Whilst contemplating my next extract for In Ring Issues I trolled through possible ideas and topics for this piece of writing, but it was only after events in the last month, mostly involving the WWE, I have been building towards this blog, because it is possibly the single biggest in ring issue in wrestling today: Booking. No I’m not going to talk about TNA head writer Vince Russo, because any logical, understandable wrestling has heard this symphony one hundred times too many, rather I am going to give my own two cense as to why booking and company policy is stifling wrestling of another golden age.
I open by saying that most fans know where they stand with their wrestling opinion, it rarely ever changes, which makes this topic interesting. Wrestling is changing, and in my opinion there is a growing taboo amongst wrestling fans that this change is not good. Shifting towards an audience that doesn’t exist. Moving in a way which is seriously concerning those in and out of the ring. No, I’m not sounding over the top or dramatic, because in the past eight or so years how many comments have there been about the issue of booking? Countless. What has been done on the part of wrestling organisation to rectify this? Well, you could argue nothing at all or in the case of TNA too much of pretty much everything.
It’s a well-known fact that the WWE in particular pays little or no attention to their fans. Chairman Vince McMahon even cut a promo on the 14th June 2011 edition of RAW to talk about how none of the fans matter in an angle which is supposed to reflect real life circumstances with the heavily talented and underutilized CM Punk leaving WWE when his contract expires on July 17th 2011. My issue goes far deeper than saying that one angle can affect an entire company, my issue goes right to ‘yes men’ bookers and ignorant WWE representative who are slowly but surely booking western wrestling into oblivion, because let’s face it, TNA, Ring of Honour and every wrestling promotion in the western hemisphere combined couldn’t survive without the WWE’s mega presence. The problem is this continuing presence books seven foot, Indian icons such as the Great Khali to wear a Tooth Fairy costume, makes credible wrestling and wrestlers such as Daniel Bryan irrelevant on every platform, but most importantly turn their noses at what the fans want.
For me, this ignorance by bookers and management was confirmed for the very last time with the failure to elevate and push the much loved internet sensation Zack Ryder. Unlike other WWE superstars Ryder decided to self-promote himself via YouTube and Twitter with videos called “Z Long Island True Story” all in the name of television time on Monday Night RAW. These continuing videos have garnered over 2,000,000 views and well over 140,000 followers on his twitter account (www.twitter.com/ZackRyder). Despite Ryder appealing to a younger and specific audience such as viewers from Long Island, even when WWE hosted a live RAW in Long Island, Ryder failed to make the cut for the show. Now I don’t know if WWE has problems with Ryder self-promoting, or whether it’s because of the occasional hate in his videos, or more to the point, the fact that the RAW booking team have no intention of pushing Zack Ryder and never have, well not more than a comedic character anyway, the bookers are ignorant because they fail to give a vast audience what they want, thus they are purposefully limiting their own potential just because the WWE want nobody but themselves pushing talent such as Zack Ryder or other mid-card performers, they still take precedence and convene in a destructive manner. Who knows, what if Steve Austin made a promotional video which promoted “Stone Cold”, there is a possibility that we might have never gotten one of the greatest performers in wrestling history doing what he was doing week in, week out.
This entire situation has led to a cluster-bomb of mid-card talent stuck doing little or nothing because of company procedure, unable to create a name for themselves without the company’s say so. Current stars like Cody Rhodes, Ryder, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Wade Barrett and a host of other wasted mid-card talents, wrestlers usually with little or no airtime are forced under the thumb of WWE creative, whilst the main event scene continues to whittle down to nothing more than John Cena and Randy Orton. And what happens to these wasted mid-card performers which packed up and left? Well you can check TNA’s webpage 24/7 for their never up to date roster.
On the flip side, TNA have been trying to force feed their audience that wrestling once again matters, all as a counter response to WWE action. The problem is TNA are trying to appear as a real alternative and be opposite than their competition, when in reality because of the booking decisions made at WWE HQ, TNA’s product has actually gone downhill because instead of focusing on their once great X-Division and Knockouts divisions, air-time is now all but taken by the ranks of Hulk Hogan’s Immortal and the most irritating TNA World Heavyweight Champion in history, Ken Anderson, and no not irritating as he works as an effective ‘asshole’ in an effective way, but because of how Anderson’s constant and persistent use of the term ‘asshole’ has led viewers to become dissatisfied and detached from another superstar, only this time he’s stuck as TNA champion!
The latest blunder in creative decision and booking has come during this current era dominated not by John Cena, but by CM Punk who cut arguable one of the greatest shoot (non-scripted) promos on the 27th June 2011 edition of Monday Night RAW. After using sacred, never to mention names such as Paul Heyman and Brock Lesner, for the first time since the Nexus invaded RAW, WWE genuinely made a great decision allowing CM Punk to be allowed to exercise his freedom of speech. The only problem, seven days later the entire reality of the situation was blown out of proportion when Vince McMahon announced Cena would be fired if he lost to Punk, thus for me limiting the potential to the Cena, Punk storyline, especially as Cena had a loser leaves match against the Nexus’s original leader Wade Barrett only months ago. Most importantly though, CM Punk is not getting resigned to a new contract, thus meaning creative are more than happy to let own of the world’s bests performers walk away, all because CM Punk thought that the booking team was holding him back from becoming a top superstar.
I continue this pessimistic blog by stating that I believe it is the WWE’s failure to acknowledge anything outside the WWE universe, and in particular, failing to acknowledge the wider wrestling society, which as a result is slowly crippling wrestling on a global scale. Instead of generating competition and interest, WWE are more than happy to cash their dwindling checks, knowing full well their actions, sometimes immature and damaging and shaping wrestling in their own vision, something that wrestling fans simply shouldn’t trust. It’s not only WWE though, TNA’s Eric Bischoff recently went on record stating that the 10%’ers (The internet wrestling community) doesn’t matter, that the IWC is irrelevant and that our valued and educated opinion means nothing, even to a federation who quite simply needs every bit of help it can get. Low-Ki even stated he hates having his intelligence mocked, so it might just not be some disgruntled IWC members like myself upset and challenging the current direction Vince McMahon and WWE are pulling wrestling in.
With many questioning the continuity and deliverance, you must remember it is the booking team who decide what you the viewer sees. Without these writers wrestling wouldn’t have been evolved as much as it is today, but many fear we are about to hit a period of de-evolution. Wrestling now matters less more than ever, and for me it’s down to the ignorance WWE has, particularly with its creative team and headquarters to help advance wrestling. Wrestling might be in a taboo, and the only way to break the cycle is to turn what wrestling there is available loose on each other, and let the wrestlers do the talking and the action, instead of the booking oblivion of writers and chief executives. Either that or you can be an inspiring wrestler, signed up to the biggest wrestling organisation in the world, driven and determined to break the cycle of mediocrity and do something different, merely relegated to make embarrassing, desperate home videos. Woo Woo Woo, you know it.
Robert Austin
“In Ring Issues”
No comments:
Post a Comment