Your Z-questions Anzwered
Late last year we invited fans to submit their questions to the Z-Man. Here's the answer to one of these questions. More answers in coming weeks.
Q. - Where your fights generally choreographed? Did you like them to be thought through before going into the ring?
Z. - It's generally a matter of professional pride NOT to choreograph a match beforehand. Being able to work a match in the ring without preparation is the end-result of a long period of journeyman work.
The only thing that's really worked out in advance is the finish. The booker decides the finish according to who he's pushing and who he's not. What's on the marquee is wrestling, and "to get over, you have to beat people." On the other hand, to bury someone, you book them to get beat. "Getting beat" kills your career - the most recent proof for both sides of this formula is Goldberg.
The booker tells you beforehand the finish and the time you've got in the ring. If he wants to get both men over, he gives them plenty of time to work the match and sell each other's moves. The most valuable thing on TV is TIME - time to get your character over with the audience and that means lots of interview time also. Every minute is precious on TBS and whether you get TV time or not depends on the booker.
If the booker wants
to bury someone, he gives them just a few minutes in the ring. A good example
is when Ole [Anderson] booked me to put
Vader over. He gave 5 minutes for the match - and then signalled to
'go home' after just 2 minutes - too little time to do anything except
sell Vader's spots. The point of the match was to put the 'hot heel'
over - so the high spots had to be all Vader's. And my job was to sell
them.
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(above right) One of the few rallies Zenk had time for. Meltzer reported - " Zenk sold his stuff good and he did some elbow drops and falling moves that got over because of his weight. But because of the time, this was really just a squash." |
A good match should include a series of high spots - great moves or bumps. People can only pay attention for so long, so you need action and shock value, like Howard Stern. If you're one of the booker's chosen favorites he'll put you on when the crowd is still fresh. Some of the TV tapings we did at Gainesville involved 30 or 35 matches at a time. The bookers try and get their buddies out the door in the first few hours. But if the booker wants to kill your heat, he'll put you on at the very end - when the crowd is worn out. The TV fans won't know. They'll think you're lousy and can't draw heat. In return, when Pillman and I worked together we'd do what we could to wear the crowd out so that people like Flair and Sting couldn't follow. That really got to Flair who always liked to steal the show.
Traditionally it's the job of the guy playing heel to lead the match - and determine the pace and the flow, etc. So if you see a bad match, blame the heel as well as the booker. If a match isn't going over well, if the heel isn't leading well, then the opponent or the referee may suggest speeding it up or adding high spots, or the ref can become involved himself. In Japan the referee often calls the high spots. As a general rule there should be at least 3 high spots per match.
In the ring, the
wrestlers and the ref communicate with each other using 'carney' - that's
where you insert 'iza' and 'weza' etc into words to form a sort of Pig
Latin. So you can make suggestions to improve the match without the audience
understanding.
(Top left) - the Z-man takes a massive bump over the rail , Meadowlands 7/3/91 (top right and below) the same spot at the Great American Bash PPV, Baltimore.14/7/91. |
Generally you're booked with an opponent for a 'program' - a series of matches developing an angle or feud or leading to a PPV. That gives you a bit of time to get familiar with your opponent's style and perfect your high spots together - but always on the night, not with any formal rehearsal. I worked a six month program with Austin preparing him for Dustin. Dusty had his son booked to take the belt from Flair and this was to be Flair's ultimate humiliation. Austin and I basically did the same thing every night with a little gimmick, now and then, to add interest.
