Summary

Demolition members Ax and Smash discussed the state of modern professional wrestling on The Demolition Podcast, arguing that gimmick matches have become so commonplace that they've lost their impact and are contributing to a rising injury toll among today's performers.

Ax expressed concern that many wrestlers now feel pressured to top every match that came before it, while Smash pointed to the contrast between how stipulation matches were used during their era versus now.

Quotes

Quote from Ax

"Sometimes they just throw people into a gimmick match where there was no buildup for it. Sometimes that buildup was a year, a year and a half, and it culminated with, 'Now we're going to get a winner. Now it's finally going to be settled.'"

Ax also shared concern for the physical toll this approach is taking on current wrestlers:

"I worry about them as well, because a lot of the things I see, I just don't understand it. Don't get me wrong, they're great athletes, they're very athletic, but a lot of the stuff is like gymnastics. It's not wrestling. They're taking so many bumps. Like Barry [Smash] mentioned, the propensity for potential injury greatly accelerates. We used to wrestle with the idea that we were going to be in this business for a long period of time. You have wrestlers now who feel like they have to outdo the match before them, or the two or three matches before."

Quote from Smash

"Some of them are getting hurt so badly they can hardly work anymore. And it's just, that's what's so terrible. Each guy has to beat what the next guy does. When we were doing it, the blowoff was a cage match or whatever, and then they wouldn't have a cage match again until somebody else had another blowoff. Now it's like, 'Hey, let's just throw a cage match in there. Let's have a ladder match.'"

What This Means for Ax and Smash's Argument

Demolition's perspective carries a particular weight because the team ran one of the longest continuous WWF Tag Team Championship reigns in company history across the late 1980s and into 1990, a period when big stipulation matches were reserved almost entirely for high-profile program blow-offs. Cage matches and special stipulations in that era were typically the culmination of months of heat building, which made them feel like genuine payoffs rather than regular TV fixtures.

The pair's concerns echo a broader debate that has run through wrestling for years: whether the escalation of high-risk spots and constant use of gimmick matches is sustainable from a performer longevity standpoint. Ax's point about wrestlers now feeling they must outdo the previous match, rather than pacing a career over years, cuts at a structural shift in how the business operates at both the booking and performance level.

Sources

As reported by NoDQ.