In wrestling history talents always had been overshadowed by popularity.People in history like Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair has been seen as the best while the others who have more passion and talents are getting left out.The list continues as the ones like The Warrior.Wrestling got to the mainstream by not as what it is-wrestlers who got wrestling talent gets a makeover to be appropiate for the viewing public.It still happens today to like John Cena or HHH.Great wrestlers are getting a makeover to be markatable even if this means transforming a great wrestler into a fictional character.So do you think that popularity more important than talent??Only knowledgable fans
I've already answer the same type of question for [Hannah] [Hardy] a bunch of times. But, I'll give you the same answer. Marketability. If you can't put yourself over as the greatest, you won't become the multi-million dollar celebrity. If you can wrestle like Bret Hart, you need to market yourself like John Cena.
In My opinion, talent is more important because popularity is given to people who wwe pushes like cena and HHH, but people like paul london, who have great wrestling skills and agility are not popular so the WWE keeps them as jobbers. Many Jobbers in WWE would actually make good champions like paul london and the IC title. So to answer the question, talent is more important to most, but wwe is always looking for popularity, not talent.
Yes. Popularity with the crowd always takes over actual ring talent, specifically in WWE, who likes to drill storylines and gimmicks into people watching. That's how it has to be for Professional restling to last in the mainstream, unless fans themselves watch solely for matches and begin to dismiss the storylines and gimmick (and not just fans on the Internet need to do this; ALL do). But because of the fact that Professional Wrestling is sports entertainment, companies like WWE have to be entertaining to last as opposed to a sport. Look at TNA. They didn't have many gimmicky storylines and matches years ago, but they saturate their shows with them now, because fans b*tched and complained for more gimmick matches and hated the bland wrestlers they saw.
It depends. They are equally important but this will depend on the environment in which a wrestler operates. If you are in a totally mainstream promotion like the WWE which caters to people from all walks of life and not just die-hard wrestling fans who care about whether a guy can or cannot wrestle, pretty moves won't matter if you don't know how to entertain a crowd, i.e. make yourself marketable. If you are in TNA it is important that you are both marketable and ring-savvy because it caters not only to mainstream wrestling fans but indy wrestling fans as well. If you are in the indys or in Japan, the fact that you are talented will more often than not make you popular; it won't matter in the end if you don't know how to talk on the mic especially in mainstream Japanese puro which places importance on real athletic ability and not exactly the male soap-opera aspect of wrestling. What's more important in these environments is in-ring psychology and the ability to pull off and sell moves very well. EDIT: Let me just add that not every wrestling fan is a die-hard wrestling fan and out of all the fans in the world very few of us care whether or not a guy can wrestle. The majority of them gravitate towards the wrestlers who are most over, no matter whether they have talent or not. It sucks but it is what it is.
Popularity is more important to a business than talent. I, as a wrestling fan, could not care less, and will continue to enjoy the people that I enjoy watching, those who look like gold in the ring every week. You know, it seems to me that you're talking about WWE in particular. If it bothers you that much, STOP WATCHING IT. There's plenty in Japan (even though they're in a down period, too) and indy promotions like ROH to keep you satisfied.
