Shining a Spotlight 1.03.08: Forecast for 2008

Posted by Michael Weyer on 01.03.2008

A look at what WWE, TNA, ROH and more can do to ensure 2008 is a better year.

So another year over and a new one beginning which means it's time pretty much all of us here at 411 look ahead to what to expect in the next year of wrestling. Of course, that's always difficult to do as you just don't know what the next 12 months are going to bring. I mean, there's no way whatsoever in hell anyone could have seen Benoit coming and that's what shadowed the entire year. Likewise, you don't know who's going to get injured or not and how that will shake things up. And like any other form of entertainment, stuff that's hyped majorly will fail with the fans who will instead cheer stuff not expected.

So it's hard to really give predictions for wrestling in the coming year. What you can do is gauge how the major promotions are doing and how they can improve in the coming year. Again, there's a lot of factors that can change things from injuries to defections but there are still ways to plan to make the next year an improvement.


WWE

Okay, Vince himself will admit 2007 was a bad year for the company with Benoit, injuries to Cena, Matt Hardy and others, the steroid investigations and the suspensions. That's painted a bad blight on the business and since WWE is the face in the mainstream, that's made things bad. But as we all know, Vince McMahon does seem better under pressure and has shown able to bounce back with good moves for the business overall. Yes, he's had to alter a lot of storylines from his own "death" to his illegitimate child but we've still seen good programs with the likes of Orton, Michaels and others. More importantly, we've seen the improvement and building of some new stars with MVP being the highlight, coming into his own as a star and US champion. Even the Divas seem a bit better as Candice Michelle transformed into a very good ring competitor and Beth Phoenix's return hints at more improvement to the women's ranks.

Of course, the year kicks off with the Royal Rumble and that leads to Wrestlemania. So far, it's a bit up in the air what WWE is planning for the big show. True, it seems certain HHH might be in the main event of Mania again but his opponent could be anyone from Jeff Hardy to Orton to Jericho. It does seem inevitable that they give the title to Jericho to pay off on his big return (which is not as botched as so many say it is) but will it be before Mania or at it? I have to admit doing HHH-Jericho for the belt would be good because of their history but who can say if they may decide to actually give Hardy a run? The big thing to remember is that whoever is champion is pretty much just a placeholder until Cena returns.

In fact, I'm sure Cena's comeback will be one of the bigger pushes and stories of the year. Like him or not, the man is a huge draw and is still capable of great matches and carrying the title. I'm sure they're already preparing him to regain it by or at SummerSlam, which can greatly improve ratings. One can hope that WWE might do a bit more with the mid-card in the coming year in order to spread things out until that return. I'd love to see the IC title regarded with the respect it once had and we all know the pitiful state of the tag scene so any improvement there would be good. As RAW is the A-show, that will get the most limelight and attention.

But SmackDown is just as vital to the company's success. 2007 saw some problems for it with the injury to Edge leading to the Great Khali's less than stellar reign and they were hit by the suspensions too. But Smackdown does get some things right with the cruiserweights still turning out great matches and we've got Finlay always making a good brawl fun. For the main event scene, Batista and Undertaker turned out a feud a hell of a lot better than expected and that's helped the brand get attention. The mid-card is also helped by MVP who has truly blossomed as a major star and a great in-ring worker and can easily carry the torch given time. What SmackDown needs now is a new influx of name talent. I know, RAW is the big show but SmackDown is on a network (yes, the CW counts) and attracts a good audience and thus ad revenue. So putting back on some names from RAW like Carlito can help the show out and make it a bit more fun.

Of course it'd be nice to see all these guys from Heat and Velocity given more time on the main shows. Honestly, I can't understand why WWE fails to see the immense talents of Hass and Benjamin and try to bring out more of their character to match them so they can rise high. I know, it's an old problem but with all the shifts in the roster due to suspensions and injuries, you'd think they'd give shots to whatever talent they have.

That brings us to the issue of ECW. Now I've never been as down on the brand extension as others as I think it really has helped WWE out in the last few years. But ECW had proven to be just a big failure and a waste of good money and, more importantly, good talent. So one can hope that as 2008 goes on, WWE finally puts this out of our misery and frees up its names to move on to the other shows. Come on, CM Punk would rule SmackDown and all that free talent should be enough to slap a few guys together and invigorate the tag division again.

I know a lot of those sound like pipe dreams but WWE can really only go up from the year 2007 was. They are still the leaders of the business (hell, you can argue they still are the business) and are still the ones to beat and keep the industry going. For all those who predict things are getting too bad, Vince McMahon has been in worse situations and thrived and survived. It seems almost certain he can keep that going for another year as long as the fates don't continue to conspire against him. I do think this year was a learning experience for Vince, letting him know he can't rely so blindly on the big names for so long but always be ready to boost someone else if necessary. If that philosophy becomes standard procedure, we might see a nice improvement to the company in the coming year.


TNA: I want to make it clear that I do not hate TNA. I know it may sound that way seeing how down I've been on them in the last year but I don't hate the company. What I hate is that in 2005, they really were a good alternative to WWE with an emphasis on in-ring action with a majority of fresh faces. Now, two years later they have transformed to an incredibly painful TV show where former WWE stars and others past their prime are pushed almost immediately. Sadly, 2007 has only made my feelings about the company worse. The litany of mistakes are well-documented, especially by Ryan's excellent Impact Craters: Hiring Pacman, blowing the Kurt Angle/Samoa Joe feud, letting Karen Angle be a major player, making Abyss part of the booking team, turning AJ Styles into a clown while shoving down Christopher Daniels, making the X Division a meaningless joke, still giving Kevin Nash a job and more. All this and TNA still has the attitude they're much bigger than they really are and think this will make things better. Once again, a year passes where they have the potential to break out but fail to make the right moves to attain that goal.

It's going to take a lot to change things but we might as well start with number one which is the most obvious: Fire Russo. I know, he's not as big a name with the booking committee so the actual plans aren't his fault. But the presentation of the shows definitely are. I know Russo has always been a soap opera guy but when a wrestling show has titles for each episode as if it was another drama, not to mention cliffhangers the same way, it's time for a change. I'm struck by the irony of the last Impact being Cornette railing at Matt Morgan for the stupid gimmicks of the Christmas episode and yelling "What does this have to do with professional wrestling?" then shutting up when he's given a bonus check for the "good ratings" the show did. That really sums up Russo's reign as he honestly does believe that this is what the fans want in place of actual wrestling. That's not to mention Russo repeating the stuff he made so successful a decade ago but unable to work it now (Black Reign and VKM pop into mind). TNA should be filling Impact more with good matches rather than stupid skits but until they realize Russo is more of a problem than a solution, that's unlikely to happen.

Without Russo, there are still problems. After all, it wasn't Russo who wanted to spend precious money getting Pacman on for a stint that did no business and just made TNA look like a joke in the media. The key problem is the X Division which has always been the best part of the company, treated like such a joke. When the champion and major face of the division is a worker forced to act like Randy Savage and a tag team a good five years past their prime trash them all over, it's not a good thing for the division or the company itself. It's high time TNA got serious about the division once more and built it back up to the place of respectability it held not that long ago. Similarly, the tag division needs rebuilding and giving the belts to the MCMG and have them feud with LAX would be the perfect thing for it. If anything, you can slap a few more guys together into teams to let things run.

For the rest of the card, let Dustin Rhodes go because this whole Black Reign thing really isn't doing anything. Also, while it's nice to see an actual wrestler part of the committee, Abyss just isn't good at booking. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy as a big man worker and he's shown great loyalty to the company but he goes too much for hardcore style matches rather than really good bouts that can show his skills. Not to mention he's wrecking his own character and mystique by talking about his real name in interviews. And then, of course, you've got the whole main event mess of Angle and Christian feuding over AJ and Booker getting a push right off the bat while Samoa Joe, the guy fans have wanted to see on top for two years now, is once more pushed aside. TNA has a lot of talent and getting some big stars isn't bad but the way they're booked just isn't working, not in a way fans want to see.

That is the key thing TNA has to do in the next year: They need to start bringing in actual fresh faces and give them chances. I mean, even WWE does that with OVW and such. Aside from Pacman, who was the last fresh male face you saw in TNA in 2007? I say male because the women's division is one thing the company is actually doing right, getting good female wrestlers, letting Gail Kim be their first champion and building up Awesome Kong as a great monster. If they can only give that much care to the rest of the company, they'd be in good shape. It really is better for the company to spend money on a half dozen independent stars who can blossom rather than one RVD who may not last long and just clog up time and space in the main event spot.

For five and a half years, TNA has talked about being the new face of wrestling and ready to take that top spot. Well, it's high time they started acting like a company truly committed to making that happen rather than just pick off the WWE's leftovers (both talent and storylines) and got serious presenting some real action. They need to make changes from the programs to Impact to the talent and they need to do it fast because even many of their long-time fans are souring on the product. Presenting more shows on tour is good since that'll add to actual gate profits which is something the Impact Zone doesn't have. But if they keep presenting the same old faces in stupid storylines and gimmick bouts, that won't bring in enough new fans. If they can't make this changes and make a turnaround to the kind of top-level action they had a couple years back, their chances of making it past 2008 are not that good.


ROH

While TNA stumbled in '07, ROH was thriving, getting more respect for their terrific action and making their touring work. Yes, they got hit by some bad injuries like Nigel McGuiness just as he'd finally taken the big title scene. But they showed how well things work and that they understand their place in the wrestling landscape. Plus, they're keeping tag team wrestling alive courtesy of the Briscoes and are able to keep all levels of the company going, avoiding the backstage politics that have hurt WWE and TNA so much. Frankly, there's not much I can add to the review of ROH in 2007 that wasn't covered by Ari's awesome six-part Column of Honor (then again, I don't think anyone on the net can cover it so in-depth).

So for 2008, ROH should really just adopt a "if it's not broke, don't fix it" mentality in regards to business. Keep the good pushes and excellent in-ring action while continuing to get the best young talent out there from the independent scene. I would suggest that they might form an alliance with SHIMMER to improve their own women's division and help both companies out. Really, if TNA can make a women's division work, surely ROH can only improve it as SHIMMER specializes in serious women's action and that fits perfectly with ROH. Other than that, ROH really doesn't need that much room for improvement in terms of their business model and simply need to find new venues and spread their name out more.

Getting a new set of "best of" DVDs in retail stores is a great move as it enhances their visibility and gets the product into mainstream fans who might not know as much about it. If successful, this could lead to more releases as I'd love to see a documentary focusing on the history and evolution of ROH since 2002. Hell, maybe ECW Press can find someone (*coughAricough*) who could write a book on the company too and give it more of a highlight. I also do think it may be time to bite the bullet and get themselves a regular TV deal. Maybe an "Impact"-like show might not be best as they'd have to alter it for the entertainment aspects but a good, decent, old-styled hard-hitting wrestling show would work well on some cable station and give ROH more national presence.

For all the attention paid to TNA, the fact is that they still haven't turned anything resembling an actual profit in five years. ROH has and they know how to actually work like a wrestling company. They've shown they can build talent, keep talent and had a vibrant fanbase. Now it's time for them to expand more and let more and more fans disgruntled by WWE and TNA know there's an alternative that can really give wrestling fans what they crave for. 2008 might be the time ROH finally shines and it's damn well time for it.


Books and DVDs

2007 was a great time for wrestling DVDs. As usual, WWE had a slew of awesome releases that showed their massive tape library put to great use. The '08 release list looks good too with volumes on Curt Henning, Edge, HHH, Austin, the Rock and more. If this Randy Savage set is for real, I'm buying it, don't care if it's a burial job or not, just to see Savage in his heyday once more when he was so damn cool. Personally, I'd love to see a Ricky Steamboat DVD set and one on Stampede. I know some may be tricky due to Chris Benoit but there's still plenty that can be done and I know WWE still is working on some (after all, the Michaels one wasn't announced until about a month before its release). So we can hope to have more to add to the library.

TNA isn't doing as bad with their DVDs and I must admit to some interest in more volumes on the "History of TNA" series. For the books, ECW Press continues to be the best in putting out wrestling themed books but of course, volumes on Benoit will be the most popular in the coming year. Even Scott Keith is getting into it with a book that sort of deals with the "Curse of the Harts" and all that. I'd love to see books that really focus on ignored subjects like Bill Watts' Mid-South or the history of women's wrestling. Now that it's been shown wrestling fans can indeed read, it's time to fill in that still large gap of books on the industry, both good and bad.


I know, a lot of this is wishful thinking and hope for sane rational planning (which may be futile in TNA's case) but it still shows how 2008 may be a great way for the business to bounce back after the rough year 2007 was. We can always hope and in a way, that's why we all remain fans of the sport no matter what. Every year brings a new chance things can improve, the possibility of a fresh start with great matches, fresh faces and more to keep us entertained. Here's hoping '08 makes it all worth it and makes you proud to call yourself a wrestling fan once more.


Also around 411mania that doesn't have to do with year-in-review stuff and awards:

Evolution Schematic focuses on Finlay.

Seventh Dimension wraps up its terrific analysis of TNA.

The Shimmy offers a Carlito report card.

Thoughts from the Top Rope jumps ahead to the best matches of '08.

Viral Dose of Reality also looks at '08 in a positive manner. No, seriously.

Don't forget Column of Honor, Triple Threat, 3 R's, Hidden Highlights and all the rest.

For the first time in 2008, the spotlight is off.