“Disco Inferno” Glen Gilbertti recently appeared on In Your Head Radio to talk about various topics. Here are the highlights.
On ECW:
“In retrospect, the problem I have with ECW is that it created a culture of unnecessary violence that just wasn’t really safe. For an example, back then if you were one of the boys and somebody went to hit you over the head with a chair, you were looked down upon if you didn’t put your hands up to protect yourself from getting hit over the head with a chair. Any human being, your reflex action when somebody is going to hit you with a chair and you see it coming (is) you’re probably going to put your hands up to protect yourself. So, the chair is going to make the same sound, but it’s probably going to hit your hands on top of your head. Well, what’s the sadomasochistic purpose of taking a clean head shot from a chair?…That type of violence that they promoted was really bad for the business compared if you look at where we are today, and a lot of the traumatic problems that guys have had with concussions and stuff. I just always thought it was stupid. If somebody’s going to hit me over the head with a chair, I’m going to put my hands up. Period…I’m going to put my hands up because that looks more realistic than not putting your hands up. Why do you want to hit me clean over the head with a chair so it’s going to hurt my head? That doesn’t make a lot of sense. They had good storylines, the show was edgy, but the unnecessary violence I was not a fan of.”
On AJ Styles’ run in WWE and the company developing new stars:
“In professional wrestling, we’ve gotten so far away from the model that’s supposed to be used to bring in a star. This comes from because when guys come in they’re supposed to be good performers and they’re good workers, and we want to see their match. Back in the day, and back when wrestling was popular, when a new guy came in, the faster you beat somebody the better you were. When you’re beating a guy in a 12 to 14 minute match, what does that really do? First of all, the wins and losses these days don’t really matter anyway. What if he (A.J. Styles) would have beaten Miz in four minutes? What if he would have beaten Jericho in five minutes? What if he would have had a couple more matches; take other guys on the roster, whoever’s not that over, but you could put a guy in there, beat him in three minutes with some spectacular move…Let’s go take a guy, showcase a few cool moves, and win. Now these days they’re making these guys put time in; all your matches where you’ve got 15 minutes. Oh great, I’ve got 15 minutes with Jericho and we’re going to tear the house down. I’d rather have four minutes with Jericho, he slips on a banana peel, and I hit him with my finish. I’d rather do something like that, because these days you could look at that as that’s why not a lot of guys are really that over anymore, because the second they come in we’re just showcasing their work. We’re not really treating them like whether this guy is a contender; he’s just a good worker. So let’s give him some time; let’s fill air time with his matches. Let’s give him 12-16 minutes every time he wrestles…I’m not a fan of the amount of time we’re putting into professional wrestling on TV these days; the amount of time in the matches.”
On why professional wrestling has stagnated:
“When you look at the best times in professional wrestling, and what they’ve gotten away from, is that too often nowadays everybody is just a wrestler. There’s no gimmicks anymore…Everybody had this charismatic over-the-top character. These days, everybody is just a guy. They’re a guy that goes out there and works their ass off and does acrobatics and does really crazy stuff. So what they’re doing is they’re taking new guys off the Indies, and just presenting them as-is…These guys can work anyway, so let’s start giving the guys some over-the-top gimmicks. During the Attitude Era, what made the Attitude Era so great was that you had Stone Cold and The Rock, but also the show was filled with Val Venis, Goldust, Kane, Undertaker; you had characters. There’s no characters anymore. Every single new guy that’s come on the scene with the exception of Bray Wyatt in the past three or four years has just been a guy; his gimmick is he’s a guy, a wrestler. That’s why you see maybe why the show has stagnated so much, and why they fill the show so much with wrestling; because that’s all they have is a bunch of wrestlers. If you want to take (Shinsuke) Nakamura and put him on the show, give him four weeks of vignettes before he comes in. Make this guy seem like he’s a big star. Shoot some weird stuff with him. Then put him on the show and let him beat somebody in two minutes…These days, everybody can’t wait to see the match…When I was growing up, I couldn’t wait to see the match-up, not the match. I wanted to see two guys rising up the card, beating people every week, and getting in position where now they’re going to have to face each other…We’re so interested in seeing two guys wrestle each other because we think it’s going to be a great match, as opposed to what sells is a match-up between two strong characters on the card. If you’re a serviceable professional wrestler, you don’t have to be a great one, if you can build a match by talking you’re going to get fans to watch. You’re going to build anticipation.”
