Why drama is essential to pro wrestling

"We are back in the wrestling business"

Those were the words tweeted out by TNT's official Twitter account as they announced their partnership with All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Both parties would then release a joint press statement confirming the news. As excepted, this piece of news blew up the IWC, with many believing that AEW is going to give WWE a run for their money.

One of the things Cody and the entire AEW machinery has harped right from day one is the fact that they wanted to give their product a sports-like feel. AEW President, Tony Khan, has stated on numerous occasions how wins and losses will matter in the company and how they are looking to stats and figures in their programming.

They have also spoken about how there will no scripted promos in AEW, and that the company would do away with soapy drama. Now, on paper, it sounds very interesting, and new ideas should always be welcome, but to be quite honest, we are quite apprehensive about separating professional wrestling from drama/theatrics.

Scripted promos have always been an eyesore for fans watching pro wrestling programs. Wrestlers mugging up lines and hamming while delivering them isn't a good look. But, not everybody is Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Samoa Joe, or a John Cena, who can improvise on the go and deliver knockout performances on the microphone.

There have been instances of superstars forgetting their lines during their promo segments on Live TV. While it is absolutely understandable why one would want to do away with scripted promo, we don't think that every performer can excel on the microphone without being a given a few pointers beforehand.

Another statement by Cody that we haven't been able to get our head around is their promise of having less soapy drama in their product. While giving the product a sports-like feel and introducing analytics and stats is a welcome move, we just don't understand what would be left of pro wrestling without the drama.

Pro wrestling, in essence, is performance art which combines athletics and theatrics in a way that it engages the audience. Now if you take away the theatrics/drama part of it, all you'd be left with is essentially catch wrestling.

The characters and heightened drama during the match is what makes pro wrestling stand out from the rest of the pack. Besides, how would one tell a story without a hint of drama or theatrics?

Besides, it is the theatrics that drives fans to pro wrestling. Without it, they would rather watch MMA or amateur wrestling, if they wanted to see an athletic competition between two individuals minus the theatrics.