Scott's Blog of Doom
Rants

Moments that changed the wrestling model

By Scott Keith on 4 July 2024

Scott,

Back in a 1989 PWI column Eddie Ellner (cough) agreed that the ‘greatest’ (ie. Most influential) moment in wrestling history was the title victory of Superstar Billy Graham, which, in his view, ushed in the era of champion (or, at least WWF champion) as muscleman
/ showman rather than technical expert.

Was there an equivalent moment in NWA / WCW history, where their model of champion was basically wrenched from its foundations?
Why the cough for Ellner? He’s a real guy and an actual journalist. People have been trying to get him to come out of seclusion for years and get into social media but he apparently refuses. Which sucks because there’s a whole generation of people who would go APESHIT for him on Twitter and probably make him into an instant star there.
Anyway, true story, various top guys of the previous generation famously hated Harley Race as champion and thought he was a mockery of a champion who basically turned the title into a stunt show because he bumped too much and did too many promos. So everything is relative, I guess.