I could talk about a lot of things in the world of professional wrestling.
I could talk about how I actually like John Cena since his return because of better character portrayal and development.
I could talk about how great it was to finally see Jeff Hardy capture his first World Championship and take his place atop the pro wrestling mountain as WWE Champion.
I could talk about the idiotic move to strip Jeff Hardy of said title despite the fact that he gets the biggest ovation of any superstar in the WWE and sells more tickets and merchandise than the rest of the roster.
I want to talk about wrestling. Not characters, or storylines, or politics. I want to talk about straight-up, stripped down wrestling.
About a year ago I started watching Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. At the time, I was fed up with the politics that hindered the potential success of WWE's product. Men like Triple H and JBL were continuously put over Jeff Hardy and C.M. Punk who were struggling to break through the trademark glass ceiling while fans begged to seem them rise to the top of WWE's talent pool.
So I turned to TNA: the infamous upstart promotion that has gained national success using the platform provided by SpikeTV. Rabid anti-WWE fans have openly praised TNA for it's allegedly superior product. For the longest time I ignored the promises of smarter booking, more engaging storylines and characters, more intense wrestling, and an overall better product.
After almost a whole year of watching TNA, I can honestly that TNA has been an overall disappointment.
Nothing has changed in TNA. Despite signing huge names and cultivating tremendous and truly diverse talent, TNA insists on putting over the same men each and every month: coincidentally all former WWE and WCW stars. With the glaring exception of Samoa Joe's title reign, the only men to hold the TNA World Heavyweight Championship are Sting and Kurt Angle. The recent formation of the Main Event Mafia is further proof that TNA is obsessed with keeping former stars from other organizations at the forefront of their company.
The push of the well-worn out Team 3D and the return of Jeff Jarrett haven't helped boost ratings. No matter what TNA does, it has yet to peak beyond a 1.3 rating, and their marketing department has yet to help position the company into a competitive slot in the pro wrestling market where they can help grow their business.
It is hard for me to say this, but WWE has the best characters, storylines, and booking available to a nation-wide audience. I am much more excited to see a veteran like Shawn Michaels than I am to see TNA's version of Sting or Kurt Angle. Shawn has character and depth that even Kurt and the legendary Sting can't come close to matching. Men like Chris Jericho and Randy Orton know how to draw arenas full of thousands to their attention. It is difficult for TNA's heels to get fans to truly hate them and listen to what they have to say.
But as for the actual sport of professional wrestling, TNA presents the type of product most fans are looking for. It is fast-paced, logically constructed, and even some ridiculous finishes seem more engaging because the match itself was just that good.
As pointed out by Jim Forzeze of www.1wrestling.com, professional wrestling is losing fans to boxing and UFC because it presents more realistic and more intense confronations. Meanwhile, WWE continues to present the same slow-paced matches, regardless of weight-class. Even the "high-flying" Rey Mysterio wrestles a similar style to Triple H. The style of the once "extreme" Jeff Hardy is almost indistinguishable from that of Shelton Benjamin or MVP. Then there is the "new and improved" Great Khali. Perhaps the most ridiculous gimmick on television, the Khali Kiss-Cam (what were they smoking?) becomes even more nightmarish when this plodding behemoth is expected to compete with actual wrestlers. There is no diversity of style, and unless changes are made, fans will continue to seek alternate forms of entertainment.
I understand that Vince does not want to risk injury to his talent by allowing them to take unnecessary risk, but without some measure of risk there will be no reason for fans to tune in because each match will be just like the last. Even the most colorful of characters will begin to blend together when they wrestle the same matches.
Stone Cold Steve Austin is due to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. I'm sure Austin will be making appearances on WWE TV to promote Wrestlemania and his Hall of Fame induction, and I'm sure Vince believes that Austin's appearance will bring fans of the Attitude Era flocking back to his product. The sad truth however, is that this will not be the case.
Stone Cold is a great character, and Steve Williams does an incredible job of keeping that character alive. But the fact that fans will not want to admit, is that Austin's character is tired and needs to be revamped, rather than simply revived. For the past several years, Austin has done the same song and dance: he tells a funny story, cuts a funny promo, stuns Vince McMahon, and drinks beer.
Austin's character was best when he had something to fight for. But now that Vince McMahon's character has become more of a parody of what it used to be, there is no threat to Austin, which means there is no tension. If there is no tension, why is Austin stunning McMahon? Because he's a crazy redneck? That's not what made Austin great. Austin was great because he represented the quiet unrest of the everyman; or rather, the open rebellion of the working class against the opression of their bosses. Since we know Austin is retired and will live the rest of his life sitting on a mountain of checks signed by the McMahon family, there is no plausible reason for him to be beating up the man who is ensuring his financial well-being for the rest of his life.
That is just one example of the ludicrous decisions by WWE's creative staff. Simply putting two men in the ring and telling them to fight does not make sense. Having them fight at a slow, crawling pace does not help.
The 25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania is just around the corner, which should help produce some of the best storylines in recent years, but only if the creative department is given the resources and permission to explore areas that fans will want to explore with them.
In short, my plea to WWE is to take risks, both physically, and creatively. Better storylines, better-defined characters, and faster, more exciting matches will help make Wrestlemania 25 the biggest even in the history of professional wrestling.
