Tim’s Take 11.11.08: The Main Event Mafia

There is a certain expectation that comes from long time wrestling fans. It’s the idea that if you do the same things over and over again, people become complacent towards it. Then, they get numb. Then, they become restless when it just doesn’t stop.

TNA, here’s looking at you, kid.

As a wrestling fan for 20 years, I sit and look at TNA not as an alternative like people claim them to be. Rather, I look at TNA as any old wrestling company. People forget that back in the 1980s, when territories were running wild before they all got bought up, multiple companies with top stars was not only expected, but necessary. The Texas territories had the Von Erichs and the Freebirds. Memphis had Jerry Lawler. Mid-South guys had Ted DiBiase, Steve Williams, Jim Duggan and many more. The majority of territories were under the National Wrestling Alliance banner, and some wrestlers made their rounds around the majority of those territories, but in the end, while there were national draws, it was the local draws that were the lifeblood of those companies.

Now, it’s all about national draws. It’s about people that can be seen all across the United States and bring people to the arenas and stadiums. Sure, you have your hometown draws, like Rey Mysterio in San Diego, for instance, but the majority of draws are those who can sell out any night of the week, anywhere in the country.

TNA is full of wrestlers who think they could do that, but really can’t.

The roster is, as been mentioned time and time before, the grounds for older wrestlers to keep holding on to what they earned in the past. The problem is that while WWE has been opportunistic with their draws, going with the ebb and flow with their crowd reactions, it’s TNA’s thought process that they will stick to their guns with the veterans that got them there at the expense of their younger wrestlers, regardless of their experience of getting over.

Wrong thing to do.

If the death of WCW told us anything, it’s that if you push who you think needs to get pushed as opposed to those who should get pushed, you miss out on the most important thing: connecting with your audience. It’s now how you do it or why you do it, it’s that you do it.

I look at the Main Event Mafia as one of two things: the beginning of the end of TNA or the beginning of the end of what TNA has become. For more than six years, TNA has been Jeff Jarrett’s pet, catering to established wrestlers while having some of the better wrestlers in the world right under their noses, and not seeing what they could become.

So what happens is that Jarrett gets desperate, and he goes out and brings people in who he thinks will help, when in the mean time, the people who end up there are only doing it as a means to an end. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, this idea that putting a bunch of former stars together will only help things.

In reality, not one of the wrestlers in TNA is a star on the level of someone like anyone that WWE has at the top of their card. There are no Triple H’s (like him or hate him) or Shawn Michaels’ or Undertakers lying around. What they have is a group of people together that are basically trying to prove their greatness, this somewhat legendary status.

Main Event Mafia, indeed.

When WCW did the Millionaire’s Club against The New Blood, there was this sense that it would hold down the young guys. That in the long run, all it would do would keep the young guys at the level of the veterans for a little bit, only to fall in the end because of how much the veterans value their spot.

The problem was that WCW was nearing its end, and that it didn’t matter that the old guys and new guys were feuding. WCW was looking for an entirely new look in the first place. They got to that spot because they weren’t smart enough to put the young guys over enough to warrant their spot over a long period of time. The New World Order angle had drained them of new, younger talent to put over, and thanks to the politicking of many wrestlers, it allowed them to hold true to their spots, never wanting to put over anyone.

From there, it was as simple as the young guys threatening to pull the carpet out from under the veterans all together. WCW crumbled, and their vain attempt to build up the young guys was at least three years too late. They never went in the direction that they should have.

The MEM is off to an auspicious start. They went over the way a heel stable should get over, taking the short road to benefit in the long run, but TNA has no idea about the long run. Guys like Vince Russo have never decided to look further down the line to see how their current decisions would impact the future.

Now, Christian Cage, a can’t-miss prospect, a hard worker who could talk your ear off and was plenty over, is heading back to WWE for the same reason he left it to come to TNA in the first place: less than desirable booking.

For TNA, this should not be looked at as a blip on the radar. Gail Kim, who was the focal point of the Knockouts division that actually brought in viewers to the show, is already waiting for her debut on WWE TV, and there’s only so much TNA can do that doesn’t undermine their young talent. For someone like Cage, who had established himself already and was a big coup for TNA, to go back to WWE after only a couple of years, it screams out to the rest of the roster that perhaps their best interests aren’t being kept.

Remember that when this all started in WCW, it’s that Vince Russo shot on live pay-per-view that they were going to head in a new direction…only to see the company fold a year later. The old guys have to remember that while it’s all good that they’re still at the top of the card, they have to make sure that the new guys get over and that they do it because of the work the veterans put in, not in spite of that work.

Otherwise, you might see a similar road being paved to the end of TNA, just like WCW did when they couldn’t find the mark. Kurt Angle realizes it, and he’s been vocal about it, but it’s one thing to be vocal, and another thing entirely to go out and do it.

The Main Event Mafia, Jeff Jarrett and Vince Russo just have to do it.