Lemme holla at ya playa. Welcome to the Figure Four Leglock, my name is Trevor Hunnicutt, and I thank you for reading. Please take the time to read the column and send me an email at Thunnicutt@aol.com so you may gainsay or grovel or whatever it is that you would like to do. Before I start today, I would like to welcome to column writers to the Balrog’s Lair in Mr. John Warren (writer of Discontinuosity) and Mr. Darnell Fishman (writer of The Bottom Rope), I have read their columns and enjoyed them. If you feel you have what it takes to join our staff, we also encourage you to enquire about a position at hawrysko21@aol.com.
I was not surprised to read that most of the top draws on Raw and SmackDown do not work house show schedules regularly. The subject of this column is World Wrestling Entertainment’s policy to ignore house shows and only book for TV and PPV, a policy which mimics one of many horrible mistakes made by WCW brass (“The Powers That Be” for Vince Russo fans), an administration, it was, which now represents wastefulness, destruction, memories, potential wasted, large and vast monetary expenditures, gluttony, and of course, the butt of many a joke.
For the first half of the year, the main talent (main talent meaning my partially-subjective judgement on the position their character was given with one of the main requirements being that the person must be at least a mediocre draw) on Raw was Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Steve Austin, Bill Goldberg, Ric Flair, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Scott Steiner, Chief Morely, HHH, and Booker T. On SmackDown the people who I put in that category are Brock Lesnar, Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, Kurt Angle, The Big Show, Undertaker, John Cena, The Rock, and Roddy Piper. Out of that group of people, the people that work a full house schedule are Chris Jericho, HHH, Booker T, Brock Lesnar, The Big Show, Kurt Angle, and John Cena. The other people work no house shows or on a partial/modified schedule, and they comprise two-thirds of the list, a third of them who aren’t obliged to appear on any shows other than the TV and the PPV productions. This is, obviously, a problem. House show gates are plummeting and with good reason. People have to accept not only that storylines mean nothing, but that the roster is split, and now, that the people who matter nationally have nothing to do with the shows. Whether people love watching live wrestling or not is immaterial, they no longer have a reason. So what is it that I’m proposing? That WWE get rid of all the TV-only characters or have them all do full travel schedules? No. I’m suggesting something that will take more determination and more testicular fortitude, if you will.
Elimination of the “house show.”
WWE needs to ask themselves the question: are they a weekly televison drama/comedy or a traveling circus, as horrible as that may sound. The question was once rhetorical in nature, and something that Mr. McMahon lost no sleep over, but now his company’s direction and future depends on the answer. WWE can’t be everything inasmuch as society no longer works that way. Wrestling no longer works that way. Here are three of the main reasons:
Over the years, just like many other things, the practice has become antiquated. They do it every year, so why change?
(1) The industry is no longer strong enough or varied enough to support the practice. The “industry” now only consists of WWE, a company who’s only relative competition is NWA: Total Nonstop Action, who in turn, although not by definition an “independent federation,” the two companies do not even fit within the same bracket. When WWE is now not strong (see point three) and as a result, neither are local companies. Peripheral and non-integral components are unnecessary. For example, lets look at Gap – a successful business. Their problems began when straying away from a strong product brand and creating (and then not eliminating) peripheral facets such as Baby Gap. I’ve talked to people within that company who pinpoint the financial downturn of Gap with unnecessary and non-responsive expansion. This applies tenfold to WWE.
(2) House shows have existed because that was the only type of show, and that’s how, on a territorial basis, money was made. Times have changed, there are no territories, the country is no longer segmented because of the bridging of that divide by technology, and television is the main source of revenue.
(3) The product needs to be simplified in times of financial issues, and excess fat needs to be cut. As if it bore recapitulation (or is that the real problem), WWE is currently in currently wedged between a rock and a hard place. Attendance has almost cut in half in one year and facets of WWE business have seen only a quarter worth compared to a short but notable boom period in the company which lasted from mid-1998, well through 2000. Attendance: decreasing at a time when number of live events has been increased. The year following the end of the boom, which not coincidentally coincided with a change in the relationship between pop-culture and “sports-entertainment,” produced change in management in WWE, the sale and shut-down of WCW, the bankruptcy of ECW, and the end of the XFL – and those were the big events. So many lessons could be learned just from the things that transpired within that year, but it’s lessons – like many before it – were ignored by everyone.
Smart businessmen change with the times but for some reason WWE has decided to keep an unnecessary, traditional, revenue-income base that no longer draws the way it used to and the only changes in the last twenty years have made it worse.
The effect that such a drastic change would have on wrestlers is not fully known. On one hand a good argument against this is that wrestlers who already have trouble breaking even will be out of most of the paychecks that they do get. However, most of the expense incurred by wrestlers is travel, which they pay for themselves most of the year. This travel will be cut down dramatically. The base salary they are paid should be enough after most of their expenses are cut and WWE should consider changes the terminology given workers that they are “independent contractors” and treat them with decency, like by paying them for travel as NWA:TNA does. I addressed the other main positive effect of such a change in my column dated March 16, 2003 (“The State of the Art”). The injury quandary within WWE has come to a head, not only because of how many people have been affected, but because of the sheer rarity and seriousness of the issues. Elimination of house shows will take away from the bumps taken and the hard travel lifestyle of the workers.
We are a part of times a changing. People always say about how wrestling will always be around because it always has. I, in my own former state of naïveté, stated the same thing, without further thought. But times are different. For better or for worse is not for me to expound upon. But either the business must change, or it will, undoubtedly, end. It is not an immortal force and I realize this more and more everyday when I see the hundreds of television channels and entertainment spectacles we have to choose from and then I look at amateur wrestling – a tremendous, noble, and time-tested sport dying off slowly and then professional wrestling – the amazing new spectacle birthed, developed, and strengthened in record time dying a similar retardation. It’s not as immortal as we thought.
It’s do or die time – and that’s not hype.
A look at TNN re-branding, again
“N’ayez pas peur, putain!” For the fourth time in the last several years, TNN will re-brand itself in a continuation of what has been a move to becoming a mainstream cable company like fellow Viacom-owned successes in Nickelodeon (easily in the top 4 best-drawing cable stations and a champion like no other in its demographic) and MTV.
On June 16th, TNN becomes Spike TV, a network dedicated to targeting the male 25-49 demographic in the same manner that Lifetime has become a champion for women in the same demographic. The chief component to this re-branding is the controversial turn to wrestling to draw that demographic. WWE, despite a downturn in ratings, will not only be heavily promoted but will take up 20 hours of monthly television on the network, not including guaranteed specials.
TNN has been trying to find its gimmick ever since switching from a Southern-based and directed operation with small penetration called “The Nashville Network” to “The National Network” and “The New TNN” with as much penetration as MTV. Their biggest asset is WWE television, which by a fluke, they received from Viacom in 2000. Since the original re-branding, ratings have grown and so have the stakes, TNN even spending over a million dollars to acquire the CBS-produced hit “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” a show which has been a moderate success, strategically placed after RAW Mondays.
My own personal take on this is twofold. On one hand, I think it’s appropriate that TNN re-brand and go after a certain audience. On the other hand, I don’t think the name is proper or is basing the product on wrestling is good to do at this time. However, without the ability to foretell the future of or analyze the marketing strategy beyond this, I can’t comment any further on how this will effect TNN except by saying that this is a huge gamble, and it better work.
For wrestling, this can only be a positive. TNN’s re-branding, even if it does hurt TNN as a company, will not tamper with WWE’s audience. Only WWE can do that…. If it works, that will bring a larger crowd to WWE, but if it doesn’t there will be no loss of viewers. The additional promotion can’t hurt either.
Final note from Trevor: I’ve read eight columns in the past week about WWE and the Internet Wrestling Community or something related to people on the Internet and wrestling. Come on people, give it a break and let’s talk about what we are here to talk about: the business, instead of pathetic arguments about what people should and shouldn’t write about. It’s petty and unnecessary.
That’s all I have for you for now, thank you for reading as always as I appreciate your support. One rhetorical question, though, before we go: Ultimo Dragon’s two left goals in wrestling are to wrestle on a WrestleMania card and work a match in the infamous MSG, will he kill two birds with one stone now with WWE? My bet is they put him on the card and then cut his match the day before. Drop me an email at Thunnicutt@aol.com with your name and comments, corrections, questions, challenges (I won a duel against pro wrestling Hall of Famer Tex McKenzie back in ’87, so just bring it biotch), and random rants. Signing out, this is Dr. Trevor Hunnicutt. Be’leev that, playa’. I’ll holla.
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