If I Could Be Serious For A Moment 12.09.08: Finishing School

Posted by Chris Lansdell on 12.09.2008

With sensational rookies seeming to be on the rise again, I look at ways to keep the successes coming, and why for so long they never came at all.

Greetings, humanity! Welcome to the first edition of Wrestling, my new vessel for imposing my opinion on you, my loyal fan! Hopefully those of you who read the Brunch will enjoy this column, since it gives me more freedom and more opportunity to include wacky offbeat humour. Enough of the preamble! BOOYAH, let's get out of the bathroom!

BANNER!

Finishing School

WWE has recently seen an influx of new, young talent. While many of them are products of the Indy system and have well-developed wrestling skills, they mostly lack the ability to connect with the audience, cut a promo, tell a story or work with larger guys. TNA has had the young talent for a while, but it has taken this long for them to get where they need to be in terms of mic skills, in-ring psychology and storytelling, ring work and charisma. As a result, you're left with a very visible gap between the older, established guys at the top of the card who are close to retiring and who may not have much left in them, and the younger guys who are climbing the ladder but aren't there yet. This gap didn't exist in years past: as one generation moved on, another stepped in to take its place. In WWE the transition from Hogan and Warrior through Yokozuna to Bret Hart to Shawn Michaels to Austin and Rock to HHH, Angle and Lesnar to Cena, HHH and Edge has been relatively smooth. The problem is that now, the top of the card is still made up largely of people in their forties, with very few options below them on the card to take over. TNA is in a different situation in that they've only been around for a few years, but their main event picture has 2 guys under 40. The current angle with the Main Event Mafia is addressing that issue, but with the ratings so stagnant you have to wonder if it's too late.

So why didn't this happen years ago? What's happened to wrestling that the new stars suddenly look, well, green? While many will argue that the rushing of young talents into the spotlight is the problem, I would say it's really only the product of a larger problem; namely, there is a major lack of places for aspiring superstars to go and learn the business in all its aspects. Whereas in the Monday Night Wars era a wrestler might finish wrestling school, start off in a regional, work in ECW, possibly Mexico or Japan, go to the Power Plant or one of WWE's development territories and then make it to the main show as a lower card guy, these days WWE especially is plucking green youngsters off the street or from other sports and trying to teach them 5 years of work in 1 year. In a nutshell, wrestling has lost its development system due to the "Have it NOW!" mentality.

There remains a bigger problem: the Indy feds that are around and that train people do not train people in all the aspects they need to succeed at the highest level. In this article I will touch on the 3 major feds that are also training/development centres and explain where each one falls down.

Ring of Honor

The Briscoes prove my point...

Let me assuage the RoHbots right away: I love Ring of Honor. I buy their DVDs above any other Indy, I follow their news and I have travelled 2000km to see a show. However, when it comes to preparing wrestlers for the big time, they have a couple of major flaws.

You will not find many people who will argue with you if you say that ROH alumni are probably the best prepared for the actual wrestling aspect of the business. While some of their matches and stars (The Briscoes are major culprits) might be too spot-filled and lacking in psychology for some, they have also put on some classic wrestling matches with smooth moves, good selling and a story from beginning to end. Indeed the RoH Academy is renowned for the focus they place on in-ring performance. However, as anyone who has watched WWE in the past few years can tell you, that's hardly important these days.

I've heard it said that WWE would rather hire a guy who is average in the ring and awesome on the mic than the other way around, and the truth of it is visible every week. Santino Marella, Mr Kennedy, JBL, even MVP. RoH just does not prepare you for having to cut a promo every week in front of live and TV audiences just waiting for even the smallest misstep so they can crucify you. We're a vicious bunch, us wrestling fans, especially on the internet. Promo duty in RoH is handled by a select few guys, and managers/stables with mouthpieces are still used which enables the hiding of guys who can't speak for themselves. While this certainly helps their product, it does nothing to improve the guys they are protecting, either for their future in RoH or their progression to the big time.

RoH in the past has also placed far too much emphasis on making the 800 people in the building go nuts with sickeningly dangerous moves and spots, often at the expense of a considered story to match. While I will freely admit to enjoy these matches, they are not appealing to the casual fan, and the big players are not likely to hire anyone who can only work this style. A very wise man once said "You must learn to work within the rules before you can work outside them", and never was a truer word spoken. Doing big move after big move, watching your opponent no-sell them and then getting hit with big move after big move might make for a match full of gasps, but it does not make a good match on its own. This is where RoH's ring instruction has fallen down in the past. With the change in booking direction, early reports indicate that this might be changing. RoHbots have complained bitterly about that, but it really is in the best interests of the wrestlers, their health and their future, and therefore by extension the best interests of the fans.

Although Ring of Honor suffers less from this problem than other promotions, there is no comparison between wrestling in front of 800 smarks and wrestling in front of 18,000 marks plus millions more watching on TV. In some ways the smaller audience can be less forgiving, but they also care less about the things we mentioned above: storytelling, psychology, a match with flow and good promos. It is a lot easier to play to and captivate a smaller audience, since they can hear and see you a lot better. When you're wrestling in a building where parts of the audience can only see you on a big screen, a whole other skill set is required. Little things can be missed, and this is where some of the RoH micro-managed ring style falls down heavily.

Florida Championship Wrestling

WWE's latest developmental territory would logically be the best place to learn how to be a WWE superstar, wouldn't it? I mean the main company regularly sends scouts and road agents down to Florida to evaluate talent, as well as sending guys from the main roster down there from time to time. It's run by Dusty Rhodes, who has the ear of several higher-ups in the WWE hierarchy, it has a TV show and the talent there is already under WWE contract. However, the training and development that these guys are receiving is not creating the stars-in-waiting that it could be.

A lot of the people being picked up by WWE and put in FCW have little to no prior wrestling experience. The trainers there only train one style, and that is whichever style Vince and company want people to use at the time. What you end up with is successive groups of one-dimensional wrestlers who will have trouble adapting to a different style without extensive retraining back in developmental. Say you bring up Wrestler A from FCW, who shows promise in Style X. He debuts, starts to develop a small following, and wins a couple of matches. Then the company decides "We're changing the style of our in-ring product." Wrestler A is a fish out of water and goes back to FCW to be retrained. The audience forgets him (they have nothing to remember…) and by the time he comes back up he has to start from scratch. Hardly the optimal use of your young talent, and very discouraging to a guy who doesn't know the business.

The promo work that FCW guys are doing is generally of a fairly high quality, but again it's hard to prepare for cutting a promo in an arena with tens of thousands of fans. They are also not helped by the fact that their gimmicks often change between developmental and the main show. This wouldn't be an issue for a seasoned performer but someone green, who has learned only one way to cut a promo, is going to have trouble adapting. This is a common issue in FCW, in that the training and teaching is too blinkered. Young wrestlers with the "WWE look" are being snapped up as soon as they show an interest in wrestling, and then trained in one way and one way only. Without a varied base to fall back on, they are quickly out of their depth on the big show (not Paul Wight) and soon get tagged a failure by the IWC.

The "rush rush" mentality, with WWE desperate to develop the next new star, has led to a dearth of well-rounded new talent being brought up from FCW. Another problem lies in the makeup of the roster itself. When you have green rookies fighting green rookies constantly, neither one is going to learn much. Even the smatterings of seasoned Indy performers that are in FCW are not really enough to help the younger talent develop. People like Val Venis, Funaki, Finlay and others (Stevie Richards and Mike Bucci would have been perfect for this role) should be spending more time in FCW to work the shows and help talent improve in the ring.

CHIKARA


Cartoony indeed...

Believe it or not, the small Pennsylvania indy may offer the most complete training of any company currently around. Despite putting on a product that is predominantly lucha-based, they do a fair number of backstage and in-ring promos and put a good deal of emphasis on developing this aspect in their new recruits. I have seen better promos in CHIKARA than most stuff you see on a Monday, Thursday or Friday night. The family-friendly comedy that is prevalent is often harder for people to learn than the more edgy Attitude Era style, making the transition easier. In Mike Quackenbush, CHIKARA has one of the most well-rounded in-ring performers in Indy wrestling, and he makes a point of teaching people as many styles as possible. The variations in product and the more complete show have made 2008 the year that numerous RoH fans turned to CHIKARA for a wrestling fix. It is no coincidence that of the 6 performers currently in ROH who have the best chance of getting to WWE (Nigel McGuinness, Brent Albright, Erick Stevens, Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, Brodie Lee), 3 have been major players in CHIKARA and one was already in WWE. However, CHIKARA is not without its issues, and they are large ones.

Although the product is of good quality both in the ring and on the mic, it looks cheap for the most part. CHIKARA occasionally pushes the boat out for events such as King of Trios with bigger, more elaborate sets and a more professional feel, but otherwise the general look of their run-of-the-mill shows is poor. The ring is no more than a foot off the floor, the ropes look like they could snap at any minute, and the shows literally take place in a bingo hall in front of 100 fans. Nothing in that environment can prepare you for a WWE show. Something as minor as the different tension of the ring ropes can be a hindrance to a young wrestler looking to make his mark, so a completely different environment could be a major problem.

The biggest problem with CHIKARA graduates is that they tend to be the wrong size for WWE. As a small company with virtually no presence outside of eastern Pennsylvania, they do not attract the variety of athletes that WWE and ROH attract. As a result they are often left with slim pickings. They work wonders with what they have, but you can't make sirloin out of stewing steak. If CHIKARA could capitalise on this surge in popularity and maybe start running some more areas (without going too far), it would expand their net and get them some higher-quality students.

The majority of CHIKARA's matches are fought under lucha rules and with a lucha flavour. As a result, tag teams and trios matches are emphasised. Neither TNA nor WWE puts a great deal of focus on any of that, meaning that CHIKARA alumni have spent the majority of their training wrestling a narrow style. Normally they are better prepared than the FCW crowd, since they will have learned different styles and faced off against some in CHIKARA, but the handicap is still there. They also could be considered TOO cartoony, and when you consider that every other promotion needs people to get serious from time to time, this too can put CHIKARA guys at a disadvantage.

So What To Do?

In my opinion, the problems boil down to young wrestlers no longer "touring the Indies" before trying to make it big. At the time when people like Chris Jericho were breaking through, they had spent time in small territories and overseas. By taking their time and learning different styles and skills, they were more complete performers when their chance came. This rarely happens nowadays. There is also no "intermediate" promotion, between RoH and the bigger Indies and TNA and WWE. A stepping stone, if you will, where young talent can cut their teeth on larger crowds, TV tapings and a more casual-fan atmosphere.

The promotions themselves could do more to improve the quality of wrestling education received. CHIKARA, as mentioned above, could stand to cast their net wider. Ring of Honor needs to realise that it is not, and likely will never be, competition for WWE and probably even TNA. Instead it needs to accept its role as a developer of talent for the big companies and realise that there is money to be made from being the company that makes the stars of tomorrow. WWE and FCW need to stop training for now and train for the future, realising that market conditions change and what you need today might not be what you will need next year. An increased level of co-operation between the major Indy feds (RoH, CHIKARA, PWG and even the NWA) could create a talent exchange whereby the new talent learns the best from all promotions. Everyone, including us as fans, could benefit from that.

Moment Over

Final Resolution was a weird PPV. I watched the whole thing and felt like every match was just short of really taking off…then it ended. There was nothing on the show that I felt was really bad, but at the same time it lacked even the TNA standard "one stunner of a match per show" formula.

Dolph Ziggler impressed me. It will be interesting to see where he goes. I just hope they don't turn him into a guy whose only words are "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dolph Ziggler". That would be the opposite of good.

As predicted by almost everyone, Dennis Rodman won Hulk Hogan's CCW. From what I've read, Todd Bridges and Dustin Diamond were both more deserving. I'm actually looking forward to seeing this when it premieres in Canada this weekend, and possibly to watching season 2.

How many of you can name the IC, US and both Tag title holders without stopping to think about it? Now, rewind 8 years. Even with more titles around back then, and more companies, you could probably have named all the champions faster.

Has there been a more consistent performer for TNA this year than Jay Lethal?

Apparently Reid Flair's debut was "just OK". What the hell did you expect, he was working with two talentless dinosaurs and his talentless brother!

OK boys and girls, that will do me for this week. Next week we'll take a look at a worrying phenomenon in modern media which has started to infiltrate wrestling news. Until then, Stay Cool, Rock Hard.

Lansdellicious – Out.