On an episode of After The Bell with Corey Graves, JBL described what he considers a negative these days with professional wrestlers. He says that these wrestlers are trying to find their “Hol Shit” chant moment instead of putting on a play. JBL likens this trend to Japan in the 90s.
You know what happened in Japan say in the early 90s. The crowd would sit there, and they were just very respectful,” JBL stated. “They just watched the match. Then you started seeing a big move or something, and the guy would one, two and you see kick out, and they’d stomp their feet a little bit. Well after a while, you got every wrestler in Japan was wanting to get people to stomp their feet. That’s the crowd leading the boys not the boys leading the crowd. I’m just not sure it works that way, and that’s what you’re seeing now. People are all trying to get these ‘holy s–t’ moments going instead of just trying to put together a Shakespeare story that makes sense, and I’m not bashing these guys. Maybe that’s where this business is going, and that’s good. I don’t know that, but I do think that that style still works of the old, solid Randy Orton guy [or] AJ Styles. I mean when those guys get the ring, it’s a different reaction to the crowd. We’re not seeing that right now because of the pandemic but when you see a live crowd, it’s noticeable.
(Transcript credit: Wrestling Inc.)