Friday October 23, 2009 5:01 PM By Alfonso Castillo
Now that’s how you make a wrestling star.
We don’t get to say this very often, but WWE could learn something from TNA.
On last night’s edition of Impact, TNA did a better job of creating a new wrestling star right out of the gate than WWE has in seven years. I am speaking of course of the memorable debut of "Desmond Wolfe" – better known to many wrestling fans as former Ring of Honor heavyweight champion Nigel McGuinness.
In case you hadn’t heard, McGuinness was set to join WWE alongside longtime ROH rival "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson. But weeks after McGuinness and Danielson left ROH a month ago, WWE had still not finalized a deal with McGuinness. Earlier this week, news surfaced that negotiations between McGuinness and WWE fell through, and that TNA seized the opportunity and signed McGuinness out from under WWE.
Then last night, McGuinness debuted as "Wolfe" in a backstage segment with newly-turned-babyface Kurt Angle. Seconds after humbly introducing himself to Angle, Wolfe attacked the Olympic gold medallist.
Then in the final segment of the show, Wolfe again came out and attacked Angle at ringside, and then left him laying in the ring after executing his "Tower of London" top turnbuckle neckbreaker (I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for Angle to be taking such a move, but such arguments tend to fall on deaf ears.)
And sure enough, the Impact following TNA’s biggest pay per view of the year closed with the image of Nigel McGuinness looking dominant in the ring after having destroyed TNA’s biggest star.
Check out the video below.
If that’s not a push, I don’t know what is.
Now, it’s worth bringing this up: Where was TNA when McGuinness was building a reputation as one of the country’s best workers over the last several years? He held the ROH heavyweight title for 15 months, was ranked in the top 10 of the PWI 500 for two consecutive years, and was repeatedly having match of the year contenders on pay per view. Meanwhile, TNA was headlining pay per view after pay per view with broken down Monday Night Wars relics like Booker T and Scott Steiner.
TNA could have signed McGuinness years ago for relatively little money. But, not surprisingly it took WWE showing interest in McGuinness to make TNA officials (WWE’s biggest fans) take notice.
While McGuinness may be a little disappointed in not fulfilling his dream of working for WWE, which he grew up watching as a boy, it may very well be a blessing in disguise. Unlike TNA, which is guilty only to being oblivious of McGuinness’ reputation, WWE may have actually held it against him. If we’ve learned anything from Vince McMahon over the years it’s that, unless you became a star in WWE, then you’re not a star.
There was virtually no chance that McGuinness would be headlining shows in WWE within his first year in the company – if he ever did. More likely, he would have spent months in WWE’s developmental system, "Learning the WWE style," and then be introduced in a relatively small role on WWE, likely on ECW. With some luck, he might be an upper-mid carder in about two years. He’d be in his mid-30s by then.
It’s WWE’s stubborn insistence that wrestlers who are not related to other wrestler pay their dues that has led to the company’s main event roster being as stagnant as it has in history. The last "star" they created was Jeff Hardy – who was with the company on and off for 15 years before he won his first world title.
Don’t bring up C.M. Punk, because he’s still not close to the level of a Randy Orton, Batista or John Cena.
In fact, the last time WWE gave a newcomer the mega-push that McGuinness appeared to get in his TNA debut was when Brock Lesnar arrived in the company in 2002. He was world champion within five months.
And maybe Brock is the very reason why WWE does not take this tact anymore. After getting pushed to the moon, it turned out that Brock’s heart was not in pro wrestling, and he walked away from WWE after just two years. WWE may have been left gun shy to roll the dice on someone not as invested in the company as say a wrestler with family ties to it.
But, in all forms of entertainment, the hottest stars don’t arrive in a slow burn. They do so in an explosion.
The test of whether WWE gets that point may come with their handling of Danielson. In "American Dragon," WWE actually signed, arguably, the hotter of the two ROH free agents. But, as I’ve written before, Danielson will only mean something to WWE if WWE tries to cash in on the reputation he’s built for himself in ROH and on the independent wrestling scene. Without that reputation for being "the best in the world," Danielson is just another short, pale, doughy wrestler.
None of this is to say that TNA won’t royally screw up their handling of McGuinness. In fact, if you were a betting man playing the odds, I’d bet that they would. But so far, so good.
I don’t even mind McGuinness’ new name. While I think the name "Nigel McGuinness" is a good one – and comes with a certain amount of credibility built in ROH over several years – I can understand why TNA would want to re-brand McGuinness with a TNA copyrighted name that McGuinness can’t take with him if he decides to leave the company one day. I don’t think it was a situation of TNA trying to ignore McGuinness’ history, especially since they had him tell Angle that he is "currently known as Desmond Wolfe" – suggesting that he was previously known as something else. As far as wrestling names go, I think Desmond Wolfe is a good one. And I can almost guarantee that he would have been saddled with something far worse in WWE. Just ask "Marquis Cor Von" or "Braden Walker." Ugh.
For the record, I’m not ready to bash WWE for dropping the ball on signing McGuinness. There were widespread reports that McGuinness failed a medical screening conducted by WWE. While McGuinness had denied that in an interview with the Daily Star, I don’t doubt that WWE may have shied away from employing a wrestler with the kind of wear and tear that McGuinness has put on his body in recent years. So while there is no question that McGuinness could have been a big star for WWE, I’d respect there decision not to sign someone with medical issues, if that is indeed true.
Whatever the case, I can assure you of this much: I’ve just become a much bigger fan of TNA than I was last week. McGuinness has been one of my favorite performers for several years now. And the prospect of an Angle-McGuinness feud – no matter how rushed – is certainly more exciting than just about anything on WWE television right now.
