ADR: The Potential Return

So the current #hotrumour is that WWE is interested in re-signing Alberto Del Rio. If you've lost track he's the guy who was released from his contract in August of last year (feels like a lot longer ago) for assaulting a member of the production crew backstage after they'd allegedly made racially derogatory comments about him. A response which, honestly, seems pretty just.

Yeah, he looks fetch but ADR didn't fit in too well in LU.

Since being released Del Rio has changed his name to Alberto El Patron, capitalising on WWE's baffling decision not to trademark the 'El Patron' nickname he used during his time in the company. His most prominent appearances have come in Lucha Underground, ROH and AAA. Truth be told he actually seemed a little out of place in LU, both in terms of character and wrestling style. In ROH he wrestled a handful of very good matches in early 2015. Then he stopped being booked for whatever reason (it's likely that his work with the other promotions mentioned here were behind that), a pity as 'The Essence of Excellence' felt like a good fit in the Land of Honor. His AAA work has seemed to go down better though. The promotion is clearly happy to have him as they put their top title, the mega championship, on him in December 2014 and he's still got it now.

You may be wandering why WWE would want to rehire someone they released for attacking a co-worker less than eighteen months ago. The answer here is simple: they have also lost Rey Mysterio and haven't managed to build up a new star to market to their Latin American fans. They need the star power.

Which is odd because they have the perfect guy on the roster. Kalisto is young, talented, wrestles the style, is the nationality required, and wears a mask. He's a significantly better worker now than a guy like Rey Mysterio is. He may not be as breathtaking or revolutionary as Mysterio in his prime but nobody will ever be that good (or at least that significant) again. The aerial antics of 90s Mysterio have been replicated, standardised and exaggerated upon too much for that. But Kalisto would still be a good choice for WWE to push if they want to have marketable Hispanic star.

Push this man.

That nothing much has been done with Kalisto is odd. He received a call-up to the main roster the night after WrestleMania 31 and... that's it really. He and Sin Cara, as the Lucha Dragons, have been booked as just another team. They've only wrestled on two pay-per-views, Elimination Chamber and SummerSlam (and Chamber technically wasn't even a PPV). They've not been protected or presented as anything special, nor has the team been booked to make it clear that Kalisto is a singles star in waiting. Had they been given more to do Kalisto would probably be in a good place to wrestle in prominent singles matches on the company's upcoming Mexico tour and act as a draw for the Fed.

It may be WWE's own fault they haven't replaced ADR and Mysterio but that is ultimately irrelevant. All that matters is that they haven't been replaced. Bringing back Del Rio is a good enough answer in the short term. He's an established name and could fill the top Latin star role as well as giving the top of the card a welcome fresh name to play with. If he were willing to go back, and chances are he would be for the right money (and one thing WWE isn't short of is money) and some form of resolution regarding his initial release, he could help WWE. But if he does they should also help themselves and build up Kalisto anyway. Because he's the guy with the long in-ring future who could be selling merch in ten years.

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.

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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.

Rey Mysterio's Long Awaited Release

After months of negotiation Rey Mysterio is finally a free man. On February 26  his contract with WWE expired and his profile was moved to the alumni section of the company website. Breaking from the norm no announcement was made by WWE regarding the news, though they did confirm the departure when contacted, by  variety of websites, for comment.

Say goodbye to those merch sales, mate.

The release is something Mysterio has wanted for a long time. He's spent much of the last four years sidelined with major, minor and nagging injuries. Two hour reign as WWE champion on July 25 2011 aside Mysterio has mostly been used as a bit part player when he has been available. Not that the promotion can be faulted for this: Mysterio had become so unreliable that they couldn't afford to risk starting a hefty push with him for fear that he'd be struck with another injury, necessitating his disappearance from TV again.

You can also see why it would have been frustrating for Rey Rey too. Being given the company's top title for two hours just to further a storyline about someone kayfabe quitting can't be particularly rewarding. Neither can teaming with botch monkey Sin Cara Uno, feuding endlessly with Alberto Del Rio, or being slung into Royal Rumbles to little fanfare despite being an established headline player. These things and more are what Mysterio was given by the creative department over the last four years.

As frustrating as it must have been I still think Mysterio would have been best served by returning to WWE for one final run culminating in an official retirement match. His work in the 90's and during his first few years with WWE was top notch. Even after the injuries started racking up in the mid-00's Mysterio was still a reliable performer who remained over with fans.

In 2015 Mysterio's body has taken a battering and is held together more through medical science than anything else. He cannot perform at the level he is most fondly remembered for and as he wasn't savvy enough to introduce ground-based, easier-to-perform moves while he could still blend them in with his more flashy repertoire he's now in a position where he's going to disappoint people more than please them by getting back into the ring, simply because he's not able to do the high-flying he once did. His existing work is strong enough to ensure his legacy survives no matter how bad things get for him but there's no sense putting on shoddy performances if it can be avoided. And this case it can most certainly can be avoided: after over a decade as WWE's top Hispanic star Mysterio doesn't need to worry about money.

Looking rather Rey Mysterio-like, it's Fenix!

But for whatever reason Mysterio had his heart set on a WWE release and a move to AAA and Lucha Underground. Perhaps I'll be proved wrong and Mysterio will display his old magic touch in these promotions. Whether that's the case or not it will at least be interesting to see him opposite his old pals Johnny Mundo and Alberto El Patron in a new environment. The prospect of seeing him face off with Fenix and Prince Puma is pretty enticing too. Though the less said about the prospect of another addition to the Mysterio versus Chavo Guerrero series the better.

A Mysterio run in Ring of Honor could be entertaining too, again under the proviso that he doesn't prove to be completely washed up. Considering Alberto El Patron's dual deal with Lucha Underground and ROH this isn't too farfetched a thought either. Matches opposite Jay Briscoe, Adam Cole, Cedric Alexander, AJ Styles, Michael Elgin and Roderick Strong would all have potential to be great, while Mysterio v ACH could be a modern company classic if Mysterio were on form.

His departure from WWE was not the ideal thing for Mysterio, whether he knows it yet or not. But it's done now. While I don't have the highest of hopes for his in-ring career away from the known and safe surroundings of WWE there is potential in it. Hopefully we'll see that potential realised, rather than witnessing Mysterio become an addition to the list of guys who didn't know when to call it quits. Because ultimately I like Rey Mysterio and I don't want to see him Ric Flair himself.

Ring of Alberto

Last Friday Ring of Honor made the surprise announcement that Alberto El Patron, formerly WWE’s Alberto Del Rio, would be appearing for them in 2015. So far he’s been confirmed for the January 3 television taping, the 13^th Anniversary Show on March 1, and a pair of house shows in between. I would assume he’ll make an appearance or two in February too.

With or without further appearances this is a big coup for ROH. El Patron himself stated a few weeks prior to the announcement that he wanted to work for multiple US-based promotions with a television presence, naming Lucha Underground and TNA. It made sense that those companies would go for such a deal. Lucha Underground is based around the lucha style that Patron is familiar with and TNA is a company with a noted predilection for former WWE wrestlers. That ROH were the ones to procure Alberto’s services says a lot about the state of TNA, and ROH’s willingness to open the chequebook for the right name.

I’m interested in the logistics of Alberto’s new deals. While I can imagine Lucha Underground and ROH would be willing to cooperate on their use of El Patron it seems unlikely they’d be comfortable with him appearing for both at the same time. My guess is that Alberto will flit between the two throughout the year, doing a stint of a few months before leaving for the other league.

But for now all that’s confirmed is his deal with Ring of Honor. There’s a good chance he could bring some new fans in with him thanks to years of exposure in WWE (a number of which were spent at the top of the card) and I’m sure that’s a factor in why ROH have signed him. But that’s not all they’ll have signed him for. ROH still prides itself on being a company where wrestling ability comes first. And Alberto has ability.

El Patron pointing. Classic stuff.

That said I can imagine tweaks being made to his repertoire. His signature moves from WWE are taken in ROH. O'Reilly uses the armbreaker, while the super kick and the back cracker are general transition moves used by anyone and everyone. Seeing him upgrade his move set will be part of the experience of seeing him in a fresh setting.

El Patron versus pretty much anyone on the ROH roster could be good but there are a handful of guys I’m particularly interested in seeing him face. I imagine AJ Styles would top most lists, a pairing many would probably label a “dream match.” They could have a cracking match, particularly if they took the cross armbreaker versus Calf Killer route.

He could have a solid match with Roderick Strong too. They’re not entirely dissimilar in terms of character. One may be a Mexican aristocrat and the other a frat boy, but they both have a degree of arrogance to them that could blend nicely.

El Patron versus Michael Elgin could have a great climactic exchange of signature moves. It's a strength of Big Maggle's. The combination of Alberto’s new moves and a few of his WWE ones (which could be deployed in select longer matches) should give him quite an arsenal to draw on. It would be nice to see a babyface Alberto against stocky heel Elgin too. I think it would be an interesting dynamic.

Personally the match I’d most like to see is El Patron versus Kyle O'Reilly. As Del Rio he worked as much of an MMA inspired style as was realistically possible. I expect he'll go further with it now he's working elsewhere. It's something O'Reilly already does, and does well. The two could do a really good strong style submission match.

Then there are guys like ACH, Matt Sydal,  Bobby Fish, Jay Lethal and Adam Cole. All of them could have a good match with Alberto. As could ROH champion Jay Briscoe. In fact I’d go as far as to say that ROH should strongly consider El Patron v Briscoe for the main event of their anniversary show. It’s easy to imagine Briscoe interrupting El Patron’s debut promo to say he wants to be challenged by the best before offering the newcomer  a March 1 title shot.

Whatever Ring of Honor end up going with it’s good to see them get a signing of this level. They put on a good product and deserve someone with that extra bit of star power. In TNA he’d have been ruined within months. In ROH he can help attract new eyes and wrestle matches suited to his style. Works for me.

There's Something About Ivelisse

When Tough Enough returned in 2011 one of the show’s fourteen contestants was Ivelisse Velez, a 22-year-old who’d been wrestling on and off since 2007. She was one of the season’s better potential wrestlers, having a good look, athletic ability, and a demonstrable passion for the wrestling business. Had she not been cut after suffering a leg injury I think there’s a good chance she could have made it to the end of the series and won.

Not that getting cut was necessarily the worst news. Having obviously impressed somebody Velez was signed to a developmental contract later in 2011. She worked for both FCW and NXT over the following nine months, before being released in the autumn of 2012. I saw all three of her matches on NXT (a victory over Paige, a count out win over Natalya, and a loss to then-monster Tamina Snuka) at the time and enjoyed them well enough, but she didn’t make a huge impression on me. From what I can remember she struck me as perfectly competent but nothing more.

That changed when she rocked up on Impact Wrestling in early 2013 as part of their ill-fated (and ill-thought out) but well intentioned Gut Check segment. For those who’ve blocked Gut Check from their memories or been lucky enough to never see it it was a segment presented as something of a shoot, where two wrestlers would compete for permanent spots on the TNA roster. Ivelisse cut a fantastically passionate promo about how she’d loved wrestling since she was a kid, saying that she desperately wanted to make it.

Nine times out of ten wrestlers trot that out when they’re in similar situations, and in most cases I’m sure it’s true. But it’s been heard so often that it’s hard not to see it as something of a cliché these days. That wasn’t the case with Ivelisse. She gave an excellent performance that made her stand out. She seemed particularly sincere with her claim and her desire to succeed. It was heartening to see someone like that in TNA.

Ivelisse was booked to win her try-out match opposite Lei’D Tapa but it was Tapa who got the contract. It seemed a contradictory way of operating, but that’s TNA for you. Tapa would be dispatched to OVW to “learn how to work” before returning as Gail Kim’s bodyguard, only to get released for not being a good enough wrestler. It strikes me now as a perfect example of the age old wrestling approach of desiring size over anything else. And also of TNA not having a clue what they were doing.

Since then Ivelisse has most prominently worked for the various WWN Live promotions. She’s worked as a valet for the likes of AR Fox and Rich Swann on EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA shows, usually being used to combat Su Yung in her guise as the Premier Athlete Brand’s secretary. Her work there has been fine for what it is. The fem-gangster act isn’t the best thing ever but it at least seems believable and is played with conviction. We’ve also seen her on Lucha Underground, so it’s not like she’s lacking TV exposure.

Ivelisse likes a rag-scarf.

But it’s Shine where she’s truly… well, shined¹. Since her WWE release she’s become a regular for the promotion, earning herself a top spot, being a founding member of Valkyrie, and enjoying a reign as the group’s second ever champion with quality matches against the likes of Mia Yim, Serena Deeb, and Nevaeh. She has made herself someone to watch and helped make Shine a group to pay attention to. When she was champion she carried the title like it meant something to her, a trait far too rare amongst wrestlers.

Getting released by WWE in 2012 was probably, in hindsight, about the best thing that could have happened to Velez. She’s getting regular work against a wider variety of opponents than she would have had were she based at the developmental performance centre, and she has far more creative freedom. She’s also been on a tour of China, something not even WWE would have offered her.

But as well as she’s doing outside of WWE I hope to see her make her way back there at some point. It’s always nice to see a hard-working performer getting paid good money, and matches pitting Ivelisse against Sasha Banks, Bayley, Charlotte, Natalya and Paige could all be superb. Basically if WWE ever get their act together with women’s wrestling Ivelisse would be a great signing. She’s got the look, the passion, and the ring skills to be an asset to women’s wrestling and any promotion, from Shine to WWE, that has the sense to hire her.

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¹ This is possibly a grammatical error. It could be “shone” rather than “shined”. But I felt comfortable with this as I’m a fan of puns. Deal with it.

America's Number Two

The wrestling landscape in North America has changed a fair bit since the beginning of the year and it's going to continue changing for a while yet. The disappearance of TNA from Spike, the debut of Lucha Underground, and the charismatic enigma that is Global Force Wrestling have had and will have their parts to play. The only constant has been WWE at the top of the pile. That's unlikely to change. No wrestling company, established or entirely new, can come close to touching WWE. They have access to the biggest names, they have the most hours of TV exposure, they run multiple events per week, and they have their own online streaming service. They even have a mostly autonomous satellite group that operates on a similar scale to most of the "competition".

Most importantly WWE simply is wrestling to the average guy or gal on the street. It would take a colossal external effort and a series of massive blunders for WWE to be toppled.

Can these guys help TNA remain relevant?

Until recently the consensus number two promotion North America had was TNA.  Their Spike TV deal not being renewed has been cited as the main reason this is no longer considered to be the case. Personally I've always felt uncomfortable with TNA having this status. They've had it by default really, due to their access to ex-WWE guys (looking for a payday) and being on a TV channel accessible in more North American homes than any other wrestling company save WWE. It all stems from the initial choice the company made to use ex-WWE and -WCW guys prominently.

TNA has certainly never been an alternative though, and that what I feel a number two company should at least in part strive to be. I've always felt that Ring of Honor are more deserving of being at least a spiritual number two due to their markedly different presentation and the rarity of former WWE (and to a lesser extent, TNA) employees on their roster. That lack of famous names has hurt their general perception though, as has their lesser degree of availability. Since 2002, the year both ROH and TNA were founded, ROH have been pegged as Americas number three. Had ROH done the same as TNA and used some of the readily available big names when they were running their first shows they may have been considered a bigger deal across the following decade.

ROH has always tended  to run shows more regularly than TNA, especially over the last few years. And for the most part those shows have drawn bigger audiences, indicating that they actually have a greater following. They were also a profitable entity for far longer than TNA was. I'm not sure how they're fairing under current owners SBG but before the buyout ROH operated at some sort of profit as they were able to stay in business. TNA has famously been losing money, practically since the day it was formed.

TNA's move to Destination America has forced a change of this perception. Ring of Honor is now more readily available in a larger number of US and Canadian homes. They will continue to run shows more frequently. They have a return to televised pay-per-view announced (it’s entirely possible that TNA won’t produce pay-per-views at all once they debut on Destination America). I also think ROH have made progress at closing the gap in name recognition between themselves and TNA. Over the last two years they’ve made decisions designed to make more people aware of their existence, from using MMA personality Tom Lawlor to running a show at a baseball pitch (a gig picked up after TNA was unable to run the event as they had done in previous years).

John Morrison versus Ricochet? I'm down with that.

But what we can't say about ROH is that they will be the only promotion that offers an alternative to the WWE style. Lucha Underground has done a very good job in its first month of showing that it's a very different prospect in the ring to WWE (although they've fallen into the old heel authority figure trap). They put a strong focus on actual wrestling and promote a style which is significantly different to WWE’s. The storyline’s they’ve presented so far have revolved around the matches, rather than who’s in charge of booking the matches. And it’s also worth noting that everyone who appears has a character.

It's possible TNA will take their move to a new channel as a chance to make some changes. Producer Bryan edwards has already tweeted that "everything" will change and Dixie Carter has wheeled out her staple gimmick of promising big announcements. Usually I'd say these things should be taken with a grain of salt (or a fistful in Dixie's case) but it's too logical for it not to be true here.

Realistically a new logo and a new set, with or without the six-sided ring, are not going to determine TNA's success. What they script and who they sign is going to do that. Unfortunately a change to the writing staff is not something TNA has promised so far, and they’re unlikely to. Presenting something different to WWE and the myriad of other competitors is what's going to attract eyes to a wrestling promotion in 2015.

Of course, to present something different you have to be presenting something to begin with. Which brings us to GFW. Despite being announced on April 7 nothing tangible has actually happened with the company yet. Yeah, they've announced an assortment of partnerships with existing outfits and confirmed that they'll broadcast NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 9 on pay-per-view but that's not much for nearly eight months’ work. Nor is it anything that makes Global Force look like something other than a glorified streaming service.

GFW cannot become a number two promotion without a lot of work. So much work in fact that it's impossible to envisage it happening from where we are now. There's too little to the company. If GFW manages to get some sort of TV deal and brings together talent from Japan, Mexico, Europe, Canada and the US for extravagant TV tapings and continues to air foreign shows then it could earn itself a following. If it just sticks with the foreign shows then there's no way it will become North America's number two promotion.

As things stand right now the battle for the number two spot is set to be between TNA, ROH and Lucha Underground. TNA has been on a downward spiral over the last four years. It would be nice if that changed with a reboot on Destination America, but going on their track record it’s unlikely. Which would leave Lucha Underground and ROH to vie for the spot. Right now I think ROH has the better position, with a more established name and a niche in the market all their own. But Lucha Underground has everything it needs to grow, and if it gets Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio on its shows in 2015 then the promotion could be a very big deal in a year’s time.