Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

I just finished watching the South Park episode about steroids which ridiculed Bonds, McGuire, and some other guy for their abuse.  Then I read about the various suspensions for some WWE wrestlers.  I can't help but think about the meltdown in pro-wrestling, especially with the WWE being under the major gun.  11 people from the WWE is a serious number and while the company has quite a bit of money and can always dip into OVW for more talent, it's hard to ignore the fact that the roster is going to feel quite thin soon.  The TV shows look really arbitrary in terms of the various matches and booking and it's painfully obvious how the WWE is covering their trail in all of this.

While I doubt pro-wrestling will ever be totally removed, the damage done now has to force a company like the WWE as well as many people watching to re-think their strategy as a business.  The suspensions are just public lip service to demonstrate that the WWE is taking the current situation seriously.  However, it does not resolve the root cause of their problem, which is the product they are attempting to sell: larger than life people who can perform insane stunts.

Although it is true that the WWE has moved mostly towards entertainment, the chief selling point in the end is a dramatized version of virility.  Towards that end, they must cater their image regardless of the outcome of the court orders.  And even the dramatization of what they do must be limited as the end product still is wrestling.

Yet I have to extend what's going on to TNA as well as they attempt a similar line of business.  Certainly, the barriers to entry are smaller than the WWE.  However, they still perform a great deal of stunts that are equally (if not moreso) injury inducing than the WWE.  I cannot see anything but some form of medication being utilized for their business to continue.

And of course independents also would feel the crunch here as they might be less advertised versions of TNA.  Overall, for me at least, this implies that the model of pro-wrestling needs to change somewhat.  The boundaries on stunts and appearances have been pushed so hard in order to define the perfect notion of a pro-wrestler and a match that it's kinda like Yngwie Malmsteen going overboard on guitar and supposedly putting the proverbial nail in heavy metal's coffin with his overindulgence in virtuousity.

I'm a heavy believer in simplicity.  I think that obviously we cannot go back too far in the history of pro-wrestling as most fans would just find it a massive turn off and move towards something else.  However, I think that if we pinpoint an era of wrestling and aspects of wrestling that seem appealing, perhaps pro-wrestling as a sports genre could be saved.

From an in-ring paradigm, I think that the 1993-1995 era of the NJ Juniors are probably idealistic and acceptable to most wrestling fans.  Good match build, good wrestling with storylines and still exciting content.  No real need to pull out a ladder or table every other match to satisfy one's violence lust.  Combine that with AJ's heavy style of 1994-1995 and I think you could have perfectly acceptable wrestling.

From a storyline perspective, I've been partial to the NWA between 85-87.  Mix some of 88-89 and you still have a relatively interesting product.  You can have interesting wrestling characters just as long as they're not too over the top.  I think a good wrestling character ought to mix their monicker with an idiom that they have in the ring.  That's all you really need.  Keep the interviews consistent and relevant surrounding their character.  I think the characters from 91-93 WWF were quite good for the most part.  Look at Mr Perfect, Big Bossman, Texas Tornado, and even Rick Martel.  Like selling a movie, if a wrestler cannot describe themselves in more than one line, they probably have a bad gimmick.

This all, of course, is just a way to save pro-wrestling as we know and love it.  I think if the industry wants to progress, it needs to re-invent itself and assert a new sense of identity.  The glorified stuntman gimmick doesn't really do it for me.  Might as well work at Universal Studios.  I think pro-wrestling should move towards something that no one really thought was possible: realism.  Of course, people say that this is K-1 or UWF.  But I think to some degree, everyone still wants to see a piledriver, dropkick, powerbomb, or clothesline.  Yet I think something simple like making wrestling more interactive, more random and less contrived is where the industry ought to change.  My biggest beef with pro-wrestling is that it's too contrived and the results never are what people really want.  I feel that there's no vision for these companies on what they want to achieve in the end.  TNA, for instance, has some randomness but not good randomness.  Matches are too predictable and their hasn't been any building of someone since Samoa Joe.  But the outcomes of the matches are random in that they involve some crappy booking decision that seems pulled out of thin air just to make certain individuals in the locker room content.  They did some good recently in allowing wrestlers to mix up their matches a little more recently, but there's no one to rally behind anymore.  And they have no upcoming talent.

I think the WWE suffers from the obvious right now, which is that they're losing their wrestlers to attrition of their own wellness program.  Can't really help that since they're under the gun.  But they have to work on their overall business strategy.  The wellness program is just duct tape over a massive wound, which again is their vision for their product.  This will sound strange, but I miss the days when some fat slob could just walk in and call themselves a wrestler.  Get a Dick Murdoch, Jumbo Tsuruta, Terry Gordy, Stan Hansen, Harley Race, etc. to show people how to wrestle a good match.  You don't need the world's best body; you just need some brains and sense to know how to make people react.  The body builder types should be special since few people probably can achieve such physiques without the use of some sort of enhancement.  I  just want a good match, with some fun interviews and a bit of build in between to create a feud.