JR with a blog today that had an interesting nugget in it:
Some fans email us complaining about seeing some matches multiple times. Perhaps this is a generational thing as it wasn't that way in the old days especially in the territory era. How many times do you think that Jack Brisco wrestled Dory Funk? Yeah, I know that many or most of their bouts were not nationally televised but seeing a great match such as Steamboat vs. Flair which was televised nationally multiple times never bored me. I also know that it depends on the skill level of the individuals involved in the matches and the reason or reasons that they are wrestling but wrestlers having multiple matches isn't always a bad thing. If the participants have a viable personal issue, then multiple matches seem like a sound approach.The reasoning JR uses to defend the WWE's "ram-it-down-your-thraot-until-you're-numb" approach is the exact reason why I attack it. Yeah, Dory Funk and Jack Brisco wrestled each other a million times, but that was in the regional days when house shows drove the business, not television. It made sense to do matches repeatedly because you were doing shows in various cities and towns and you wanted to give the fans in Jim Thorpe, PA the feeling that they were getting the same premium product that fans at Madison Square Garden were getting.
The times change though, and thus so must the methods. I blame a lot of it on the Monday Night Wars, but again, those days, you had to give away slam-bang cards from top to bottom. It might be futile to suggest should TNA get a head of steam, but the way to really build a feud and wrestlers is to utilize things like squash matches, tag matches, promos and post-match dealings to do what repeated matches did back in the day.
