By Justin Parker, Torch Specialist

Justin can be reached via e-mail at parjustin@gmail.com and would like to hear any comments, opinions, or suggestions on this blog.

Friday, April 4th

I want to preface this by saying that I did not see Saturday’s show, so this is merely an opinion of Friday’s show.

Last Friday's ROH show was a prime showcase as to what is wrong with the current ROH product, or any independant promotion for that matter. In ROH, fans are told that there are no restrictions as to what the wrestlers can do, and they want them to reach the potential that they were supposedly held back from when they were in a different promotion.

Sometimes, as proven Friday night, that is not always the best option.

One key to a great wrestling show is pacing. In order to get optimal reaction for the matches or stars that will really sell your show or product, your show needs to be paced out correctly. By the time the main event performers came out on Friday, the fans had seen every move, nearfall, and highspot imaginable and the extraordinary suddenly had become ordinary.

You take any of the last four matches at this show and stuck them in the main event, or a single match, of any given show when the fans hadn't seen as many incredible moments and they would've been talked about for months or years to come. Instead, too much happened during this show and the spectacular suddenly gets lost in the shuffle.

Doing too much so no one remembers anything is one of the most counterproductive habits in wrestling, and is happening more and more. This weekend, more than any other in recent memory, showed what good storytelling is all about during the Flair match. As a lot of people point out, "working" is what you do in between the moves and the moves are a supplement to the overall story of the match, not the story itself.

By the main event, since each match that preceeded it had a minimum of 10 "nearfalls" off huge spots, nearfalls meant nothing and the finsih of each match was very unbelievable as a result. This show was also counterproductive in the sense that wrestling in its truest form draws emotion to the performers and this show did none of that. There were some great matches, but all the matches were good, so none of the performers stood out as a result.

The show was void of any psychology as every match, other than the opener, had the same pattern, and since it was billed as Dragon Gate rules, I’m more forgiving to some of this:

-Match starts in typical tag form
- 5 minutes in, the match breaks down
- All wrestlers get in the ring and do contrived spots void of any emotion other than the fans popping because the moves look cool
- Continuous no-selling of huge spots in order to keep the rapid nearfalls coming
- Unbelievable nearfalls ensue until one is finally the finish

Rinse, wash, repeat.

I know I am in the minority with this opinion from people who have seen the show , and I typically don’t have this type of criticism for the way ROH’s shows are presented, but if you step back and see that the wrestlers did so much for so little (diminishing returns on reactions as the night went on), you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Friday was so void of the emotional connection with performers that I saw for the rest of the weekend, whether it was Flair-Michaels or even Big Show-Mayweather. “This is awesome” means that the fans see the match as a contrived dance and can’t suspend their disbelief enough to see the match as anything else but a work. In each of the above mentioned matches, that suspension of disbelief led to an emotional reaction from the fans that got the match over as a result. This is all from great storytelling that this particular ROH show was completely lacking.

*********


Thursday, April 3, 2008

I have had the privelage of watching all of this past week’s activities live that centered around the end of the Ric Flair’s career from the Raw in Columbia to all the events in Orlando and the only thing that comes to mind is “wow.”

Simply put, this week was worth a whole lifetime of devotation to this business. As everyone has stated, this was one of those weekends where you realize why you watch this on a daily basis and what pro wrestling is really all about.

Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels showed us what a perfect wrestling match can look like and WWE put on a show for the ages that should withstand the test of time and go down as possibly the greatest Wrestlemania there has ever been. There has been enough said on the Flair stuff up to this point, so I would like to focus on the perception of ROH and TNA coming out of this weekend.

Let’s start with TNA as they may have faired the worst of all the companies in Orlando last weekend. First off, there are over 70,000 wrestling fans converging on Orlando this weekend, many of whom have never seen TNA live and wanted to see what it was all about, so what does TNA do, allow regulars to be a part of a “VIP” list and let new fans get turned away. I went to the taping on Thursday night and there was a lot of hostility among the 700-1000 who got turned away that night. Who knows, if you would have let them in, they may have wanted to check out your upcoming PPV and increased your buyrates by 10% or more, but who needs new business?

Or, even better, you could have actually ponied up and rented a larger building and charged a few bucks per ticket and guaranteed everyone a seat. I can’t count how many people said that they would have rather paid for a ticket then wait outside for a few hours and not be guaranteed a seat. They have been producing live PPV’s on the road for quite some time now, so setting up a new building would’ve made the live Impact seem like a bigger deal and allowed them to truly capitalize on the new eyes that they could’ve received.

Also, in the bushleague moment of the weekend, TNA set up a booth next to where WWE was having its Fan Axxess on Sunday afternoon. Let me allow this picture to sink in, WWE has about 70,000 fans gathering around the Citrus Bowl geared up for the biggest show of the year with live music, food, and a huge setup while TNA is advertising on the side of a dingy warehouse next door with about 30 people in line waiting to take a picture with the X Division belt. TNA looked so inferior by being out there, and I would highly advise them that the next time they want to leverage the WWE fans that are in town, that they re-think their marketing strategy because instead of capitalizing on the opportunity, they have washed it down the toliet and made some potential new fans mad in process. If one sentence would describe the existence of TNA, I think this would probably be it.

I’ll stop back later with my thoughts on the Friday night ROH show.

****


Tuesday, March 18th

With the ever-changing nature of the Big Show-Mayweather storyline, this has been one of the more disjointed major storylines in recent years. Since initially, WWE insisted that Mayweather be the face against the much larger Big Show, they have really backed themselves into a corner when it comes to the match at Wrestlemania, which has been discussed at length.

There have been many complains about how this match has been built up such as the constant changing of the roles of each participant, Mayweather’s failure as a face, or that WWE has yet to announce what type of match this will be at Wrestlemania, but I will not rehash any of those concerns.

My concern lies in the actual execution of the match on March 30th at Wrestlemania. Let me explain. Typically, the most important components of any match are the heel getting heat and the babyface making a comeback against all odds. Without these, the match typically will not allow the crowd to become emotionally invested in the story of the match and therefore will react accordingly.

With that said, the participants, the 150 pound heel and the 440 pound babyface make those components nearly impossible without completely cutting into everyone’s suspension of disbelief. Mayweather getting extended offense to build heat against the much larger Big Show wouldn’t be credible in any situation, so I am curious to see what actually takes place during the match. If the roles were reversed and Big Show got heat on Floyd that built to Floyd’s comeback, I believe that would lead to a flat finish.

I feel that there really are only a few ways to get out of this and one would be try and do everything to get Big Show over as a heel during the body of the match, completely ignoring the build-up for this match and the double turn that took place last week on Raw in order to follow a somewhat “standard” structure to a wrestling match.

The other would be to have some type of interference and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some wrestlers get “paid off” by Mayweather as was suggested in a guest editorial here at PWTorch.com last week. Depending on what they have in mind for the Big Show after Mania, he could have some built in heels to work with if they decide to keep him babyface at the conclusion of this feud.

Due to the inconsistencies in this feud thus far, I have no reason to believe they have any plan of what the actual match will look like at this point, but I think that this will be one of the main challenges in figuring out how to book this match.

I’d like to hear what you think of a) what type of match they will have at Mania and b) how they will get out of the corner that they have backed themselves into and execute this match. E-mail me at parjustin@gmail.com with your responses.

****


Sunday, March 2, 2008

In the past week, it has come out that Gabe Sapolsky has sent a memo to wrestlers with some issues that he feels need to be addressed within ROH. Upon reading what they were, I felt like addressing them in print form and here we go:

The first change is that Gabe felt the shows were going too long and he think that the audience is tiring after shows and not wanting more. I could not agree more with this point, as it has been something that I have discussed ad museum with Jamie Penick in our audio updates for these releases. ROH needs to strike a balance between what is acceptable for each match on the card. The amount given away should be based on what stage of the feud the wrestlers are in, position on the card, and heat for the match.

All too often I have seen guys early on the card in a match that was thrown together at the last minute, go out there and try to have a four star match. While this is great for the fans in the arena the time (short term), they really need to look at the long term benefits of the wrestlers fitting their place on the card and not taking away from the false finishes or moves saved for later matches. I think that this would aid in repeat business because the fans could have a takeaway that they didn’t see the absolute best, but what they saw was good and they want to see the guys next time to see if they can improve on that performance.

I think that this idea really applies to matches more so than angles as ROH has done a stellar job of pacing out their angles and trying to get maximum value from them. Of all the suggestions, I think that if they can tweak the formula to better incorporate this idea, it would most benefit the company going forward.

Next, Gabe wanted to make sure that wrestlers were being succinct in timing out their matches to where the shows were not running too long. This was a concern of mine as well as I have seen fans yawning late in the show from burning themselves out in the early matches which detracts from the main event. A three hour wrestling show is perfect. It has become the standard for any event these days and when you exceed that limit, I really believe in diminishing returns once you cross the 180 minute mark.

An easy solution would be to map out how much time is needed for the top 2-3 matches and then work backwards from 180. There can be an acceptable range of going under/over time for undercard wrestlers, but anything outside that should become a punishable offense in some form as I think the shows should obviously be geared around the money drawing matches.

Lastly, Sapolsky has mentioned that wrestlers should mention their upcoming opponents when looking at the camera after the match. I love this little detail that is all but forgotten in today’s landscape. A few months back, I wrote a blog praising the advent of backstage promos after the matches on recent DVD releases and this is a nice supplement to that as it adds a sense of realism that the wrestler is always thinking of his next opponent to make sure he beats him on his way to the title, or something that is important to him. This is just another one of the great details that sets ROH apart from the rest of the field in certain aspects of the business.

*****

Monday, February 25, 2008

After watching the Wrestlemania press conference, there is one thing that stands out to me: Floyd Mayweather Is the type of heel that all but a few wrestlers wish they could be. With that said, if WWE doesn’t allow Floyd to be the heel outsider in this feud, I feel that they are leaving a lot of money on the table.

Watching the build to the Lesnar-Mir fight and adding in the fact that Floyd just has this swagger, confidence and charisma that is exponentially better than Lesnar, you get the feeling that the heel heat for Floyd as the outsider would be the type that is not very easy to come by in today’s wrestling landscape. It would also eclipse that of Brock’s UFC debut and that match had the fans in a frenzy and generated a fairly substantial buy rate based on early estimates.

During the press conference, Floyd turned the event is a spectacle and portrayed himself as bigger than the WWE, even going as far as to say that they should turn the W’s upside down and call it Money Mayweather Entertainment. The wrestlers in the background didn’t look happy to hear what Floyd was saying and the fans got more hostile as the conference went on. I think it’s safe to say that after today that Floyd is much more of a natural than Trump was in his role last year and seems genuinely excited to be a part of anything that can send his name to the masses. Also after watching today, if WWE decides to go forward with Floyd as a heel, I think that last year’s record buyrate is in reach.

It’s been said many times over that Floyd is miscast as a face in this feud due to how he is portrayed in the boxing world as a heel in the build up to his fights, but even as much as people dislike him, he is a part of that sport. For him to come into an industry that the fans take great pride in and flaunt his money and claim that he is bigger than the WWE and all its wrestlers, this would be a whole other level of heat than what he generates during his boxing matches.

An extreme level of love or hatred towards a character is what sells tickets and PPV buys in pro wrestling, and to try and totally turn around what fans naturally want to feel and probably will regardless of the television, I believe, would be a huge mistake as the atmosphere that was at the press conference today is one that hasn’t been seen in wrestling in many years.

*****


Wednesday, February 13

So now Tomko is his own man, a lone wolf. A hormone-driven Styles can't pick a fence to stand inside of though he's clearly part of the Angle Alliance. Christian, meanwhile, is a man without a stable, a title, or even a friend. As the sort of "greed is good" video that played on the go-home edition of Impact clearly shows, Christian is a greedy one. At this point he's also very needy, which drives him to kiss up to Tomko, maybe in hopes that he can get back in Tomko's good graces and maybe get his Coalition back. Tomko's attack on Christian in the main event could easily be a Greta Garbo statement of "I want to be left alone". According to the reviews, Tomko left the ring immediately after his attack; doesn't look like he turned as he was not part of the post-match celebration.

JP RESPONSE : This is a paragraph from a guest editorial submitted as a reaction to the column I wrote yesterday regarding the happenings at the Against All Odds PPV, and I wanted to respond with my perspective on why I only half agree with this.

First, you can say that Tomko wanted to be left alone and that was the statement that he made, but he is still attacking a babyface who was clearly pandering for cheers in his pre-match promo at the PPV. Attacking a babyface either makes you a heel or a babyface with heel tendencies, neither of which will get over to the degree that he would have been if they would have stayed with the course of building Tomko to be a strong, straight-forward, ass-kicking babyface.

People like to bring up Stone Cold Steve Austin as the prototype of the DTA, “lone wolf” character, but even Austin rarely attacked another top babyface from behind , that’s the key. Also, the Austin character worked in the correct context, and that time has most certainly passed. Tomko ran in from behind (a heel move) and gave the face his finisher. Not enough to make him an instant mega-heel, but at least enough to cut his legs out for some fans and wonder where he stands.

That said, even if you don’t agree with my stance on this, wrestling booking should not have this many ambiguities involved with it. The ultimate goal is to get people emotionally invested at a level where you want to see them fight. Adding any ambiguities as to where the characters lie, even if it strays one person to lose that level of investment, has does the contrary of what wrestling booking is supposed to accomplish.

This level of ambiguity may make for interesting TV, but at the end of the day, the TV is not what is pulling in the revenue. And besides, hasn’t there been enough indistinctness in this Tomko-Cage-Styles-Angle storyline anyways? In the whole TNA promotion, rather? KISS is an acronym that will never be better applied than in the world of pro wrestling, and until Russo and co. decide to live by that motto, emotional investment in these characters will be non-existent.

******


Tuesday, February 12

During the last few days, I have had the “privilege” of attending TNA’s Against All Odds PPV in Greenville and watching last night's stellar edition of Raw and have had time to compare and contrast the company's philosophies.

TNA's flaws have been touched on at nausea on this site, but their obliviousness to them continues to be mind-boggling. Now, it has been reported that Russo now has close to 90% control on the product, which would be everything other than the Knockouts booking. Russo has the tendency to stand in the live crowd and watch some of the matches and see how his ideas are getting over to the live crowd. A good practice if you want to get an effective gauge of how your core audience is perceiving the product and then learning and adapting by being able to correctly decipher what the audience is telling you.

The problem is that Russo is tone deaf to what the audience likes and dislikes and does not stray away from the notion that he thinks the element of surprise is the most effective way to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. There may be something to that sometimes, but in looking at what works in 2008 vs. what worked in 1998, there are major differences that are prevalent in the business.

In my opinion, I would tell Russo that a) sometimes the audience likes the way things are going (Tomko) and b) you've done so many of these "swerves" (Tomko) that the "swerve" is, in reality, what is expected based on past history. If Russo knew what the tone of the audience's reactions represented, he would've seen the exact thing as the crowd was rabid for the excellent main event between Cage and Angle prior to the overbooked ref bump, interference, "surprising" turn that we've seen for the past 10 years, after which the crowd was flat.

Part of the reason would be that we've been conditioned to believe certain inherit traits that Tomko possesses since he said that he wanted to be his own man. For the most part in reality, level-headed people (as we've been led to believe Tomko is) don't do a complete 180 without something to trigger it. Since Russo believes in the element of surprise so much, he won't even foreshadow the turn because it would take away some of the "shock" the viewers feel when the out of nowhere turn happens. I've heard this analogy before, but it is like a suspense book where you find out who the killer is and can go back in the story and think and then you have the "ah-ha" moment where you can put the whole story together. That moment is nowhere to be found in the current Tomko storyline.

This reminds me of a shoot interview with Lex Luger that I remember watching, and he was asked about his constant turns from heel to face and back, and he just said that he was lucky that the fans stuck with him through all of that and he was still somewhat over. I mean just look at the last 12 months of booking for TNA, Christian was a face, and then turned heel, and is now a full blown face (even as far as getting the cheap pop from the hometown mention on Sunday), Angle has been both a heel with face tendencies and a face with heel tendencies, and now the saga begins with Tomko.

I just hope that they realize wrestling works when fans are emotionally invested in storylines and characters to a love/hate degree, and anything in between isn't going to draw significant money. Time is a key component to that investment, TNA is not putting in the time to develop characters' motives, define a moment that causes a change in their view/personality, or the time to have the fans rally behind a character before having them turn one way or another.

It seems like I'm beating a dead horse, but at the very least, I would propose to first define all characters as a heel or face (something Russo doesn't believe in), then have them remain that way for 9-12 months unless it can happen organically based on fan's reactions and then, as Wade, Bruce, and Pat talked about in the post-PPV roundtable, allow the booking to be a compliment to the wrestling and opposed to a detriment as it is today. Until that happens, I have a feeling that .01-.02% that TNA management will be used to seeing going forward.

*****

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt