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I first want to apologize to Wade and everyone associated with PWTorch.com for not writing a column last week, and not providing a recap of the ECW television show last week. I honestly could not think of anything worth writing about last week, and I suffered from VCR malfunction this week while taping ECW. I haven't yet entered the realm of Tivo and DVR's, so I still resort to the good old VHS tape as my way of recording wrestling.

I decided to devote this week's column to new directions in professional wrestling. This past week on Raw, WWE Champion John Cena suffered a devastating injury during his main event match with Mr. Kennedy. Cena completely tore his right pectoral muscle and tendon from the bone, and as a result, has been forced to forfeit his WWE Championship. His scheduled main event match for this Sunday's No Mercy against his bitter rival Randy Orton is also off the table. It leaves the WWE at a major cross roads; how to pursue without arguably your post popular star?

Changing directions is something that the WWE has faced before. They faced it in 1994 when Vince McMahon was being indicted on Federal charges of steroid distribution. The WWE went to a smaller, more athletic style and distanced themselves from brooding, over-muscular performers. The result was shows that featured performers such as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, Jeff Jarrett, and Owen Hart.

In 2001, WWE faced a new direction with the purchase of WCW from AOL-Time Warner. The WWE chose to bring in the younger, less hefty contracted WCW wrestlers, rather than taking on the bloated contracts of many of WCW's top tier wrestlers. The result was an WCW invasion angle that many people feel was the beginning of WWE's decline in the United States.

The new direction that I would like to discuss today is one that ultimately led the WWE to its most successful, and profitable era ever. This decision did not see immediate positive results, but rather planted the seeds for a movement that would continue to grow over the next six to eight months.

This new direction came as a result of a decision by Vince McMahon to take his top star, Bret "Hitman" Hart, and basically broker a deal to send him to WCW.

Most wrestling fans know the story of November 9th, 1997 and the now infamous "Montreal Screwjob." I am not going to rehash those events (God knows the WWE sure has), or the events behind the decision.

For the purposes of this article I will simply say that the WWE, and particularly Vince McMahon himself, were forced into making a decision. Sometimes that is when the best decisions are made, when a person's hands are tied and they have no other choice. For Vince McMahon, he says that he was being forced into the decision to opt out of Bret's 20 year contract which had been signed the previous October, and allow Bret to take the $3 million a year deal he had been offered in 1996 with WCW.

Vince reasoned that he could no longer afford to pay the Hitman what was agreed to, nor was he sure he would be able to honor such a lengthy contract. The fact was, the WWE was in serious financial trouble. It has never truly been determined just how close they were to going under, but I imagine it was a lot closer than many people would believe.

So the decision was made, and the events played out the way they did, and Bret moved on to be horribly underutilized during his two years in WCW.

How this compares to 2007, and the injury to John Cena is what some of you may be asking yourselves? Well here it is...the WWE is desperately in need of a new direction, and the injury to Cena and vacancy of the WWE Title may just be the perfect opportunity for this to occur.

No one knew at the time of that the events of November 9th, 1997 would eventually lead the WWE into their lucrative "Attitude" era. Vince McMahon was transformed into his ultra-successul "Mr. McMahon" character; evil boss who showed no remorse and utter contempt for employees he felt were disloyal to him. The "Mr. McMahon" character needed an antagonist, and he got that in the form of "Stonecold" Steve Austin. The Austin-McMahon saga, along with the rise of Mick Foley, The Rock, and DX transformed the fortunes of the WWE.

There is no guarantee that the WWE will be able to capatilize on this injury to Cena, and take the company in a new direction that will be as successful as the "Attitude" era, but doing something that gains interest, and injects some new life in the company will be a much needed change.

Raw this past Monday night scored a 3.2 Neilson rating, which is their lowest regular broadcast rating since the same week in October 1997. I find it to be a small coincidence in that was about the same time that the events that led to Montreal began being put into motion.

It's time for the WWE to make a decision that impacts them going forward, and sticking to it. The decision in 1997 to let Bret go to WCW could have been the final straw for the WWE, but they ignored that possible consequence and went forward anyways. They need to approach this decision on where to go with the direction of the WWE Title, Raw, and the company the same way. Make the decision, stick with it, and ride it out until it truly proves to be a success or a failure.

The WWE can't make their decision this week, and then completely change their minds in a couple of weeks when ratings don't jump a full point like they seem to always expect. It isn't like the WWE could have brought Bret back right after Montreal because they were experiencing a backlash from the fans and even some of their own wrestlers. They rode out the criticism, the ratings woes, and pressed on until things began to turn upward.

WCW was notorious for making a decision and then changing everything around within weeks because ratings didn't pop like they expected. That kind of trigger happy decision making only helped lead them into extinction. The WWE isn't going out of business anytime soon, but they certainly aren't doing tremendous business either.

This has easily been the worst year for the WWE both from an in-ring product perspective, as well as out of the ring events. More injuries to top stars than in any year previous, declining ratings and pay-per-view buys, and major negative attention because of steroid investigations and the Benoit family tragedy.

I hope this opportunity is not wasted by the WWE, and they are able to use this adversity as a way to move the company forward. Infuse some much needed energy and enthusiasm into their product, and pave the way for a comeback year in 2008. The decision is your's WWE, you've been forced into this, so how are you prepared to respond?

Please send any feedback to jasonmcombs@hotmail.com.

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