by Justin Parker, Torch Specialist

Updated Thursday, June 5

With everyone offering their suggestions on how improve the Raw product and ways to improve slumping ratings, I think that a fundamental question has yet to be answered. WWE (and wrestling in general), at its most successful points has been able to tap into the mentality of a generation or overall culture at that point in time. Looking back into the two most recent boom periods and WWE was able to tap into the excesses of the 1980’s by presenting wrestlers to fans as superhero-like, larger than life personalities leading to some very successful years and the ability to transform wrestling into a national product. In the 90’s, they were able to touch on the rebellious trends in society, music, etc. and created the biggest boom period in history , the Attitude Era and the biggest star, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Each decade had a unique overtone and an opportunity presented itself for WWE to tap into that and radically overhaul the product in order to be successful. Also, a lot of ECW’s success can be attributed to the tone of the product and that Paul Heyman had his finger on the pulse of pop culture at the time and incorporated aspects of what was edgy at the time into his product. I agree that getting back to correctly promoting matches as sport and building new stars are important in getting your core wrestling audience up, but I’m at a loss for how WWE can gear their product to mirror today’s culture and appeal to the masses because I don’t believe our current day society has an identity.

If you think of the overriding tones of past decades, you can really pinpoint one or two things that stand out from previous decades. What about 2000-2009 will be its legacy for future generations? This fundamental, root cause issue is, I believe, almost as much to blame for the slump in ratings after the boom period as WWE’s booking. Granted, the product has looked and been formatted pretty much the same for the past 10 years, and needs an overhaul in tone, presentation, etc. but I believe for that to be truly successful, the tone and presentation have to mirror what society is feeling at the time and that is when you can truly draw the masses, not just the wrestling fans and dramatically increase your audience.

I know the stars have to be aligned for this magical formula to happen and maybe it never will again, but until our current day society has an identity, wrestling for sure won’t have an opportunity to tap into it.

What do you feel is society’s identity today or of the past eight years? If you have an answer, how do you feel WWE, TNA, or ROH can best capitalize on it? I’d like to hear your feedback for a future edition of this blog. Please e-mail your responses to torchparker@gmail.com.

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Wednesday, June 4

When watching movies, I can’t help but think when its over how certain things can be applied into a pro wrestling context. Paul Heyman was notorious for always being up on pop culture as he felt that he could derive certain aspects of it into his product. I feel that it is the responsibility of any wrestling booker/promoter to have the same mentality and avoid being trapped in the “wrestling bubble” as they call it.

“King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” begins as a documentary about video games and the culture around that industry and profiles men who have devoted their life to obtaining a high score in numerous classic video games. As the documentary progresses it becomes a narrative that essentially becomes a good vs. evil storyline as you learn more about the two main players, Billy Mitchell (the heel) and Steve Wiebe (the babyface).

The build starts when they are showing each man living their life and as this progresses you can see fundamental differences in how each of them view the world. This is the same type of set-up that is necessary for a pro wrestling program to work (different context, of course). The documentary uses random clips of friends, peers in the video game world, etc. Wrestling can use that same approach or just build through a series of promos for each wrestler that really establishes where their motives lie as backstory.

Billy, the current record holder, is very arrogant in his accomplishments and feels that the world of videogames revolves around him. He is by far the most charismatic character in the movie and really has that x-factor of carrying himself like a star, which is something so few pro wrestlers have. He has always been praised by his peers and from that exudes arrogance and comes across as more and more unlikeable as the movie progresses. Meanwhile, Steve Wiebe is a white meat babyface who is shown as an everyday, family man who has never quite reached a pinnacle in anything he has ever done. Donkey Kong has becomes his passion, and he will stop at nothing to beat that world record. Classic babyface characteristics that can be applied in any title chase, conquest storyline that you want to build. I think the most important takeaway of this piece is that the babyface must be persistent to obtain his ultimate goal.

Throughout the body of the movie, there are all kinds of obstacles and upstaging attempts thrown Steve’s way through some of Billy’s cohorts or the gaming commission (heel allies or authority figure in pro wrestling terms), but he continues to be a man of honor and dignity by showing up at the live events to prove he’s the better competitor, only to have the cowardly heel make excuses as to why he can’t be there, even though they are clearly untrue.

When the babyface finally triumphs and sets the world record in front of everyone, he is folied by the heel who sends in a tape that immediately places Steve in second and not allowing him to triumph in his moment of glory. This can be replicated by an angle in pro wrestling where the babyface has triumphantly accomplished something that he has been striving for and is cut off by the heel, a beatdown perhaps, before he gets a chance to celebrate.

Throughout these events, numerous attempts to meet face to face are shrugged off by the heel and as a result, the tension in building for their ultimate showdown. The hopes of obtaining the ultimate prize, which in the movie is the recognition from Guinness as the world record holder for Donkey Kong, or obviously in pro wrestling, a world title are in the balance.

As the big showdown looms, they continue to get perspective from family members, friends, fellow gamers as to who they think should be recognized as the record holder. With these different perspectives, you quite don’t know who will come out on top but it really conveys the importance of that prize. I think that this is a crucial component of any good wrestling storyline as well and is a piece that is not focused on enough which is the importance of what is at stake. Obviously, this comes with the decreased importance of title belts, but if that can be reestablished, this type of stressed importance of the prize goes a long way in selling whatever you are trying market.

The ending of the movie involves the babyface standing triumphantly as the recognized Guinness World Record holder for Donkey Kong after numerous attempts while overcoming all of the obstacles put in front of him. This movie should be studied vigorously by everyone who has decision making abilities in the wrestling industry, as its end-to-end model presents what wrestling should look like in its simplest, purest form.

It’s an exercise on how to get emotionally invested in characters that you become closer to through the series of events that you are being shown. Wrestling in its truest form, and the way to maximize the percentage of TV watchers who become PPV buyers is to present two characters who you can emotionally attach to and have them fight for something meaningful that has ramifications on the winner and the loser.

I have outlined where I think that you can plug and play situations to fit the wrestling context and if you have seen the movie, I’d like to hear your perspective on how you felt it related to pro wrestling at torchparker@gmail.com. If you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend checking it out as it is a great model to study for anyone who is interested in the booking and storytelling aspect of wrestling.

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Tuesday, May 27

Last night’s announcement of the million dollar giveaway really shows the pressure being thrust upon the WWE to deliver short term ratings. Whether that pressure is from stockholders, USA, or another entity, the giveaway obviously doesn’t address the root cause of the ratings drop, but rather is another short term band-aid to alleviate the pressure for a few more months.

With last night’s announcement of the one million dollar giveaway, it looks like WWE will be taking on a game show-like feel for the next few weeks leading up to the draft in four weeks. This desperate stunt will probably bring some freeloading eyes to the product in hopes of getting rich quick, but could also alienate some fans who just want to see wrestling when they watch a wrestling show.

Here’s where TNA comes in.

Impact, with all of its glaring problems, had one of their hottest, most memorable angles close the show last Thursday with the beatdown of AJ Styles. The angle allowed Styles to be an extremely sympathetic figure and TNA has positioned him to be a top babyface in the company. Now I know what TNA can do to increase viwership has been beaten to death, and TNA has missed every opportunity they’ve had to do so, but I think that the stars may be aligning for a short period of time and how TNA takes advantage is crucial.

With the WWE in sweepstakes mode, fans who want serious wrestling may be more willing to sample a competitor’s product and, at least for the next few weeks, TNA, more than ever has to present a different product, and not WWE-lite. I think a lot of the TNA ratings slide post-Lockdown can be attributed to fans simply giving up on them after they saw what the product could look like given the proper tone. I believe that if they present the build to Styles-Angle (assuming Kurt can come back soon) in a similar serious tone, not necessarily MMA-like, they can maximize their gains on WWE’s latest PR stunt.

There are many angles that they can pull from in the past to get ideas for a sympathetic babyface coming back vowing revenge (Flair-Race and Flair-Valentine immediately come to mind) that will allow the sampling viewers to get emotionally invested into AJ’s character. From there, present a serious tone to the feud where each character’s motives are clear and the outcome of the match is important to each of their careers, in terms of world title opportunities and interest in the match would naturally build, as shown by the Lockdown buyrate.

It’s not like this angle is going to allow TNA to immediately competitive with WWE, but I think it will at least give the inevitable viewers who will tune out WWE during McMahon’s giveaway something as an alternative to watch and maybe finally TNA can develop a rapport with fans as something that is destination programming every Thursday night.

Did WWE’s ratings stunt leave you with a bad taste in your mouth? Are you more inclined to watch TNA? Justin is interested in your opinions. Any comments or opinions on this blog can be sent to torchparker@gmail.com.

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

With today’s announcement of the suspension of William Regal, WWE has once again needed to drop a major storyline because of wellness policy violation. Regal’s suspension, like Jeff Hardy’s, is of the 60 day variety, meaning that one more slip and they are gone from the company. While I agree that the Wellness Policy is a good idea, TNA has proven that they will take any ex-WWE star that they think can help them, drug problems or not. It’s with that that I would be fearful of pushing anyone with two wellness policy violations if I were WWE.

Everyone is clamoring for the Jeff Hardy push to the top based on the insane crowd reactions he has been getting and in normal circumstances, I’d say I agree, but he is one slip away from being TNA’s most valuable star. WWE needs to strike a balance when it comes to the wrestlers who have two violations. Can you imagine if WWE put their strap on Hardy and then he failed another test? Assuming the WWE test is legit, he’d have to be immediately terminated and free to go to the competition right off their TV with the belt.

I’m sure that Vince and creative are well aware of this potential problem and everyone can write about how they need fresh matches. I agree, but in reality, if we’re talking good business here, you can’t take that risk of basically building up a star only to have him be on the competition’s TV two weeks later.

WWE needs to focus on elevating mid-carders that have a clean record in terms of wellness policy violations (zero, or maybe one). This serves the need for fresh match-ups and also minimizes the risk of losing one of your main stars. If I were WWE, I’d look to current middle tier guys such as MVP, CM Punk, and others who have not been on the violation list and build them to a status that a Jeff Hardy or William Regal is at now in order to maximize your return on investment of pushing a guy. I know a lot of that is based on said performer’s charisma and connection with the crowd, but I would sacrifice a little of that to be sure that the new main eventers will be with the company in six months.

I know that it is not a popular opinion, but I feel that the amount of wellness policies you fail and your status on the card should have an inverse relationship as in the more you fail, the lower you drop down the card. It’s the only way the WWE can truly protect themselves against the inevitable third failure and against future failures.

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