   

Wrestling has changed a lot in the past 40 years and one of those things is the matches. Matches went from being more of a background thing to why people come to watch shows.  

When AEW started, they promised to be a sports-based programming. It wanted to focus more on wrestling than stories and for a while they were the hottest promotion in wrestling.  

AEW has stopped doing that and has slowed down and has lost thousands of viewers since its start in 2019.   

Most promotions still feature storylines as a main part of the programing. One promotion though does not.  

New Japan Pro Wrestling is the main Japanese wrestling promotion and is purely a sports-based show. The presentation is more of a UFC or boxing event than a wrestling event, and it works.   

NJPW has become the biggest promotion overseas for western audiences and it’s because of the wrestling.  

Other oversea companies try to use too many gimmicks or weird stories, and the western audience just has not bought into other programs. No other promotion overseas sells pay per views easily in the United States.  

NJPW has an app because of how many people watch NJPW in the United States.   

Stories can be very good in wrestling. Some of the best moments in wrestling are when the storyline is as good or better than the match. Current wrestling has strayed away from that, and most promotions either have very good stories or good matches and not both.   

There are exceptions, but for the most part this is true. The easiest place to look is in AEW and WWE.  

AEW has had good storylines, but it mostly just has good wrestling. However, WWE focuses more on the storylines than wrestling.   

Overall, I think WWE is the weaker promotion right now because of it. AEW has been disappointing at times over the past year, but it’s wrestling always makes me come back to it.  

WWE just does not have enough wrestling on the program to keep me interested. On its three-hour weekly programs, WWE usually only has around 30 minutes of wrestling.   

I want to watch athletes be impressive. If I want to watch over the top dramas, I can watch “Days of Our Lives” or “The Young and the Restless.” 

I want to see athletes flip across the ring. I want to see two adults try and kill each other with weapons legally because I cannot get that anywhere else.   

Wrestling is an art, and the actual art of wrestling is matches. Stories can enhance the art, but the match is purest form of wrestling.   

 Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at pfschmitz@eiu.edu.