Post by Goldash on Jul 20, 2011 20:12:47 GMT -5
I saw the term "boom period" surface on many wrestling forums in the past few weeks. To my surprise, I didn't find this totally outlandish. While I won't jump to conclusions myself, I am actually assuming that wrestling may be going back in the right direction. Let's break down some factors.
-Ring of Honor sold to Sinclair Broadcasting, new TV deal: This is a big deal for a promotion whose big flaw always seemed to be their promotional skills. With a leading TV company at the helm and an organization no-doubt full of television-minded people, ROH is now poised to make an impact not yet seen in its history. I compare this to ECW finally going national - I predict its audience will expand now that it's going to be syndicated on local non-cable "superstation" affiliates. Hopefully, ROH will have the production features, quality matches and good booking needed to return pure wrestling to a mass audience. Sure, there's still a lot to worry about, and many things can go wrong...but on paper, this is a great move for the organization.
-WWE's recent angles and events/HHH's influence:You can read my post MITB thread in this forum, so I'm not going to repeat what I said here. But if Hunter has any clout in the organization despite being the new on-screen boss, there may be a chance the #1 promotion in the world looks to at least move toward some kind of wrestling purity in the future. No, I'm not saying it's going to become purist overnight, WWE is still an entertainment company above all, and they'll still make baffling decisions. But the radical developments at MITB are evidence the WWE wants to get back the people it once alienated. Either that or it's a massive ruse to draw people in and quickly kiss them goodbye, as WWE is known to do on many occasions. Last summer's Nexus fiasco and the downfall of WWECW after One Night Stand 2005 is solid proof. But the fact WWE mentioned "wrestlers", "wrestling" and "our sport" in recent promos and commentary tells me something's up over there.
-TNA's rebranding - a sign of things to come? Out of all the reasons, this may be the least plausible. Even WWE booking Daniel Bryan against CM Punk in a Wrestlemania main event seems more likely at this point, considering how dead-in-the-water, messy and political TNA's product has become. Not even the moniker "Impact Wrestling" is enough to change the harm the promotion has done to itself post-Hogan. Yes, the rumored Paul Heyman/Gabe Sapolsky takeover was certainly music to the IWC's ears, but that's not happening anytime soon. Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan are still major players in the company - and are making everything as painful to watch as late-era WCW, rebranding efforts or not. Out of all three promotions, TNA/Impact seems the least likely to reinvent or innovate. That doesn't mean they can right their wrongs, but it may take a creative coup d'etat or an entirely new vision to bring the promotion back to the amazing potential it had in the early-to-mid 2000's.
Of course, all of this could be truly stereotypical IWC propaganda and things may just go on as they have been going on for years. But I'm beginning to take notice of these changes and the potential impact they may have on the industry. As with anything, though, potential is only speculation until it gets carried out. Imminent boom period or not, something interesting is happening throughout the industry. We'll see where it goes from here.
-Ring of Honor sold to Sinclair Broadcasting, new TV deal: This is a big deal for a promotion whose big flaw always seemed to be their promotional skills. With a leading TV company at the helm and an organization no-doubt full of television-minded people, ROH is now poised to make an impact not yet seen in its history. I compare this to ECW finally going national - I predict its audience will expand now that it's going to be syndicated on local non-cable "superstation" affiliates. Hopefully, ROH will have the production features, quality matches and good booking needed to return pure wrestling to a mass audience. Sure, there's still a lot to worry about, and many things can go wrong...but on paper, this is a great move for the organization.
-WWE's recent angles and events/HHH's influence:You can read my post MITB thread in this forum, so I'm not going to repeat what I said here. But if Hunter has any clout in the organization despite being the new on-screen boss, there may be a chance the #1 promotion in the world looks to at least move toward some kind of wrestling purity in the future. No, I'm not saying it's going to become purist overnight, WWE is still an entertainment company above all, and they'll still make baffling decisions. But the radical developments at MITB are evidence the WWE wants to get back the people it once alienated. Either that or it's a massive ruse to draw people in and quickly kiss them goodbye, as WWE is known to do on many occasions. Last summer's Nexus fiasco and the downfall of WWECW after One Night Stand 2005 is solid proof. But the fact WWE mentioned "wrestlers", "wrestling" and "our sport" in recent promos and commentary tells me something's up over there.
-TNA's rebranding - a sign of things to come? Out of all the reasons, this may be the least plausible. Even WWE booking Daniel Bryan against CM Punk in a Wrestlemania main event seems more likely at this point, considering how dead-in-the-water, messy and political TNA's product has become. Not even the moniker "Impact Wrestling" is enough to change the harm the promotion has done to itself post-Hogan. Yes, the rumored Paul Heyman/Gabe Sapolsky takeover was certainly music to the IWC's ears, but that's not happening anytime soon. Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan are still major players in the company - and are making everything as painful to watch as late-era WCW, rebranding efforts or not. Out of all three promotions, TNA/Impact seems the least likely to reinvent or innovate. That doesn't mean they can right their wrongs, but it may take a creative coup d'etat or an entirely new vision to bring the promotion back to the amazing potential it had in the early-to-mid 2000's.
Of course, all of this could be truly stereotypical IWC propaganda and things may just go on as they have been going on for years. But I'm beginning to take notice of these changes and the potential impact they may have on the industry. As with anything, though, potential is only speculation until it gets carried out. Imminent boom period or not, something interesting is happening throughout the industry. We'll see where it goes from here.
