The Wrestling Doctor 05.06.08: Examining the WWE Schedule

Posted by W.S. Thomason on 05.06.2008

The Wrestling Doctor finds a way to tie the WWE to women’s professional tennis.

THE WRESTLING DOCTOR: THE PRESCRIPTION FOR WHAT AILS

Welcome to The Wrestling Doctor, where the troubles of professional wrestling will be thoroughly examined and then offered a practical prescription. You may not agree with the assessment, but hopefully the column will open up a new dialogue on the state the business that consumes far too much of our time.

THE SECOND OPINION
There is not too much to say about last week's column. The IWC loves William Regal in all his guises. Obviously the column was written before his new direction was more fully developed on Raw so now it does appear that Regal will be assuming a more prominent role for the summer. Hopefully he will continue his weekly disdain for the audience while limiting his involvement in WWE-ized Dusty finishes to main events. But at least we got to see most of the match and were spared hearing Tony Schiavone scream, "What a fantastic main event! Oh no! We're out of time!"

THIS WEEK'S PATIENT: THE HOBBLED WWE
The year 2007 will certainly not be remembered as the finest hour of professional wrestling. The Chris Benoit tragedy and subsequent steroid scandal dominated mainstream headlines, but even without that tragic turn of events, the year was fairly stale for the WWE. A major cause of the tepid product was a rash of injuries and suspensions that swept through the roster, forcing last minute re-writes and adjustments that often proved less than stellar.

PROBLEM DIAGNOSIS: THE WWE SCHEDULE
The WWE built 2007 primarily around nine stars – John Cena, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Batista, Edge, Randy Orton, Bobby Lashley, and Umaga. Not a bad lot of talent but of these, all but Batista, Orton, and Umaga sat out a considerable portion of the year with serious injuries that required surgery and extensive recovery and/or rehabilitation. Injuries to top names became so prevalent that the fans were accustomed to such incidents by the end of the year.

We should not be accustomed to only three of the nine marquee talents staying healthy for a year. A 66% serious injury rate amongst the top tier of stars is a disaster. If you consider that Orton and Umaga served suspensions for behavior in 2006 and Wellness violations in 2007, respectively, and that Batista spent half of 2006 on the disabled list, then things appear to be really bad.

Things really are bad.

Let us consider the problem in relative comparisons to other sports. Imagine if 66% of the top players in the NFL, MLB, or NBA were out with serious injuries in one season? What if the remaining third were suspended? What if only one or two top stars were available to play at any one time? These scenarios have never transpired in these sports due to the sheer numbers of players, but if they did, the governing organizations would look for a cause and a solution very quickly.

A similar scenario did occur in 2006 in the Women's Tennis Association. Not one of the WTA tour's Tier I tournaments – events second only to Grand Slams in terms of prestige, rankings points, and pay day – got more than five of the top ten players. The worst hit was the mid-summer Rogers Cup, which saw eight of the world's top ten stars withdraw. Normally, 90% to 95% of the top forty players in the world enter these type of events.

Injuries caused by an over-extended schedule were the reason that anywhere from 50% to 80% of the top ten best female tennis players were sitting at home instead of playing in what are essentially the monthly equivalent of pay-per-views in terms of fan interest and revenue. There are many parallels between the professional tennis calendar and that of the WWE. The tennis year runs January to November with no scheduled down time. Tournaments are held all over the world. It is not unusual for players to spend three to four consecutive months on the road without a week off. A typical month often includes events in North America, Europe, and Asia. Sharapova gawkers and impact sports snobs dismiss the toll tennis matches take on the body in much the same way that the main stream ignores the strains matches put on wrestlers. Tennis players must play or they forfeit; they do not get to ride the bench on a guaranteed salary while some second-stringer picks up the slack. Simply put, the bodies of professional tennis players break down quickly, which is one of the reasons that most of them are retired by age 30.

Professional tennis players and critics of the game have longed called for a review of the rigorous schedule as a response to the alarming increase in injuries, particularly amongst the top names. However, the governing bodies of professional tennis did not take such cries seriously until two years ago. Many of those reticent to change alleged that the large number of injuries in 2006 was a fluke, but they privately pushed for reforms while nay-saying in public. Calendar trimming is in progress for both the WTA and the men's organization (the ATP). A reduction in tournaments will cost the organizations revenue in the short term, but will provide them opportunities for long-term re-branding and re-packaging. A large number of events may appear to be profitable, but the fans pay to see the top stars. If those players are too beat up to make even the top events, the fans will stop buying tickets. The same applies to wrestling. Professional tennis saw a problem with scheduling and injury, and decided to take action. The WWE needs to respond to its injury in kind.

WWE wrestlers spend upwards of 100 days a year performing, plus a couple of dozen more in transit. While today's wrestlers do not wrestle the 300+ nights of their predecessors, they are using a much higher risk style. Wrestlers have always worked through injuries, but the WWE is doing an unprecedented amount of international business, which has drastically altered the travel dynamic for the roster and the feasibility of working hurt.

Imagine if 80% of the WWE's top stars missed Summerslam. Does anyone really want to see more prominent matches from The Great Khali? He factored into six championship pay-per-view matches last year – including four as World Champion – primarily because of injuries to the top of the card. Any situation that spawns a second Punjabi Prison match needs to be rectified immediately.

Minor, lingering injuries are complicated by the WWE's travel schedule. Kurt Angle may be the penultimate example of how intense travel can transform a working-injury into a career-threatening one. Angle has remained healthy since joining TNA and undertaking their lighter schedule. Another example is Christian Cage, who stated that chronic injuries he carried with him nearly his entire WWE career vanished within a few months of leaving the company. Christian went almost straight to TNA from the WWE and has wrestled a full schedule for the company during his tenure. Despite the demands, he also remains free of serious injury. And no one can ignore the contribution of persisting injuries to the Chris Benoit tragedy.

I realize that a lot of the injuries in 2007 were muscle tears, which are often symptomatic of steroid use, but I am not going to waste time on such conjecture. I also did not mention the injuries sustained by upper mid-card talent such as Mr. Kennedy and the perennially side-lined Rey Mysterio, or the several other stars who were on the shelf in 2007.

THE PRESCRIPTION: REORGANIZE THE HOUSE SHOW STRUCTURE
The WWE needs to look at its disabled list and make some significant changes to its tour schedule.

The WWE should consider reducing the number of dates worked by each wrestler. One way to accomplish this goal would be to combine the three brands for the purposes of house shows. The talent could be rotated so that they work house shows and TV one week and only television the next. The stars continue to appear each week on their respective television shows, so most fans would never know the difference. For example, Triple H and Randy Orton may headline one week's worth of house shows, while Batista and Edge would top the cards for the following week. All of these stars would be at Raw, Smackdown, and ECW each week, but would only have half of the house show obligations. The extra days off would allow their lingering injuries to fully heal instead of being exacerbated by too much travel and match wear.

411mania's resident wrestling business expert, J.P. Prag, was kind enough to send me the WWE 2007 Annual Report (thanks J.P.!) I could not make a fair comparison to 2006 live events, as the report compares 2007 with only the last eight months of 2006, and also because I am an idiot at reading such things (I may have had it upside down). I was able to make out that the WWE produced 233 North American and 75 international live events in 2007. Revenue from these events is produced not only by ticket sales but also by merchandise and other fees. A reduction in scheduling like I am proposing would certainly reduce the WWE's revenue stream across many lines. However, the WWE needs to compare these decreases with the possibility of losing top talent at any moment. An absence of top draws will cause people to stop buying not only live event tickets but also pay-per-views, on demand programming, merchandise, and publications. Casual fans will likely stop watching the programming, which will cause licensing fees and advertising rates to drop.

Last year, the WWE was very lucky in that they still had John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, and Umaga active while Triple H, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Edge, and Bobby Lashley were on the shelf. They were also fortunate that those injured returned in a graduated fashion. But things could have easily been worse: if Cena's bicep tear had occurred in June instead of October, the company would have suffered an even greater blow over the summer than the struggle they did experience in the shadow of the Benoit tragedy and steroid allegations. In that case, we may have had heavyweight title reigns from not only Khali but also Mark Henry. A near disastrous decline in revenue would likely have followed.

The WWE could continue running split brand house shows internationally as a means of minimizing the financial impact of the new schedule. International house shows comprise a major source of income for the company. Corporate restructuring over the last year and more overseas tours indicate that building a loyal live audience outside of the US is a top priority. However, increased international travel will only serve to turn nagging injuries into major ones, so a substantial break from domestic touring is necessary if more international direction is in the cards for the WWE.

A glut of talent at live events may be a problem for the WWE, but they could turn it to their advantage by having more traditional, six and eight man tag team matches on house shows. The guys work less, stay healthier, and the company as a whole benefits. The only person truly hurt by a reduced schedule is Dr. James Andrews.

The WWE also needs to consider the advantages of a multi-brand house show schedule in light of changes that will be occurring in 2008. The audience for Smackdown will be involuntarily reduced this fall when the show moves to the lesser-available My Network TV. The Sci-Fi network renewed ECW with great hesitation last year, and the possibility of the program returning for 2009 is tenuous. A shrunken television audience for these two brands will result in smaller live crowds, which may not make a separate Smackdown / ECW house show tour economically efficient – just as stand-alone ECW events did not generate adequate revenue. The drop in audience will increase the pressure already on Raw as the top attraction for the company, so serious injuries sustained by that brand's top performers will be more acutely felt.

Of course, a reduction in programming may have the unintended effect of allowing the WWE to recoup some of the lost live event revenue by cutting filler talent such as Chuck Palumbo. Both the company and the audience win on that one.

A lot of skeptics – not the least of which are sitting in Stamford – would say that 2007 was an unusual year and that such a scenario of injuries is not likely to occur again. However, the demands that are causing the problem are still present. This year has been relatively calm for the WWE in terms of injury, and many point to the return of John Cena nine months earlier than expected as proof that the company is healthy once again. But what about the damage that Rey Mysterio has sustained from abbreviated recovery periods? Will Cena be back on the operating table in a few months? What will Triple H tear next? How many times can Shawn Michaels have his knees opened up? What part of Edge will shortly break down? How many more years can the body of The Undertaker withstand? The WWE will have periods of respite from major injuries, but just about everyone whom the company can currently be built around has a rich history of being significantly side-lined.

The future generation of stars is also riddled with problems. Mr. Kennedy has already suffered two significant injuries that put him on the shelf for several months. MVP has health problems. Jeff Hardy is not reliable. Carlito has a bad attitude. Potential stars like Elijah Burke and Shelton Benjamin have been transformed into glorified Iron Mike Sharpes. CM Punk has stayed healthy so far, and Matt Hardy has been mostly injury-free outside of his recent health issues, but neither of those guys will be able to bear the weight of the entire company.

Let us hope now that the Big Show does not get another run with one of the big belts.

The WWE needs to make a financial sacrifice in the short term in order to better prepare its performers and stockholders for the changes of the future. Vince McMahon has adapted to new environments and overcome threatening situations dozens of times due to a mix of cunning, ingenuity, and ruthless sense of competition. He needs to use those skills to address the wear and tear on his performers and find other avenues of raising revenue outside of live events, which should not be hard considering the WWE's vast resources.

Of course, he could always push William Regal to the moon.