We are proud to have Trevor Hunnicutt’s columns exclusive to The Balrog’s Lair Web site. Trevor’s column previously was available on our Newsboard. In addition to The Figure Four Leglock, Trevor reports NWA TNA news and information on our newsboard.
Before I begin my column today, I would like to express my gratitude to Joe and Martin here at TBL for being receptive to my idea of having this column be just for you. You may be wondering why I made the decision to stop syndicating my column and it’s a bit complex. Either way, I feel under this more intimate environment, I can be able to work better. The decision was completely mine. I’ve been writing this column for three years and I don’t plan to stop, so thanks to all of my readers. Keep sending feedback and comments to me at THunnicutt@aol.com. On to this week’s column….
I feel that is important, especially in the situation that WWE finds itself in now to address the state of the art. Periodically, it’s important to discuss how wrestling as an art form is developing and now is as good a time as any.
The wrestling climate is very different from what it was before, that is obvious. Writing this same column five years ago would mean something very different. Now WWE is the major game in the market, everything that is below it could probably be considered indy, even NWA:TNA. How this effects the topic at hand, is important to discuss. The industry is dependent on the top games and since there is only one, all of the indies below it usually depend on it in some way financially and in terms of the wrestling that is produced.
THE INDIES
Between indies, the competition is extremely fierce. The market is laden with blood, gore, and spot-wrestling and some markets are over-saturated with wrestling like Philly and many others barren. Ring of Honor, new to the market, has tried to establish itself as something different from the status quo. They bring to the table a bunch of styles and emphasize a more traditional approach than even WWE. Which, if any formula, sells best is hard to judge when wrestling organizations fight tooth and nail to draw crowds. The fast-approaching East Coast Wrestling Association Super-8 Tournament, sponsored by Jim Kettner, still continues to showcase the best of the best in the indies.
NWA:TNA is new to the market as well with a new type of marketing strategy, running PPVs every week. While that concept has so far, proved unsuccessful, in that they are not able to break even, they have been able to gather a small crowd (1,600 locally; 7-10,000 nationally) and expose a vast range of wrestling styles on a national scale. TNA has created a weekly mix of Lucha, Japanese, American Indy, high-flying, technical, and hardcore wrestling that deserve more praise than it receives. The much-praised X-Division has put together the likes of Jerry Lynn, AJ Styles, and Low-Ki.
THE MAINSTREAM MARKET
WWE is going to have to understand, evaluate, and establish a style that works for their company. This is a period when a balance has to be created between the fans insatiable thirst for continually-impressive match and excellent storylines. On one hand you have **** matches and on the other hand, you have a growing, dangerous, and dissatisfactory injury situation. Eight people have gone under the knife of sports surgeon Dr. Llyod Youngblood for rare yet serious neck surgery since 1999, most produced by wear-and-tear in WWE and set off by one match. Simply to dismiss the situation with a “shit happens” attitude is also unacceptable due to it’s severity. WWE will be forced to set up and take notice of their injury situation quickly because now it’s beginning to affect their already troubled financial situation. In my lay opinion, a grueling work schedule which requires wrestlers to be on the road all the time, is probably the number one reason. Diamond Dallas Page, retired last year for extensive damage to the neck that could not be fixed because he worked through it for so long. Steve Blackman was released, and subsequently retired, this past year as well, for not undergoing similar neck surgery for personal reasons, meaning the end for him.
Last year, road agents were told that they needed to take a more traditional approach to wrestling and they responded by telling wrestlers to emphasize a more safe/traditional approach, they were also told to cut back on Lucha Libre-inspired wrestling for the same reasons. It didn’t work for a few reasons: (1) the wrestlers will still try to up the ante with unsafe highspot matches (e.g. Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam-both popular wrestlers) and be rewarded for getting over with the fans; and (2) WWE’s approach is not pro-active enough, I guarantee you, the passive approach won’t take care of this situation. The problem is through-and-through when it comes to the roster as you can tell by the people who went under the neck surgery (not only your Steve Austins, but Lita, Scotty II Hotty, and Bob Holly as well). Besides the aforementioned passiveness in WWE’s approach, their stance is hypocritical at the same time when they book dangerous career-shortening gimmick matches.
The answer is not necessarily an easy “do this, do that” when it comes to fixing their problem, but there are measures that WWE can take. A number of people within the business feel that a softer style won’t go over with fans who have been taught to enjoy the best of both worlds. Mick Foley told Dave Meltzer that although there were problems in overhauling the system, the house shows needed to be eliminated since the real money comes from TV and wrestling house shows will hurt them, yet for a smaller audience… it’s a realistic point. Working less also means less experience, is that a sacrifice worth taking?
WWE has recently sacrificed a lot on the quality of their matches by pushing people like The Big Show, Scott Steiner, Hulk Hogan, A-Train, even Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker in main-event positions for other reasons that they felt were positive. HHH, after returning from his quadriceps injury was much more of a behemoth in the ring (not to mention having injuries for a good part of his time back, lasting months at a time), and he was champion of the RAW brand for all but one month. Undercard matches on the PPV often became better than the main-events which followed. That is not a positive when the feuds on the top don’t work (believe me, the success rate is not a plus). The product also took a hit by poor matches as a result of wrestlers who were fatigued or working through injuries.
A positive step for WWE is trying to liven things up in their shows. Raw has replaced the useless Hardcore division with a stronger, more respectable, talented Women’s Division. SmackDown, under the direction of former head booker Paul Heyman, made 10x the changes incorporating a new style of wrestling (traditional but exciting-focusing a lot, even in the cruiserweight division, on mat/technical skills, mixing brawling traditional and brawling a lot), and using the backgrounds of wrestlers to their advantage.
SmackDown for example has Olympic Wrestling champion (1996, Atlanta) Kurt Angle (had), 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, NCAA All-American Shelton Benjamin, and others with some amateur wrestling experience (Charlie Haas, for example). The value of amateur backgrounds in professional wrestling is amazingly undervalued, increasingly since the separation of shoot and worked wrestling in the 20th century. One of the only mainstream connections to the good that comes out of the tradition of the past, is the work of excellent wrestlers like Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho (both Canadian), who through simply working the style they do, hold wrestling together by the seams, in my opinion. There is still a ways to go, however.
In general, as wrestling fans, we should value more the quality of wrestling that we have at our fingertips. The fact that the United States is often described as a melting pot is certainly apropos as it pertains to this topic. The potential is greater than ever when it comes to further cultivation of wrestling as an art. Wrestling is not as watered-down mainstream as it was years ago, but there are enough problems to drive students of the business, especially wrestling purists, crazy.
FAN FEEDBACK Before I go how about some feedback:
This is from maverick_wai@yahoo.com respond there. this is my mom’s name.who ever writes this crap is not cool that just proves that stuff like this is crap and you so called wrestling fans shouldn’t be allowed to even think about this noble sport. lay off some of these issuse because no one gives a crap!
TH: I happen to love this business and that’s why I write-I think I can speak for my colleagues as well in saying that. Thank you for your view, but unfortunately, for better or for worse, I’m not going anywhere. Whether you care or don’t care about what I have to say, I could care less… just don’t read my columns.
Send your feedback, flame mail, corrections, and random rants to THunnicutt@aol.comtry to include a name and I will respond.
Until next week…
~Trevor Hunnicutt, PH.D
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