Post by andrew8798 on Dec 31, 2007 2:21:17 GMT -5
By: Bryan Alvarez
The Fight Network
bryanalvarez@f4wonline.com
With 2007 ending, I thought we'd take a quick look back at how the biggest pro-wrestling organization in the world fared.
What was intriguing about WWE's year is that it had an extreme peak and an extreme valley, and in the end leveled off in a way most people did not expect. It opened up with one of the best periods in the history of any wrestling organization in terms of in-ring action. DX had been feuding with Randy Orton and Edge, but in early January HHH blew out a quad for the second time and was put on the shelf for eight months. Shawn Michaels, who had passed 40 and had a body racked with injuries, including a back that needed constant icing and two bum knees, had been coasting along in his tag team role and playing it safe. When Hunter went down, he decided now was the time to step it up.
What followed were the best five months in the ring of his career, and arguably the best five months of any weekly television show in wrestling history as it regards in-ring action. It seemed like every week there was an excellent TV match, usually involving some combination of Michaels, Orton, Edge or John Cena. We even ultimately got a one-hour battle between Michaels and Cena that was one of the best WWE matches of the year, free on Raw. At some point, Vince McMahon decided to change WrestleMania plans and put HBK in the main event against John Cena.
WrestleMania 23, which was built around Vince McMahon and Donald Trump putting their hair on the line over the results of a Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga match, drew enough mainstream publicity that, combined with the WrestleMania name and the tradition of so many fans buying that one super show of the year, it became the biggest grossing professional wrestling show in the history of the business. When all was said and done, between PPV buys (1 million plus worldwide), ticket sales (just over 74,000 legit to Ford Field with 68,000 paid), and merchandise, the show grossed nearly $50 million.
This was the peak. Shortly thereafter, Shawn Michaels went down with a knee injury and Edge tore his pec. Two of the best workers in the company were gone in one fell swoop and the quality of the TV reflected that. Vince did a wacky storyline where he blew himself to smithereens, and it became a mystery in storyline who was responsible. Many people questioned the idea of booking a death on Raw given the fact that in the wrestling business so many people die on a regular basis. In fact, a few weeks later Sherri Martel died, and there was a great internal debate about whether or not to continue the Vince storyline. In the end they did, and she got a brief graphic an hour and a half into the next Raw.
Then came June 25, 2007.
Everyone knows the story of the death of Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit and the resulting media frenzy. In a newsletter I have almost no memory of that I published a day after the deaths, I wrote: "I've covered this business for over a decade and I can barely bring myself to type that this death might cause some sort of change. It's seemingly absurd. Quite frankly, the reason it's absurd, the reason it's so unlikely is because unless there is a strong movement from the outside, unless the government forces change, we will have to rely on Vince McMahon, and he's not changing… The reality is that there are many potential solutions, but all solutions require major changes to be instituted by Vince McMahon. The problem is that he's a 61 year old man, and asking him to change a way of thinking that has been instilled in him since likely the day he was born is going to be a virtually impossible task. The only way things will change is via some sort of outside force. Never before has there been much of a chance of that happening with WWWF/WWF/WWE, but things have hit a new level with this story and that makes even tomorrow's developments impossible to predict."
In the end we really did get some change, but probably not enough to avert many future tragedies (though hopefully none to the level of what happened with the Benoits). The Wellness Policy came under intense scrutiny and McMahon insisted, and this continues to this day, that guys get off stuff. Obviously it would be naïve to say that everyone is clean, but a glance at the roster today compared to six months ago shows that it is as clean as it has been in a decade. Chairshots to the head, while they still exist, are limited and saved for big angles, and even most of those are lighter than they've ever been. Don't get me wrong -- things could be much better. But they have also been much worse.
WWE did dodge many bullets. Despite talk on and off of the potential for Congressional hearings, as of the time I'm writing this they appear to be off again. Things could change. But in the real world, things change on a regular basis and there are things that the government and tax payers find far more important then some people dying in the circus world of professional wrestling. It sucks, but it's life.
If anything is surprising about 2007, it's how quickly -- after just six months, in fact -- that pro-wrestling is largely back under the radar again after the biggest media blitz in its history. Various mainstream end-of-the-year publications made cursory mention of the tragedy, but that's about it. You don't see AP stories getting major play, you have to search for stories about the latest goings-on in the estate battle and the Phil Astin case, and Benoit's name manages to make its way here and there onto WWE.com. WWE got all sorts of positive press for the Tribute to the Troops show, and now they're sailing with a brand new Raw TV deal into 2008, where both Royal Rumble and WrestleMania should do, as always, great business.
I could never have expected something like what happened on June 25 to occur. And I guess I never really expected it to change the business all that much. But I am surprised that in many ways it seems like the whole thing is over before the year even ended.
credit: www.thefightnetwork.com/news_detail.php?nid=5797
The Fight Network
bryanalvarez@f4wonline.com
With 2007 ending, I thought we'd take a quick look back at how the biggest pro-wrestling organization in the world fared.
What was intriguing about WWE's year is that it had an extreme peak and an extreme valley, and in the end leveled off in a way most people did not expect. It opened up with one of the best periods in the history of any wrestling organization in terms of in-ring action. DX had been feuding with Randy Orton and Edge, but in early January HHH blew out a quad for the second time and was put on the shelf for eight months. Shawn Michaels, who had passed 40 and had a body racked with injuries, including a back that needed constant icing and two bum knees, had been coasting along in his tag team role and playing it safe. When Hunter went down, he decided now was the time to step it up.
What followed were the best five months in the ring of his career, and arguably the best five months of any weekly television show in wrestling history as it regards in-ring action. It seemed like every week there was an excellent TV match, usually involving some combination of Michaels, Orton, Edge or John Cena. We even ultimately got a one-hour battle between Michaels and Cena that was one of the best WWE matches of the year, free on Raw. At some point, Vince McMahon decided to change WrestleMania plans and put HBK in the main event against John Cena.
WrestleMania 23, which was built around Vince McMahon and Donald Trump putting their hair on the line over the results of a Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga match, drew enough mainstream publicity that, combined with the WrestleMania name and the tradition of so many fans buying that one super show of the year, it became the biggest grossing professional wrestling show in the history of the business. When all was said and done, between PPV buys (1 million plus worldwide), ticket sales (just over 74,000 legit to Ford Field with 68,000 paid), and merchandise, the show grossed nearly $50 million.
This was the peak. Shortly thereafter, Shawn Michaels went down with a knee injury and Edge tore his pec. Two of the best workers in the company were gone in one fell swoop and the quality of the TV reflected that. Vince did a wacky storyline where he blew himself to smithereens, and it became a mystery in storyline who was responsible. Many people questioned the idea of booking a death on Raw given the fact that in the wrestling business so many people die on a regular basis. In fact, a few weeks later Sherri Martel died, and there was a great internal debate about whether or not to continue the Vince storyline. In the end they did, and she got a brief graphic an hour and a half into the next Raw.
Then came June 25, 2007.
Everyone knows the story of the death of Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit and the resulting media frenzy. In a newsletter I have almost no memory of that I published a day after the deaths, I wrote: "I've covered this business for over a decade and I can barely bring myself to type that this death might cause some sort of change. It's seemingly absurd. Quite frankly, the reason it's absurd, the reason it's so unlikely is because unless there is a strong movement from the outside, unless the government forces change, we will have to rely on Vince McMahon, and he's not changing… The reality is that there are many potential solutions, but all solutions require major changes to be instituted by Vince McMahon. The problem is that he's a 61 year old man, and asking him to change a way of thinking that has been instilled in him since likely the day he was born is going to be a virtually impossible task. The only way things will change is via some sort of outside force. Never before has there been much of a chance of that happening with WWWF/WWF/WWE, but things have hit a new level with this story and that makes even tomorrow's developments impossible to predict."
In the end we really did get some change, but probably not enough to avert many future tragedies (though hopefully none to the level of what happened with the Benoits). The Wellness Policy came under intense scrutiny and McMahon insisted, and this continues to this day, that guys get off stuff. Obviously it would be naïve to say that everyone is clean, but a glance at the roster today compared to six months ago shows that it is as clean as it has been in a decade. Chairshots to the head, while they still exist, are limited and saved for big angles, and even most of those are lighter than they've ever been. Don't get me wrong -- things could be much better. But they have also been much worse.
WWE did dodge many bullets. Despite talk on and off of the potential for Congressional hearings, as of the time I'm writing this they appear to be off again. Things could change. But in the real world, things change on a regular basis and there are things that the government and tax payers find far more important then some people dying in the circus world of professional wrestling. It sucks, but it's life.
If anything is surprising about 2007, it's how quickly -- after just six months, in fact -- that pro-wrestling is largely back under the radar again after the biggest media blitz in its history. Various mainstream end-of-the-year publications made cursory mention of the tragedy, but that's about it. You don't see AP stories getting major play, you have to search for stories about the latest goings-on in the estate battle and the Phil Astin case, and Benoit's name manages to make its way here and there onto WWE.com. WWE got all sorts of positive press for the Tribute to the Troops show, and now they're sailing with a brand new Raw TV deal into 2008, where both Royal Rumble and WrestleMania should do, as always, great business.
I could never have expected something like what happened on June 25 to occur. And I guess I never really expected it to change the business all that much. But I am surprised that in many ways it seems like the whole thing is over before the year even ended.
credit: www.thefightnetwork.com/news_detail.php?nid=5797