Although it can be argued that today he CMLL You are living a popular boom, The truth is that such popularity is far from being the one in the early nineties, When professional wrestling returned to open television.
In the most recent episode of the podcast of super strugglesconducted by Milton Eloir, This issue was addressed. Ernesto Ocampo made a deep analysis On the current difficulty for wrestling to live a similar “boom”, explaining that cultural and technological changes They have fragmented the public.
► Cultural stagnation will avoid a boom
«The fact that We will not see a similar boom has to do with him cultural stagnation. Those who grew up in the 70s, 80s and 90s still remember that there were a very large separation between decades, In both fashions and music, as in television programs, movies … everything was different from decade to another, but now, since the century began, It seems that we live in a single long decade, We have practically not seen changes, and this also has to do with the fact that there are no longer cultural phenomena that unite people.
«In the 80s there were soap operas like Cradle of wolves, for example, which Middle Mexico was seeing. In the United States the same thing happened With series like Dallas o Twin Peaks: Everyone talked about these series, articles were published in the newspapers, in the magazines, because it was what people saw. They were millions of people watching television, And they took the fashions.
«In WWE, in the era of Hulkamania, There were also millions of people who saw the struggles. And in Mexico what happened was something similar, it was a time when literally everyone saw wrestling on channel 4 and then on channel 9. In schools everyone talked about it. In the offices everyone talked about wrestling. It was something new, and that is something difficult to happen again, because the tastes are already very segmented.
«Everyone can see what they want. No one is obliged to watch the same television programs. Each one sees their favorite streaming platform, the type of series you like, and so on. For the same reason it is difficult for a boom to be given again. Yes, there may be other booms, such as the mystical boom. Right now you can say that there is a boom in the World Wrestling Council, There is a boom in WWE, but they are no longer like before they were widespread.
MILTON: I don't know if WWE's arrival I will generate it, But I think there will be a lot of marketing behind to seek to position this new brand.
– Yeah, But it will no longer be how it was in the 90s, When everyone talked about the fight. The dad, the mother, the grandmother; Everyone knew who was octagon, Because it was a generalized taste. Or maybe even if you didn't like the fight, you knew who was octagon, because someone from the family began to see the struggles on Saturday night.
– In general, wrestling has been less massive than, as you say, Ernesto, the 90s era and still early 21st. Today we are still talking When they fight sacred mask, octagon, the dynamite, satanic, Because they are like popular culture characters. And trying to identify the new generations of fighters is complicated.
– In fact, in this century, Maybe the only fighter that people recognize is mystical.
► The problem that WWE will have to conquer Mexico
– Don't you think, Ernesto, now achieves WWE's marketing? Because we have seen that there is talk that there is the intention, and Dave Melzer himself already reported, based on your comments, that WWE will bet on positioning the brand. Do not you think there will be a very aggressive campaign of marketing to position these new characters that at the end of the accounts because they want, money, stamps, action figures, video games, stuffed animals, etc.?
– Yes, it's what I said last week, it's what they're going to do because they want to capture the market, But capture the current market It no longer means capturing the entertainment market, but only capture the professional wrestling market. Obviously the characters will be better known thanks to this diffusion, but it will not be something as great as the fight in the early 90s.
«I feel that the most that can be reached is an impact like the one when WWE arrived at Mexico's open television. I don't know if they are trying to find some contact with Televisa to transmit AAA again, But although they do it, it is no longer the same, because Televisa no longer has the penetration he had in past decades. Right now They prefer to watch content on their cell phone instead of watching them on television.
«Now everything is very heterogeneous. Recently I was seeing in a park how people were dressed and I can assure you That of ten women, the ten were dressed differently. In men there was not so much variety in their styles, because we are less complicated in that regard, but it is clear that people no longer follows fashions Because everyone has their tastes. If I like Japanese culture, if I like Korean pop, if I like this European rock, So I'm going to go directly to that content. I am no longer adapting to what television will show and consuming only that because I have no choice.
«That is also a problem that WWE will have when capturing this market: They will have to go alone for fans of the professional struggle, because it is very difficult to reach those who are not fans ».
