Professional Wrestling Hall of Famer Ronnie Garvin said modern wrestling is “embarrassing to watch” and revealed he told a local promoter to his face that his show “sucks,” speaking on Busted Open Radio with Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer.
Garvin, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019 and has been out of the business since 1995, said he attended a local show at a signing appearance and was appalled by what he saw.
“I went to some places to sign autographs, and then they had wrestling after. They wanted me to stay, and it was actually embarrassing to watch,” Garvin said. “I had one guy who’s a promoter, I won’t name his name. He’s promoting local, and I hated to, I don’t lie. He said, ‘What do you think?’ He had 20 people that came to the matches. I said, ‘It sucks. It’s horrible. I wouldn’t even put that in front of kids.'”
Garvin said the fundamental problem with modern wrestling is that nobody works holds anymore and wrestlers talk too much during matches.
“They call it wrestling, but nobody takes a hold,” Garvin said. “It’s okay to kick, punch, and sometimes chairs, whatever. But that’s a big plus when you’re wrestling somebody that’s been in the business and they keep you in the ring 50 minutes. Your tongue is hanging out, and they’re laughing, because they’re slow. They know how to do it.”
Garvin said he never talked during a match in his entire career and was shocked to hear wrestlers calling spots audibly at a recent show.
“I never talked in the ring, ever. That was my rule,” Garvin said. “I watched a match about six months ago with a friend. They were running some little town, and I could hear them talk in the ring, and I was about 20 feet away. I’m going, ‘Oh my God, what are they doing?'”
Garvin said the key to a great match is making the audience believe they are watching a real fight. “The first thing you do when you go into a wrestling ring, stand there like you’re going to a real fight,” he said. “Your attitude and everything. And when you’re wrestling, you don’t give them bullshit. Be snug, real snug. And when people start believing in the fight, that’s when you got them. They’ll stand up. They get into it. But you got to build it up. You don’t need to talk. You just feel it.”
He criticized wrestlers who leave the ring to stall for cheap heat with fans. “Guys hanging around, they start going outside on the floor and walking around and trying to get some cheap heat with the fans,” Garvin said. “No. They bought a ticket to see this. They want to see a fight.”
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