In the wrestling industry, the biggest setback for a star is retiring. If injury doesn’t force them to retire, it’s hard to know when to. Even though fans do have their opinions, it’s hard to walk away from something you truly love.
WWE does get stick for using Legends too much in their current roster by making the top dog in the company someone who could retire soon. This then makes storytelling hard as you don’t know who should beat them and the Legend doesn’t want to be beaten by just anyone.
This was the massive problem that people had with Goldberg beating The Fiend nearly ruining the whole gimmick. Burying a new popular gimmick for a five minutes of fame for an already legendary Legend feels very pointless in a story sense. That being said, Legends like Goldberg should still wrestle but not in the top championship spots and if booked to win, they should win against someone who won’t be hurt in the long run of the story.
What does Impact do right?
There’s now a lot of Legends in AEW and a few in Impact and they use them completely differently now. Even though Impact has made some mistakes with Legends in the past, it seems like they’re doing ok.
With wrestlers like Ken Shamrock getting to wrestle in some great matches but not getting thrown into the top championship matches and it could have easily happened at Slammiversary. With the fatal five way but they didn’t. They let the Legends wrestle and don’t ruin newer stars. Therefore not making the star feel like they can never become a future Legend.
This is a massive thing that WWE does wrong. They build up a star and then let them lose against a Legend like Undertaker, Randy Ortan, Goldberg, Big Show the list goes on. This kind of distoys the chance of a future Legend as they can’t hit that level of the past. If they booked the Legend to lose against the upcoming that would do the complete opposite.
What does AEW do right?
Then there’s AEW who goes above and beyond with their Legends. Currently, they have some Legends wrestling like Jerchio and Dustin Rhodes but they are still very much in their prime for hopefully 3-5 years. Jericho did beat Kenny Omega and it is argued that Kenny has never come back from that loss. Having someone like Jericho win did push AEW to new heights.
Then there’s the older generation of Legend like Jake the Snake, Arn Anderson, JR, Tazz and Tully Blanchard. All of which are used amazingly in AEW with many thinking that their career wrestling is done. AEW gave them a new chance in the form of a management role and commentary. This adds that sense of nostalgia and the chance for people who love working in the industry a chance to carry on.
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