WWE hasn't been rivaled in ratings or any other way since the Monday Night Wars with WCW. But since that company has shut down, no other single company has been able to put on a product with the budget and spectacle of WWE.
For a moment, TNA looked like it might start to come close, especially when a number of WWE stars went over there, including Booker T, Jeff Hardy, Hulk Hogan, The Dudley's, Sting, just to name a few. But for whatever reason, and there are numerous websites out there that talk about such, they've never been able to break the barrier in fan growth.
But in 2014 the landscape started to change. Towards the end of January, the day after the 2014 Royal Rumble, CM Punk, arguably the most popular wrestler in WWE, left the WWE. The whole ordeal was talking about in Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling Podcast, but right when it happened, people didn't know what was going on.
Was it a work? Was Punk really gone? And if he was really gone, where was he going? He'd already mentioned ROH on WWE t.v. before, was he going there? Would he actually go over to TNA and wrestle there? New Japan Pro Wrestling? No one knew and everyone was speculating.
As more time passed in 2014, it would seem to everyone that CM Punk was done with wrestling, at least for the immediate future. But then another shake up.
In August of 2014, Alberto Del Rio was involved in an incident with a WWE employee and was subsequently fired from the company. Though it was reported that WWE had a non-compete clause in their contracts, lawyers for Del Rio contested that clause and he won. He was free to wrestle. At first he appeared on the Mexican promotion AAA, and then in December it was reported that Del Rio, now going by Alberto el Patron, would be wrestling for ROH in January of 2015.
So in 2014 we had two rather large shake-ups, with CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio. But that's not all. Both TNA and WWE decided to release or not renew contracts with a number of wrestlers. Coming from a large group of released WWE wrestlers was Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntrye, Brodus Clay, and Evan Bourne, as well as others.
In TNA, A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, Chris Sabin, and others did not have their contracts renewed with the company.
So now, throughout 2014 we have all these great wrestling talents out on the market. They've all continued to wrestler on the independent scene, and also Clay has now signed with TNA going by the name Tyrus. But that's not it.
Along with an abundant of free agent talents on the market, not only do we have WWE, TNA and ROH, but New Japan Pro Wrestling was beginning to be highly promoted through Jeff Jarrett's new promotion GFW (Global Force Wrestling). AND, a new player came to the t.v. screen in the form of Lucha Underground. Though debuting on a small network, El Rey, in October, fans and wrestlers alike have been giving the promotion high praise. There's also Tommy Dreamer's House of Hardcore, which isn't really a weekly or monthly promotion, but putting on great wrestling shows every few months.
Finally, there is the plethora of "indy" talents already making names for themselves with small independent wrestling promotions like Adam Cole, The Youngbucks, Chris Hero, Ricochet (who wrestlers as Prince Puma in Lucha Underground), reDRagon (the tag team of Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish) and others.
So what does this all mean? An abundance of talent not only in TNA and WWE, but performing on independent shows, as well as wrestling promotions like NJPW, ROH, and Lucha Underground reaching a wider audience. Professional wrestlers out there, can perform in front of crowds today, some larger than others, and if they didn't make to to WWE or just don't want to go to WWE, they don't have to, and can still make a living. That's why some of the talents like TNA, the schedule isn't as grueling.
The title of this post is "WWE's Next Competitor" and the next big competitor is the market itself. Because if a fan doesn't like what's going on in WWE, they can check out TNA. Or ROH. Or NJPW. Or Lucha Underground. There are so many options out there now, including some great independent promotions not on t.v. So WWE, at least in my opinion, needs to put out a great product. Because over time, if they just put out middle of the road entertainment, fans can tune in to other products. Will the fall-off be like that of the nineties, and make a company rival WWE? Probably not, but the fall-off wouldn't be good for business, no pun intended.
But it's not just the fans with options. The wrestlers have options now too. I don"t know the pay scale for wrestlers, but if you're a top talent in WWE, there probably isn't another company out there that can rival their pay. I'm talking main event wrestlers, at every pay per view. But not everyone can be that, for one reason or another. But you can go out and be a free agent, wrestling for other promotions, and make a living. And if you're good, you can make a good living.
So WWE's next competitor isn't just one promotion, but all the great promotions putting on good shows right now as a whole. There are lots of other options out there for professional wrestlers, and they don't HAVE to stay in WWE. Sure, WWE is the desired destination for many wrestlers, because it's the show. If you play football, you're goal isn't to play in the Canadian Football League or the Arena Football Leaugue, but the NFL. That's just the way it is. WWE is the big show. But the other shows out there are an actual option for wrestlers now, to not only perform and entertain the fans, but make a living as well.
It's a good time to be a wrestling fan.
No comments:
Post a Comment