wrestling / Columns
Ask 411 Wrestling 10.28.09: Rude V Hogan, TNA V Success, and HBK V Smiling!
Hi all. Sorry about not being here last week, but… Well, I could tell you, but you don’t care, plus it’s somewhat icky. But at least I now have stuff to combat the problem, and it’s better.
Well, that, and I felt you all probably would have had Sforcina Overload with me Fact or Fiction and The Serious Round Table.
Big ups to Daniel Wilcox for filling in for me last week. I’m always gratified when people pick up for my slack. After all, back when I did Schematics if I missed a week I just apologized and missed a week. But this is more important. Which begs the question why they gave it to me. But anyway, thanks Danny!
Even if you just did easy questions.
And then didn’t give me an updated Question list doc back.
And now, the Official Greatest Banner On 411! (Two other people have said so, so it must be true)
Backtalking
Will skip this week since I don’t like to talk about other people’s work.
Your Turn, Smart Guy…
It’s been so long, I forgot the last question. Hmmm, let me look it up…
What am I? A video game, I was available on home consoles during the 90’s, or at least on one home console. Featuring over 40 wrestlers, battle royals, a few game play types that would not been seen again in the games sequels, and that guy we don’t talk about any more, it was a well received game for the time, even if it’s sequels (both direct and then post-switch) tend to over shadow it. The only game in history to allow you to have the epic showdown of Glacier V Wrath, I am What?
Ah yes, this will get argued I’m sure, but the answer was This Game Here.
And to Smarty Pants the World over: Revenge by itself didn’t let you do Glacier V Wrath, you needed Revenge + Game Genie, so there.
Anyway, I promised a nice one, so a nice one I deliver. Inbetween by SDvR10 unlocking spree (look for official Ask 411 storylines later on), I have put together the First Offical Ask 411 Wrestling Sporcle Quiz!
Huzzah!
This first effort deals with all the dual title holders in WWE history. i.e Everyone who held two titles at once while being in the WWE.
Questions, Questions, Who’s Got The Questions?
OK, I’ve been a bit slack these past few weeks. So, this week, I’m going to tackle the really hard questions I’ve been putting off. And probably will thus end up with a poor batting average, but never mind, let us begin!
Well, first an ad.
For anyone who remembers, a while back 411mania reviewed a novel, “One Fall” by Spencer Baum, a book set in a ‘totally fictional’ wrestling company (well, that’s not fair, it was almost totally different in terms of real world parallels. Outside the obvious Kevin Nash clone.). It got good reviews, and I certainly enjoyed it.
Well, it’s being released as an audio book to help promote Spencer’s second book, and you can find the link in these clickable words. So go listen if you didn’t read the book.
Now onto the questions, I swear.
Wally probably hates my guts by now, but here we go.
Matt, Long time reader first time asking questions.
First, Do you know what the first wrestling gossip/news site was on the internet?
Well, not off hand no.
Next… Oh, you mean you want to know what it was? Oh, ok.
The guy who wants to keep his job says that 411mania, a.k.a 411wrestling, since it began in August 96, has a strong claim to the title.
However, looking at this with a smidge more objectivity, prowrestling.com claims the title, which makes sense in that the name would indicate they got in early. Most of the big names began as newsletters, which then jumped to online later on, so they don’t count really.
But if you broaden the question a smidgen, rec.sport.pro-wrestling, the usenet group was the first major online grouping of wrestling fans, which goes back to at least 1990. Back then websites were still in their infancy and thus usenets were first to really solidly. But by all means, if any other real old timers were around before 96 and remember any site, let me know.
Second, Did any wrestling sites correctly predict Hulk Hogan as the third man at Bash at the Beach 1996?
No major website or writer, to my knowledge or research, called Hogan turning heel. However, I am SURE that someone, somewhere, on some far flung part of the net, as it was, called it. Every move ever made (apart from the stuff like Benoit and that) has been ‘called’ by someone. The amount of people online is greater than the number of possible outcomes in wrestling. I’ve had my own lucky calls (The Cello being the main/big/well known one), it’s the million monkeys syndrome. Everything gets called. Just by unknowns sprouting gibberish.
Leonard asks about left handed refs.
WWE recently called up referee Noah Wilson from FCW to the Raw roster. He normally officiates the women’s matches to this point. I found it interesting that when making his counts during pinfalls that he counts with his left hand. Have you known of any other referees in the past who have done this? I can’t think of any myself.
No, I can’t find any referee who regularly used his left hand to count. Guys like Tommy Young and other really good refs would use whatever hand they could to count, but I didn’t find any left handed referees. It’s certainly unlikely, given that left handers are a smaller percentage and pro wrestling is almost exclusively a right handed sport, in terms of training and such. But again, the good refs shouldn’t have a dominate hand, they should just use the best hand to count.
He also asked an opinion question, but I’m putting it here because I want to rant slightly on it.
During a recent episode of Smackdown CM Punk sent Jeff Hardy into the ring post with a chair wrapped around his neck. What ensued made me mark out just a bit. The CM Punk “Check on him and fix him good so I can break him again!” and then the blocking of the gurney “Go the other way” to the EMT’s was pure gold. What are your top moments where wrestlers show these intelligent heel antics that you know were not written in by the booking team?
How do you know Punk wasn’t told to say that? I find it interesting when everyone assumes that the wrestlers have to be the ones who come up with the good stuff. While it’s certainly a defendable, perhaps even high ground holding, stance to say that writers are evil and wrong and bookers are good and correct, bookers have made terrible decisions and some writers have done good, such as Chris Kreski, who was the guy who produced 2000 WWF, you know, that really awesome period.
Now, in all probability, it probably WAS Punk who thought that up, but you can’t assume that the writers are totally stupid. Even a blind pig finds the occasional truffle.
But as for intelligent heel tactics:
* Legacy at the 09 Rumble, while starting too late, was a very nice story of heels using their brains to win a match.
* Pretty much anything Jake Roberts did to Savage or Steamboat, and anything Jericho’s done recently.
* The HHH European Title win was fairly well done, for what it was.
* And finally, you can argue it’s intelligence, but I certainly LOVED the Trish/Victoria/Jazz deal on Raw.
Gearóid asks a question I tried to delay in the hopes of getting an answer. I don’t think I got one.
Every week I see The Big Show set up a double chokeslam, I cringe as he is predictably suplexed, DDT’d or just kicked in the gut. Has he actually succeeded in doing one at all recently? I seem to recall seeing him do it once or twice years ago, but I don’t remember ever seeing it any time since he returned!
It’s hard to find one person double chokeslams, given that the term also means when two guys chokeslam one. We need a new term, like double chokeslam means when two guys chokeslam one guy, while a… Dual Chokeslam is when one guy chokeslams two guys.
But, at a SD/ECW house show, August 9, 2008, after Big Show defeated Edge, he was able to deliver a double chokeslam to Hawkins & Ryder. So it has happened at least once. So huzzah, yippie, woo woo woo.
Next, some Warrior, with The Hitcher
Hi there, great column by the way, thanks for answering all my questions in the past,
I have two questions regarding the Ultimate Warrior. Firstly, was the decision to get the strap back on Hogan as soon as possible after WMVI purely down to Warrior’s attitude, or where there other factors in play. What I’m getting at is, at that moment in time, was Warrior a bigger or as big a draw as Hogan? If he’d become the company man Vince had wanted, do you think he’d have made as much bank for Vince as Hogan did?
No, Warrior was not the draw Hogan was. He was very popular, and with some time and effort he might well have got to the same level, but he wasn’t on the same level. They knew this prior to the point, given that they knew Hogan was leaving and Warrior was the best possible choice. The idea was for Perfect to play intermediate, but then Hogan/Perfect didn’t work, so they went the direct route.
Now, again, they knew Warrior was not on Hogan’s level. And they had to expect a period of adjustment while they solidified Warrior. But they didn’t expect him to fail as badly as he did (he did ok, but not acceptable, and certainly not Hogan level). Partly their fault, in that they booked him too much like Hogan, and not enough like Warrior.
Warrior’s attitude had nothing to do with. Given his position, Warrior as Champ did his job as best he could. It was after he lost the belt and moved back down the card the ego and insanity sunk in.
JCL asks about paying dues.
Awesome work man, as everyone seems to tell you. I have a couple of questions.
1) Other than getting put in some squash matches at first, what are some examples of new wrestlers “paying their dues”? I seem to remember reading something about the Hardys not cleaning a locker room up after a show, and getting in some hot water over this. Are there other locker room things or things like picking up tabs for other guys or taking some stiff shots in the ring without any consequences?
Ah yes, the locker room etiquette. Now, I have to state, for the record, that while I am a wrestler, I’m in Australia, where it’s not as huge, hence I can’t speak from total experience.
But basically, wrestling locker rooms are sort of like high school. There’s a pecking order, where experience and seniority = respect. You have to show the proper level of respect to those above you (and to a lesser extent those below you), or else you get punished. There is some logic in this, in that given that when you step into the ring you and your opponent have to trust each other, ‘respect and due paying’ can be an important part of the job.
You pay your dues early on, in the indies, by setting up the ring, doing menial tasks, and generally keeping your mouth shut. Oh, shaking everyone’s hand with a soft grip. There’s lots of little things, which I won’t go into given that I have to keep SOME things secret.
But basically, when you get down to it, it’s about showing respect and not doing anything stupid. And… If you’re unlucky enough to be around an older, higher up ‘ribber’, to put up with the ribs.
Now, if you don’t show the proper level of respect in WWE, you might get called up before Wrestler’s Court, which may or may not exist in other companies (I’ve never seen one), where if you are found guilty of some crime, you’ll get sentences.
Punishments are usually about carrying guys bags, paying for them, losing matches, getting stiffed, stuff like that. Occasionally you hear of guys getting ‘buried’ and/or fired over disrespect (Mike Sanders for instance), but that’s fairly rare.
Personally, (this will come back to haunt me I know it…) I’m not a huge fan of the more extreme punishments and the bigger extremes in general. I dislike the idea of stiffing anyone, and some of the ‘ribs’ I’ve heard, assuming they are true, I find disgusting. But wrestling has it’s darker side, and you have to put up with it, and/or set a better example.
But, overall, paying dues and respect is, overall, designed to weed out those guys who don’t really want to be there and/or those who are too big for their boots. The system isn’t perfect, but it does work to some extent.
2) When did wrestling schools become an industry? I know back in the day if you wanted in with the business you kind of had to hang around the ring before/after shows until they recognized your face and maybe one day you’d get some training, but when did the idea of a school set up by one wrestler to train many wannabes begin? Was this considered a big break in kayfabe?
You’re the man, Matt.
Once wrestling became mainstream, pretty much. Wrestling camps and schools did exist back in the territorial days, they were just less formal and shorter. But after the WWF went national, schools did start to pop up, but they were rare and still tied to certain companies. But if you want to point to the period of time when schools exploded, Attitude baby. When wrestling became ‘cool’ with teenagers and young adults, THEN you had people forming schools all over the place, charging lots for training from people barely able to tie their own boots. After all, when wrestling was marketed at kids, kids can’t train. When young adults are the target, then you can make money off it. And make money off it, people did.
So in 10 years, when Cena turns heel and WWE goes Attitude-y again, then you’ll see all the jobbers who appear on ECW now start schools. Probably with slogans like “Train under a guy who was exposed on ECW more than anyone else” for Rory Fargo.
Don wants to talk buyrates.
HI!
Big fan of your column. Makes surfin at work worth the risk. Anyways, my question is regarding the drawing power of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Both wrestlers are undoubtedly on the list of the greatest ever. My question though is, were they really that bad of a draw? You mentioned that Bret tanked thus the plan to get Yoko the champ at Wrestlemania. And Shawn, well, he was pretty much the champ when Raw were losing the ratings war. So, as much as they were great performers, how bad were they as champs in terms of their drawing power? Who between them was the worse draw?
Well, as we discussed a fortnight ago, it’s hard to contrast and compare given how buyrates are very hard to calculate.
However, it’s tangentially related and I found it interesting, I give you The Monday Night War, in the form of the ratings, which I got from Simon Rawls on Wrestlecrap.
Well I found it interesting.
But trying to compare the two is hard, given that they were on top during slightly different periods. I’m just going on the fact that both men were perceived as failures by the WWF.
If you put a gun to my head, you can argue that Bret was a failure to draw when they were up against only moderate competition, while Shawn was up against an on fire WCW. Plus, Bret did get the blame for the Bulldog PPVs, which totally failed to draw.
Not to say that they were both the biggest failures in WWE history or anything (right Kevin?), but neither man did what they were ‘supposed’ to do. Draw like Hogan. Which is not a fair demand, but it’s what was put in front of them.
Next up is Rex.
Hey man I love your column every week its my favorite thing on 411mania I got a couple of questions 1. do you think that the WWE will ever come with a Brother Love DVD or Rick Rude DVD I think rude has certainly earned it and the Brother Love show was just hilarious and I’m a big fan of Brother Love do you know what kind of make up he used to to make his face red? Did the WWE ever recieve any kind of backlash for the character he was portrayed as from religious groups? And finally do you think they will ever bring him back I think it would liven things up a bit.
Rick Rude I could see as being on the list eventually as a filler title, ala Perfect or Roberts. He certainly has enough stuff to fill a DVD, it’s just an issue that most of it’s been on DVD already (Roberts, Warrior, Monday Night War etc). But yes, Rude will get one eventually.
Brother Love… No, he won’t get one by himself. If they ever do a ‘Best of Interview Shows’ then yes, he might get a section, but he’s not important or seen as entertaining enough to warrant a full DVD himself.
I don’t know the exact shade of red make up, but it’s probably just standard rouge or the TV equivalent.
While the WWF never got severely hassled because of the character, it was clearly parodying the disgraced evangelists of the time, and thus wasn’t popular, but that was the point. You make people uncomfortable, and they boo. Hopefully.
And given Bruce Prichard got released in 08 in one of the “Long Time Employees Going For No Adequately Explained Reason” releases, it’s unlikely he’ll return. For a one shot, by all means, but I don’t see him making a full time return. Most fans wouldn’t have a clue who he is after all.
2. Did Rick Rude and Hulk Hogan ever wrestle in the WWF because I’m wondering why he never got a title shot at Hogan when Hogan was champ he had some hot feuds with Warrior and Bossman and Jake Roberts one would think he would recieve a title shot at Hogan.
Yes, they wrestled a couple of times, but in tag matches.
They first met in a 6 man tag, in Vancouver, British Columbia. November 10, 1987, WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, & Jim Duggan defeated King Kong Bundy, Rick Rude, & King Harley Race.
Their next match was Survivor Series 87, when Andre’s team beat Hogan’s team. Rude was on Andre’s team, pinning Paul Orndorff (whom Rude had been feuding with), before getting pinned by Don Muraco after Rude jumped over Hogan.
December 12, 1987 saw Andre and Rude beat Hogan and Orndorff when Andre pinned Paul at a house show in St. Louis.
However, they did have a straight up, one on one, TV match. The January 18th, 1988 edition of Prime Time Wrestling, saw Hogan defeat Rude with the legdrop, despite Rude thinking he had the match won with a backbreaker submission hold. The match will be available in the new Hogan DVD (Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series), so if you want to see Rude V Hogan, there you go. Ironically enough, the exact same day that show was broadcast, at a house show, Hogan beat Rude again!
That would be the last time they fought. And Rude was there more to work with the mid-card faces to help them. He got his chance against Warrior to main event, and he did all right. And had he stuck around, he might well have gotten a push. But WWF were going slow with him, and thus he eventually jumped to WCW who used him better, as it turned out.
3. Next question I’ve seen The Ultimate Warrior wrestle against The Undertaker but only in a body bag match which ended in a DQ my question is did they wrestle in any matches that resulted in either one getting a clean pin?
Well, sometimes it was by count out…
But there were ‘Body Bag matches’, where to win you had to put your opponent in a Body Bag, which Warrior won occasionally, presumably on those nights when they felt a DQ/CO wouldn’t work (and apparently in one he pinned him). And a few times they had a Casket match, just to be different, and in all those Warrior won.
However, July 9, 1991, WWF Superstars taping, Warrior pinned Taker, straight up, in a normal match.
Taker never pinned or defeated Warrior cleanly, but Warrior beat Taker a bunch of times.
4. did The Undertaker and Papa Shango ever wrestle I think I remember the WWF trying to get something started but nothing ever came of it that I can recall.
Oh god, that match would have sucked. Or rather, must have sucked. They wrestled in St. Louis (again?) on April 25th, 1992. And the two were in a tag match, Taker and Warrior beating Papa and The Berzerker on June 3rd, and on July 12th, both in Ontario. Then again the tag match in New Haven, then in Worchester on July 20th, Kamala replaced Berzerker. Richfield on September 12th saw Taker pin Papa in a one on one match, but by then Shango was feuding with Bret Hart over if Papa cursed him to lose the IC title. But over a weekend, Philly and Duluth saw Taker beat Papa twice, Sep. 19 and 20. But their final match was at the December 14th taping for WWF Superstars in Green Bay, when Taker pinned Shango one last time, in a match that made it to several WWF home videos.
Although they had several more matches in the last week of December, Taker winning each and every match, 4 times in all, then a 5th on New Year’s Day. And a 6th the day after. And again on the 5th. And 6th. And 8th. And 9th, twice. But that was it!
Except their match in England, Feb 2nd that Taker won. And the Feb 6 and 7 matches in Germany. But that was totally, legit, 100% their last match.
Really.
Given that Small stole my intended video, I’ve had to go to more extreme measures.
Are you happy Small? Are you?
Jason asks about a touchy subject.
Do you know or have you heard what is going on with Matt Hardy and Edge? Are they on speaking terms? Have they patched things up? I mean, what Edge did was a dick move, but it’s been many years, and the two of them were like best friends, and they do say time heals all wounds.
From all accounts, the two tend to avoid each other, and don’t move in the same circles, but when they have to talk/work together, they are professional about it. In a somewhat telling fact, Matt has supposedly forgiven Lita but not Edge, which says a lot about him. But yeah, they’ll probably never be friends again, but the two can work together. Hell, they’ve been doing that since the second Matt Hardy began to reappear on WWE tv.
Greg?
Hey, I love the column, your answers are always great and fun to read.
My question is: If Batista was never hurt around the 2006 Royal Rumble, would he have had a match for the Title against Henry and would he have main evented WM, if so, would it have been Mysterio, or would Kurt still jump ship to SD!?
No, Kurt would not have jumped ship. Kurt jumping was a panicked move, and when they did that, they basically just stuck Kurt into what DAVE would have done. The plan was for DAVE to wrestle Mark Henry, which they were building to. It was in a match with Mark that Batista injured himself again and was forced to vacate the belt. Then he’d take on Taker at NWO.
However, the original plan was to have Orton win the Title match at Wrestlemania, and do Batista/Orton, where Orton would defeat Batista to win the title. But due to Angle being shoehorned in, plus the way they handled the Orton/Rey thing (i.e. Badly and with little taste), plans changed and we got what we got. So no, Mysterio’s win was not the original plan with Batista.
Patrick has some questions. So it’s good he emailed me.
Hey Matt I got a couple of questions for the next ask 411 wrestling for the next time
1. With all of the backstage skits and promos have the wrestlers ever unintentionally cracked up laughing at the stuff they say or the things done by Santino and others?
Well, recently, Shawn Michaels couldn’t keep a straight face when he spoke to Cryme Tyme in England, when he spoke Jive. They had to refilm it after the show was over, hence the odd angle they used, since he just couldn’t help but corpse.
They even produced a DVD, “WWF’s Funniest Moments”, that included a whole bunch of outtakes, mostly of Angle/Austin/Vince’s interaction. So yes, WWE wrestlers do occasionally crack up. They’re only human, and most aren’t actors.
2. Wikipedia claims that Perry Saturn works at car dearlships and door factories in Iowa. What jobs do you think he’s really working at in Iowa if this is true?
Stuff that pays under the table and indoors away from nosy IWC people and, more importantly, the government. And Dean Malenko.
3. What is Terry Funk up to these days? Last time I saw him wrestling related was that Beyond the Mat VHS tape back in 2000-2001.
…
This was in 2006. He’s been inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame, and done some special refereeing gigs, with his last match in September 06 against Jerry Lawler. But Terry Funk is, well, Terry Funk, he might just keep having matches until he’s dead.
Next up, Sunny, sadly not THAT Sunny, has a question.
I had a question about Mordecai. I was curious as to why WWE scrapped the gimmick so quickly? I really didn’t think it was that bad of a gimmick. I’m not sure why everyone hates on it. He could have been a great foil for Undertaker obviously but I also think that gimmick had long term potential. Great entrance, decent wrestler and interesting backstory of the religious zealot who says everyone is a sinner. In fact, his gimmick was the gimmick that is getting CM Punk over so well in that he thought everyone was a sinner and was below him. What are your thoughts on why everyone hates on him and also why WWE gave up on him so quickly? Thanks.
Well, according to Kevin Fertig, after he and Tomko, who had been teaming for several months, were split up to be single’s wrestlers, he and Vince came up with the Mordicai character. But when it came time to do it, he was too bloated (300+ pounds) to really work, plus, apparently, he got into a fight with some guy in a bar and was having legal problems and thus, that plus his weight, sent him back to OVW and then he got released.
And, of course, there was the whole thing where the character wasn’t over, and, the real kiss of death these days, he targeted The Undertaker in early promos. Going after Taker straight off = You’re not going to last. Unless you’re bloody huge and from India.
Trace forces me to advertise for other websites.
What’s up Sforcina? Just a quick question, mostly because I’m a complete wrestling nerd. I’m currently watching through all of the episodes of Monday Night Raw from 1998, as well as the PPV’s that occurred that year. Do you know of any site that has a backlog of the “dirt sheets” and rumors for the time? I wasn’t really aware of them during the whole attitude era, so being able to read them would be really interesting. Thanks in advance.
Well, there’s a couple options.
If you want the free option, you find a website that has been around since 98, like, say, 411wrestling.com, and then put their web address into The Internet Wayback Machine and try your luck.
If you want a hassle free experience, then you’ll need to shell out for one of the newsletters and subscribe, given that if you force people to pay for your stuff, then you better offer full records and back copies.
My Damm Opinion
The Hitcher is back with his second half.
Secondly, workrate/ring ability etc aside, if Warrior had indeed become that company man & carried the torch he was passed, and you were Chief booker, how would you have booked him? Would you have given him a heel turn at any point? How would Warrior have fitted into the Attitude era? I kinda liked where his character was going in WWF the last time around but it wasn’t to be.
Keep up the good work.
Well yes, I would have given him a heel turn eventually.
But in the short term, I would have given him guys like Honky: Slimy, despicable heels who cheated, lied and generally acted like bastards who stole wins over the lower faces, before Warrior steamrolled them in the main events. Not like Hogan, where he gets beat up for a few minutes then makes the comeback, have Warrior run out, destroy the guy in a couple minutes, that’s it. Like Goldberg.
On the really big shows you can have longer matches like they did, but those heels still had to be slimy, just slimy AND effective.
Assuming that this works (which it probably couldn’t, but work with me here) and he lasts into the New Generation, then he’d turn heel (like he was supposed to) and become a heel leaning to tweener steamroller, as the warrior spirits tell him that he must have no friends, no allies, warriors must stand alone.
And in the unlikely event he’d last till Attitude, then you’d need to reinvent him, either as Taker’s Higher Power or as him going legit as he’s sick of ‘playing dress up’ if he’s willing to change his style and become Jim Hellwig, pissed off middle aged brawler.
But this assumes that he works as a draw, and reality says this wasn’t going to happen.
Tarek asks about short-sightedness.
Sick job on the column it’s a great shout.
I have a question but I think I’m asking for an opinion anyway I will get to it. Why do wrestling companies think so short term and then complain about ratings when they do not go up? I have been reading that TNA want to sign Hogan. This begs the question why? He cannot wrestle, he cannot move, he will not put anyone over and will demand too much money. So where is the upside – sure he will spike the rating for a week or two maybe get the buyrate up on a PPV but after that he cannot wrestle long term and costs way too much to have him be a regular. Not to mention his ego is so big he wont put someone like Roode or EY over only will bury the talent so when he leaves you’re not back to square one but rather even further behind as you have to rebuild the talent buried.
So why don’t they go back to the old school and really have some good long term plans for wrestlers? This will ensure interest and overness, move merch and probably make the locker-room a much better place. Shows with huge ratings like 24 are hits because of long term smart planning. Prison Break’s last two episodes were horrendous and spoilt my 4 season interest because it felt like it was written in 5 minutes much like current feuds e.g Matt Hardy versus JBL, Swagger versus MVP, Kane versus Fake Kane.
Because Eric Bischoff ruined everything by being focused on ratings.
Hmm, I don’t have a quarter Chandler, do I?
But basically after Eric Bischoff came onto the scene, ratings suddenly became important. I think, mainly, because they were sudden and clear cut. If he scored a higher rating than WWF, then he won, therefore he rules, WWF sucks, QED.
And that viewpoint somehow became lodged into everyone’s heads, and now you have the Guest Host stuff on Raw and TNA hiring Russo and firing Cornette.
Russo especially, is a ratings chaser. He’s honest about it, and that’s what he’s ‘good’ at. But you need someone there with a bigger picture view to direct him.
However, there are two different issues here. TNA and ROH and all the other companies have an advantage over WWE, in that WWE is publicly traded. And thus, it will ‘look bad’ and would be ‘fiscally irresponsible’ not to try and maximise profit here and now. When PPV buyrates were going down, did WWE go to it’s shareholders and say “this is normal, in a year or so it’ll be better, once he grow the brand awareness and loyality and build some stars”? No, they started putting all the big names on all the PPVs.
Whereas TNA, if they wanted to, could take a more long term view, as you say. But Dixie, for whatever reason, loves/trusts/believes in Russo. So she’s betting on him.
But hey, that’s just my opinion. What would you guys do?
RADIO EDIT: Clearly this has now changed somewhat given the whole “Hogan in TNA” thing. I write this half a day or so before it goes up. But until such time as Russo is officially gone, this stands. I’ll just need to talk about it next week. But feel free to add your thoughts.
You know it.
