To Vince Russo & Jim Cornette: Wrestling is Not Dead

Dear Vince Russo, Jim Cornette and others “in the biz” that have taken it upon themselves to pronounce the death of pro wrestling.

Stop it. Just stop it.

I listen to these men that are respected my some and are legends in their own mind and they think that they can pronounce the sport of professional wrestling dead, and that’s simply a bunch of bullshit. These men like to go on their podcasts, on radio shows or just toss out articles with a title like “pro wrestling is dead” and they expect their words to be taken as gospel. With all due respect to Jim Cornette, who I admire as a performer and at times for his booking, and with all due respect to Vince Russo who played his part in the Attitude Era, pro wrestling is far from dead. You gentlemen and others that think like you do state that wrestling is dead because your vision of pro wrestling is slowly leaving. The legends are dying, the performers you thought of as stars are either retired of hanging on way too long, and you are having troubles dealing with that. You don’t want to let go, you don’t want to embrace the new, so you have taken it upon yourself proclaim pro wrestling dead, and I couldn’t disagree more.

Has professional wrestling taken a hit in popularity? Sure, this is something I can agree with. But to claim that the business is dead or dying, that is ridiculous. WWE, for all of their creative issue and problems with making stars, is a healthy company from a financial standpoint. If pro wrestling was dying, they wouldn’t be making any money. WWE still sells tickets; they still command a lot of money for TV rights fees, the Network is growing, they aren’t going anywhere. Do I particularly like the way that WWE handles their “creative” directions? No. It isn’t my cup of tea. I am not a fan of a lot of TNA’s booking. I think the ROH TV product for the last few weeks has been shit. Maybe I should proclaim that pro wrestling is dead too, simply because I don’t like certain things. Hey the NFL pisses me off with a lot of these new rules, THEY ARE DYING. Billions of dollars you say? They’ll need it to pay for the funeral, because the NFL is dying.

Do you hear how insane that sounds? Pro wrestling is a wild mix of sport, art, and storytelling. And in all of those things, there is an evolution that happens. TV has evolved; sports evolve with bigger, stronger and faster athletes. Storytelling is always changing; from The Heroic Journey, Tension and Discovery, and The Tragedy as basic storytelling tools and as things grown, you get stuff like “Tarantino” style writing. It all changes, it all evolves, and that is where the death talk comes from. Now I agree with Jim Cornette and Jim Ross on certain things, there are several instances where “going old school” would be a benefit to today’s product. Re-educating the audience and introducing time limit draws, the champion NOT always having to be on every show, actually creating angles for talents instead of writing stories and then assigning them to talents and hoping that they will work. These are things that I agree with.

But at the end of the day, the biggest issue here seems that these men are content to sit back, tell us how great they were and to bitch and moan about how pro wrestling is dying because it’s not their version of pro wrestling. Here’s a suggestion to Russo, Cornette, Ross and anyone else who wants to claim pro wrestling is dead because it doesn’t fit their vision; either shut the hell up or roll up your sleeves and help. And I am not talking about Jim Cornette trying to claim he was a Steen/Owens fan now that he has made it or Vince Russo offering to book TNA “for free,” I mean really help.

Dusty Rhodes was a man who gave back to the business, he loved wrestling and he watched wrestling change, but still knew he had a place to teach. Dusty Rhodes had a gift, a gift that is still used in wrestling several times in each show, he knew how to talk. He went to Florida, he taught the next generation and these performers loved him so much that they looked up to him, and Dusty Rhodes loved them so much that he called them his kids. Dusty Rhodes didn’t bitch and moan and proclaim pro wrestling dead. He embraced the change, he knew that he had something to offer, and tried to make sure that this generation knew the importance of talking in the business.

William Regal’s days as an in ring competitor are over, and the business is certainly not what he grew up on of prefers. But William Regal is down in NXT and working, he is helping this next generation and is a scout for the WWE. The image of William Regal watching a PWG sounds almost too absurd to believe, but yet, it’s a reality. Do you think that William Regal, who grew up fighting in carnivals, and working an ode to World of Sport sitting and scouting PWG performers sounds as if it makes no sense at all. But William Regal knows that the business has changed, that the business has evolved and that while these guys are not working the style he may love or even prefer, he respects the ability and is looking for those who may be able to step up on a bigger stage.

Vince Russo, Jim Cornette and the others that want to claim that pro wrestling is dead do so because the business has either passed them by or because they black listed. They have pissed people off because they refuse to adapt, because “their version” of pro wrestling is not alive, so they’d rather think that it is dead than to adapt and try to keep the business that “they supposedly love so much”. I am an old school fan, and as the years go on I feel a little of my fandom dying. But that’s not because of the business changing. I have watched favorites like Michaels and Flair retire, and recently had to deal with legends and or personal favorites like Savage, Warrior, Piper and Rhodes die. It brings up so many memories, it makes me miss those days and in a way makes me want to go back and just watch old footage and give up on the current scene. But over the years I have been introduced to so much new talent, I have traveled the world and have been fortunate enough to watch so many different performers and versions of wrestling that the voids are slowly being filled with the new. Pro wrestling is not dead.

Vince Russo, Jim Cornette and others that want to claim pro wrestling is dead; make a choice. Walk away and shut your mouth if it is so bad, or swallow your pride, roll up your sleeves and try and save it if it is so damn bad…

Hugs and kisses,

Jack McGee