Takin' A Mulligan 7.18.09: Brand Extension Circa 1991- Pumping Up!
Posted by Chris Remington on 07.18.2009
Answering the burning question of what Lou Ferrigno did between turning green and being the neighbor on King of Queens. You gotta want it!
Welcome back! Thanks for the feedback regarding last week's column, a fair amount of it was positive toward the gimmick and style and negative toward the conclusion. This is the equivalent of being asked to be on a Food Network Challenge but not placing high with the judges because I had the presentation and the plating but I lost points on style and overall taste. No better time to introduce "Jumping On The Gun"!
A big thanks to Justin for being the first commenter to this column, you will be getting your year's supply of Turtle Wax (allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery and I will need an address for the delivery and the year end 1099 because this event is taxable, especially under the Obama administration). I appreciate familiar faces like Smooth and NeverAcquiesce as well. I will address Justin's comment, the theme is shared by many as well address the Gun Jumper of the week, Andis
It looks like the argument here is whether you would prefer Owen still alive or Austin dominating the industry. It's possible to actually do both and make the WWF even more positive. Here it goes. Austin wins the rumble, but Owen was eliminated by HHH and Michaels, not Chyna. Owen attacks Michaels during his match with UT out of anger, but Kane comes out as well. In a quick decision by Vince, HBK and UT are both "burned" inside of the casket, which still moves the UT/Kane WM match forward. This gives the WWF a legit reason for HBK to leave for the time he did, and makes the fans wait for HBK's return even more. This event makes the title vacant and makes Owen a tweener. On Raw the next night, Vince introduces Owen as the best Hart there is, the best Hart there was, and the best Hart there ever will be, which is meant as a shot at WCW as well. He attempts to crown Owen the new world champ, but Austin comes out and objects, beating the tar out of Vince while Owen escapes like a coward, effectively turning him heel. At the next PPV, Owen wins the title from Austin in a vacant title match involving HHH as well, despite constant interference from DX, making Owen's victory more believable. At WM Austin defeats Owen and begins the Attitude Era, while Owen stays near the top of the card for a long time and is the wrestling leader of the Corperation. This completely evades taking away Austin's reign, Owen's death, and correctly feeds other feuds simultaneously. Despite a short reign for Owen, the way in which he won the title makes the reign seem much stronger. It also makes him one of the most important transitional champions ever.
This is the sort of interaction I like around here. While I don't fully support the nuisances of your scenario, I appreciate the thought and planning around it. Your shot on me allows me to address the one assumption that many of you directly made or implied – me preferring Owen to Austin. I enjoyed SCSA far more than Owen Hart and Austin would have still had his strong stranglehold on the main event scene under my plan as well. I just wanted to push it back a bit because the iron was extremely hot for Owen at the moment. Those of you who know me a bit, I couldn't stand Owen! However, I can't deny that the ultimate of all opportunities existed for him to finally fill the potential bestowed upon him and it was just wasted away.
Wrapping this up, I can't plan every worker's program for the next 4 months surrounding the moment. I wasn't dismissing Undertaker, Kane or even Austin. I was just trying to focus on Owen and who immediately should be in the program with him and carried him forward to a few months down the road conclusion. Note this for future reference as well or we will have columns that rival Ask411 in length (and maybe girth too).
Austin does play a role in this week's column though…
The Bad Shot
In case you didn't know, Vince McMahon has a big ego. This might come as a shock to many of you who haven't paid close attention to an active AARP member putting himself over top tier talent for the last dozen plus years but the fact remains true. Vince himself has never denied his confidence as a promoter, marketer and showman. It is hard to argue against his success but Vince has not reached Midas level with his touch. Vince had very visible failure with the XFL. It didn't fail because Vince wasn't trying; Vince just suffered from really a lack of talent in the league. When you lack talent, you might be able to overcome the problem easier in wrestling, where storylines and slick production can make trash look like roses. The XFL was a real football league that isn't scripted and they play with an odd shaped ball that doesn't bounce true, hence the ho-hum results. Add to this that it was out of season for the casual viewer and the talent in the league was hoping their face time was a stepping-stone to the next level, which Vince isn't comfortable with, and you had an investment doomed to fail.
This wasn't Vince's biggest egg on the face though. Vince's biggest failure on his resume makes the XFL look like The Golden Child in comparison. You see, Vince had a bright idea in the early 90s to start an innocent little magazine called, "Bodybuilding Lifestyles". He hired Tom Platz as managing director, who was well known as a personality in the bodybuilding world at the time, sort of like Bill Kazmaier currently was and is in World Strongest Man circles. Vince was just using the magazine as a ruse to have Platz start stroking talent away from International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB), so he could start a rival organization. Platz wooed enough, including Gary Strydom, Danny Padilla and 11 others who became the WBL "BodyStars", and Vince started the World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF) in earnest, early in 1991.
The WBF wasn't awful, it just wasn't that good either. Vince had really just split the talent from the IFBB and both organizations suffered as a result. If the motive was to create the top bodybuilding federation, Vince missed on that for sure. I don't think this was the motive at all; Vince had highest more ambitious goals. He never got to exercise those goals though because just after Platz and Vince had wooed Lou "The Incredible Hulk" Ferrigno" to sign as a spokesman with the WBL, Vince was handed a federal indictment on steroid distribution. The Hulk packed and even Lex Luger being signed by the WBL couldn't save it, yet another of Luger's many just misses. WBL disbanded officially at the end of 1992.
Execution of the Mulligan
The WBL was never created to set the bodybuilding world on fire. It was created to cross-promote with the WWF (at the time). The cross-promotion wasn't so wrestler and bodybuilders could test their merits on Family Feud, as was featured at the time – Regis was the special host. It served really to distribute a product line that was about to take America and eventually the galaxy by storm!
Integrated Conditioning Program (ICOPRO)
Vince might have been under federal investigation for steroid distribution but he really wanted to distribute ICOPRO for each and every young man in the planet. When the WBL died, ICOPRO lived on and was a main advertising banner for the WWF from 1993-1995. Who could argue with the logic of selling this line with the talent that Vince employed? WWF Superstars like Rick Rude, Hogan and Ultimate Warrior who could do incredible feats of strength and skill without visible straining. They had chiseled bodies that looked like mythical gods (Paul Roma and Herculus Hernandez for instance). Add to this the human freaks that the WBL employed and you had a surefire walking advertisement for ICOPRO supplements.
Vince had the right idea, just the wrong cross-promotion.
Vince's greatest miss is where I am laying my mulligan. This isn't a hindsight mulligan either; this is one that Vince never should have been excluded from in the beginning. Maybe Vince doesn't have the futuristic vision we have anointed on him after he ushered in the "Attitude Era" after all. At the same time the WBL ruse was being played for an unsuspecting audience, there was another little start up that was scrambling to form in the United States. One with wrestling roots in Japan but never quite could gather the right amount of steam to stick in the mainstream. Some said it was too violent, others said it wouldn't work because had no rules. Finally though in 1993, mixed martial arts emerged in the United States and has slowly eroded boxing and wrestling in the process.
While MMA leagues such as Pride and UFC have done very well, I can't believe that Vince didn't jump onto this marketing natural out of the gate. Vince is still fooling himself on MMA, from a quote off this very site from March we get vintage denial Vince:
From 3/25/2009: On MMA as Competition: "Most people thought at one point that we would be competitors. But it turns out they are not competition to us at all, or hardly at all. They are sport, we are entertainment; it's a huge difference. The revenue they have cut into is that of boxing."
I am sure that Vince doesn't even believe his own quote. Just imagine what Vince could have done with marketing products and talent with MMA and WWF. This is really what it is all about regarding longevity friends. Vince had a megastar that pitch products with Hulk Hogan. He was truly larger than life in the minds of the target audience and he could pitch merchandise in the form of shirts, foam fingers, vitamin supplements, etc. Fast-forward to the Attitude Era and people like SCSA pitched a new line of merchandise to a new target audience of fans who were looking to rebel against the recognized establishment. Austin as the pitchman (with a sprinkling of D-X) and Vince funding the marketing machine, the Attitude Era merchandise crossed over and connected to both wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike. My dad for instance owns a shirt, and still wears it in typical hippie style, that had "Don't Trust Anybody" on the back. The shirt led to him watching wrestling again, the first time he had watched in more than 30+ years according to him. Cross-Promotion works when it is properly executed by a master promoter, enough resources to generate saturation and strong leading pitchmen. The WWF/E machine had all of those pieces; Vince just failed to pick the right new thing to latch onto.
Just a few ideas off the top of my head for MMA/WWF promotions:
Marketing health and energy supplements
Harvesting athletes to train and determining if they are better suited to wrestling or MMA (imagine a mega-wrestling/shoot academy)
Having outstanding out of the box production of MMA fights and using the incredible promotional machine to get kids interested.
T
oy distribution far sooner (get your Gracie family linage line in stores now)
Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar might have never competed in a WWE match!
MMA fighters on Regis and Kathy Lee, Tonight Show, Geraldo, etc.
A deal with USA Network out of the gate for MMA – Don't believe me, WBL BodyStars had a show on USA (with Matt Lauer as the original scheduled host) and that product was totally unproven too.
Cross-Promotion between the federations means more exposure. This is dangerous but I am confident that they could have done this without negative results.
High profiled MMA fights occasionally on the WrestleMania card to capture a more hardcore audience.
Wrestling - advancing style of work sooner. I believe Vince would have had to allow the athletes to exhibit their gifts faster and more cohesive. Not only because the audience would have demanded a fresher style because of MMA's presence but to push the ICOPRO product line to show that it isn't just for muscle heads but for athletic enhancement.
The sad thing about this mulligan is that Vince had time to snatch up the idea at any moment over the first 10 years of the movement. The ship might have sailed on the execution of this at the present time but my mulligan has the execution being at the ripe time and the right time.
The only downfall is that ICOPRO might have never stopped and where would that leave the vast array of Stacker products today?
Quibbles? Questions? Complaints? I encourage your comments. Jump On The Gun if you want! Your opinion has value but to quote the late great Gino Hernandez,
I'm not really understanding this. Are you trying to say that Vince McMahon had the oppurtunity to popularize MMA in mainstream sporting America in the same way he did in the 80's with the WWF?
That had he seized such an oppurtunity that he would be the lord and master of all that is MMA?
That instead of Dana White and the UFC we'd be talking about Vince McMahon at the top of the MMA mountain? With ICOPRO of course being the spearhead of this blitz.
From what I'm gathering you're saying that ICOPRO would be the conduit from WWF to McMahon's MMA? To help legitamize it in it's infant stages?
If I'm correct then I think this fails also. Here's why:
With his indictment coming into play the mainstream media wouldn't buy into McMahon's attempt presenting a legitmate sport. The WWF's credibility was begining to hurt at this stage and wouldn't in my opinion be able to help keep up a new league.
Much less with the help of ICOPRO a supplements and health fitness company which would be more fuel for the fire started by people who were looking to send Vince to jail for the rest of his formidal years of life.
People wouldn't buy any of it as legitmate business due to his background in professional wrestling. The project would be doomed for failure of the bat based on prejudice fair and unfair.
Posted By: Justin (Guest) on July 18, 2009 at 12:51 AM
Three words pretty much sum up any attempt for McMahon to get involved in booking a "legitimate" fighting sport:
Brawl for All.
Posted By: Michael L (Guest) on July 18, 2009 at 03:13 AM
Wrestling and MMA should be kept far far apart imo. There's no need to remind your audience that what their watching is a fake version of a real fight. This would have been a terrible idea in the early 90's.. I just think of a hapless Yuji Nagata getting tooled by Fedor as my reason for keeping MMA and wrestling seperate.
Posted By: jcmmnx (Guest) on July 18, 2009 at 12:13 PM
What wrestlers from today could do well in MMA? The easy answer would have to be Hornswoggle. :-)
Posted By: The Great Capt. Smooth (Guest) on July 18, 2009 at 01:20 PM
I liked the Brawl for All...
And when did WBF become WBL?
Posted By: 2 Stoned Corpio (Guest) on July 18, 2009 at 02:27 PM
To counter what Justin said, Mr. Remington stated that Vince could have taken advantage of this within 10 years. Vince could've taken small steps towards MMA and unleashed his new MMA promotion during the Attitude Era, because the indictment wouldn't have been as fresh in people's minds and the media probably wouldn't have dogged it as much, and the WWF had it's most viewers during this era.
He wouldn't neccesarily need ICOPRO, because he had a weapon of his own, Ken Shamrock. He could've slowly turned Shamrock face and possibly even put the belt on him, and then unveiled his new MMA promotion. Shamrock would've obviously been the focal point of his new promotion, since he was already an established MMA fighter. Of course Shamrock probably wouldn't have continued on a full-time wrestling schedule, but the cross-promotion of a big WWF star could've worked, and Shamrock more than likely would have stuck around for much longer.
Could it have flopped, sure, but the WWF probably would've brought in other established MMA fighters and probably would have paid them more than they were already making. These guys also might've included Tank Abbott and Kurt Angle if he was willing enough to compete in MMA.
I can see it now, the WWE with a big MMA promotion as well. The WWE has developmental territories for wrestling and MMA, and certain current wrestlers would probably also be MMA stars, with stars from each possibly often hinting that they would jump ship from wrestling to MMA and vice versa. Nobody could compete with that.
I predict that the WWE would still be a lot more edgier, and popularity would possibly still be that of The Attitude Era. This of course is if Vince's didn't fuck up his side projects, which is sadly more than often what happens.
Posted By: Andis (Guest) on July 18, 2009 at 05:19 PM
You're still forgetting that Austin refused to work with Owen due to the botched piledriver nearly crippling him. Good column though!!
Posted By: jayzhoughton (Guest) on July 19, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Chris, it's great to see that you've finally landed your own column here at Foe-Lem, especially, considering your background, you are a damn site more qualified to discuss the rasslin than am I. I just wish you'd have TOLD me you had started writing! I scan the main page for stuff to read, and, to me (a decided non-golfer who has trouble getting the ball through that damn clown's mouth), a mulligan is a Blackjack.
I never understood Vince's vision of taking bodybuilding mass-market. Anyone can appreciate the discipline and conditioning required to produce such a physique as required to compete in the "sport", but outside of that microcosm, I really believe the average layperson regards such physiques as being cringeworthy and grotesque. At best, The WBF would have had a flicker of car-crash interest and was doomed to footnote status regardless.
Although, to cast that same eye upon wrestling, a "sport" I do appreciate and love, it becomes painfully clear whenever the mainstream media gets ahold of a WWE-related story and takes the collective tone of a condescending prick addressing an amusing retarded person exactly how much credibility Vince McMahon and professional wrestling has outside of its own microcosm.
Therefore, for Vince to have stamped his name on an American MMA prototype would have instantly compromised the credibility of the product he produced, both in the MMA community and the public at large. I can just hear the accusations of fixed fights and such making the rounds, thus making the opportunity for Dan White to arrive on the scene and "save" American MMA all the more available.
Speaking of competition, BTW, a good reason why Vince was ill-served to start an MMA franchise following his trial is because WCW was starting to really come on and attempt to compete with The WWF at the time, using Vince's trial as the impetus to get the jump on him while his attention was diverted. Once Vince got back behind the chairman's desk, he had to re-establish his cornerstone as the dominant wrestling franchise before he could think about expanding elsewhere.
It's really great to be reading you again outside of my comments section, old friend. Congratulations and well done!
PS - Let me guess...you liked the product so much, you bought the company...?
Posted By: geoff eubanks (Registered) on July 23, 2009 at 05:16 PM
BTW, I may not be a huge fan of MMA, but I DO know it's Dana, not Dan White!
Posted By: geoff eubanks (Registered) on July 24, 2009 at 03:43 PM
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