2014 Pro Wrestling Thread

Punk has signed with the UFC. Holy cow.

 

Not holy cow, holy shit! Wow. For those who weren't watching UFC: http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/11991124/cm-punk-joins-ufc-fight-2015

 

Dana White and CM Punk: Shut up and take my money!

 

In a lot of ways, wrestling could be fucked. It's not as if WCW died because of their ratings. Their ratings were still good for their respective channels. They died because their company weren't fond of them and WCW was losing money like crazy. Meanwhile, TBS could show an episode of The
Andy Griffith Show and TNT uh, yeah, I can't remember what TNT was showing back in 2001 besides sports, but let's just assume they aired M*A*S*H* or whatever, for a much smaller amount of money, while the ratings wouldn't change much. It's not as if ECW was going to be in a good spot if WWE goes under and WCW can't stay on their network either. So the chances of WWE, WCW and ECW going out of business all in 2001 wouldn't be so unlikely had the WWE went under first.

Obviously, there'd be a lot of new companies starting up, but as we saw with XWF, it doesn't mean they will be a success. Even at their peak, TNA never reached the level of mainstream attention that WCW had at their worst. For that matter, without one company still putting on a popular show on a weekly basis, the amount of wrestling fans still searching for other companies would be far less than there was in 2002 with the terrible TNA starting up.

 

It'd be all about the TV deal and production values. If WWE folded, WCW got sold off and USA Network wanted wrestling programming then the new-Turnerless WCW would have been in good shape. If they ended up on Spike or someplace else for less money like TNA, it might look more like TNA.

I guess Dana White assumes people will pay to see what happens with Punk. I don't know who he could possibly fight. If he fights a name he'll get smashed, it'll look like a stunt. If he fights a tomato can, what's it really mean? He's pretty old and inexperienced for a first-time fighter.

 

He'll fight a tomato can and collect his paycheck and 10 minutes of extra fame.

 

Also, on the topic of wrestling today had WWF folded: ECW wouldn't have lasted as long as it did if WWF had died. VKM was pretty open in the new ECW documentaries on the Network that he was subsidizing ECW and using it as a feeder for talent. Heyman couldn't manage money.

Who knows? With all three failing, maybe territories would have come back.

 

Since we seem to be in some agreement that WCW would have folded or been sold anyway once AOL-Time Warner lost interest (no way in hell Bischoff and Co. spend less money once they've won the war), I think what we might have ended up with was a "new" WWF — as a rebranded WCW run by Vince McMahon.
Surely he could have gotten some investors together for another stab at it. Hell, if TNA can get a cable deal and last 10 years then surely McMahon could have used his better contacts to get a deal and turn things around.
A decade later, some of the history changes but I think we have largely the same landscape as today. One major promotion, run by Vince McMahon, that's even more of an American success story than the first.

 

I think it's a beat of a leap to assume that WCW would just go away with no WWE because AOL/Time Warner didn't like wrestling. I think people tend to gloss over that yes, they hated wrestling... but WCW was also hemorrhaging a shit ton of money at the end, and except for the rise of the NWO on WCW, it has never really been profitable.

With no WWE, I think WCW becomes the top option by default and probably turns a profit at some point, for two reasons. 1) They would suddenly get a flood of marquee talent that was in the WWE and 2) this sudden flood would deflate the high salaries they were giving out.

 

The business as we know it could've fundamentally changed if WCW was the winner/survivor. Their house show schedule and international touring was never on WWF's level. Would they have stepped up and filled those dates or let that part of the business die?

 

Let's say hypothetically, that Heyman doesn't get subsidized by Vince, and ECW pretty much conks out by '96 or so because Heyman's creativity isn't enough to grow the company beyond the rabid fan base.

Then, Vince figures the ECW style is just garbage wrestling and decides it won't work for his company. So he keeps with the lame stuff he has been doing. Meanwhile, WCW catches fire with the NWO and moves far away from him.

Fast forward to Survivor Series '97, and Vince finds himself on his last legs. He's about to lose his champion to the competition and the guy refuses to drop the belt to his top heel, who is a prima donna on drugs, the top heel's partner is some midcarder who nobody will ever care about other than his butch-looking girlfriend, Rocky Johnson's son is getting booed out of the arena and will probably be appearing in pornos when his wrestling career fizzles out, and Chilly McFreeze is putting fans to sleep with his boring version of some move that used to be done by one of the former Dynamic Dudes.

So Vince gets desperate, screws up the finish of his main event to fuck around with his departing champion, fans riot, some children get hurt and he finds himself answering questions from people who are contacting him by computer. He tries to hang on through Wrestlemania, but it's too much and he throws in the towel by the end of '98.

Meanwhile, WCW fucks up the entrance of the F's champ, they have no endgame with the NWO, fans get pissed because they dislike Robin Hood, Chucky, and KISS and despise Master P. So they lose a ton of money and AOL/ Time Warner, rather than buy the F, let's them go out of business, and sells their own wrestling company, for pennies on the dollar, to Bischoff in 2001.

Then you get this crappy, watered-down company that Bischoff and Hogan fuck up even worse, and they end up closing by 2004.

Meanwhile, Vince, licking his wounds for a few years, sees an opportunity to renter the business, he can't get investors behind him because his new top guy, The Prototype, can't wrestle worth shit, and the only way anyone will invest is if he hires a former competitor and let's him have full creative control.

Re-enter Paul Heyman in 2006.

Hey, a guy can dream.

 

So I went to Ring of Honor's Final Battle tonight. Man, I love ROH. Seriously.
Even though the venue was absolute dogshit and the worse place I have ever watched any form of wrestling (Including high school), I had a great time.
The Young Bucks are f**king awesome. My friends and I are pretty much in universal agreement that they'll never work in the WWE but, man, those guys can go and they can pump up the crowd like no one's business.
Veda Scott, meanwhile, is my absolute No. 1 female wrestler crush right now. I don't know why but I want to do dirty things to her. Like a lot.
reDRagon, meanwhile, have completely won me over from this point last year. Their match tonight was just brilliant tag team wrestling and well worth the price of admission alone.
But then there's the Adam Cole v. Jay Briscoe match. Man, that was brutal. I haven't seen a hardcore-style match that good in a long time. Cole is definitely going to be one to watch in NXT by this point next year.
All in all, strong show. Not quite as good as my last two ROH shows in NYC but much better than anything the WWE is doing right now.