Key to the (Alleged) Boom

When he was doing initial interviews to hype Global Force Wrestling last April (yeah, fourteen months on and they've still not run a show) Jeff Jarrett talked about how it was a good time to start a wrestling promotion. He predicted another boom period. I was sceptical of that claim. While I don't think it's come to pass on quite the level 'Double J' seemed to be expecting wrestling does seem more popular, more exciting, now than it did fourteen months ago. Or at least wrestling fans have become more feverous with their praise. That's pretty much the same thing, right?

The so-called Wednesday Night Wars are a good example of wrestling being more exciting. ROH is now the lead-in show for TNA's Impact Wrestling on Destination America, in direct competition with WWE's white hot NXT show and the weekly one hour cinematic masterpiece that is Lucha Underground. All of those shows but Impact are great. They have their own distinct tropes and identities and they feel fresh, new and exciting. Impact, despite its numerous flaws and the fact that it's just flat out not good, has a dedicated fan base who will tune in (and, perhaps more importantly, defend it) every week. It's a concentration of shows that illustrates the variety of styles and approaches that can be taken within the pro wrestling format.

Calling it a rise in popularity rather than a definitive boom period also neatly covers the issue of WWE's dominance. The phrase boom period conjures up an image of another wrestling promotion becoming successful enough to challenge WWE's status as top (big) dog. That won't happen. WWE has so much cash flowing in and so many draws and talents at their disposal that they're going to be on top until some sort of major, unpredictable catastrophe befalls them. The company best placed to challenge them, New Japan, are years away from even trying in North America, although they're comfortably smashing WWE to pieces in Japan.

No, a rise in popularity makes it clear we're discussing the status of the wrestling biz as a whole, particularly the non-WWE segment. And this finally brings me around to my point: I think the company that will do best as wrestling gets a little more popular in mainstream culture is the company that makes the best use of female talent.

Give this woman a women's division to head up. Watch the money roll in.

Looking back it's clear that the last few years have seen the status of women's wrestling progress considerably. The prominence of Ivelisse Velez and Sexy Star in Lucha Underground and the entire women's division of NXT has simply helped to highlight the point, because they're TV shows. SHIMMER has been going for ten years now and has, along with Florida-based Shine, helped to create an environment in which all-women companies are a viable option for promoters.

These promotions being in a position to continue running shows illustrates that there's an audience for women's wrestling. So does the reaction that the performances of the wrestlers above get on TV. Just look at the response to the Banks versus Lynch match from Takeover: Unstoppable. WWE and TNA have been letting us down for years with shoddy women's divisions booked as afterthoughts, despite each group having had a solid division at one time or another over the last fifteen years¹. Ring of Honor doesn't even have a women's division at all.

There's a gap in the market for a wrestling TV show that emphasises women's wrestling. NXT has made a lot of headway but so have LU, and it wouldn't be impossible for ROH to look at hiring some more women to go along with Maria, Veda Scott (who never seems to wrestle in ROH despite doing so elsewhere) and ODB. Global Force could theoretically launch with a fantastic women's league if Jarrett wanted to, there's enough available talent to be signed up. You can turn on any wrestling show and see guys killing it great matches. Making women min event attractions would be new and something wrestling fans are ready for. More importantly it would be a way to hook non-fans with something different. That's why I think good quality women's wrestling is going to be of increased importance in wrestling's future, whether there's another boom period coming or not.

***

¹ For TNA it was the Knockouts. In the mid-00s they, along with the X Division, were a reason to watch TNA in the mid-00s. Then the writers decided to revert to the WWE approach of focusing on the world title scene, keeping women and cruiserweights as a side attraction.

A few years earlier WWE had Trish Stratus, Molly Holy, Ivory, Lita, Victoria, Gail Kim and others in a competitive women's division that produced good matches. It's not clear why they decided to scale the division back and reduce it to the filler role it occupied for about a decade. At least the company as a whole remained profitable and had other, enjoyable things going on instead. Which can't be said for TNA.

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 40

That Wrestling Podcast Episode 40 by Dave Hatton on Mixcloud

A subject I’ve wanted to write about for quite a while now is whether or not a large scale (or larger than the current scale) British wrestling promotion could succeed. There are enough talented wrestlers based in Britain to put together a worthwhile roster but that’s only part of what would be required. Regular shows available for viewing on TV or online, ongoing storylines, and an identity beyond being just another company using the same guys to put on good matches would all be necessary too.

This is not an image I'm happy with. For various reasons

It’s a subject that would take thousands of words to do justice, and that sort of thing takes time to write. It doesn’t take long to say them though. So the topic seemed liked a good one for That Wrestling Podcast to cover.

As part of the topic Michael and I talk about guys we’d like to see in a leading British promotion, what sort of style we think would work, the scale on which the company could operate and platforms that could be used to get it seen. It’s not as comprehensive as the subject warrants but it’s close enough. Maybe we’ll come back to it at some point. It is, as I say, something I’ll write about at some point in the future.

Also discussed (for the bulk of the episode in fact) are names synonymous with Extreme Championship Wrestling. Michael and I each pick four guys to go on to a (completely fictional) Mount Rushmore celebrating the talents of ECW. Among the names discussed are Taz, Raven, Sabu, the Dudleys, Rob Van Dam, Paul Heyman, Rhino, Joey Styles and, of course, Jerry Lynn. It proves a far more interesting discussion than a WCW Mount Rushmore because there are so many more men and women linked to ECW than there are to WCW. The reason? Most of WCW's big names worked for the WWF before and WWE after their stints in World Championship Wrestling. Plus, y'know, WCW was really defined by Goldberg's winning streak and the invasion of a outsider faction. Beyond that there was little identity to WCW, and that makes it hard to link guy's to the promotion.

Anyway, how about you press play?