wrestling / Columns
The 8-Ball: Top 8 Good Things About Wrestling
Last Monday night during a interview with Steve Austin, Vince McMahon crapped all over his product. Apparently Vince thinks no WWE wrestler since John Cena has reached for the brass ring and he’s not sure if these kids today truly want it. Busting your tail every night while being fed garbage storylines and even worse booking gets you no respect from the boss. It should be noted that, like 95% of everything that comes out of Vince’s mouth, this might be a work: crap on the kids, have them prove you wrong. Though it does fit in with the baffling Cena-centric operation of the company for most of the past decade. Regardless of whether Vince actually believes what he said, it was still the head of the company panning his talent.
It’s yet another log on the bonfire that has been the WWE’s terrible 2014. As a lifelong WWE/WWF/WWWF fan, it’s been tough to watch. I’ve got a permanent palm print forming on my face. Yet I try to remind myself that pro wrestling is supposed to be fun. Watching it isn’t supposed to be a chore. With that in mind, this week’s 8-Ball will look at the good things happening in pro wrestling … because they are out there.
I’m not a major TNA fan. I appreciate that some talented folks work there and at times it’s been very good, notably right after Christian Cage’s arrival. It was at its best when it provided a true alternative to the WWE: six-sided ring, thrilling X Division matches, meaningful tag division. It got away from the Total Nonstop Action formula numerous times, pushing geezers (Sting, Hogan) over compelling younger talents and wasting time on terrible storylines. In fact, in 2013 it seemed TNA had lost all contact with its action wrestling roots. A year ago TNA was airing unwatchable stuff, then it hit the reset button. Much as some complained that Eric Young’s TNA title victory was intellectual property theft of Daniel Bryan’s WWE title win, Young re-established TNA as a wrestling company. Thanks to overwhelming fan response, the six-sided ring returned and for the past eight months TNA has been consistently entertaining. Now its moving from Spike TV to Destination America. While Destination America doesn’t broadcast into as many homes, the bulk of TNA’s audience should be able to follow it to the new channel. Plus, TNA is hinting at over-the-air big events. We very well may see Genesis, or something like it, as a live broadcast on a Sunday night. I’d never have said this a year ago, but this model of TNA is worth watching. So it’s nothing but a good thing that we’ll get to keep watching it.
The Internet Wrestling Community takes a lot of undeserved shit. First off, if it weren’t for the legion of folks who care enough about wrestling to form the IWC, there likely wouldn’t be a wrestling business worth mentioning. Second, when the wrestling business gets so frustrating you want to bang your head up against a wall, the IWC can leap to the rescue. Some genius out there put together the Randy Orton RKO Outta Nowhere meme. Even if you can’t stand Randy Orton (I’m actually fairly appreciative of Orton’s work), that meme rocks. During the dreadful first two hours of Survivor Series, the good folks in the comments section of the 411 live coverage thread added a much-needed comedy element to the proceeding. Yeah, I know that’s a cheap pop line, but it’s still true. One of the cool things about being a wrestling fan is you’re not in it alone, even when it sucks … especially when it sucks. That’s when the IWC shines, one-upping each other in trying to describe exactly how bad it sucks. Wrestling, it’s not just about the wrestling.
The mid-year disappearance of Chikara rated as 411’s biggest disappointment of 2013. The unapologetically goofy indie promotion had found a place in the hearts of wrestling fans and its abrupt demise left a hole. Fortunately it returned in 2014, crowning a new champ (Icarus), resurrecting the King of Trios tournament and telling a seven-month story arc that ended with Icarus obliterating the terror that was Deucalion inside a steel cage using the fallen Estonian Thunderfrog’s Hammer of Peace. That last part alone should tell you why you should be happy to live in a world with Chikara in it. It’s actively nuts. Somebody’s got to hold down the cartoony end of the pro wrestling spectrum. Chikara does it brilliantly.
If you look at the pro wrestling flourishes of the ‘90s and ‘00s, both had independent roots. ECW fed much of what made the ‘90s great. Meanwhile ROH was the breeding ground for many of the signature talents of this past decade. The WWE simply isn’t a place that’s going to do a lot of innovation. It’s going to hire people who innovated elsewhere and they’re going to kick the WWE up a notch when they arrive. To a degree, the WWE is trying to ape the indie vibe with NXT and it’s doing fine at it. Yet mostly it’s showing the good sense to buy outstanding indie talents: El Generico, KENTA, Prince Devitt, Kevin Steen. The WWE is just the top layer of the business. Bubbling under the surface is whatever it is that will return the cool factor to wrestling. The oppressive corporate structure of the WWE and Vince McMahon’s refusal to adapt to the 21st century can’t hold off the tide forever. At some point, all those indie promotions dotting the landscape are going to produce talent and fans who will force the business to evolve. Kind of like how if you add up the biomass of all the insects on earth it weighs about 300 times more than all the people on earth.
For the record, I’m not as much a devotee of Japanese wrestling as others on this site. I respect the talent, but I often wonder why the Japanese take such delight as watching grown men slap each other’s nipples. That said, anyone who’s got eyes can see the quality in many New Japan matches. NJPW has emerged as the world’s #2 wrestling promotion. It made a big move this year in signing AJ Styles, inserting him at the head of the Bullet Club faction and putting the company’s main belt around his waist. He did spectacular work and it might open the door to other top American ring technicians heading over to NJPW. Nothing against the Karl Anderson’s of the planet (he’s a capable big body), but he’s not among the best and brightest talents the U.S. has to offer. AJ may mark the start of a new era. If CM Punk ever wrestles again, my money is on it happening in New Japan. On top of that, the promotion just launched the New Japan World streaming service, available here in the states for just 999 yen (roughly $8.45). Supposedly the initial response has been well above expectations, which means NJPW is on its way to establishing an American beachhead.
Yes, the WWE is losing lots of money this year and the number of WWE Network subscribers has been disappointing. Maybe they’d retain more subscribers if they staged better PPV events? Anyway, the network itself is a treasure trove. You could spend a year or two just digging through the historical archive. You get to see NXT and Main Event broadcasts. You also get shows like The Monday Night War: WWE vs. WCW. It’s worth the price tag even with the lackluster big events the WWE has been giving us. One unintentional bit of comedy is Vince McMahon clearly isn’t watching the The Monday Night War because the WWE right now is repeating many of the enumerated sins committed by WCW (and described in stark detail by many current and former wrestlers on the show) – failure to elevate dynamic mid-card talents, trotting out the same aging group of main eventers, farcical overbooking and driving away the audience with some terrible matches. There’s a lightbulb moment there for Vince McMahon if he watches his own product, which he should because it’s good stuff.
In the WWE you’ve got Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt. In New Japan you’ve got Kazuchika Okada. The American indies have Ricochet, Adam Cole and Uhaa Nation. All of those guys are under age 30. The next decade of wrestling is taking shape and it’s looking good. That Rollins-Cole war in 2018 is going to be fantastic. We’ll speak of it in hushed tones. And when Ambrose hits his breaking point with the WWE and heads across the Pacific to face Okada, that will be epic. Whatever shape the future takes, there is life after John Cena, thank goodness. We’re seeing it emerge in front of our eyes. No matter how jaded you get with the present, the future has promise.
The wrestling show I most look forward to every week has become Lucha Underground. We’ve gotten some very good matches. It’s got a distinctive look and it’s well produced. I watch the Spanish language version so I even get Hugo Savinovich. Each hour breezes by. I’m not even bugged by Mil Muertes’ ponderous wrestling moves. They’re building future stars in Fenix (age 23) and Prince Puma (aka Ricochet). Johnny Mundo (the former John Morrison) lends some star talent and Alberto Del Rio may show up in 2015. It’s pro wrestling without that “This shit again?!” feel to it. Seriously, Lucha Underground can remind of why you liked wrestling in the first place.
I take requests.. The purpose of this column is to look forward. What could be? What should be? What is and what should never be? What would make more sense? 411 has plenty of columns that count down and rank things that happened in the past. This is not one of those columns. The Magic 8-Ball is here to gaze into the future. If there’s someone or something you think should be given the 8-Ball treatment, mention it in the comments section. I might pick it up for future weeks.
