If I Could Be Serious For A Moment 03.03.09: Future Imperfect

Posted by Chris Lansdell on 03.03.2009

Hockey had Gretzky and Lemieux, now it has Crosby and Ovechkin. Basketball had Jordan, Magic and Bird, now it has LeBron, Kobe and Paul. Does wrestling need a Big Thing? Who is the Next One? Come find out.

Greetings, humanity! Welcome back to If I Could Be Serious For A Moment, your weekly dose of intelligent wrestling discourse with me, Chris Lansdell. I recently received an email from a reader who appreciated the fact that some wrestling journalists could write about wrestling without seeming smarky or trying to be funny. Apparently he stopped reading at JokerCat. I do appreciate the sentiment though. This week, in the wake of Jack Swagger's excellent match on ECW with Christian, we're going to look at the danger of anointing people. Of course before we can do that, we have to look at the

BANNER!

Heir to the Orange Throne

Ever since it stopped coming crashing down and hurting inside, and started standing next to the mountain and cutting it down with the edge of his hand, professional wrestling in general and WWE/F in particular have been searching for the next Hulk Hogan. From Goldberg to Stone Cold to The Rock to John Cena, they've come close but never quite found anyone that had the universal acceptance and cross-market appeal of the Real American, that Great Orange God of professional wrestling. Can we ever find an heir? Should we even be looking? Is this constant search doing more harm than good? Even if we do find him…then what? Well, that's what we're here to explore.

I've found what I was chasing after

Over the past 10 years, professional wrestling has had no shortage of talent come through. Some of this talent has had so much potential that they were tagged as the Next Big Thing. Hell, one of them was even announced as such. With one glaring exception, none of them is still in professional wrestling.

Stone Cold Steve Austin was the first to try the mantle, and arguably the most successful. At a time when professional wrestling had changed completely from family entertainment to a more edgy style, Austin's rebellious and often crude character was exactly what the wrestling public wanted. Austin's appeal was huge, his cross-marketability was huge and he was capable of backing it up with exciting, compelling matches and stories. Unfortunately, the litany of injuries he sustained would force him to retire, and wrestling was left in an even bigger vacuum.

Before Austin faded away, we got The Rock. Even more versatile than Austin in that he provoked extreme fan reaction on both sides of the spectrum (where Austin was far better as a face than a heel), Rocky was vastly successful in his time in the business and looked set to take up the role of face of the company after Austin's retirement. As we all know by now, that didn't happen. The Rock had become so big so fast, in a time when wrestling was drawing incredible ratings, that he attracted the eye of movie producers. A good-looking, well-built man with a great sense of comedic timing, charisma to spare and a name that is already known is a rarity in Hollywood, and quite frankly nobody should blame the man now known as Dwayne Johnson for taking the offer. Yes, he got the opportunity because of wrestling. Yes, his leaving did plunge WWE even deeper into the mire, having no recognizable faces left. That's not his problem. If you work for Bank A, and Bank B offers you more money for less work, are you supposed to turn it down because Bank A gave you your start? I think not. Blame or no blame aside, Rocky leaving had an even bigger effect on professional wrestling than Austin did.

Lest anyone think I am aiming this article squarely at WWE, let us look at the case of Goldberg. His situation is a little different: brought in to WCW at a later age, he was instantly pushed as an unstoppable monster and ran through everyone who was put in front of him. This force-feeding worked and Goldberg quickly became the most popular wrestler in the company. Even some questionable booking decisions could not fully derail his popularity. What hurt him and ultimately prevented him from being the Next Big Thing was his contract. Goldberg, along with a couple of others, was contracted directly to AOL-Time Warner (it may have been just Time Warner when he signed it), instead of to WCW. As a result WWE did not obtain his contract when they purchased WCW, and Goldberg was left on the sidelines for a long time after the fact. In this case, absence did not make the heart grow fonder and by the time he returned, a lot of his mystique had gone. Being buried by HHH and Vince McMahon's booking decisions didn't help matters either. Although Goldberg never reached the level of mainstream popularity that Austin, Rock and Hogan did, he certainly had the potential to be a lot more.

After the death of WCW, the search died down somewhat. Kurt Angle was discovered, but he was never really touted as the new face of the industry. That tag would next be applied to Brock Lesnar. A legit amateur wrestling champion with a chiselled physique, a degree of charisma, athletic ability that bordered on superhuman and the backing of many in WWE management, Lesnar was immediately and publicly tagged as The Next Big Thing. For a while it looked to be a suitable epithet – Lesnar would go on to become the youngest ever world champion in WWE, and to defeat Hulk Hogan, The Rock and The Undertaker in his rookie year. Vince had found his basket, and all the eggs were being hurriedly piled in. After having Lesnar beat previous poster boy Angle the previous year, McMahon was putting in the last egg with a planned victory over Goldberg at Wrestlemania XX. Considering the valid comparisons that had been made between the two men, this victory (in what everyone knew to be Goldberg's last match with the company) would anoint Lesnar as the successor to the legacies of Goldberg, Austin, Hogan and The Rock. Unfortunately for professional wrestling, the NFL came a-calling. Brock had a chance to make the Minnesota Vikings team, his hometown team and one of his dreams growing up. He jumped at the chance, and Vince put a series of restrictions on him as a trade-off for breaking his contract, effectively preventing Lesnar from wrestling anywhere except for with Vince. Having thrown all his hopes behind Brock, McMahon was determined not to let that investment benefit any other promoter. Unfortunately for Vince, he didn't close the loophole that allowed Brock to go to UFC and make the most of his name there.

You'd think Vince would have learned his lesson after being burned by both Rock and Lesnar, but soon enough he would make the same mistake with another muscle-bound former amateur in Bobby Lashley. Although the level of success Lashley enjoyed was far less than Lesnar's, he also wasn't around as long. In the time he WAS around, he managed to get a high-profile WrestleMania match, representing Donald Trump against Vince's chosen rep Umaga. Lashley would then move to Raw where he was lined up in a feud with John Cena (see below). One match into that feud, Lashley had surgery and never came back. He cited philosophical differences with the direction of the company (related to his girlfriend Krystal Marshall) as the reason, but one cannot help but wonder if the additional pressure of being so highly touted didn't weigh on those massive shoulders.

The one quantifiable success that WWE has had in this timespan has been the aforementioned John Cena. Although he is not universally loved by wrestling fans, his appeal is broad and he has branched out considerably into music, TV and film. Cena will never reach Hogan-like levels, but for the time being he's closer than anyone has been since Austin.

And now, Jack Swagger has been given the label. There is no doubt in the mind of anyone who's seen a lot of this young man that he has the tools. He's got the amateur background, he was trained by seasoned old pros who instilled in him a respect for the business, and his mic skills are only improving. He's already holding a title, and there is no way he will stop at one...unless he wants to. Some of my colleagues are already voicing concerns that maybe he's getting too much handed to him...

Too much too soon or just a little too late

It is my contention that The Rock set a precedent when he went to movies and didn't look back. Oh sure wrestlers had done movies before (Hogan, Piper and of course the dreck that is Ready 2 Rumble), but they had always come back. Again, I do not for one second blame Dwayne for changing careers, but when he did so it showed people still in wrestling that it could be a springboard to $12 million-a-film paydays. To date neither Lesnar nor Lashley has taken a film role, but Cena has been in 2. The fear that he will "pull a Rocky" has been so great that Cena has had to go on record numerous times as saying that he won't follow that path, and has even led to him criticising Dwayne for doing so.

So why has this happened? It's panic, mostly. WWE is a publicly traded company and answers to its shareholders. With numbers slumping since the end of the Monday Night Wars, they needed to find another larger-than-life star who would bring the old viewers back. Instead of being able to do what TNA has done (more on that later) and ride out the low ratings until the star presented themselves, they have had to hunt for one. When they do find that person with a glimmer of talent, like Swagger or Lesnar, they throw the wrestling world at their feet. Sure, pin everyone. Clean. Make Undertaker bleed. Win a title within 4 months of your debut. Be the face of a brand. Such rapidly-rising stars, in a business where looks, acting ability and athleticism are a requirement, are sure to attract attention.

Dana White jumped all over the chance to sign Brock Lesnar because he was a known name, a character and someone that would piss off UFC purists, making them want to pay to see Brock get his ass kicked. No way some pansy from that fake fighting men's soap opera can survive in UFC! We've already outlined what movie execs saw in Dwayne Johnson, and it's really only a matter of time until Lashley shows up again somewhere. If you hand someone the world on a platter, don't be surprised when they take more of it than you wanted.

As an analogy, think of a team like West Ham in the Premiership, or Kansas City in MLB. They sign these young guys, develop their skills, put them on the team...and lose them to Manchester United or the New York Yankees. This is what has been happening with the guys Vince has plowed his money into, and I'm sure it has to piss him off. As a result, it would not surprise me to see Swagger held back a little bit. Vince has already shown he's willing to do that by putting MVP on that losing streak angle, with the stories from backstage being that it was a test of his character. While this is a step in the right direction, ultimately it may well turn out to be pointless.

It's not just the chance that the newly-famous talent will abscond that is a danger to Vince. He also has to be concerned that there will be another Kurt Angle or worse yet, Chris Benoit. Angle's release from WWE was fuelled by the fact that the man just would not stop, would not slow down, and he was putting himself and the company at risk. Whether that was Vince's or Kurt's fault is neither here nor there, burning out another guy's body would be disastrous for WWE. It goes without saying that a big name like Cena, Swagger or pretty much anyone going on another rampage would probably spell then end of wrestling on major networks.

This constant search is also dangerous in that it rushes people in front of the public eye before they are ready. Because it is easier to teach wrestling than charisma, Vince tends to sign people who can talk well and look good but who can't wrestle a lick. He teaches them that part and then feeds them to the sharkticons. The "rush, rush" mentality led to people like the Spirit Squad, Kevin Fertig, Gavin Spears, Ricky Ortiz and several others being put on big TV shows long before they were ready to draw an audience and hold them. These guys were then sent BACK to developmental where they would either quit or be released. You can't help but wonder how much talent they've lost because of that.

Searching, for that something that I'll never find

It has been pointed out numerous times that in this day and age, McMahon is competing with movies, UFC, pro sports and games systems for your entertainment dollar. He is also now competing with many of these things for talent. One needs look no further than the recent furore over Mickey Rourke wrestling at WrestleMania (I am still not ready to write that possibility off) to see where Vince will often finish in that race. He cannot financially compete with movie studios, sports franchises and quite possibly even MMA right now. For every John Cena he finds, there will unfortunately be 3 or 4 Brock Lesnars.

I honestly believe that there can NEVER be another "Big Thing" to the order of Hogan or Austin. Part of the reason for that is the internet. As soon as John Cena started to become popular with the casual wrestling fan, it became cool for the "smart" fans to hate him. The same has happened with Kennedy, CM Punk and Samoa Joe. With a section of the crowd booing when they should cheer and cheering when they should boo, it becomes very hard for any star to gain mainstream appeal. If he cannot control his home audience, can he evoke the kind of emotion needed to star in a film? This oft-unjustified need to put oneself over at the expense of a hard-working wrestler is an annoying trait and one that has probably been responsible for numerous depushes.

There's also the way the business has evolved. There is a school of thought that says that the Attitude Era fans were just the Hogan era fans as teenagers and twenty-somethings, and their tastes changed as their attitudes changed. If that is true, those fans are now in their thirties and likely have families of their own. Some will have "grown out of" wrestling, some will have decided it's not suitable for THEIR kids to watch.
WWE did very little between Austin and now to retain these fans, and now they have gone to different pastures. Without these fans to bolster the numbers, the chances of any company finding that gold mine of a performer diminishes greatly. And even were they to find one...would anyone see it?

Such things are best left to nature. If someone is going to be big, they will be big given the time on TV. The fans will tell YOU who they want, not the other way around. With the level of scripting and tight control that is exerted over talent today, stars are being manufactured. It's like shopping for fruit: you can buy organic, but it will cost you more. Or you can buy the engineered, pesticide-ridden unknown fruit that costs a lot less but just isn't the same. One is guaranteed to be good for you, but the other? Who knows what effect it may have down the line.

Baby, now that I've found you I...have no idea

Which brings me to my next point. Wrestling right now draws considerably fewer viewers than it did 10 years ago. If, for sake of argument, Swagger vs Cena becomes every bit as good as Austin vs Rock, it will do so to a fraction of the audience. There's no WCW around today for fans to switch back and forth, and the guys who gave up on WWE for Heroes, 24, Boston Legal, Halo deathmatches or whatever else are going to be harder to coax back than someone who gave up on it just to watch another version of the same thing. Sure some will come back, through friends or by accident or even during summer reruns, but you won't get the same audience. Advertising the rivalry in mainstream media will alert said media to the existence of your two new stars, and my well elicit offers from them. Money is tight, and the fans have already decided where their entertainment budget is going. Convincing them to change that will be no easy task.

For the time being, any star who gets to the level that John Cena is currently enjoying needs to be handled very carefully. They need to be used to elevate others to that level, slowly but surely, so that wrestling has a large base of highly popular talent upon which to fall back in case someone does take their ball and go home. Right now word of mouth is your best friend, over-saturation of one guy your worst enemy. Part of the reason it's so easy for "smart" fans to hate Cena is that he is pushed down your throat at every turn. That approach worked with Goldberg but his star burned out fast. It's hard to preach patience to a room full of shareholders who are losing their Versace shirts, but in the wrestling business it's more important than ever.

Luck of the Jarrettish

Right now, when it comes to this topic, TNA is in a fabulous position. They have no shareholders, they are on a network that is happy with 1.0 ratings, they have a loyal and growing fanbase and they have an embarrassment of riches in the young talent department. As a result, they have the luxury of being able to slowly bring along AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Matt Morgan, Hernandez, Kaz, Christopher Daniels and Jay Lethal, letting them get bigger and bigger wins until everyone in the audience is salivating over the title victory. They've taken some wrong steps, but they seem to have pushed the reset button and come back with this Main Event Mafia angle that will allow them to rebuild their future faces of the promotion.

WWE cannot afford this luxury, or rather they think they cannot. Vince wants results last week, and if you don't get them then you will be treading midcard water faster than you can say "Intercontinental champion". We may not always agree with TNA's direction or booking decisions, but we cannot dispute the fact that their numbers are steadily improving. Their young stars are positioned to take the ball and run with it. If (and it's a big if) they can hang on to AJ, Morgan, Joe and Hernandez in particular, these four have potential to spearhead a big push for TNA. My hope is that such a push would equate to a surge in popularity for wrestling. After all, only that surge is going to give us any chance of another Next Big Thing.

Moment Over. Sorry fans of JokerCat, he's on vacation this week. This weekend and Monday really kicked my ass, and I just didn't have what it takes to be funny. Some would argue there's nothing new there. Instead, allow me to pimp my CZW review and the vastly underrated Michael Weyer. Stay Cool, Rock Hard.

Lansdellicious – Out.