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One of the few things I hate about pro-wrestling’s rise to mainstream popularity is that it has killed the traditional jobber. I’m talking about guys that looked ordinary or out of shape or ugly. Fancifully referred to as “enhancement talent,” these guys had one purpose professionally — make the stars look superstars. These days, a typical jobber is someone like Heath Slater. He’s a handsome young man with a fantastic physique. In the ’80s, there’s no way this guy would have been a jobber. Sadly, modern television dictates that plain-looking or unattractive people can’t be on the air, even if their sole purpose in life is to lose while making their opponent look like Hercules.
I didn’t realize how much I missed jobbers until WWE brought some in for Ryback’s push. While those guys were still more polished and better looking than the jobbers of yore, they seemed like a different class of people than WWE Superstars. I miss that. I miss guys like Mike Jackson (video below) that could go toe-to-toe with Ric Flair, but could also be mistaken for a disgruntled accountant. I miss guys like Bill and Randy Mulkey (pictured above) that fought against some of the best tag-teams in pro-wrestling history, but also looked liked brothers that offered landscaping services. While these guys had ring skills, their bodies were “normal” and their facial features were ordinary. Their plainness helped make guys like Flair, Magnum T.A., Lex Luger, and Nikita Koloff look larger than life.
Do you miss classic pro-wrestling jobbers? Who are some of the members of your personal Jobber Hall of Fame? Leave a comment and let me know (please!).
Nowadays, they all play for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I’m pretty sure that Raw is what happened. The WWE/F got a contract for a weekly primetime cable show and ratings were a huge deal. So, they matched Superstar v. Superstar and it worked for over 1000 episodes. This way, it’s not overtly predictable and still leaves some guessing for the audience.
Then come the Monday Night Wars and what WCW was doing with contracting talent… this pretty much put the final nail in the coffin since most of the jobbers were actually up and coming local talent just showing up and making a little bread on TV. The ones you see now are either in developmental deals or signed a limited appearance contract. In both cases, I can see insurance companies raising a stink.
The funny thing is: Looking back, most jobbers really weren’t even very good at wrestling. Watching classic AWA matches, they pretty much sucked. And looked like shit. But they’re funny in their own way.
To build off N8R’s well worded statements, WWE basically hires men that fit a certain mold. There aren’t many deviations from it on their roster. And that is the first thing they look at — rather than work rate or character or other intangibles. It’s sad, and the results speak for themselves: The lowest ratings since 1997.