Breaking The Walls Down - Is The Grass Greener? Submitted by Chris Dailey on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 at 5:07 PM EST
Breaking The Walls Down
Hello all and welcome back to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. In this week before Christmas, I wish everyone happy holidays. I hope you all are enjoying this time of year. As for the project I am working on, it should be ready for public viewing in January!
Also, I want to apologize to everyone who wrote to me about my last column. I am thinking of changing e-mail addresses soon, as I’m getting way too much spam at my current address. If your e-mail doesn’t have feedback in it, I may have accidentally deleted it. In some cases, I may have deleted e-mails that did have feedback in it. I’m simply getting too much spam at my current address. I will think about changing addresses or fixing the current problem I have. Also, for those that want to leave me feedback, there is a thread in the Forums about my column. I check that from time to time and will get back to you if you leave something there. Moving on, I don’t have time for Bits and Pieces this week only, so I’ll pass on it.
Is The Grass Greener?
The grass is greener on the other side. That’s the old saying. I’m sure you’ve heard it. For those that aren’t familiar with the meaning, it points to the fact that you often are faced with seeing a situation or something relevant to you in your life as not being as good as it could be. This could mean a job that pays more than you currently get for doing the same or less. It could mean a professor you have in college gives more homework than another professor that teaches the same course. It could even mean that the person you’ve been staring at is hotter than your current significant other. However, the hidden meaning in the saying “The grass is greener on the other side” is that it rarely, if ever, is. Make sense? Good.
I’ve found myself faced with this decision in the past. Leave a position that I enjoyed for a position that paid more and promised more experience. While I got both, I got a lot of other things, too. Things I didn’t think would ever happen, did and it became a sticky situation. Misunderstandings, mistrust, all those things and much more led to a horrible situation. Eventually I found my way and everything is fine once more, but it took time and sacrifice. But, I hear from other people all the time that they make decisions to go for the greener pastures and ultimately regret it. Houses, cars, jobs, alcohol, drugs, etc., inevitably they come back and tell me later the grass wasn’t as green as they thought. In fact, more often that not, it turned out to be a mirage. I may be getting too philosophical for some of you, but it’s the truth. It’s the way life is. Challenges and temptations wait for us around every turn and it takes a lot of time and thought to truly discover which path you want to travel. Then, even after all of that time and thought, you still have a chance of making the wrong decisions. And, recently I’ve been thinking about a path someone in the professional wrestling world may or may not be thinking about as you read this.
RVD is reportedly openly mulling around the idea of going to NWA-TNA when his contract expires. Reportedly Sabu would follow him. It has been said that RVD is tired of the political backstage environment that The WWE harbors. While I certainly can’t argue with him there, as I’m not there, I don’t know what it’s like, I have to question his decision to air out his thought process in such a manner. Now, these reports could be completely false (nah, the Internet would never have false reports), we don’t know. What we do know is that RVD has landed in some messes before in The WWE. The biggest one? Easy, his drug bust with Sabu in the car earlier this year. It was a well-documented event that led to some non-positive press.
But, through it all, both RVD and his friend, Sabu, remained employed. They weren’t quickly released, or jobbed out to lesser guys, they proceeded on like nothing happened (for RVD, after his suspension). They have been in the spotlight. Now, RVD hasn’t been given the title back, but he has remained in the spotlight. If RVD were to leave the company at this point, he’d reportedly head to NWA-TNA where the road schedule is significantly less and the political atmosphere is less (at least that’s what I’m guessing he is thinking, and no one knows what he is thinking, but a less political atmosphere may be what’s going though his mind).
The problem for RVD, as I see it, is the lack of attention paid to NWA-TNA. Fans simply don’t care about the promotion. Am I speaking generally? Of course I am. There are fans out there that support the product. Now, I’m not saying that professional wrestling fans in general don’t support the wrestlers, because I know for a fact that many do, they simply don’t support the company and are displaying that by not watching the company’s programming. Fans like myself are tired of the six-sided ring, it adds nothing and sometimes seems to take away from the product. The uniqueness is gone and the wrestlers look confused in it at times. Fans are tired of what NWA-TNA offers in storylines, although that can be said for The WWE, as well.
Speaking of The WWE, RVD is probably making a decent amount of money in The WWE, I can’t imagine that he’d be making more or equal to what he makes now in NWA-TNA. They simply can’t have the same kind of funding as The WWE. When it comes down to it, The WWE can out pay any professional wrestler they truly want to. The NWA-TNA or any other promotion in North America can’t compete against that.
So, while politics may still be the dominating reason for RVD to leave NWA-TNA, I think the road schedule may have something to do with it, as well. RVD was never on a road schedule like he is now, until he came to The WWE. He has been doing nothing but traveling for the past several years, save for his injuries/suspension. The road schedule for NWA-TNA is significantly less and it is a huge reason why some WWE wrestlers have been rumored to be thinking of a switch to NWA-TNA. Who can argue with a schedule like NWA-TNA’s? I know I can’t. It gives the wrestlers a chance to rest their bodies, weight/cardio train, improve their technique, and spend time with their families (probably, for many of the wrestlers, the biggest perk to the company).
As I started this article I thought that I may be able to think of a solid reason (or reasons) for RVD to stay in The WWE, but, I admit, NWA-TNA looks very tempting. If one looks past the pay (as it may be less than what The WWE is offering), things look pretty nice in NWA-TNA, from a professional wrestler’s viewpoint. I simply hope that he considers all the angles, as I know that what I touched on here, isn’t even one-tenth of what RVD must undoubtedly consider. Regardless, should RVD switch to NWA-TNA, it will keep me interested in his career, but I don’t know how much it will do to generate my interest in NWA-TNA. And, in a broader look, how much retaining interest (meaning interest that stays with the company after the shock of a possible RVD jump) would stay with the company? Would fans simply tune in for RVD’s matches and that’s it? Who knows. I know many of us want to see RVD take on A.J. Styles, but would that be enough to draw in interest? No matter how one looks at it, RVD has a lot of things to think about and his decision ultimately affects more than him. The grass may look a lot greener on the other side, but in RVD’s case, it may be true.
