wrestling / Columns

Keep on Wishin’ for Competition: The Fallacy of Fixing Wrestling

November 1, 2014 | Posted by Dino Zee

Thanks for the spiritual assist, Daniel. And congratulations to my San Francisco Giants on a great World Series victory over a tough Kansas City Royals squad.

When wrestling is in a rut, we the fans start thinking of what is needed to “fix” things. Some will suggest that certain wrestlers should be de-emphasized, others will suggest wrestlers who should be given a giant push. Others still will talk about building up the midcard, or giving everyone something to do. Eventually, at some point, someone will mention the “c” word- “competition.” Competition, so the story goes, will magically fix wrestling, making it all interesting, bringing back the fans, and restoring ratings to their late 90’s glory. All we need is a little competition.

From where I sit, “We need competition for good wrestling to exist” is, quite simply, a fallacy.

First off, for the purposes of this column, it’s only fair that I clearly define what I mean by “competition.” In this case, I don’t use the word in its more general sense of “opposition”. Instead, I mean direct competition. Something to actually go head to head with. From where I sit, simply being another option doesn’t make something competition to another. For instance, I don’t think anyone would have considered Global to be competition to either WCW or the WWF in the early 90’s. At least, not actual competition. And that’s what I’m talking about for the purposes of this column- direct competition. Agree or disagree, but those are the terms for the rest of this column.

The problem with hoping for “competition” is that it’s become this pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, something of a fix-all for a “problem” that has existed for nearly 14 years at this point. It’s a lazy term used when real ideas aren’t available. On top of that, it’s not an easy solution. Simply starting up a wrestling group that can be considered a threat to WWE, or even TNA, just isn’t that easy.

But before we get into how difficult it is to even get to the point of being considered competition, I think it’s more important to establish that we’ve been here before. We’ve had competition. And for a while, all that competition gave us was crummy wrestling.

WCW Nitro, when it first started, was not some incredible wrestling show. Sure, it was pure, and it was live, and it was probably better than Raw. However, Raw itself was borderline atrocious at times, with those 1995 characters and feuds that no one remembers lovingly. Over on Nitro, while we were at least given top quality matches for the most part, we also had to listen to Steve McMichael and Eric Bischoff call matches, we had to deal with the “Dark Daze of Hulkamania,” we had to deal with the “Alliance to End Hulkamania,” and much more.

Monday Nitro didn’t get to be “must watch” until the nWo came into existence. That was June of 1996. Nitro started at the beginning of September 1995. For nearly one year, neither company attempted to step their game up in the name of competition. Instead, WCW gave away taped Raw results, and WWF responded with Billionaire Ted skits. Competition, baby.

Even when WCW did get good and began to kick the WWF’s ass on a weekly basis, things didn’t immediately get better in Vince’s world. Vince sat tight for the remainder of 1996, and into early 1997, before pushes from Shane McMahon and Vince Russo convinced him to take his product in a different direction. It wasn’t the fact that he was getting murdered by a show running directly against him, it was other people in his company begging that he try something else. And again, none of this took place until it started to look like the WWF may actually go out of business with the financial losses and lack of upward movement with the fans. It had nothing to do with simply stepping up because of competition, it had everything to do with simply keeping the company alive.

Quick tangent- Last week, I called out the fans who wish for TNA to die. Some took offense, and others attempted to twist the subject. The subject was that you’re a shitty fan if you want less wrestling. People wanted to change that into “well, TNA is already dead, what are you trying to save?” The answer was simple- it’s NOT dead yet, and we’re trying to save a company that provides us more wrestling. In late 1996, Vince was simply trying to save a company that provides us more wrestling, and was not out to kill WCW. At least, not yet.

But we still sit here and openly hope for “competition” to return, so that everything will be great again.
Then I remember the Monday Night Wars of 2010. You know, where TNA ran impact directly against Monday Night Raw, and in a matter of weeks, both companies were pumping out incredible shows with can’t miss segments, breaking ratings records, and introducing us to a whole new crop of fans?

Yes, I’m being facetious. This “competition” lasted roughly 6 weeks, and saw some dreadful programs from both companies. Even with a head to head show against it, WWE realized there was no real competition, and did nothing to change things up at all. It was the same tired stuff heading into WrestleMania 26, while TNA had Ric Flair running around bleeding all over the place.

We have the evidence. Competition, on its own, fixed nothing. It was being near death that finally convinced Vince McMahon that perhaps the Kwangs and the Godwinns and the Bodydonnas of the world should be set aside for the Steve Austins and Vaders and Southern Justices of the new landscape. It was when he, finally, would “get it” and allow his company to be taken in another way. But for well over a year, running head to head against a show regularly kicking his ass, Vince changed nearly nothing. He simply went for petty, petty skits to trash the other guys. But he did nothing to improve his own product.

Yes, we all want wrestling to “get better.” Those of us who were alive for the Monday Night Wars would love that feeling of having two shows providing unbelievably entertaining shows, whether they’re wrestling heavy or sports entertainment heavy. But those of us who think that WWE won’t get better until “there’s some competition” are, in my opinion, making too easy a solution out of quite a difficult problem.

TNA was born, and in one year got itself a TV slot. With millions of WCW fans waiting for something- anything- besides WWE to watch, you would think this company would have gotten all the support in the world, especially in its earlier years when they were absolutely focused on an in-ring product. Instead, numbers stayed the same forever. There was no upward growth. The company trying to be competition, simply couldn’t be what it wanted. And that’s not on them. It’s on us. If we don’t watch a show, it’s numbers don’t rise. If the numbers don’t rise, the station broadcasting the show won’t have much faith in it and will treat it like a second rate show. Just existing isn’t being competition. TNA has existed for 12 years, and not once was it ever something you could consider to be competition.

I’m sure many will point out that’s because TNA sucks or something equally hilarious, but that’s ignoring the actual point. There was the chance for competition to be made, and we failed to make it happen. Yes, it’s a blame game. We’ll blame them for not giving us the content we wanted to support, but we still have to blame ourselves for not supporting the cause. Hell, if we had built TNA up to properly be competition, wouldn’t those who believe in its power assume that TNA would have improved because of it? So in that sense, we let each other down.

And, in case anyone tries to get it twisted- I am NOT saying that competition is a bad thing, or that it doesn’t help in creating better products. All I’m saying is that if you think the simple fix for the wrestling woes is “creating competition,” then I think you’re a bit mistaken.

As usual, though, what’s most important is being a fan of wrestling. We’re all fans of wrestling. We all want to find the way to make it incredible again. I’m just saying, putting all your eggs in the “competition” basket may not be the best choice.


PUT SLICK IN THE HALL OF FAME!!


It’s ALL Wrestling. It’s ALL Stupid. We ALL Love It.

article topics :

TNA, WWE, Dino Zee