On the most recent episode of the WWE Network First Take-esque debate show, Bring It To The Table, Corey Graves and JBL entered into the "Dive" debate.
The debate has been distilled down into two sides: Old-school guys who believe a Headlock helps to tell an in-ring story better than a Dive, and New-school guys who feel that high-spots and exciting acrobatics are the best way to get the job done, or at least should be allowed.
JBL is on the side of "Headlock," surprising precisely no one.
"Guys do dives because they don't know how to work. Guys do flips because they don't know how to work. I watch these guys do tryouts every single week at WWE. I sit out there in the announcer desk and watch these guys come in. So few guys even know how to lock up, how to put a headlock on properly. All they do is get a headlock because they want to get to the next move, some silly, stupid dive. And it is a silly, stupid dive. They want to get the crowd chanting, 'holy s--t'. Do you want to talk about matches that matter? Randy Orton can go out there, John Cena can go out there, AJ Styles can go out there and put together matches that matter and not have to do silly dives because they don't know how to work."
Graves is on the side of "Dive," but also unsurprisingly, he's more diplomatic with his take.
"I understand the contributions that these guys made, but just like in any form of entertainment, things evolve. The audience's attention span has changed. You need to do more high impact things. Do I think you need to do 30 dives and 30 superkicks a match? Absolutely not. But for everyone to kind of be dismissive of the guys that work that high flying style, or the daredevils, the cruiserweights, I think 205 Live would be the best show in television if all these guys got to do what they are able to do all the time. It's not a matter of not being able to work.
"Maybe sometimes the guys don't have great physiques or are undersized, but if you want to get the world talking about what you're doing, last year sometime, there were a couple of guys named Will Ospreay and Ricochet who over in Japan had this match that set the internet on fire and you had a very similar discussion. You had a lot of the old-timers saying, 'Well, this isn't wrestling, this sucks.' The fact is, those guys want to get noticed. They want to get their name out on a grand stage and it worked. Do I think that match would work in the WWE? Not necessarily, but those are two incredibly talented guys who deserve to be recognized for what they can do. And I think that the business is evolving. It's changing. John Cena goes to the top rope. Does he have to dive? No, but guess who does. Roman Reigns dives from time to time. I've seen Undertaker do it. That doesn't mean they can't work. They're the greatest of all time. It's a situational thing."
Bring It To The Table is available on the WWE Network.
