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Submitted by Pt2 on Thursday, December 22, 2005 at 9:07 AM EST
Territories reborn: The new era of wrestlingIn the beginning the NWA created the heavens and the earth; and then turning their attention to the earth that they had created, they drew such division down that turf, so as the promoters and the wrestlers that lived on it could coexist with each other and dwell in some form of harmony. And we know how the story goes. The NWA looked after it’s members, and prospered as the number one wrestling organization (or alliance of organisations if you wish to be overly analytical), in which people didn’t cross over boundaries and compete with each other. Competition was limited to competition between NWA members and renegade or rogue promotions that lacked star power and were often muscled out. But then, an ambitious young man called Vince McMahon.... do I really need to give you the whole rundown again? I don’t think so. The wrestling climate that we have today exists because Vince McMahon jnr. learned that by using talent other promoters didn’t want because they were “trouble”, he could cross over their boundaries with such star studded shows that even the established NWA could not compete with his profits. The NWA never truly folded.... but it’s never enjoyed the same popularity since. But once Vince McMahon did make his move towards a wrestling monopoly, the idea of wrestling companies competing for different markets died, and was instead replaced by outright competition. In different areas local promotions were competing with the WWE for the same fans, and when Ted Turner bought WCW he started a legacy that would create the first national scale competition. That national scale competition has come to be known as the Monday night war, and it sparked the greatest popularity surge in wrestling history since McMahon’s initial foray over boundary lines - and it might even have had a greater draw power than that itself. Wrestling pushed itself further than it ever had before, and the quality of both programs, Nitro and RAW, went up because of their being placed opposite each other on Monday nights. As a result, now that wrestling isn’t pushing itself so hard, at least at the highest level, many fans have been yearning for that level of competition to come back, and hoping that some promotion would get the necessary backing to be able to fire a broadside and directly compete with the WWE once again. Many of us, and notice the pronoun, its “us” not “you” have long thought that the only way to reach the dizzying creative heights of 1997 or 2000 WWF work again is for someone to come up, throw down the gauntlet, push Vince McMahon’s back to the wall and light a proverbial fire under his ass. That’s kinda what a lot of us were hoping for when TNA got started properly. And what we were really clamouring for when they got their TV deal. TNA has had a lot of support, much of it because they actually put on a pretty good show, but I’m sure there has been a sizeable amount of support going towards TNA just so that there will be an alternative, competition would be re-born, and the second Monday night war could begin. And I think that is a major reason why a lot of fans who aren’t the biggest supporters of the WWE were hurt and confused to find Jerry Jarrett, a major player with TNA since their inception, was known to be travelling to Titan Towers and offering the McMahon’s a potential star wrestler, in the big russian, Nikolai Volkoff. Sorry, I mean Oleg Prudius. Let’s be honest, if your trying to create competition, then one of the worst ways to do it when you are trying to catch up is to give your opponents some ammunition. Especially when it’s live ammunition that will go in a gun that they’ve only been firing blanks with. Prudius was talked about as a possible replacement for Brock Lesnar at some point, and losing Lesnar was a blow I don’t think the WWE ever properly recovered from. Getting someone back into that role could mean that many of the former plans could be resurrected and would certainly give them a lot more options. However, the Jarrett/Prudius thing is old news. It’s not the story itself that I want to bring up, but this point we can learn from it; TNA is not at this time interested in competing with WWE, and we are much, much further away from another Monday night war than many of us imagine. Let’s face it, competition is a risky business. Though you hurt your opponent, you hurt your own company too, as many of the people you are competing with won’t get to see what you can do. Short of something magical like the nWo angle, your not going to cause mass fan defection either. Maybe a few, but in reality for companies at the moment, the WWE is too big and too strong, and unless someone with the financial clout of a Ted Turner steps in, that isn’t going to change. Look at the entire structure of TNA and you realise that in reality, it’s all been a fantasy of fans that their short term goal is too compete anyway. When they are in a better position, then sure, maybe, but right now you are hard pushed to find evidence that they have been competing for the same fans. Ok, they do pick up a lot of ex-WWE talent, and 3LK have in the past reeked of something slightly attitude era-ish, but look at the major selling points of the company. Their franchise player and the man who has held their world championship more often than anyone else is Jeff Jarrett, a talented wrestler but a man not known for drawing a lot of money outside of the Tennessee wrestling belt. In my opinion, he is showcased to keep the ex-WCW southern contingent interested, not as a major chess piece in the game of pulling viewers away from Vince. They’ve picked up and heavily showcased many former ECW talents, including Raven, Sabu, Team 3D and Rhino - not to mention WWE spotmonkey Jeff Hardy - showing an intention towards drawing in the fans of the spot driven, hardcore style that WWE has moved away from in recent years. And finally, and perhaps most importantly The X-division. A cruiserweight division has never been a major pull in WWE plans and they never use that division as a major draw, but more of an aside. And before I get complaints, when I call the X-Division a cruiserweight division, I do mean in wrestling style, not in weight. since as we all know, it’s about “no limits, not weight limits”. The X-D can be reminiscent of both the off the top rope spotfests and the total pure wrestling that you used to get in WCW but has been inconsistent on WWE programming. Here you see TNA catering to the purists, the indie fans, and the small but die hard fans of the smaller wrestler. Three of the biggest aspects of TNA programming, and instead of competing with the WWE, it seems for the most part to be willing to target different areas of the market and work on providing an alternative so that all wrestling fans have something to watch. They are in many respects like a new territory, but instead of offering their product and alternative based on geographic area, they are offering it to the country but based on a different content and feel. Going back to Oleg Prudius for a second, viewing the relationship between the WWE and TNA as rival territories more than outright competitors means that the whole Jarrett/WWE situation can actually make some sense. TNA doesn’t actually have a great amount of room in their show for great big men, they have a couple, but it’s not a show that can accommodate them. While the WWE on the other hand, is famous for promoting the larger athlete, such as Big John Studd and Andre the Giant. So Jerry Jarrett helps a wrestler out by introducing him to another company who can use him better than they can. It’s not the end of the world, since the companies aren’t outright competing, and it helps to do favours because you never know when you’ll need one back. In fact, sending a bigger guy up to New York so he can make more money sounds familiar.... oh yeah, it’s exactly what the Briscoes did with Hulk Hogan. Not everyone wants competition; we might, but more often than not, the businessmen don’t. In the current wrestling climate, TNA has it’s market, the WWE has it’s market, and there is absolutely no need for them to run directly up against each other. Especially when they can work alongside each other and respect each others boundaries. Who knows? Now that Vince doesn’t have Hogan, maybe he’ll actually do it this time. OK, that’ll do it for this one - but over at www.wrestlingfanshof.co.uk there is a very special christmas present. Voting has been extended by two more days, so until midnight tonight you can still vote for your favourites! Hogan, Savage, Andre Sting and Harley Race all have a good chance of entering in this induction, all you have to do is go over to the site and vote! Feedback is appreciated and will be replied to. Send it, along with any entries to the YBTB rumble, to takeupthywrestlingboots@gmail.com. Thanks. Have a great Christmas and new year, take care of yourselves, I’ll see you soon. Pt2 *NEW GALLERY* Very COOL and RARE Photos of WWE Stars and Divas OUT PARTYING!
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