So I took a snapshot of the match ratings up through the the last week of ECW and moved them to a separate page. You can find the ratings from 7/7/2009 to 2/19/2010 on the TV Match Ratings Including ECW page.

Growing up I remember watching a lot of invisible man movies. There was also a TV show starring David McCallum.

Just like most people, I used to think about how cool it would be if I was invisible (you can use your imagination to come up with your own reasons why). But eventually, you would figure out that it really sucks, because people would keep bumping into you all the time. On top of that, you would spend your days either freezing or sunburned depending on your chosen climate (they hadn’t yet perfected invisible clothing in my fantasy).

The good news is that despite all the problems, you would still be able to find work in Japan.

One of the biggest problems with the wrestling in the WWE can be summed up with one quote (the emphasis is mine):

There are two things WWE wants you to know. First, the operative word is “entertainment,” not “wrestling.” Second, watch how you refer to the talent. They’re not wrestlers; the men are “superstars” and the women “divas.”

The WWE has spent at least the last several years, maybe the last decade, telling anyone who would listen that they are an entertainment company and not a wrasslin‘ company. Wrestling is apparently a dirty word.

Here are a couple more choice quotes from the same article:

As Wilson points out, there’s a certain logic inherent in having women at the top of WWE. “We’re an entertainment company,” she notes.

and this

Goldsmith, who moonlights as an extra in TV soap operas, says her biggest challenge is dispelling misconceptions about WWE. “One of those,” she states, “is us constantly being called professional wrestling. That term just doesn’t give us the credibility we deserve.”

Nice. What is that supposed to mean? You have wrestling in the name of your company! Other than putting out some crappy movies using their WWE roster as “talent” (See No Evil, The Marine, 12 Rounds, The Condemned), what do they do besides wrestling? The article talks about TV, Pay-Per-View, and merchandise, but it’s all wrestling related.

I’m not sure when all this distancing started, but it may have been around the time they went public with some of their stock. Or when they started putting out crappy movies (although No Holds Barred came out way back in 1989). There was definitely a shift when they decided to enter the talk show circuit and go with the weekly guest hosts on WWE Monday Night Raw.

I doubt they would ever drop the second ‘W’ from their name (so as not to be confused with that women’s channel on cable), but how long before they change what the acronym stands for?

Remember The Nashville Network (TNN)? When they started to change their format from redneck to a “the first network for men” (which is what I thought ESPN was), they kept the logo and abbreviation but put out a press release that they now wanted to be called “The National Network“. Prince and P-Diddy would be proud. Eventually they would change to “SpikeTV” and get sued by Spike Lee, but that’s a whole other story. Now I guess they’re just called “Spike”

How about World Wide Entertainment? After all it used to be the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) until they dropped the ‘W’ in 1979.

My advice for the WWE– don’t forget what brung ya to the dance. The more you distance yourself from the wrestling, the more you will distance your fans.

I’ve already gone on about how some of us “want our wrestling back“, so I won’t go into detail again. If they think they can generate their $530 million in annual revenue off of producing direct-to-DVD action movies (The Marine 2), they haven’t looked at DVD sales charts lately.

Say what you want about TNA (and most people do), they go out of their way to proudly state they are a wrestling company.

Unfortunately, it’s right before they bring out Lacey Von Eric, the worst third generation wrestler of all time.

The TNA announce team (and I’m assuming also the boneheads in charge) apparently thought that they would have a lot more new viewers to the program because it was on a Monday, and people are only allowed to watch wrestling on Monday nights. The normal Thursday time slot is probably what was keeping most people from watching TNA. Yeah… right.

Let’s get right into how this program faired, and what kind of impression the broadcast would make on someone watching for the first time (you know, the ones who bowl on Thursdays).

The Good

I thought the TNA Knockouts (a.k.a. female wrestlers) were given some decent air time to showcase their talents. The ODB vs. Tara match was good, and the Hamada/Awesome Kong vs. Taylor Wilde/Sarita tag match was very good. Both matches resulted in title changes, but I’m not sure if that really matters much anymore. Gone are the days when a champion would hold a title for over a year [I held the MIW TV Title for 15 months, but don't ask me how many times I defended it ].

The D’Angelo Dinero vs. Desmond Wolfe match was also very good. I think Desmond Wolfe is becoming one of my favorites, mostly because he seems to bring his opponents up to his level and focuses on ring psychology and actual wrestling during the match.

The main event of A.J. Styles vs. Kurt Angle was awesome. This sentiment was echoed by the fans as they alternated chants of “This is awesome!” and “This is wrestling!“.

I thought it was also good that Hogan came out afterword and publicly said that “these two are the greatest wrestlers in the world today”, to at least give us the impression that his ego may not take over the entire company.

One problem is that a lot of viewers probably didn’t stick around through all the other crap that went on to make it to this, or were switching over to Raw to see Bret Hart’s confrontation with Vince McMahon, so they may not have seen the best TNA has to offer. I saw a few comments around the net about the TNA and WWE Monday shows that bashed TNA and didn’t mention the Styles/Angle match at all.

The Bad

Now the bad [...deep breath...]. The hardest part here is limiting this to less than 10,000 words. There is so much I can say, but I’ll try to just touch on a few things. A lot of what was bad about it had to do with setting us up to think it was going to be good.

Here was the setup… The lip service from Hogan and Bischoff has been that they were going to “shake things up”, and they would “change wrestling forever”, and that it “won’t be like what you’ve seen before”. Sounded like they were trying to say it wouldn’t be another WCW. They also made the point that there is a lot of young talent in TNA that deserves the spotlight.

Right on!

They interviewed fans outside of the building who said that they “want to see wrestling” and didn’t want to see some cartoonish “kiddie” wrestling or sports entertainment (meaning WWE). Basically, they want their wrestling back.

I’m with ya!

So TNA had a full hour head start on WWE Monday Night Raw. They had a lot of time to showcase how they are not just the same old guys, and how this will be different, and how the young talent should be getting a push.

Here’s how they blew it:

Reason #1: Dumping on the Cruiserweight Division

Instead of having several matches during the night featuring X-Division wrestlers (TNA’s cruiserweight “division”), they throw eight of the most talented ones in the ring for a single match. In a steel cage. One that looked like a bird cage. A bird cage made out of steel. WTF?

They put them in a match that can’t possibly showcase their skills because it’s total chaos, you can’t really go off of the top rope or outside the ring, and nobody can even figure out how to get out of the damn thing. The company has bragged for weeks about the skills of their young talent. Well, here they are folks.

On top of that, you end the match quickly calling it a “no contest”. This was during the opening of the show. Your new viewers get to hear the entire arena chant, “This is bullsh*t!” while the sound guy fumbles for the mute button. Good first impression.

And then, what about all of the guys they’ve talked up for weeks (Motor City Machine Guns, Beer Money, Rhyno)? At some point during the night they end up layed out in the back from some unknown attacker.

In the first hour and 16 minutes there were exactly two matches.

Two.

Did you forget we said we want our wrestling back?

Reason #2: Hogan’s Cronies

They start out the show with their new “broadcast partner” Bubba The Love Sponge to do fan interviews. Then throughout the night more of Hogan’s cronies appear. Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags (The Nasty Boys). Val Venis. Sean Waltman, the bloated tick that is Scott Hall. And of course Eric Bischoff.

Unfortunately I also have to include my favorite of all time, Ric Flair, in this list, who also showed up to collect a pay day without speaking or having any involvement.

After telling us for weeks that it isn’t going to be like it was before, they bring all of these old guys in. Like before.

Even if it was just for one night, it was one night too many.

Reason #3: WCW All Over Again

We’re going to do something new and exciting! We will spend 20 mins or so teasing Hogan’s arrival by showing you his limo driving through the streets of Orlando. If you were to put in a crawl at the bottom of the screen, it would be the same thing they did in 1994 on WCW. Too bad he wasn’t in a white Ford Bronco if they were going for nostalgia.

Hogan comes out with pseudo nWo music playing, with the dark beard and the black clothes. Later he’s got Hall, Waltman, and Kevin Nash in the ring. Just like back in the ’90s in WCW.

Oh, look. It’s Sting. He’s dressed in black and up in the rafters. Just like we all remember from WCW. And he’s also a mute again too.

Someone dressed in black wearing a hood attacks Styles again. Looks like the Black Scorpion angle from WCW (please, don’t let it be Flair under the hood again!)

And a Few On the Fence

I’m still on the fence about a few things. Jeff Hardy showing up on TNA was surprising to me (I don’t read the spoilers). I couldn’t tell if he was actually going to work for the company, or just showed up for an appearance like the rest of the riff-raff. He would definitely fit in, but I have a hard time seeing him anywhere but the WWE right now (if circumstances didn’t prevent him from working there).

Ric Flair (I know I already had him listed under the “bad”, so what) is another wildcard. With his great “retirement” sendoff in the WWE after Wrestlemania 24 in 2008, I hate to see him take the chance of ruining that moment by being involved with TNA. But it’s clear that even at the age of 61 he can’t stay out of the business.

What’s in Store for 2010?

The reason I get so ticked off about TNA is that they have such great talent that constantly gets misused by “creative”. I keep reading about how everyone says TNA sucks and I just don’t get it. Their storylines suck, but if you look at their roster, 80% of them are as good or better than any of the wrestlers in the WWE. WWE programming is slightly better because of their production quality and storylines, not because their talent is better. But if you’re like me and fast forward through the WWE storylines every week and just watch the matches, it’s like getting a crap sandwich- hold the bread.

I saw this quoted somewhere else, but I can’t remember where:

It took Jeff Jarrett over 6 years to build up TNA to what it is today. It will take Hogan and Bischoff 6 months to run it into the ground.

I don’t have a good feeling about this based on the first show with Hogan in control. I’ve already said that I would be monitoring the quality of wrestling programming through the end of June of 2010. If the Hogan/Bischoff clock started on January 4th, that should be all the time I need to see it hit rock bottom.

Previous articles are always available through the Archives box on the right, the Category selection, or the Search box.

• Birth of the Doctor (Jan): The story of how my doctor gimmick was born (yes, it’s just a gimmick)
• Aaaaaaaaagh! (Feb): One of the funnier moments from wrestling training camp. The hardest thing about going over the top rope backwards is not screaming.
• TNA Boneheads Volume 2 (Feb): Some of TNA’s “great” talent decisions were getting rid of Petey Williams and Sonjay Dutt. Yeah, right.
• Never Say Never (Mar): After more than 7 yrs away from the wrestling business, I ended up in a battle royal (correction: a Royal Rumble) at Robert’s Sports Bar in Mounds View, MN. How did that happen?
• “Playboy” Pete vs. Dr. Darin Davis (Mar): Video of a match between former tag team partners that took place back on Mar 25th, 2000.
• The State of Pro Wrestling Today (Apr): My take on Jim Cornette’s rant about wrestling storylines and the team of writers responsible
• The Dummy (May): Fond memories of one of my old training partners. The one that never complained about being stiffed.
• TNA Adds More Has-Beens to Roster (Jun): I get on TNA a lot because they have the most potential and talent to put on a wrestling product. Adding the likes of Shane Douglas and Raven didn’t sit well with me.
• Do You Know Who That Was? (Jun): A case of mistaken identity.
• TV Viewership Stats Wrapup (July): Wrap-up of some stats on TV matches that I kept track of for a year (July 2008 thru July 2009)
• Don’t Mess with the Ref (Jul): If you’re thinking about storming the ring after a few beers– think again. You probably didn’t consider the referee as a factor.
• Raw Guest Hosts Not About Ratings? (Aug): The WWE Monday Night Raw guest hosting idea was not about ratings. At first I thought it was just to collect some publicity $$ from the marketing machine of whatever the guest celebrity was trying to plug. But it turned out to be more than that (see further below)
• Darin Davis, D.D.S (Aug): Remember the time a promoter didn’t want me to do the procto gimmick? I certainly do. More than 10 mins notice would have been appreciated.
• WWE + Talk Show = Raw? (Sep): Yep, the Raw guest host idea is about creating a new equivalent of a talk show circuit for celebrity publicity tours, not ratings.
• More Fun Than a Figure-Four Leglock (Oct): With your North Carolina Education Lottery winnings, you can take a trip to Space Mountain. Wooooooo!
• It’s WCW All Over Again (Oct):  TNA = RMS Titanic, Hogan + Bischoff = Huge Iceberg. Bring them together and you get a big disaster with many casualties.
• Dear Santa, Please Bring Me A Ring Bell Alarm Clock (Nov): Too late for Christmas, but my birthday is coming up…
• Another Crack at TV Wrestling Quality Measures (Nov): Another year-long tracking of some TV wrestling match stats to see if I can see any trends in the quality of the programming. Tracking actually started in July, but I didn’t post anything until November.
• Do You Want Your Wrestling Back? (Dec): Prompted by Jim Cornette’s Contract with Wrestling Fans, I add my $0.02 to the mix and ask for my wrestling back.

From the WrestleZone article:

According to the source, Daivari did in fact ask for his release from TNA, as other reports are suggesting, as he has been frustrated with the direction of his character for quite some time now. It appears that when Jeff Jarrett took his hiatus from TNA and was pushed out of his creative position in the company, things started to go downhill for Daivari.

…Daivari personally asked for the match finish to be changed so that he would be the one to draw the pink slip, and it would be a way for TNA to write his character off TV as he had wanted to leave the company.

As I have said a few times before, Daivari went to the same wrestling training camp that I did. He started in pro wrestling when he was 17 and still in high school.

I will him luck. Hopefully he’ll land some place where he’ll be better used. Another training camp alumni, Austin Aries, is currently in the Ring of Honor wrestling promotion. Maybe Daivari will pop up there?

In a match on the 12/17/09 episode of TNA Wrestling, Christopher Daniels and Desmond Wolfe (video) managed to build things up “old school” using basic wrestling moves. Not only that, but at the same time they were able to keep the attention of the crowd. By the time they worked up to a simple shoulder tackle, the crowd popped. Later in the match when they went into their various high spots and false finishes, the moves had a lot more impact because of where the match started, and it resulted in one of the best matches of the year, IMHO (the only negative was the finish).

With professional wrestling’s constant attempt to outdo themselves with more “extreme” matches and storylines, seeing things go back to basics last week was refreshing. It put some energy and variety back into a match in a way that got me more engaged than I have in quite awhile.

When the business can no longer top itself, what do you do? One thing you could do is start over. You could drop kick “sports entertainment” and bring the wrestling back.

At a time when Hollywood seems to be “rebooting” previous properties for better or worse (Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Transformers, GI-Joe, Star Trek, Land of the Frickin’ Lost), is it possible for professional wrestling to reboot itself? Could it start over again?

I doubt that WWE would be able to do it, as the short term ratings drop while they find their new audience would probably be too much for the shareholders to take (WWE is a publicly traded company). TNA may have been able to do it at one time, but since they’ve decided to bring Hogan in so that they can become “the biggest wrestling company in the world”, I think it’s too late.

Maybe a smaller promotion like Ring of Honor (ROH)? I haven’t seen any of their product, but Jim Cornette’s Contract With the Wrestling Fans makes me think they are listening to people who “want their wrestling back”.