Well, it’s been a while since I posted. I thought I’d get back into the swing of things by offering my honest thoughts on two recent developments in televised wrestling. Let’s start with a little background. In the mid nineties, WWE, then known as WWF, and WCW went head to head every Monday night. It was one of the greatest times to be a wrestling fan. This is around the time that I first fell in love with the sport of professional wrestling. Whether you preferred the Attitude era WWF or the brash alternative WCW, the competition was great for both products. For a while, WCW’s Nitro dominated WWF’s Raw is War for a couple of reasons. First, they started their show an hour earlier than WWF and second, they aired live at a time where Raw was still previously taped.
WCW took full advantage of this by giving fans the results of WWF’s big matches in the first hour, so some people had no reason to tune in to WWF programming at all. Now, I am not ashamed to say I was a fan of both, but I definitely was a bigger fan of WCW’s product. While I liked Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, I loved Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, and Goldberg. It was a time where internet wrestling blogs and news sites were a rarity. People watched wrestling back then.
Today, I don’t know the figures, but it just seems like wrestling had been in a downward spiral of popularity in the years since WCW’s demise at the hands of a hefty buyout by Vince McMahon. I’ll admit that I prefer the products of today’s independent federations such as Empire Wrestling Federation, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Chikara, Alternative Wrestling Show, and Ring of Honor to whatever is on TV, but wait, Ring of Honor is on TV, sort of. Ring of Honor Wrestling airs at 8PM ET on HDNET, on Monday, the aforementioned night for wrestling.
While I personally think ROH Wrestling offers the best in ring competition on TV these days, the truth is, the reason WWE and TNA are on major networks is because they offer more than just wrestling, they offer “entertainment.” Yes, I put that in quotations because some of it, I’m looking at you the majority of Raw’s guest hosts and just about anything Hornswoggle touches, is not all that entertaining. But it seems like, for the networks, it’s the thought that counts.
So, TNA recently announced that it’s flagship program, Impact!, is going to begin airing directly opposite WWE’s longstanding Monday night Raw in what Dixie Carter, Hulk Hogan, and Eric Bischoff hope will re-spark a new Monday night War. Now, I’m not so sure this is going to be great for TNA’s ratings initially, so hopefully Spike TV’s faith in the company extends beyond a couple months or perhaps years here. Nonetheless, I know for sure that I will tune in to TNA’s Impact! come March 8th @ 9PM.
Yes, Raw has guest hosts every week and it’s more miss than hit in that department, but WWE’s best show right now in terms of wrestling and entertainment in general is definitely Smackdown, and it has been for a while now. Raw’s product is a bit stale and I personally hope that TNA steps their game up so that WWE will do the same for Raw. I’m not suggesting that Raw scrap the guest host idea altogether, but perhaps they should be more discerning in their choices. Jewel and Ty Murray, really? Come on Vince, you can do better than that.
One thing I will say is this: WWE: NXT looks interesting. It starts tonight @ 10PM ET, February 23, on SyFy. The concept: WWE’s Pros (the term is used loosely here) take on rookies in a mentoring role as they try to break into the WWE. It’s a bit of a reworking of the old Tough Enough concept. Except, in Tough Enough, they brought in people who auditioned a la American Idol and trained them, with only a few making it into the WWE. Here though, the so-called rookies are guys who are already in WWE’s developmental company, FCW.
There is one reason I want to watch WWE: NXT, and that is Daniel Bryan. Of course, you may know him as “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. Many call him “the Best in the World” and they aren’t wrong. I’ve seen him numerous times in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and he is one of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing him work, do yourself a favor and look him up on Youtube. I’m going to be tuning into the “next evolution of professional wrestling,” just to see his national television debut. He’s a former ROH and PWG champion and his accolades span across other numerous wrestling organizations.
The big “controversy” is that WWE has teamed this “rookie” up with the Miz AKA Mike Mizanin, who is no stranger to reality TV himself. He of course started on an early season of MTV’s The Real World, where he first debuted his Miz character and told the world of his professional wrestling aspirations. Making good on his word, he joined the $1,000,000 Tough Enough in 2004, and although he did not win, eventually gained a contract with WWE and is now the current holder of a Unified tag team title and the United States Title.
Interestingly, Ryan Reeves, who was also a contestant on the final season of Tough Enough along with The Miz, is now a “rookie” on WWE: NXT under the name of Skip Sheffield. Yes, Bryan Danielson clearly has more experience and ring skill than The Miz, but this is about entertainment and it will be interesting to see how WWE plays it. I’m wary about it because I really don’t want to see Danielson misused, but I will withhold judgment until I see the show.
Here’s a quick summary of the things I mentioned:
WWE Raw Monday @ 9PM ET on USA Network
TNA Impact! Monday @ 9PM ET on Spike TV (Beginning March 8th)
WWE: NXT Tuesday @ 10PM ET on SyFy
ROH Wrestling @ 8PM ET on HDNET
It’s a great time to be a wrestling fan!
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