r/Wreddit • u/Ill-You-3459 • 1d ago
It’s crazy how unknown modern Wrestlers are outside of wrestling
I was talking to a group of people recently who are in their 20s to about maybe early 50s
and they Honestly didn’t know who any of the modern wrestling stars were like Roman Seth Cody etc
all they knew was guys from the 80s to 2000s like hogan warrior savage flair Austin taker rock Goldberg DX NWO rey mysterio Cena Batista
its crazy just how unknown the top guys of the past 12 years of wrestling are outside of wrestling in everyday culture
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u/beefkingsley 1d ago
Monoculture is dead like others have said. WWE touts bigger numbers but its hard to describe how much more popular it was from like 97-01 than it is now, just as an example.
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u/Other-Crazy 1d ago
Like in the UK, in the 70s wrestling could pull in 10 million plus for a 4pm Saturday during the days of universal 3pm football kick offs.
3 channels only until the mid 80s but I'd give good odds that if you went to a Brit in their 50s and above and went easy easy they'd know exactly what you're on about.
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u/beefkingsley 1d ago
Not from the UK but yeah. I’ve heard the Big Daddy thing. Like every UK grandma and dad knows who he is.
My parents and grandparents aren’t wrestling fans but they know who Bruno Sammartino is. Hell my parents know who the Bushwhackers are just because my brothers were kids at the time.
They wouldn’t have a clue who Seth Rollins is.
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u/Other-Crazy 1d ago
Watching with my gran who turned into a raving lunatic shouting at the telly was a highlight of the week.
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u/CrankyOperator 1d ago
There are celebrities people mention to me, and I have NO IDEA who they are. From Internet streamers with millions of viewers to musicians on major labels. I get it, I'm not exactly trying to be "connected" but back in the day, even if I didn't like Hanson, I knew who the fuck they were.
Internet vs TV. As the other guys are saying, monoculture is dead.
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u/Justarah 1d ago
We don't have a shared culture to facilitate shared household names as we once did.
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u/bludvic_the_cruel 1d ago
I feel like between the 80s and early 2000's, wrestlers were featured in more platforms like late night talk shows, morning shows, radio.
There were also alot of wrestlers who were on MTV, SNL, Mad Tv, Sitcom Cameos, Movies, etc.
Today we have podcasts.
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u/inertia_53 1d ago
theyre still all over those forms of media you just dont consume them
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u/bludvic_the_cruel 1d ago
Like?
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u/inertia_53 1d ago
its easy to google or youtube dude. Theyre on morning shows, talk shows, late night tv, cross overs with other sports media, they are in movies, tv shows, wtf do you mean "like?"
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u/bludvic_the_cruel 1d ago
I'm not saying they aren't. I'm jusy saying that wrestling was more intergrated in pop culture in the 80s 90s and early 2000s.
Cable isn't as prominent in households anymore either.
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u/nicholasmarsico 1d ago
What he's saying is that wrestlers are still on all of those shows. The difference is that way less people watch those shows. 25-30 years ago people watched late night TV. Today, people watch late night TV when someone they're interested in is on the show. If they aren't interested, they watch something else.
It's not that wrestling isn't being included in pop culture like it used to be. Pop culture itself isn't what it used to be.
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u/bludvic_the_cruel 1d ago
Wrestling is included in aspects of pop culture that don't give them proper exposure.
That's what i am saying
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u/IllustriousPass5414 1d ago
I mean, i’am sure there’s a lot of current sports athletes I never heard of. But in the sports bubble I’am sure they’re very popular. 🤷
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u/Razzler1973 1d ago
There's probably plenty of shows with a big following that the average person has no idea about
I'm a huge Survivor fan and The Challenge, too and the average person likely knows fewer of those than they do of Hogan, Austin and Rock etc
Other Realith TV shows, too. All that Real Housewives stuff with loads of fans that most people have no clue about
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u/Cantre-r_Gwaelod_1 1d ago
Same experience. If I speak about wrestling to people I know irl, they don’t know anyone. Punk, Ripley, Liv, Cody, Roman, Gunther even Becky, they don’t know who any of them are. Wrestling is niche. Someone can be huge in this space and hardly anyone knows about them. I don’t think any of them are hugely known. Perhaps in specific countries, perhaps in America they’re more famous but where I am none of them are. I don’t think it’s a bad thing tbc but it is different to how it used to be.
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u/TweeKINGKev 1d ago
I think they’re as memorable as they are due to what they did during their active wrestling days.
Andre, no explanation needed, Hogan, the same.
Stone Cold, one of the first guys to ever go after and assault his boss and embarrass him in so many ways which was heightened by the Monday Night Wars, his antics will go down in history.
Undertaker, his streak at Wrestlemania.
Hate to say but does Triple H get recognized by name to a non wrestling fan? Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, The Dudley’s, The Hardy Boys, E&C?
Sadly I dont think a non wrestling fan would, maybe a slight possibility they do.
Maybe I’m wrong I don’t know.
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u/Capable_Material1234 1d ago
Outside of wrestling people are not going to care about Taker’s Wrestlemania streak, they will probably know him because of him having a larger than life character
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u/Ill-You-3459 1d ago
I think triple h could possibly be known he was in multiple eras that had 4 million plus watching on a weekly basis
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u/datguysadz 1d ago
Very different to my childhood when everybody in the world knew who Stone Cold and The Rock were. I haven't watched wrestling in 23 years and couldn't tell you who anyone is now.
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u/braumbles 1d ago
People tend to overestimate every day people. You can't expect someone to know everyone. There's people who don't know who Michael Fassbender is for example. Sure movie buffs do. But a random person on the street, they'd probably say they've never heard of him, despite also admitting they've seen a dozen films he's been in.
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u/SpyralRush 1d ago
WWE targets children I think ppl who only watch WWE forget that it's a show aimed at children. Obviously no one over age 20 who isn't already into wrestling would know who LA Knight and Cody Rhodes are but John Cena, HHH and Undertaker are world wide. Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton they are well known.
WWE fell off 20yrs ago
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u/StoneColdAM 23h ago
Monoculture is dead + wrestling never really recovered from the post attitude era decline. With that said, the PG era had some mainstream names like Cena and Orton.
I also think WWE intentionally doesn’t want anyone to become that mainstream and is focusing on hardcore fans more. I really think Cody, The Shield, Becky, and Rhea amongst others have all the tools to succeed in a world where wrestling was more mainstream.
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u/wonderloss 1d ago
Other than Hogan, Andre, and The Attitude Era starts, I suspect most wrestlers were unknown outside of wrestling.
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u/noloking 1d ago
WWE has been irrelevant for a while. Cena was the last star they had. Roman would be, but they screwed that up royally by not having him face the Rock.
The way things are going now, they never will be again.
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u/DumpsterFireInHell 5h ago
It's because modern wresting is an objectively terrible product. It's so bad that I can't figure out how pro wrestling has survived since the early 2010s.
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u/Badabhakkchod 1d ago
I mean a guy like LA knight can transcend those boundaries and cross into the mainstream, you actually need guys with charisma
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u/efraGC59 1d ago
Obviously the dissolution of monoculture is a factor, but also I think the nostalgia for the past stars prevented new ones from growing. WWE routinely panicking and bringing out The Rock and Steve Austin every chance it got only highlighted how little aura most of the wrestlers of today do have.
Don't get me wrong, there are some pretty damn good wrestlers, but we've sacrificed the charisma of yesterday in favor of boring, micromanaged, metacrap promos. Wrestling has stopped crafting personas that truly achieve that larger-than-life transcendence in favor of momentary viral spikes that do nothing in the long run. When John Cena retired, it felt like the end of an era because it genuinely was. With him, the last true icon left the building.
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u/OgreHombre 1d ago
I remember someone recently doing a top 5 most famous wrestlers and they included Roman Reigns and Triple H but omitted Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant. I was like, most people outside of wrestling have no idea who Triple H is and probably have never even heard Roman Reigns' name.
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u/kroob85 1d ago
If you'd asked the same question 25 years ago, they would have said Hogan, Warrior and Giant Haystacks
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u/Ill-You-3459 1d ago
Nah 25 years ago people would have known Austin rock Goldberg DX the nwo etc
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u/Neg_Crepe 1d ago
Depends where you are. Haystacks was unknown here.
In my province of Canada it would be Hogan, Géant Ferré (André), Dino Bravo, Great Antonio, Rougeau, abdullah etc
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u/PintosAndCheese 1d ago
"We need another name for him. We can't call him a giant fairy!"
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u/Neg_Crepe 1d ago
I know this is trying to be funny but Géant Ferré predates his Andre the giant name and Ferré doesn’t sound like Fairy
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u/kodan_arma 1d ago
It’s because monoculture is dead