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Submitted by Wevv Mang on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 2:46 AM EST
Ridin’ With The Bossman – The Vicious Cycle Of Wrestling Greetings! Welcome to another delayed, increasingly infrequent edition of Ridin’ With The Bossman. Not fancy preamble this week, let’s just get to it. Breaking the cycle, if you will. The Cycle Of Wrestling The theory behind the entertainment business is that it moves in cycles. What rises one week falls the next and then picks up again. It’s the nature of the business. It goes in hot and cold phases and the hard part is surviving the downturn, and looking for the next big thing to spark the rise back to the top. Consumers have changing tastes and this years Beanie Babies are next years Pokemon. And so on and so forth. Staying ahead of the trend is a key part of survival in business. Getting the most out of a fad is another, as well as making that fad last as long as possible, so that maximum profits can be made and buy time to look for the next one and get ready to cash in when it does hit. Finding the next hot item is not an easy task. What seems like a sure fire hit can often fall flat. Especially in the entertainment industry. For example, the hit television show from years past, Power Rangers. Power Rangers was originally a Japanese show that aired in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Yes, it’s that old. The series was bounced around and distributed in other countries, until it finally came to America under the title of Kagaku Sentai Dynaman. It was a parody and aired on the USA show Night Flight. In 1993, Haim Saban remade the show, adding fresh dubbing and American actors for the non-action scenes. And a new title. Power Rangers. It became a huge hit. It stayed on top for years. Once the fad had finally worn off, billions of dollars and conditioned pre-teens later, the next fad put out by the Fox network didn’t take. The culprit? The audience got another taste of Japanese style entertainment This shows how one cycle works for some of the entertainment business. A show has a run of popularity, fades from the spotlight, some one takes the idea and changes it around a bit and then presents it as something new, and it, hopefully, catches on, and has a new lease on life. It’s just a matter of finding the right time, the right presentation, the right changes to the show itself and viola, mega hit. It’s the trend that Hollywood is in right now, as I’m sure the recent remaking of films that in the past that still get fondly remembered today are being remade. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the ever-popular “Freaky Friday” themes. When it comes to wrestling, the premise seems to be that the business is in a down turn right now, but bounce back. Perhaps not to the level of the late 90’s, but somewhere around there. How will this happen? Not sure, and neither is WWE by my reckoning. Another example from the world at large, which may shed some light on the cycle of the entertainment industry, can perhaps be found from looking at the ratings rankings for the major networks. Ratings are the criteria for success in television. A show can be critically acclaimed, but if it ain't drawing ratings, it probably won't be around for long. The flip side is also true. A show that critics hate, but does great ratings can stay on the network programming schedule for years. Anyway, a few years ago, NBC was the top dog, during the Seinfeld years. ABC was second, and CBS was the low man on the totem pole, battling it out with Fox for the fourth spot. A Seinfeld went off the air, ABC got hot with “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” and CBS picked up the NFL and Survivor started up. Now, CBS is the top network, ABC is second and NBC is staying ahead of Fox, by a solid margin and Fox and The CW battle it out for last place. Fox does have American Idol to pick up their ratings, but without that show, the network is not a threat. Until playoff time for sports happens. Even then, it’s not a guarantee, as the numbers have been down for MLB. Moral of the story, the ratings don't move on their own. The networks have to take steps to try and revive their popularity, and try different things. Lawyers were a big craze, doctors, reality shows, whatever. Each network usually offers something comparable to what the other networks are offering, but the style of the show matters. It’s the way each network interprets current trends and in some cases, creates their own. Right now, it looks like the superhero, supernatural shows are gaining ground. Partly due to the overwhelming success of Lost for ABC. Comedies are making a comeback. Drama is fading, at least when it comes to the doctor/lawyer shows, though they are still strong ratings grabbers, the viewers seem to pick one show and stick with it. And it two years, the TV landscape could be vastly different. That’s the nature of the beast. In movies, big budget actor adventure movies are king. Yet, the ideas seem to have run out, as the world of comic books is plundered, there truly is only so much that can make the transition to the big screen. Old TV shows are getting made into feature films. Studios seem to like the idea of fan familiarity, and it’s hard to argue with that when a remade film or TV brings in $100 million. The familiar, with some slight changes, apparently is what people are willing to plunk down ten bucks to see in theatres. Not that originality is dead in Hollywood, but original often gets pushed aside, except for Oscar worthy films, and buried under the hype for the potential profit giants. The Wrestling Cycle * This history is being done from recollection. I ain't looking up shit, just digging through the massive amount of wrestling information I’ve absorbed over the year. Some of it may not be correct. If you think there is an error, let alone KNOW there is an erroneous piece of information, feel free to correct me, but I’m not apologizing for anything. I do look up certain stuff later, but the early history is all stuff I’ve read many times before and I’m just winging it. In the past thirty years, there have been two huge boom periods for wrestling. The first was brought on by Hulk Hogan. No doubt about it, people came to see Hogan, they watched to see Hogan, and Hulkamania was indeed, running wild. The people came to see Hogan, and they stayed for the plethora of other characters WWF had to offer. During this time, the competition, what would eventually be known as WCW, got it’s act together, and the various promotions banded together to fight against the growing WWF juggernaut. It worked. To a degree. While WWF had characters out the wazoo, and the pageantry, and the mainstream star power, it was mostly geared towards kids, and creating a family environment. Cartoonish is a word frequently used to describe the show back then. WCW had the opposite. It was geared towards the more mature fans. They had legends that were known to be great wrestlers, with wrestling skill, and wrestling style of entertainment (promos, angles, etc). While hints of daytime drama were apparent (frankly, you would have to go back a long, long time to find a time that such drama was NOT a part of professional wrestling), it was done in a macho sort of way. WCW wasn’t aiming for kids as much as WWE was, they were aiming for the mature wrestling fan. Both promotions grew, WWF more than WCW, but both got more exposure than they had previously, and the stakes in the battle for control were cranked up accordingly. Yet, the cycle kicked in, and the wrestling fad faded to the back burner. The exact reason is not known, and in fact, is hardly even guessed at. It just seems accepted that wrestling would lose it’s popularity. My guess is that the kids who were now introduced to wrestling through Hogan, grew up. They got tired of the WWF kiddie show, which grew predictable, and more silly. There were still some great matches and memorable angles, but it wasn’t enough to cover the rest of the show. WCW just ran out of money, and basically, the move to cable, through Turner, hurt them in the short run. Cable television was the way of the future, but even in the late eighties, and early nineties, it was still seen as a luxury. Also, with cable, there was now a whole new slew of TV to check out, and wrestling was still wrestling. You could miss a week, especially if you got a four-hour marathon of Miami Vice staring you in the face. Or some mystery show with scantily clad chicks. Like Silk Stockings. Yowza. That Mitzi Kapture was a hot piece of ass. In the early nineties, with wrestling in decline, business got worse for both companies, on all fronts. The boom period of the 80’s got wrestlers paid. With business good, it wasn’t an issue. With business down, it become one. The spotlight shined on wrestling in 80’s, with larger than life stars led to a style of promotions that each company kept trying to recapture. Everyone wanted to come up with the next Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan, sometimes both at the same time. A steroid trial was not what the business needed, but it got one. With disastrous results on the wrestling world. Some of the biggest stars were linked to steroids, rightly, like the Hulkster himself, or wrongly. But both companies were jumpy. It was desperation, not a planned move that got guys like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels the chance to show what they could do in WWF. In WCW it was still Sting and Flair and whoever else they could hire away from WWF or got released from WWF. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. But WCW was undergoing a bigger change. It was changing from the regional territories business model into a corporate model. Now, wrestlers could play off the two companies like never before for sometimes obscene amounts of money (for the time). Fighting over the shrinking scraps of viewers, WCW made the play to put WWF out of the running. They hired Hogan. It worked. Kinda. What would become “The Monday Night Wars” got it’s first battle. Outside the world of wrestling, broadcast television was adapting to the reality that cable was not a fad, but something that was here to stay. Once the bastard child of the networks, cable being seen as little more than the realm of old movies and MTV and other niche programming, the networks started to get involved and take real notice. More original shows were being created, in an attempt to become legit networks. Cable became a force within the broadcasting world. In other words, cable was evolving. Wrestling suddenly became a desire program on the schedule. It got ratings, it had loyal fans who watched every single week. And then this new thing came along. The Internet. The net was lower than cable on the networks radar. The interest was very small, until companies like CompuServe and AOL got in on it and basically made it accessible to everyone. And by golly, there was a pretty impressive (for the time) group of people who liked to talk about wrestling. Indeed, reporting on wrestling was nothing new, since there have been magazines and newsletters for decades. But now, news wasn’t old, it was fresh. Most of it was wrong, but there were kernels of truth in there. And frankly, gossiping like washerwomen was more fun than presenting the facts. Still, it was mostly unnoticed by the wrestling companies at the time. But that would change. As the Monday Night Wars got truly rolling, the fact that it was truly a war sank in. Hogan was no big deal to WWE. But now, with business still down and the WWE struggling, it was time to take drastic steps. November 9th, 1997. Survivor Series. And the Montreal Screwjob. HBK and Vince screwed over Bret Hart in Canada. How? Bret was supposed to win, but Earl Hebner fast counted and Bret lost. Bret was leaving soon to go to WCW, for big money, but not for a while. Hart was the champion at the time, and the plan, according to Brett Hart, and coved in the documentary, “Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows”, was that Brett didn't want to drop the title in Canada, but would once WWE got back to the states. Vince apparently didn't want to wait. The Screwjob was a big deal. It made the fans react. It made them take sides. It also basically woke them up to the fact that wrestling was more than just two guys rolling around in the ring. It turned a lot of fans from marks into smarks. But while it got the wrestling world attention, the question of whether it translated into good business is still debated. Ratings for the show right after Survivor Series was an increase. From a 2.6 to a 3.4 The ratings stayed around a 3 for months. But I think a bigger announcement is what really turned the tide. Mike Tyson, former World Boxing Champion, and media joke target, and public menace, was announced as the ref for WrestleMania 14. The average ratings up until this event were 3.33. Before the screwjob, ratings were averaging in the mid 2’s, with a few spikes here and there. WCW was getting 4’s. Mainly due to the popular NWO group, which consisted of Hall, Nash, and Hogan. The NWO were recruiting everyone and their mothers to join their group. Big names from the past were signing up with WCW for big money (Now it got ridiculous), and joining the Supergroup. On the other hand, WCW did manage to keep it’s tradition of quality wrestling alive. Names never seen before on TV in the United States were brought in. Young talent was given TV time (brief, true, but they still got it) and allowed to show their stuff (until they got noticed, perhaps), but for the folks at home, they remembered the names. And to the new crop of netfans, some became legend. The rise of wrestling had come around again. WWE had Tyson, which got major news coverage. Fans who had left wrestling sat up and took notice. More than likely, asking friends they used to watch wrestling with, they found out that their old favorites, Macho Man, Flair, and Hogan were still around. Slowly, they started coming back. The ratings grew. Networks took notice. What were the number one shows on cable? Nitro and Raw? What they hell are those? Wrestling? By God. How many people are watching? We better start trying to cash in on this. And so it went. Popularity on the net grew as well. And with companies like America Online having MILLIONS of subscribers, it was hard to ignore that presence. The net was growing. But still, the broadcasting industry was not ready to step up and take advantage. Some attempts were made, but did not succeed. The doomed Broadcast.net failed. After it was bought out by AOL. The technology was just not there. The foundation was being put in place however. And the biggest proponent? Porn. It’s true, but that’s a whole other subject. This second, bigger, boom period bought a new wave of wrestlers into the mainstream consciousness. With nearly all the old fogies taking the money and running to WCW, WWE was forced to make their own stars. And keep them. The Rock, Mick Foley, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and yes, Triple H and the new and improved Degeneration X were the hottest things going on WWE. The younger talent of WCW, tired of jobbing to Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Scott Norton left the company. First up, Chris Jericho, who came in red hot and stayed red hot. Later acquisitions were Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko, and Saturn. WWE, going with youth, was gaining the upper hand. The wrestling got better, the angles got better, for the most part, and frankly, WWE became the better show, as WCW stayed with the old and tired NWO. The Fall of WCW has been well documented. AOL played a factor, booking played a factor, and there’s an excuse for everything and some blame taking. But while WWE survived the war, they did not emerge unscathed. Once WCW folded, there was no competition. While the matches were still good, the writing took a turn for the worse. The booking got self-indulgent as well. Before we get into the fall, there’s one other factor to consider for the rise of wrestling. And that’s outside influences. There was a company, called ECW, or Extreme Championship Wrestling. This promotion took the next step before the others. ECW was a small company, that incorporated many ideas from around the globe and basically, took the bull by the horns and stopped trying to book kid friendly matches, but went straight for the teenage/young adult crowd. And that was the key. It was raw, crude, and bloody. But while not everything was the greatest thing ever, it did give the other two companies a template to change their own direction, and form their own ways of targeting an older audience and attract new fans. Working with corporate America also gave the big two an advantage over ECW. ECW was not the sole reason. Many of the same styles of booking were taking place in Japan and other parts of the world. ECW learned from these companies and helped Americanize the concept and was able to reach a larger, perhaps more vocal part of the wrestling fan base. Again, the net played a large factor in getting the word out, as did magazines and newsletters. The new generation of fan was starved for knowledge and sought it wherever they could. WWE, now for all intents and purposes, was the sole survivor of all the wrestling wars. They had the biggest stars. To the general public, they were wrestling. The average stats for Raw over the past five years are: 2002: 4.04 2003: 3.88 2004: 3.70 2005: 3.83 2006: 3.90 2007 (to Nov. 7th) : 3.65 Smackdown: 2002: 3.52 2003: 3.32 2004: 3.18 2005: 3.03 2006: 2.49 2007 (to Nov. 7th): 2.66 There are complex and varied reasons for the decline in ratings. The move to the TNN, later Spike network. The loss of key stars like the Rock, and Stone Cold. Perhaps even the loss of Kurt Angle hurt WWE. Perhaps, the emergence of TNA, rising from the ashes of WCW, had a hand in the decline. Perhaps, not likely, but perhaps. The WWE website is now in competition with the still surviving websites that handle wrestling news. Where once there were many, now there are less. A lot less. There’s just not the interest today that there was in wrestling in years gone by. The theory was, when WCW was bought out by WWE and closed it’s doors, that the two million or so WCW viewers would go to WWE. Not all of them, but most of them. That simply did not happen. At all. The WCW audience vanished like smoke in a wind. Was it because WWE was so radically different than WCW. No, at the end, WCW was worse than WWE. At least when it came to angles. Wrestlingwise, well, that debatable. Was it because WCW had names that WWE didn’t? Again, highly unlikely. Just about every big name WCW wrestler, with the sole exception being Sting has been in WWE since WCW folded. And Sting is in TNA, and it’s not making much difference. No, my theory is that the WCW audience was already watching WWE. And once one shut down, they dimply just kept watching the other show. No explosive growth, because they were already there. The network switch is also not a viable cause. The ratings did fall with the switch, and point is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s nowhere near the current level of today. In fact, the rating bounced back to near USA levels for a couple of weeks, before dropping again. The rating has dropped steadily. Jumping back to the USA network didn't hurt in the least. For Smackdown, the CW, formerly UPN and The WB, were never strong networks, however, Smackdown is one of the higher rated shows on that network. It still is. The shutting down of stations leading up the CW launch did have a strong effect. No broadcast, no rating. Also, the CW also pre-empts Smackdown for local sports coverage frequently. While the rating may seem low compared to Raw, the actual number of viewers is higher than would appear. Sometimes, greater than that of Raw. The Conclusion WWE is in a decline and has been for over five years. What is causing the decline is a subject for debate. But one point sticks out above the others. WWE is making money. They’re still the top dog. WWE is not going to close down anytime soon. While the popularity of wrestling may not be at an all time high, they have the reserves to keep going. The industry has changed. Not just in wrestling, but broadcasting in general. The world of broadcast television accepted cable and the battle for ratings on cable started in earnest. While still the little brother to the big networks, the cable landscape has grown dramatically. The emergence of the net has taken place. The technology has finally arrived. Now, television shows, movies, web-created shows as well, are available for hand held devices. Miss a show? No problem, you can download it and watch it when you want to, on your time. That’s a huge factor. Sitting in front of a television or a computer is no longer needed. The “Grab and go” philosophy has become a viable option. Television viewing is down across the board. Box Office results for movies, until this year, were slipping from previous levels. Again, the net seems to be the scapegoat, and perhaps, rightly so. Right now, wrestling has no clear-cut magic bullet to get back into the spotlight. Wrestling is still part of the American consciousness, but not in a good way. Bad press, like before is casting a shadow on wrestling. Steroids are once again a source of significant concern. On the global scene, the picture for wrestling is also grim. The Japanese industry is on the brink of collapse. In Mexico, while business is good, rumbles of decline and financial woes are being heard. In Europe and Australia, there still seems to be a market for WWE and interest, but some of the most recent house shows have not done as well as expected. Mixed martial Arts have taken the public by storm, but in it’s second year of widespread success, the levels are dropping. The fad is still in the early stages, hence why I use the term fad. UFC has been around for years, but it seems like only now is the general public becoming aware of it. Again, the business from last year is not what it is this year. UFC is a growing company however, and it’s far too soon to start calling for doom. UFC is still making money, and while other companies like Pride are falling, there are still competitors rising to take their slice of the pie. How successful they are at it, well, again, it’s too soon to tell, though early predictions are that it’s not going that well. But what’s the most obvious reason for the decline in wrestling? It’s that everything that has could be done has been done. Nearly all the dream matches have been done. The shock has worn off from the early years. The same stars are still in the same place, with very few exceptions. WWE got lazy and self indulgent in the early years, and hasn't quite gotten over themselves yet. TNA has turned fully into WCW in their later years. Here we are, ten years later after Montreal, and it’s like the face have changed, but the situation hasn’t. WWE is in a slump. TNA is barely moving. In fact, the guy that was part of the screwjob is back in the main event. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall are back on TV and hanging out with Sting. Russo is still writing wrestling shows, and head booker, only with TNA not WWE. Vince is still Vince. Undertaker? Still going strong. 15 and 0 baby! The cycle seems to have some full circle, with some slight variations. Change is needed, but no one seems to know what change to make. New stars is always popular, and there is a strong case for it. Cena seems to be the only one to really break out. He’s injured and out for months. The fact is, there’s really nowhere for WWE to look for answers, and the there is little doubt in my mind that it’s got to be WWE that makes the change. But the biggest question is, change how? To that, I simply do not have a sure fire answer. When I first started watching wrestling, I was a young man of around 13. Hulk Hogan in Rocky III got my attention. I was a huge Mr. T fan as well as the A-Team. Hogan made me want to watch wrestling. So, I flipped around, I found plenty of shows on UHF. NWA, WCCW, UWF, I watched them all, without really understanding them. I just liked the action and the characters. I stopped watching wrestling in the late 80’s. It had gotten too cartoonish, and well, I was starting college soon, and wrestling just didn't seem that cool. I had grown from an impressionable teen into a moody rebel, with big ideas and ready to take on the world and make my mark. It was years later that I came back to wrestling. I heard Kevin Nash on WCKG doing an interview a few years previously. It was not a show that had guests, but Nash was there. I flipped around, without much luck, and lost interest, but the seed was planted. Nash seemed like a cool guy. He was going under the name of Big Daddy Diesel and was totally out of character. I remember I was driving in my car, for work related purposes, when I heard the local DJ’s talking about Mike Tyson and Wrestlemania. I laughed along with them. But I got interested. The seed grew. Later that year, while attending Broadcasting school, I met a guy who was wearing a WCW T-Shirt. I struck up a conversation. He told me about Bret hart, Hogan being back, Macho Man, and all the rest, who I had no idea who they were. But I was determined. I was going to find out what was going on. I flipped around the stations at home. I came across a show that was on at Midnight. It was wrestling in some seedy bar. I was surprised to say the least. Then it happened. Marlena took off her top. NOW I had to know what was going on. I looked up an old friend, who I used to watch wrestling with. He still watched. We started hanging out on Monday nights. It was cool to reacquaint myself with an old friend. He still smoked weed, so that was a plus.. I got tapes from the guy at school. I watched with my buddy Naitch. I was in it, I just didn't know it. Watching after all this time was a new experience for me. I had grown and changed from a rebellious teen into a cynical young man. I watched the show with a different eye. One that looked at the show as a TV program. Production, writing, filming, all of it. It was pretty goofy. Then it happened. The experience that would forever change the way I watched wrestling. Bossman. Big Show. Cemetery. Casket. I was laughing so hard I was crying. And I was totally hooked. I never missed a Monday after that. My buddy at school was into WCW more than Raw. My other buddy was into Raw more than WCW. I soon learned the difference between the two, but it took a while. Gradually, my obsession grew. I hit the net. My transformation was complete. No longer a mark, I was now a smark. Perhaps not totally, as I frequently disagreed with many opinions on the net and in newsletters. Yes, I am proud subscriber, since 2002. Finally I started writing about wrestling. And from there, the rest is documented history. And now, the cycle has come around again. And that’s it for today. Some quick plugs and it’s off to bed. Quick Plugs! RWTB TV # 5 The Truth Is Out There….Really Out There.  LOP Forums The Movie Bar All new and redesigned. Movies, Music, and more! Stop by or Monkey will do something really evil. Until next time, Thanks for Readin’ and thanks for Ridin’ Wevv Mang Please label all feedback as FEEDBACK. mrwevv@mac.com ***DIRECT LINK*** Must See! MICKIE JAMES High-Def & UP-CLOSE! Amazing!!
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