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| Guest Columns | Tim Lloyd |
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THAT TIME HONORED TRADITION One of the things that has troubled me ever since the time I was 'smartened up' to wrestling and became aware of such things as kayfabe, wrestler's real identities (what do you mean the Orient Express aren't from Japan?) and contract status has been the seemingly mandatory humiliation of a wrestler who was ending their tenure with a particular federation. This process really came to the forefront during the Bischoff 'vanishing push' era but it is something that has been entrenched in the wrestling industry, particularly in the Big Two. When you look carefully at what is happening it seems to not only be unfair to the departing wrestler but also bad business for the wrestling company. First let me make one thing clear here - I'm not talking about the one-off 'tenure-ending job' like Jeff Jarrett just did to Chyna or like Hogan did to Yokozuna, that is completely necessary. No, what I am talking about is the systematic humiliation of a wrestler over a period of time because their contract is nearing its end and they have not re-signed with the company. The most glaring recent example is Chris Jericho and the end of his run in WCW. This was probably the worst case of the kill-the-guy-that-is-leaving syndrome in a long time. WCW realized that they couldn't damage Jericho enough by just jobbing him out to every unover lowcarder because Jericho lost most of his matches anyway and was still highly over and highly entertaining in defeat. Instead they just kept him completely off TV for the last few months of his tenure. There are many other examples of this process in operation although few as extreme as Jericho's - Vader jobbing to everyone in the WWF before he was pushed out the door, to a certain extent Paul Wight in WCW although this wasn't quite as bad and Taz is going through a similar process currently in ECW. The justification for this, of course, is that the departing wrestler is normally going to your number one competitor. Therefore any heat or credibility that they have needs to be minimized before they leave the federation so as not to give the competition any unnecessary head start. Just one problem - this is absolute nonsense. History has proven that it does not work. Particularly with the advent of the internet and the greater ability of fans to view wrestlers as something beyond their gimmick or their win-loss record (i.e. wrestling ability, workrate, personality etc). What has happened in their previous role in their old fed has minimal bearing on their future success. There is probably no way Steve Austin could have been humiliated more than his 30 second job to Jim Duggan as part of his removal from WCW. But by the time The Ringmaster appeared in the WWF the fans could care less about 'Stunning Steve' and how he lost the US title and now he draws more money than anyone in the history of the business. Similar story for Kevin Nash, stuck with go-nowhere gimmicks in WCW before he was let go (Oz, Vinnie Vegas) would seem to be a career killer but it really didn't take long at all for the WWF fans to accept Diesel as a total bad-ass who could destroy anyone. Ditto for the Undertaker. Chris Jericho is again another great example - held off TV for months before his arrival in WWF and he then gets instant heat on his first night, same story with Sean Waltman. The fact is the practice of trying to kill a wrestler's heat before they leave simply doesn't have that much impact on their future success. I would go even one step further than that and say that by continuing this 'time honored tradition' the feds are actually costing themselves money. Lets take a look at a bit of a hypothetical - you as promoter of one of the Big Two have a wrestler with 3 months left on his contract, negotiations have broken down and strong rumors suggest that he will sign with the competition after their contract expires. Now, the company has spent considerable time and effort getting this individual over and he draws significant money. Do you: A) Job him out unmercifully to lower card wrestlers (Mark Henry cleanly over Vader?) to hopefully damage his character and reduce the value that your competition will be able to get from him. B) Take him off TV completely with no explanation and don't ever mention his name on air again. C) Continue building him up as you were before his contract became an issue leading up to a big tenure-ending, clean, convincing PPV job to one of your top stars. If you answered A) then you should give Vince MacMahon a call about joining his new booking team. If you said B) then you should contact Eric Bischoff and work on establishing a new wrestling fed to finally put Vince MacMahon out of business once and for all. Anyone with the slightest semblance of business sense would say C). It is the best from a all perspectives. Take the Jericho example again. If they had continued with his projected program with Goldberg, had him make fun of Goldberg etc just continue what he was doing. This would eventually lead to an annihilation of Jericho at a future PPV. WCW would have benefited with a better buyrate and could have kept selling Jerichoholic t-shirts by the truckload - basically just maximizing the money that Jericho could have made for the company before he leaves. Its better for the fans too - they get a satisfying closure on a storyline. Goldberg gets even more over as he crushes the cowardly heel and rids WCW of him in the eyes of the fans. Everybody wins. Wrestling fans have had the phrase 'sports entertainment' thrown at them until they are sick to death of it but this is one aspect of the business that still clings to the old ways like a well-chewed shoe. Do you really think that if the Philadelphia 76ERS knew that Allen Iverson was going to sign with someone else next year that they would bench him or freeze him out of the offence? No way - they would keep using him while they had him and keep trying to win and make money (that and probably try to trade him before he walks but that's another story). The WWF is always trying to get itself over as an 'action adventure series', well if Gillian Anderson was going to leave the X-Files at the end of the series what do you think the writers would do? I really doubt that they would reduce her role in the show or make it a point to humiliate her character for the remainder of her time. Puh'lease. They would build up to a big finale and find the most interesting (and ratings grabbing) way to write her out and at the same time establish her replacement. I think that this is one instant where wrestling actually should take a cue from the world of both 'sports' and 'entertainment' and end this outdated practice. Tim Lloyd freelance Mail the Author |
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