INTRODUCTION
The WWE (formerly known as the World Wrestling Entertainment) is a wrestling company juggernaut. In the 1980s to 1990s, Vince McMahon swooped up the hottest talents from the various wrestling territories, which led to the demise of these territories. Not being able to match the then-known “WWF” money to keep their talents and being limited to a small portion of the American market, many of these territories closed shop. In the 1990s, WCW became the biggest challenger to the WWF/E with ECW being the alternate wrestling show for the wrestling fans. ECW was the first to fold and the company eventually was bought by the WWE. WCW followed after losing ratings, corporate management changes, and bloated payrolls for their talents. It too was eventually bought by WWF/E. By early 2000s, the newly named WWE became the only wrestling show to watch on TV. Due to the lack of variety, the TV ratings for WWE slowly dwindled, and have maintained that constant number over the years, only slightly going up or down weekly. Since moving from private-ownership to a corporation being publicly traded on the stock market, the WWE is has grown beyond a wrestling company, to delving into movies, books, music, and other ventures. But despite its diverse business ventures, the bread-and-butter is still the WWE TV/wrestling program.
Vince McMahon will do anything and everything he can for the success of the WWE wrestling program. All his other business ventures like movies, books, etc., are directly related to the wrestling program. Him and the WWE has been the backbone of the wrestling industry and is the reason why wrestling is a pop culture phenomenon. As the old saying goes, if it’s not broke, then why fix it. The formula he has used to continue to expand the WWE wrestling program has made him a multi-millionaire. So how else can he improve the WWE?
In order us to understand how Vince McMahon can improve the WWE, it is necessary to differentiate the WWE Corporation from the WWE TV Program (Raw and Smackdown). The Corporation is the over-all company while the TV Program is the main department in which the Corporation does their business. The other business ventures of the Corporation are tied into the WWE TV Program. For example, WWE Films produce movies to showcase their TV talents. The WWE Music Group deals with the music, which is used, in the TV program. The WWE Books only publishes books written by their previous and current TV talents. The Corporation uses the TV Program to promote their other ventures, and their other ventures are used to promote their TV Program. This business model has been proven successful. Now the only problem with this model is that if the TV Program begins to suffer, the other aspects will in turn suffer as well.
THE IMPORTANCE FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE TV PROGRAM
The TV Program is all about wrestling. The more successful the wrestlers get, the more successful the company becomes. The problems that arise with the wrestling business is that wrestlers get old, get injured, contracts expire, and other unforeseeable circumstances. When this occurs, the impact is felt throughout the whole company.
Because of the lack of territories and other wrestling companies where Vince McMahon can snatch up the hottest Indy wrestler, many of the up-and-coming wrestlers that start with WWE tend to have little-to-no wrestling experience. This isn’t a new thing because all wrestlers have to start somewhere. Up until the 1980’s, many of the WWE wrestling talents all honed their skills in the territories or independent wrestling companies prior to signing up with the WWF/E. They were already skilled wrestlers ready for in-ring matches. In the 1990s, though many wrestling schools existed, there were fewer independent shows for non-WWE (and non-WCW) wrestlers to work lessening their in-ring experience. As of the 2000’s, the many of the wrestlers in the WWE were being home-grown in the WWE developmental territories like Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), Deep South Wrestling (DSW), and Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) with FCW being the only developmental territory connected with the WWE. When the WWE needs to expand the current TV Program roster, they a call up these talents from FCW and throw them into a storyline. The bottom-line is because there many wrestlers that are still green, the TV programs suffer. And even if these talents have great wrestling skills, there mic skills are still lacking as well as their on-camera presence.
Currently, the TV show NXT is the WWE’s way of testing the waters of future superstars for the company. The problem with this is that you can see how under-developed many of these talents are. This leads to the other problem of comparison between RAW/Smackdown and NXT. Not too many people care to watch NXT. Why? Because it’s not RAW or Smackdown. Plus, no one wants to see wrestlers in wrestling gear do obstacle courses and challenges. We watch wrestling to watch people wrestle. We get emotionally involved in the storylines, which excites us about the matches. NXT has very little wrestling. NXT has shallow storylines. Also, how many times can you recycle your developmental talents on a show in which the winner is the only person with a “guaranteed” contract. Sadly, even if you win, no main-eventer wants to job to you because you haven’t paid your dues on RAW or Smackdown, so all the momentum that was built up in NXT is now gone and all that happened was they just added a new low-to-mid-carder to the main roster. The existence of this poorly executed TV show only hurts the WWE Corporation in reputation and in revenues.
A SECONDARY WRESTLING PROMOTION
So what does WWE need to do in order to develop future talents in preparation for RAW and Smackdown? They need to create a secondary wrestling promotion under the WWE Corporation but independent from the WWE TV Program, which would allow the WWE to test the skills and talent of the up-and-coming wrestlers who are too green for the WWE TV Program. Though many developmental wrestlers have come from the independent circuit, they still have to adjust to the WWE style of wrestling and presentation. The only way to learn this is to be in front of large audience and do it. Cutting promos and getting the crowd to support you, in short, selling your character is a skill that can only be done in front of an audience. You need the audience reaction to see if you are getting over or not. If your skills are not honed and you are thrown on TV (like NXT), then you won’t be entertaining and the audience will sit in silence wondering when the whole thing will be over. But, if you had a secondary wrestling promotion being where you can be involved with a storyline from beginning to end and learn how to play off of another wrestlers character, then when the time comes to be on the WWE TV program, you would have had the experience to know what to do when you are put on camera.
The execution of a secondary wrestling promotion doesn’t necessarily have to be at the level of the WWE TV shows. With the WWE Roster being stacked, many of the mid-carders and females can be assigned to this promotion as they wait for a spot to be opened on the main roster as well as some of the FCW talent who are showing vast improvements. For example, Zack Ryder has gotten himself over with the audience despite very little airtime on the WWE TV Program. The executives may not know why he has gained his popularity, but to test whether this popularity translates well on TV without using valuable TV time, a secondary wrestling promotion could be the solution.
This secondary wrestling promotion can in fact be the pre-show to the WWE Live events. They can record their episodes at the live events and air them on a website which is independent of WWE.com. Such a website can also be used to air the promos with either a host asking questions or the talent standing in front of a camera voicing his attacks toward his opponent. The idea is to give the wrestling fan an alternative to RAW and Smackdown, rather than having a 3rd WWE TV show. This secondary wrestling promotion has to have it’s own separate creative staff and producer. It has to form an independent identity from the WWE TV Program, so that people believe it to be a legitimate independent promotion.
Also with a secondary wrestling promotion, if there were any experimental ideas that the WWE TV Program is hesitant to try on-air, this promotion could be the best vehicle try it on. Being an on-line wrestling promotion would mean that the TV rating system wouldn’t bind them. Being independent from the WWE TV Program, they could be more aggressive with their storyline without any direct effect of the WWE TV Program. The production value doesn’t necessarily have to be as elaborate as the WWE TV Program, which would in turn, give to the realism that this promotion just like any other wrestling promotion who air their shows on-line.
AN INDEPENDENT WRESTLING WEBSITE
Another avenue that the WWE Corporation can venture into is starting a magazine/fan page/facebook type wrestling website for all wrestlers regardless of being under contract with the WWE. The idea is to have wrestling website for the fans who crave for wrestling information. This would be owned by the WWE Corporation but not connected to the WWE TV Program. Here, the any wrestler can open their own profile, post their own videos and pictures, refer to the various promotions where they will be wrestling, etc. Because many wrestlers have a Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, and it’s only by chance that the fans become aware of another wrestling site, another wrestling promotion, or a long time indy wrestler who never knew made it big, but is popular in his territory. This wrestling website would be an all in one area for all you’re wrestling information needs. Wrestlers can get more exposure for themselves, promote their brand, and keep the fans in the loop with what they are doing, while the fans would get to know the behind-the-scene character of their favorite wrestler. There could be a section for people who do wrestling pod casts like Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling for fans who love to hear the personal stories of wrestlers. There could be a section about various wrestling moves and show people how to properly and improperly execute them. There could be a section of links to the active wrestling schools. There could be a link to all the on-line wrestling store. Basically, it’s like Facebook.com meets Wikipedia.com meets Amazon.com type of website but it’s purely about all aspects of the wrestling industry.
CONCLUSION
The WWE Corporation is the only wrestling company that can go to this next level, but the only way for them to go to this level is for them to go beyond focusing purely on the WWE TV Program. When it comes to the TV Program, they are second to none. But, when it comes to being a Corporation, they are barely scratching the surface. Only time will tell regarding what the future holds for the WWE.
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