Let’s face it; there isn’t a whole lot of reason to watch wrestling these days. On the WWE front Raw has been hit and miss, floating in between very good shows one week and very average ones the next. ECW is stuck in some kind of booking loop where nothing interesting seems to happen (with the notable exception of one Colin Delaney) and Smackdown is about as bland as can be. TNA is certainly no better, but that’s topic for a whole other column. Even ROH, the so called safe haven for quality product these days seems to be in a slump. With budget cuts and the loss of talent, as well as a relatively poor champion compared to their own high standards (Not knocking on Nigel at all, but he doesn’t have the aura of a Joe, Dragon or even Morishima.) most fans can readily admit that Ring Of Honor has dropped in quality a little lately. But through all this, there are a few shining lights; from Tomko showing how he has moved leaps and bounds ahead of his former self, to Miz and Morison presenting the essence of cocky heels, but almost without question any wrestling fan at the moment will agree on what has been THE reason to watch lately, and that’s the emergence of Jeff Hardy.
It’s generally agreed upon that in these early months of the year, WWE really step up their product in the lead up to the biggest show of the year. But more than that, it seems like there is always one performer who makes the big leap and pulls out all the stops in order to make himself and the company look like a million bucks. This time last year it was Shawn Michaels, in the absence of his D-X partner, who hit another gear in the lead up to his great ‘Mania main event match. Go back a couple years more and Batista was starting on the roll that left him so red hot that his fan base has survived months, even years of mediocrity to still give him some huge pops. But since late December just passed, it’s been a WWE mainstay who has made the jump and put on some of the best matches, feuds and moments in the lead up to this Wrestlemania. Even since his “big win” over Triple H (I use the term lightly, as most did at the time) it almost seems like WWE have turned a transitional challenger into an accidental Main Eventer. Whether or not it was intentional, Jeff Hardy is the hot property right now, but with all this in mind I find myself asking a question that is asked often by fans these days, in the vein of Rock and Austin, is Jeff Hardy the next standout star to lead the WWE?
Just watch an episode of Monday Night Raw from this year, Jeff Hardy has gotten by far the biggest positive crowd reaction week in, week out. Now both of the Hardy brothers have always been over, but in these past couple of months Jeff’s have only grown and grown. To borrow from the Jim Ross book of Hyperbole he consistently walks out to a rock star like reception, one that is invariably followed up with a large “Hardy” chant. This is certainly not without merit though; Hardy himself has stepped up almost every aspect of his performances at the same time. Putting on great matches with Umaga and Shawn Michaels in great TV Main Events to taking Randy Orton to the limit on the undercard of the Rumble, Hardy has answered the critics who questioned his ability to be reliable in the big match (lets face it, he’s had his fair share of large botches) but in this great run he has hit his spots cleanly, and really made himself and his opponents looks very good. In fact he has even started to climb over what many considered the biggest hurdle for both he and his brother, in their mic work. Hardy has sounded comfortable and at home in his small pieces of mic work, and doing it alongside the likes of Chris Jericho, Vince McMahon and Triple H he has held himself even with them. But getting a crowd to cheer isn’t the only thing required for Jeff to become the guy, there’s a whole array of criteria that need to be filled, so just for arguments sake, let’s see how Jeff Hardy stacks up against these.
When it all boils down to it, WWE is a business and a business is about making money. First and foremost, the job of a main star is to make that money. The so called measuring sticks for these stars, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin made money hand over fist. Even here in Australia I struggle to walk around for a day without seeing the famous Austin 3:16 T Shirt, and between the two of them they headlined some of the highest grossing Pay Per Views in the height of the Attitude Era. Now these numbers are nearly impossible to match. It is generally agreed that wrestling will never be as hot as it was in this era, but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t one hell of a money spinner. Now, there are two simple ways to look at just how good of a money maker a wrestler is, those being Merchandise and PPV revenue. A quick scan of WWEShop’s top ten sellers gives John Cena in the number one position, no surprise there, but scroll down a little more and you find Hardy’s merchandise filling the number 4 and 9 spots. Look in a live crowd next time you’re watching WWE TV and I’d put good money on being able to pick out at least a couple of Hardy’s T Shirts. In fact if memory serves me correctly Hardy’s products have frequently taken up spots on this top 10 list. So as far as this criterion goes, I think we can give Jeff a tick.
Then we come to the big one, Pay Per View buys. Wrestling has followed the same simple philosophy for nearly two decades, Television builds Pay Per View, and that is where the real money is made. They’re charging what, $50 for your average PPV these days? More for Wrestlemania and more yet again if you want it in HD and when it comes down to it, that’s a hell of a lot of money. Oftentimes it is the main event of a particular PPV that we attribute to the amount of buys it gets. The low numbers of 2004’s Smackdown exclusive PPV’s have been used time and time again to bring in to question JBL’s “drawing power” and the same numbers are used to support the power of say a HHH/Batista HIAC match in 2005. Unfortunately, Pay Per View buys for this year's Royal Rumble haven’t been released yet, and even if they had the Rumble match itself is the draw for this show, so it cannot be used as an accurate measure for Jeff’s own drawing power. However, if we examine a good number of online polls, reports, columns, previews and predictions one quote appears to be reoccurring. I read variations of this many times in the weekend leading up to the event, in fact it’s even true about me, “I would order this show solely to see Jeff/Orton”. Even though all accounts, reports, dirt sheet rumors, etc pointed to Jeff coming up short, there was that little inkling that given how strong his performances have been, given how over he has become, there is that ever so slight chance that maybe they will let him run with the ball and if they do, then I want to see it live. Now I’m no expert, but that’s about as close to a definition of drawing power that I can think of. Looks like Jeff gets another tick.
Unfortunately, wrestling is not and never will be an exact science. No matter what number of tests we think of to run past someone’s performances, and indeed no matter how many of these tests he passes, that certainly is not an assurance of success. In fact, it’s rather presumptuous to think that anyone will ever be able to match the aura, or the money making ability of a Steve Austin of The Rock, it might merely be a pipe dream cooked up but us hopeful wrestling fans who want so desperately to be given real reason to watch. At the moment Jeff Hardy is providing that reason to watch, and with him also being in the box seat in the upcoming Money in the Bank match that certainly doesn’t look to be coming to an end. With that in mind there is absolutely no need to be putting pressure or expectation on the man to become the next mainstream star, we as fans should be quite content to just have a man going out there every week and putting on one hell of a performance every time, but there’s nothing wrong with foxing around with some ideas now is there?
Well there it is, the first of what will hopefully be a regular series here at TWV. If you have any feedback or coments then check out TWV's official forums, The Wrestling Asylum particularly the columns section. Also feel free to email me at dead_fox081@hotmail.com. If I get a decent amount of feedback I might think about incorporating it into future columns, we'll just see how that goes though.
Copyright © 2005; TheWrestlingVoice.com & Douglas Nunnally.
All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer & Privacy Statement
| What Did You Think About WWE Backlash 2008? |
|
|