Hi all and welcome to an offering this week feeling much like a member of the WWE creative team forced into an emergency re-write! No sooner does my previous effort regarding the future plans for five brands get published, rumours circulate suggesting that they have since been postponed indefinitely following a less than stellar turnout on international tour and it’s all a bit up in the air at the moment. Oh, the joys of Plan B!
Nonetheless, as promised last time this column will still be a discussion of the business prospects of small independent promotions in an ever rapidly changing industry. But I’m also going to look briefly at the evolution of a federation as it grows.
It’s hard to please every single customer with what you offer in any industry. Some people will love a certain song or movie whilst others will hate it. Some will prefer the shows offered on one TV channel over a rival, whilst their friend might feel the exact opposite. Different people have different priorities when looking for a type of product too. For example, one person might want performance and speed when buying a car whilst someone else might want a good look or an economical engine. Regardless of the industry the way to do business is clear, you need to find something about your product that people will like and make them want to buy it. But ultimately you have to accept that you can’t please everyone and if you don’t make someone happy they may look at alternatives that will.
But there is another factor to consider when going into business – your competitors. It is pointless to make the standout feature of your product one thing when a rival does it better and for roughly the same price. After all, why settle for second best when choosing exactly what you want? It’s important that the whole basis about which you sell your product is unique, or if not unique, then the best of those that share it.
The wrestling landscape as a whole is as we all know dominated by just one company – World Wrestling Entertainment. They certainly try to have a bit of everything that typical viewers might want – entertaining storylines, glitz and glamour, popular characters and good production values. Mix in some good technical wrestling, cruiserweight wrestling, hardcore extreme wrestling etc from time to time to keep people crying out for it happy. The thing is of course that by being far and away the largest company of its kind they can choose to emphasise on what they feel are the most profitable characteristics. For example, they understand that the show needs to look bright and professional in order to maximise their TV audience, which in turn brings more money in for the broadcasters (through advertising revenue) which would eventually get passed on to them through a higher price paid for every show they make. So making a wrestling show TV friendly is naturally a high priority.
The rest comes down to what they believe the majority of people want and the money they can extract from those they appeal to. I guess this is why their emphasis tends to be on creating popular, marketable characters with lots of attractive women flitting around whilst trying their best to “tell a story”. It’s a formula that works in many areas of the entertainment industry and WWE are nothing special in the way that they conform to that same pattern. Sure, there are occasional matches of tremendous technical content, particularly when guys like HBK, Benoit and co just get out there and do their thing, but there is never such a thing as a “guaranteed” five star match, after all everyone has off days. But on the other hand, barring any freak accidents, a WWE Diva will look just as hot from one week to the next! It’s about doing what is the most profitable, but with the least effort involved.
That doesn’t mean to say that good wrestling content is not profitable at all. Ring of Honor is proving that. It doesn’t mean to say that extreme wrestling is not profitable either. Combat Zone Wrestling is proving that too. But the big question comes from the following – if it is unwise to take on the WWE by focussing on entertainment and it must be done by emphasising some other factor the WWE might not be so great on, is it possible to build up so that one day they might be able to compete with the all-conquering Connecticut based behemoth?
This really depends on just how many people out there are actually prepared to spend money on it. The steady growth of newer groups like TNA and ROH has shown that more people are becoming aware of what they offer and most importantly prepared to part with their hard earned cash to watch it. TNA is pushing hard to move up to two hour weekly shows on TV, whilst ROH have recently broke into the PPV business.
But this expansion has also started to prove a thorn in their own sides. TNA have stopped talent from working other group’s shows ad hoc because it’s now important that they are available for their own new house shows and consequently denying them extra income. Furthermore, they don’t want other groups profiting from wrestlers worth potentially a lot of money to them. Consequently ROH have lost a number of talents, just as they break into a new area of the market.
But are TNA big enough yet that they can do without the publicity of their stars working elsewhere around the world? Probably not, which is why some of their bigger names are also doing shows in Japan. But this makes sense, after all they don’t have much of a physical presence in Japan yet, but they do in the States. Even WWE has contemplated talent exchanges in recent years in a build to solidify their presence in Japan. But it is ironic that the group that have been hurt the most by TNA’s expansion, ROH, are arguably the organisation that helped them grow the most, with an open programme allowing them to share in some great workers over the last few years and raise both their profiles, particularly for TNA in the X Division.
What will ROH do to get over this? Well, they have started to protect and establish their own stars a little more of course, once bitten twice shy, but that’s also a seemingly natural step when growing anyway. They may look towards new alliances, as well as old ones that have proven fruitful in the past (such as with CZW). But will those smaller firms be quite as helpful as ROH were in the past? After all, aren’t they just the next in the chain to get dumped on by a bigger federation when they are done using them? But then again, without the ROH stars increasing their profiles with matches in CZW and TNA, would ROH have been as advanced as they are as quickly as they have done it?
But why is it that it seems once a federation gets to a certain point in size, they take huge steps to solidify their position and entrench their top talent into staying put? Correct me if I’m wrong, but couldn’t TNA and ROH benefit from each other’s help even now? If anything their co-operation is worth more to each other now than ever before! Combined maybe they could compete with the WWE sooner rather than later.
But at the end of the day, maybe all they want is to survive. If you market yourselves carefully these days, with good internet coverage, a small niche group could quite possibly survive very comfortably. They just wouldn’t have much scope for expansion. Just remember at the end of the day, it’s never the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog!
Just a thought…
Have any thoughts about this column? E-mail me at stuart_black@hotmail.com and I will be happy to get back to you!
Next time, so some people are getting sick of the WWE presentation style and its content? I have a novel idea that might shake things up a little and I will share my thoughts with you! Stay tuned!
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