Tyler Breeze believes a wrestler’s character is an essential building block.
Speaking on Ikuzo Unscripted, Breeze was asked whether a wrestler’s character or in-ring work is more important. Breeze explained why he’d picked character, noting how that’s really what draws people in the first place.
“I know for me, I will always lean towards character. That’s just because of how I went. I got into wrestling very much for the wrestling aspect,” Tyler Breeze said. “I liked wrestling, I liked the athletic part, I liked doing moves, I liked wrestling matches. So I got into wrestling because of that. That got me to a certain point. But then when you get to that point, you start to realize that wrestling is a lot cooler when they care about all the wrestling that you’re doing. If you’re just a wrestler, like you don’t have much of a character or personality, then they’re not gonna care about your match as much as somebody else.
“So once you figure that out, then you start putting the importance on personality and character. Then, when they care about you, then you just do enough wrestling or as much as that match requires it whatever you need to do to get the reactions that you’re going for. But they’re going to be way bigger than if you have just some crazy, random wrestling match. Even if you look at things now, there’s a lot of people who are really good wrestlers out there.”
The Important Part
Tyler Breeze explained that John Cena’s character is what hooked people for his matches, not the moves themselves. He believes many other wrestlers should focus on building a connection too.
“I think that’s really important to where even John Cena, one of the best examples of it, you cared about him. You cared about what he was doing, and then the wrestling matched it. But I don’t think John was ever really the greatest wrestler in the world, but performer and star? Barely anyone could touch him. That should just tell you what the important part is, and where even a guy like John would put his importance of going, ‘Okay, should I try to be a better wrestler, or should I try to really connect with the crowd, and have them care about my matches?’
“Again, once you start to figure it out, I think it might be the difference between a performer who’s new in their career and they’re inexperienced, or experienced, but almost all of them slowly figure out that your body won’t hold up much as you want if you just rely on wrestling.
It’s Cool When They Care
Tyler Breeze then named The Rock and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin as two examples to illustrate his point. He described how fans only started caring about the two of them once they found a compelling character.
“If you look at guys like The Rock, who started out as Rocky Maivia and he’s in there and he’s wrestling and doing all this stuff, people don’t care until he becomes The Rock and starts raising an eyebrow, and Stone Cold Steve Austin, same thing,” Breeze said. “In WCW, he’s having these crazy wrestling matches, he’s very talented, and nobody cared until he started kicking and punching and putting a middle finger up as ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
“So it’s such a difference. Again, some people love wrestling. I love wrestling. I think wrestling’s the coolest thing in the world. But it’s also really cool when they care about you, and now you get paid more money to do it, and you get better reactions to do it, way better.”
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