Well, hello. Welcome to The Live Wire, home of nothing exciting, interesting, entertaining or particularly intelligent, yet still manages to ramble on week after week after week. Says more about my persistence than talent, but hey – can’t have everything in life, eh?
So, thanks once again to everyone for their response to last week’s column. I generally don’t like the random style of column, but my peeps seem to enjoy them, as they always draw more email than anything else… well, except that day I posted the recipe for chilli nachos, but I’m hoping it was sarcasm. Probably not. Ho-hum.
So what’s been the big talking point in wrestling this week for me? TNA are going on a signing rampage and snapping up, or attempting to snap up anybody that has worked for the WWE. Possibly even people that have even been in the same city as the WWE, or even just heard of them…
So TNA have this big three hour Sunday night PPV coming up in April called Bound For Glory. Is it only me that sees the problem here? TNA’s weekly shows are PPV – $10 a week, to watch promotion for a show that will cost you about £30-$40 to watch? Way to fleece your audience there, Mr. Jarrett!
Seriously, why should people pay for their weekly shows, and then be told “oh yes, thanks for your weekly $10, but THIS show on a Sunday is going to be even bigger!” Let’s face it – if you pay for something, you expect a decent match, or payoff for your money… which is more likely to be the better show, with more surprises, quality matches, storyline advancement and conclusion, and the like – the weekly ten bucks show or the Super Duper Sunday Night EXTRA HOUR spectacular?
And there, my friends, lies the problem as I see it. If you’re gonna pay for the bug Sunday show, and you get all that… would you still be willing to hand out ten bucks a week? I know I’d be more wary of it… I hope TNA do some form of discount for people that buy the weekly shows in April – it’ll be an expensive month otherwise.
So what are the TNA thinking? Do they have a free weekly TV deal in the offing that they can begin to focus on a monthly PPV show? Or is it just a one-off, attempting to cash in on a big name… formerly Hulk Hogan, now… Randy Savage? Yes! People all over the world will be FLOODING to watch Randy Savage wrestle his first match in years!
Just think of that cross promotion… if everyone that bought his CD buys the Sunday PPV, then TNA can count on an extra… $40. And that’s if Savage gets his manservant to buy it and tape it while he’s wrestling on it! Seriously, good luck to TNA – I get the feeling that this is a make or break year for them, I hope their plan works… but I fear for their future.
In McMahonland, not a lot has been happening, as per usual. The WWE went on a tour to Japan. Apparently, every match on the last house show was at least 10 minutes… sheesh! Imagine a Raw like that! Actually, I am… and it’s ruling all that is right with the world. At least until the Batista vs. Goldbore match anyway… yeeeuch!
I do like the new mandate that matches will be slower, and more mat based, allowing emphasis to be placed on highspots when they’re used. It makes for littler things meaning more when they happen, and the most important part – it should mean less injuries on the roster in the long run. If only 2 or 3 matches have moonsaults and suicide dives between the ropes, rather than 3 or 4 in every match, then the chance of serious injury should decrease.
It should also mean that there can be more actual psychology used in matches, if they spend more time on the mat than whizzing about in the air – example : Benoit working on the neck and shoulder area, setting up for the Crossface rather than having 4 minutes to work in 5 German suplexes, 2 minutes of chops, a flying headbutt and a Crossface.
I get the feeling that this idea will be bombed out by the time Summerslam comes round though… Much as the wrestling boom has encompassed the Internet in general, it should be remembered that the Internet wrestling fans are not in the majority – I think I remember seeing a WWE estimate that the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community) accounts for only something like 15% of fans.
Even at that, the fans that attend the shows and buy the merchandise probably contribute more than the entire IWC does to the WWE’s ever swelling coffers… so why should they listen to ‘us’?
Because we all know best, dammit! If nobody listens to me (and I fully expect that) then there’s somebody out there speaking sense somewhere, be it the much maligned Scott Keith, Dave Meltzer or even SmashWrestling’s very own Internet Superhero Arnold Furious – someone is saying the right things, so they can’t afford to just discount what we say.
No doubt they will, though. Vince has said that the IWC is oh so negative and very cynical… maybe we are, maybe we are… but isn’t it better to be talked about, even if it’s badly, than not be talked about at all? In my column, for whatever reason, I try and maintain an air of optimism, and look on the bright side of pretty much everything.
I do get criticised for being too shiny happy positive all the time, but hey – it’s better than reading “oh this suck, he sucks, she sucks, he’s fat, he’s old, he’s not good enough, and he’s an idiot” over and over and over and over. Granted, some of my columns descend into that, but nobody can be perfect all the time… not even me!
Confession time folks – I’ve lost the plot, and forgotten whatever point it was I was attempting to make. So, I’ll sum it up with this – Wrestling is good. Bad wrestling, in it’s own way is also good. Bad wrestling is better than no wrestling, folks – enjoy what we have, look for the best in everything, and let’s all be a little less cynical.
On that shiny happy joy-joy note, I’ll be off – look out for the end of the week, when I return with No Way Out prediction madness! Whoo hoo!
Until then, have fun, go mad.
Thanks for reading – be sure and pay a visit to these two sweet sites :
Tony Cottam
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