AEW coach and WWE Hall of Famer Billy Gunn delivered sharp criticism of modern wrestling during a recent appearance on ARWP, arguing that today’s performers rely too heavily on athleticism at the expense of fundamental storytelling.
“Nowadays, nobody knows how to work,” Gunn said. “They don’t know how to work in general. We get it, back in the 80s, isn’t going to work now because they’ve taken it so far to the extreme that you have to have very good basic storytelling for me to follow along and see somebody actually wrestle.”
The D-Generation X legend emphasized that matches need genuine conflict to engage audiences beyond hardcore fans. “There has to be a reason for us to fight. There has to be a reason for somebody to like me and hate you. Just because we’re going to wrestle, I don’t understand how you get into that,” Gunn explained, contrasting modern wrestling with the Attitude Era’s character-driven approach.
Gunn specifically criticized wrestlers for prioritizing high-impact moves over psychology. “These kids don’t do that because they’re lazy. They just want to go, ‘I’m going to do this move. I want everybody to pop for me first.’ They are so athletic that the people can’t follow along,” he said, noting the problem exists across both AEW and WWE.
The 35-year veteran has been off AEW television since The Acclaimed split. He competes for QT Marshall’s Georgia-based 1 Fall Wrestling.
