The Heat and the Shine

The crowd was hot for Jack Swagger. That was the inescapable thought.  It was a thought that said it all. His given name is Donald Jacob Hager.  He goes by Jake now.  He is almost the prototype -- tall, young (by modern pro wrestling standards), athletic, attractive.  He is a former WWE Champion. His WWE title reign lasted fourteen weeks, then the ripcord was pulled.  His run was ten years ago.  He's had several wrestling reincarnations, and he's 2-0 in Bellator. Why go nuts for Jake Hager? The fundamental reason is the same reason AEW exists: wrestling fans hate WWE.  As they see it, fifteen years of their fandom was stolen by Vince McMahon.  Vince offered an ambitiously produced product whose meat was overcooked.  It has been the ultimate frustration: loyally watching a show in the hopes it gets better, and it never does. The appearance of Hager, like the appearance of fellow former WWE midcarder Dean Ambrose before him, was th...

"You see all these churches?" the wise man observed, on a Memphis to Little Rock road trip a dozen years ago, "They were all started by the same guy...  Some guy who thought every other church sucked." And so we have All Elite Wrestling.  The promotion that began because a wrestling scion, two dreamers from the California desert, and the son of a car bumper magnate thought that every other promotion sucked. WWE, suck?  Who can count the ways?  From Vince's whims to PG to scripted promos, everybody has a complaint. New Japan?  Too afraid, I'm afraid. ROH?  Too thrifty.  No vision.  Too fat, dumb, and happy with their lot in life. PWG?  What could have been...  Maybe if Danny were born with Cody's ambition, it would have happened.  There is honor in being the template; just not much money. And does Impact still exist...? Impact, it could be argued, is AEW's greatest inspiration.  It had so much potential...  i...

Names matter, and the name "All Elite Wrestling" matters a lot.  The promotion authored by Cody & the Young Bucks and owned by Shad Khan's son will be Elite, or it will die trying. The term "Shad Khan's son" is hardly music to the money man behind All Elite, Tony Khan.  Sons of successful entrepreneurs rarely enjoy discussion of the fact that their dads made a lot of money.  There is a perception that being such a son comes with inherent advantages.  Vince McMahon says that Shane had to work twice as hard to reach his position, but many fans and journalists simply don't believe it.  Dynasties like the McMahons of wrestling or Rooneys of football are spotlighted.  Cases where the family business is not handed down -- the Denver Broncos' present ownership drama, for example -- are ignored. Shad Khan is relevant to AEW because he is a remarkable man, with a remarkably American success story.  He emigrated from Pakistan, and simply decided to...

Dave Meltzer appeared on " The Jim Cornette Experience " podcast recently for a discussion on modern wrestling promotion.  Meltzer's position was that indy wrestling is hot, and thus the current, wink-and-nod style works.  Cornette's position is that there are more lapsed wrestling fans than active wrestling fans, and that's evidence that the business should go back to the way it used to be. In this blog's view, they're both right.  If indy promoters booked the way Cornette wants them to book, the indy scene would be nowhere near as hot.  But if a disciplined, ambitious indy promotion took cues from Cornette, they'd offer stronger competition for WWE than Impact, ROH, New Japan or anyone else. One area where Meltzer's argument trumps Cornette's -- again, in this blog's opinion -- is that the kayfabe cat is out of the bag.  Wrestling fans wouldn't just going to roll their eyes at Smokey Mountain Wrestling style booking, they'd ...

Five days ago, New Japan and Kenny Omega collaborated on an adventurous, cutting edge project.  It was a twenty minute, sit down interview in which Omega used a mind-bending mix of shoot and work to respond to questions about his then-forthcoming match with New Japan’s world champion, Kazuchika Okada. Dave Meltzer called it, “[a promo that] looks at wrestling in multiple dimensions, with a Jake Roberts delivery.”  It was certainly that.  Omega would tout his seven new kilos of muscled physique, then mention his six ‘Match of the Year contenders’, all in the same soliloquy.  It was a work/shoot medley, almost as if Omega watched the movie ‘Split’ and decided “Yes, I can do what James McAvoy did.  I can change personalities on the fly, leaving a puzzle for the audience to re-watch and solve.” Two days later, a very different New Japan personality emerged.  For, as risky as Omega’s promo was, the promotion's next big move was decidedly staid.  The d...

The most underrated match in wrestling history; to my eyes, at least, is Randy "Macho King" Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII.  Everything about it -- the build, the match and the resolution -- worked. The Build: Warrior was WWF Champion and Sensational "Queen" Sherry, at the time Macho's valet,  demanded a title shot .  Warrior declined.  Savage then got Sgt. Slaughter -- Warrior's title challenger at the 1991 Royal Rumble -- to agree to make Savage the number one contender if Slaughter won.  Savage interfered multiple times on Slaughter's behalf, eventually causing Warrior to lose the title after a scepter shot to the noggin. The Match: Art Barr & Eddy Guererro vs. El Hijo del Santo & Octagon  often gets cited as the greatest match in the illustrious history of the Los Angeles Sports Arena, but I'll take Warrior vs. Savage at WM VII.  Both had huge stakes.  Barr & Eddy lost their hair in a match where Santo ...

A favorite movie quote of mine comes from Jules Winfield, played by Samuel L. Jackson in PULP FICTION (1994): "I can't usually get [burgers] 'cause my girlfriend's a vegetarian, which pretty much makes me a vegetarian." In my case, it's not about burgers.  My lady is a carnivore.  For me, it's wrestling and other televised sports.  "I can't usually watch WWE 'cause my girlfriend's an HGTV fan, which pretty much makes me an HGTV fan," is my version.   What I can do attend is attend live events.  My lady loves the heat of the crowd.  (Get your mind out of the gutter, pervs.)  I go to as many WWE and UFC events as I can, even though I skip the vast majority of their televised shows. The WWE live event that came to mind today is the Monday Night Raw/WWE Superstars taping of October 3, 2016, held at Staples Center in Los Angeles.  Dave Meltzer recapped it in the October 10, 2016 issue of the Wrestling Observer as "the best R...

It's no secret that UFC is short on star power.  Ronda may be gone.  Conor is definitely on hiatus.  Jon Jones is suspended, and calling him a major star was a stretch to begin with. UFC, which operates more like a pro wrestling promotion than a sports organization, is taking a tried and true tact: they are trying to create new stars. Creating new stars isn't easy, or even simple.  One reason is obvious: nobody knows who the public will embrace.  Another reason is less obvious: people who aren't Chosen can get jealous. Tyron Woodley appears to be a chosen one for UFC.  He accompanied Dana White to the Super Bowl and he has gotten panel time on UFC studio shows.  In many ways, it makes sense.  He wants to be a star.  He doesn't mind hyping his fights.  He is explosive.  His public persona is not reckless. Woodley also has the good fortune of being in the right weight class with the right set of competing Champions.  The...

WWE Monday Night Raw ratings took a header this week, in every respect.  Compared to last week, total viewership was down 15%, ratings in the 18-49 year-old demographic were down about 20% and 18-34 ratings were down even more than that. There are reasons, of course.  The previous week opened in the glow of a well-received Royal Rumble show, opened with Paul Heyman on the stick and closed with Triple H.  This week opened and closed with Samoa Joe. Samoa Joe has his fans, but he's not a star.  That's important right now because WWE is facing new competition on Monday nights from another star-driven business: professional basketball. Sports fans in the United States may have heard about the National Basketball Association (NBA) receiving a lucrative new television contract.  They may not have heard that the NBA only received an incremental increase in rights fees for existing broadcasts.  The big money increase was due to allowing television networks t...

On Saturday, UFC drew their best viewership for a Fox Sports 1 (FS1) special since last year.  Even more impressive, the show featured a main event of The Korean Zombie vs. Dennis Bermudez, two fighters not known for their star power. Unfortunately for UFC (and FS1, for that matter),  the underlying numbers weren't so good.  Compared to the previous FS1 show (BJ Penn vs. Yair Rodriguez on a Sunday night), ratings in the 18-34 year-old demographic fell by nearly one-third.  Compared to last year's pre- Super Bowl special on FS1 (a show originally scheduled for pay-per-view, headlined by Johnny Hendricks vs. Wonderboy) fewer than half as many 18-34 year-olds watched. This is not good for UFC or FS1.  Both organizations want viewers, but they want those viewers to be relatively young.  Last Saturday's telecast pulled a strong audience among people over 50 years-old (roughly even with a year ago; up over one-third compared to last month).  Soon-to-be-...

The fifteen year anniversary of Vince McMahon's ill-fated foray into professional football has spurred renewed interest in the XFL.  ESPN ran a "30 for 30" documentary on the subject last week.  Dave Meltzer recapped the XFL's history on Wrestling Observer Radio this morning. Conventional wisdom is that the XFL was doomed before it began.  The league's 50% owners, NBC, showed signs of abandoning the project after the second of its twelve weeks.  (Key quote: "We are absolutely committed to [the XFL] for the full season," with no mention of the second contracted season.)  Television viewership collapsed almost minute-by-minute following a blockbuster opening week debut.  Vince McMahon's penchant for publicity stunts (bikini'd cheerleaders in swimming pools, Jim Ross as lead television announcer, promises of punt returners getting Jacked Up , et al. ) turned off mainstream sports media types and, likely, many football fans. The greatest sin ...

The death of pro wrestling territories was authored long ago.  Maybe it's time for a rewrite. Credit Vince McMahon, blame cable television , whatever.  They're gone.  For now. Conventional wisdom is that advances in technology preclude a return to the territory days.  Information technology is too cheap and production technology is too expensive.  The former allows people to explore beyond their local wrestling product.  The latter makes it too impossible for local wrestling to compete with WWE. Perhaps.  Conventional wisdom is often wise, but sometimes it's off base.  (I'd insert a line about politics, but I don't want to be banned by Indy promoters.) Conventional wisdom goes awry when it masquerades as fundamental truth.  Is it fundamentally true that, when people are allowed to sample a "major league" product, they ignore their local product?  Does flashier television production fundamentally disqualify simpler product...

UFC is expected to set a company record for single-night revenue on November 12, 2016.  That is the night that Conor McGregor chases the UFC Lightweight (155 lb.) Championship at UFC 205 in New York City. In digesting the previous paragraph, three things stand out.  One: UFC's business model is largely based around massive revenue intakes for single-night events.  Two: With rare exceptions, there is little to distinguish one UFC pay-per-view from the other.  A new number pops up every month or so, some fights happen, and the company moves on to the next one.  Three: A man who has never competed as a UFC Lightweight is about to challenge for the UFC Lightweight Championship. Maybe there should be a fourth: UFC fans love it.  UFC is having no trouble making money right now.  Their business model works. Does it work well enough, though? UFC's new owners, WME-IMG, used a very large loan to purchase UFC: $1.8 billion, to be exact.  The new own...

UFC made headlines in the financial news world yesterday, and not in a good way.  Bloomberg reported that the United States Federal Reserve admonished Goldman Sachs over WME-IMG's purchase of UFC. The story was circulated by the usual cadre of anti-UFC folks in the MMA world, but that doesn't mean that it's benign. Let's go through exactly how the UFC sale went down and what the Fed was complaining about. Some time ago, UFC's former owners, Zuffa, LLC (led by the Fertitta brothers) approached Goldman Sachs about brokering a sale. Approaching a bank about brokering a sale is standard operating procedure when the seller wants to go on the open market in order to attract debt-driven buyers.  The idea is that Zuffa didn't want to limit themselves to selling to only people/companies who have billions of dollars of cash on hand.  Zuffa wanted to be able to sell to people/companies to are willing to take on billions of dollars in debt, and then pay Zuffa with ...

That UFC 205: McGREGOR vs. ALVAREZ would be a hot ticket is no surprise.  It is the first mixed martial arts event in New York since UFC exploded in popularity a decade ago, and it features Conor McGregor, UFC's top box office attraction.  An attempt at a box office record -- beating the $12 million in tickets sold at Toronto's SkyDome in 2011 -- was expected by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, a close watcher of UFC's business since the promotion's inception. Still, the box office level that UFC management has Madison Square Garden scaled for is eye-popping: $18 million.  In an arena with under 18,000 available seats*, the math is simple: UFC is hoping for an average ticket above $1,000. Standard UFC 205 tickets sold through Ticketmaster were at seven standard price levels: $106, $256, $456, $606, $806, $1,006 and $1,506.  As of the time of publication of this article, standard price levels below $1,506 are all unavailable on Ticketmaster. Once UFC 205...

CM Punk's journey to UFC Fighter is complete. At UFC 203, he made the walk. He stepped in the cage. To borrow a memorable Arn Anderson promo, he said what he was going to do and then he did it. In many eyes, that was a win. The cynical might ask, "A win for who?". It is a fair question. Victory, after all, is in the eyes of the beholder. Punk surely won. The world can debate his level of self-awareness, but most agree on this: he lives to prove people wrong. 'Fake' wrestlers don't step in the Octagon, and he did. For others, victory is less clear. Wrestlers, fighters, fans, announcers; they hold opinions across a broad spectrum. Some love the effort, some hate the spectacle and many carry ambivalence on those very topics. "What harm was done?" is a common refrain from supporters of this and other spectacles. The injured party can be summed up in a single word: excellence. That concept, which drives so many admirable parts of Western civiliza...

Pro wrestling fans know that it's worked. NBA fans think that it's real. Those are two obvious facts, but their repercussions are less than obvious to many.  The NBA can draw from angles that evoke old time wrestling; modern pro wrestling can't. The NBA and its broadcast partners learned the value of old time wrestling booking today.  The Cleveland Cavaliers were subject to something akin to a "Loser Leaves the Playoffs" heading in to Game 5 of the NBA Finals last night.  They needed to win three straight times to avoid elimination. Due to fans believing that the NBA isn't predetermined (which I don't think it is, for the record), the "needs to win out" angle worked.  The 18-49 demographic (demo) rating was 7.6, up a whopping 27% from a shockingly low Game 4 demo rating.  People tuned because there was suspense in whether the season could end. Due to pro wrestling fans believing that New Japan is predetermined (which it is, for the rec...

The International Pro Wrestling Commission (IPWC) issued the following statement upon reviewing live reports and video footage from the TNA 'Impact Wrestling' event of June 7, 2016. The following disciplinary action has been assigned in response to the actions of various parties during the June 7, 2016 TNA 'Impact Wrestling' event: MATT HARDY (Cameron, NC, USA) has been fined $2,500 USD for delaying the start of the Impact Wrestling event.  TNA producers Dixie Carter, William "Billy" Corgan and David "Lagana" Lagana were issued a warning for repeated start time delays, along with notice that fines may be imposed for future delays under the IPWC's "lack of institutional control" provision. DREW GALLOWAY (Tampa, FL, USA) has been fined $1,000 USD for agreeing to a Championship match without IPWC performance enhancing drug (PED) procedures in place.  IPWC rules stipulate a minimum of fifteen (15) days of random, twenty-four (24)...

Whether one's taste runs towards stuntman spot-fests, wild multi-team tag matches or bouts between cool little guys and unwelcome big guys (twice!), WWE Money in the Bank -- happening on June 19 at 5 p.m. PDT -- has something for every wrestling fan. Being that the show is nearly two weeks away, now is not the time to preview the card. But, being that the show is happening in Las Vegas, now is the perfect time to preview a last-minute trip to watch the show live. The live WWE experience is so far superior to the televised experience that there is no comparison. Who cares if you miss the commentary? You get chanting and little kids and long merchandise lines and lots and lots of overpriced beer (or food, if drinking isn't your thing). It's the summer, the kids are out of school.  If you have been thinking about getting away for a day or two and you're a WWE fan who hasn't planned his (or her) getaway yet, this is the show to do it for. SummerSlam will be a...