Jesse Ventura Believes Lack Of Rules And Enforcement Makes Pro Wrestling Less Intriguing

Posted By: Ben Jordan Kerin on Jul 16, 2022

WWE Hall of Famer and former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura was recently interviewed on the Talk Is Jericho podcast during which he discussed today's world of pro wrestling and why the lack of rules or enforcement makes it hard for him to follow. Check out some interview excerpts below:

On no rules or enforcement in pro wrestling today:

“When I watch WWE today, and it took me a while to determine why wrestling today, to me, doesn’t have any intrigue whatsoever to it. And I’ll tell you why. There’s no rules. Now when I say that, here’s what I mean. In my day, when you broke a rule, you could lose a match. In my day, when you broke a rule, the referee would make you break up the hold. In my day, the rules meant something. If a guy was thrown out over the top rope, that was considered so dangerous...that was a disqualification. And with those rules, it allowed you to get heat. Because when you’d win by breaking the rules, people were angry legitimately."

On wrestlers not getting DQ'ed these days:

“I could start the match off, hit my opponent, knock him out of the ring and run his head right into the steel post, and the match goes on. Now in my day, you’d be disqualified for that. You had to hide it. You had to be creative to cheat. Today, the performers don’t need any creativity. They can blatantly cheat because again there’s no rules. And that’s why I can’t watch. There’s nothing there that intrigues me.”

On this affecting heels in pro wrestling today:

“A heel can’t get my respect because he’s not showing me the ability to perform and break the rules and get away with it, because there’s no rules to get away with. And the babyface, well, they start off, they don’t even to bother to show they’re a superior wrestler. It’s beating the guy right in the head and cutting meat right from the opening bell. When do you see a hold? When do you see a guy go back to a hold? I guess the major difference is, in my day, it was still wrestling as a basis. Today, street fighting is the basis because there’s nothing you can do that can disqualify you. If I went out and kicked the guy right in the nuts, would I get disqualified?”