It's been a while since I last had the time to sit down and try and organize some thoughts into another installment of The Wrestling Repression. TCW's Thumbtack Theory was a success, and I should be getting the final tape back from our local cable producers some time this week. Jared Murray suffered nine stitches in his arm when I threw him through a pane of glass (which wasn't supposed to break), and he should be able to wrestle in mid February. But you want to hear about the Big 3, not about my self-serving Indy promotion.

The momentum the WWF is holding right now is unbelievable. The dedication to bringing in young, fresh talent is finally getting over with the marks, and those marks make up more than eighty percent of the ratings, house show attendance, merchandise revenue, and pay per view buyrates. If you keep your marks happy, you are guaranteed to do good business.

What we saw on Raw on Monday was no indication of business slowing down either.

What WCW has to do right now is concentrate on maintaining the current audience that they do have. Forget about competing with the WWF right now; concentrate on maintaining not gaining. World Championship Wrestling has to concentrate on they're real competition, Extreme Championship Wrestling. ECW might not have the financial backing that WCW does, but they do have a product that outshines WCW's in most regards. Although it will take a lot of time, eventually Turner is going to have to compete with ECW's ratings, and more importantly ECW's loyal fans. What WCW has to do is make their fans, loyal fans, because when the time does come to jump ship, you have to offer your current fan base a reason to stay on board.

Although it seems hard to believe I can bet a lot of people in WCW let go a breath of relief when they got word Rob Van Damn broke his ankle and would be out for a long period of time.

Its going to so hard to elevate talent to the next level in the upcoming years because there is so much great talent out there. For example, Jeff Hardy is nothing short of Shawn Micheals, but his time at the top is a long time coming just because of the plain fact there isn't much room at the top. The only reason HHH had the chance to reach the top is because the WWF had a few key injuries and they needed a top spot filled. HHH took full advantage of that and because the most valuable man in sports entertainment today. The only way to elevate talent to the top without injury is to take someone from the top and push them down a bit and make some room.

The fans have to remember that competition drives the business to be successful, because without competition the WWF could throw out any product out there, and we would be forced to swallow it because there would be nothing else. WCW can't fold or fade out and become a bush league again because it's just bad for wrestling in general. ECW needs to keep on doing what they're doing but somehow bring in more numbers, maybe through advertising or something like that. It's a great time to be a wrestling fan, but remember the dark ages could come back and we could be in the early nineties all over again, if one company excels at a point where the competition dies.

Feedback is always appreciated at tmtylermorgan@iname.com