Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
Posts: 29,419
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Post by Sephiroth on Dec 22, 2017 15:49:42 GMT -5
My thought is that in his mind Vince believed with his promotion, marketing and money he could take bodybuilding out of its "niche" audience and make it a mainstream attraction. Problem with Vince is that instead of building upon the core bodybuilding audience, he pissed those people off and in turn killed off what should and could have been a solid fan base to support the product. Once you lose your loyal audience you have little hope of succeeding. I compare it to Impact Wrestling. The core wrestling audience has already moved on from Impact. Now, no matter how well Impact is booked they will have trouble drawing a solid crowd. You have to have a hardcore audience to build a base and then you can try and attract the casual audience. In its own way bodybuilding is already mainstream-the mere commonality of lifting weights for fitness is proof of that. And in their own way Arnold and Weider were to bodybuilding what Vince and Hogan where to wrestling. So from that angle I can probably see where Vince thought he could take it to a whole new level-but failed to appreciate the differences. And Arnold in his prime as a muscle champion would have fit in wrestling without a doubt-he had that charisma, drive, and he played his public persona to the hilt. But I also think Vince failed to appreciate that bodybuilding is, in some way, a competitive sport rather than sports entertainment, and that diluting that element was bound to negate the audience appeal. And for its niche status bodybuilding is a hugely profitable industry-but that is not simply based off the spectacle of big, oily, muscely guys posing;its off fitness products, publications, and supplements. And, as I stated above, Vince tried to break into that market and achieve over night what it took Weider and some others decades to achieve. In the 70’s, 80’s, and through the 90’s there was no bigger marketer of barbells, weight benches, and protein powders than the name Weider. You just can’t match that kind of market share no matter how ambitious you are, at least not that easily. |
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agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 22,006
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Post by agent817 on Dec 22, 2017 19:13:55 GMT -5
I saw some bits and pieces of an episode of Wrestlelamia on this on YouTube. I may have to watch the whole thing to see what was up. On that note, I remember also watching episodes of Superstars and Wrestling Challenge from that time on YouTube and then thought to myself that Vince wanted this whole thing to get off the ground but it just couldn't generate interest from the general public.
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SmashTV
Dennis Stamp
Big Money, Big Prizes, I Love It!
The Excellence of Allocation
Posts: 4,532 
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Post by SmashTV on Jan 11, 2018 14:51:45 GMT -5
I remember seeing a clip of the bodybuilders taking on a team of heel wrestlers in a tug of war match. A group of kids were chanting 'WBF! WBF!' which I thought was lame even by 90s WWF standards, as it's not as if anyone really knew who the body builders were. Whether the tug of war was legitimate or not I don't know, but surprisingly the heels won, which was strange considering it was a segment to plug the WBF.
The WBF stars, collapsing to the ground in a heap...man, the tug of war result was practically metaphoric.
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Post by chronocross on Jan 11, 2018 15:40:32 GMT -5
Everything, there was no way that was going to catch momentum.
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on Jan 11, 2018 15:58:04 GMT -5
I remember seeing a clip of the bodybuilders taking on a team of heel wrestlers in a tug of war match. A group of kids were chanting 'WBF! WBF!' which I thought was lame even by 90s WWF standards, as it's not as if anyone really knew who the body builders were. Whether the tug of war was legitimate or not I don't know, but surprisingly the heels won, which was strange considering it was a segment to plug the WBF. The WBF stars, collapsing to the ground in a heap...man, the tug of war result was practically metaphoric. I've seen that clip too. That heel team was pretty awesome with Ric Flair, Mountie, Skinner, IRS, Million Dollar Man, and the Berzerker. Perfect was the coach for the heels and Duggan was the coach for WBF which didn't make any sense. They did "protect" the WBF a little bit in that they said that Dibiase paid the ref off after he overturned the WBF's initial win due to one of the their guys crossing the line in the middle. Also I'm sure the wrestlers probably wouldn't be too happy with having to lose to the bodybuilders even in a silly tug of war as apparently they were already really disgruntled and agitated as apparently their pay was getting cut with the money going to a Bodybuilding Federation while they were having to travel every night. |
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Post by A Platypus Rave is Correct on Jan 11, 2018 16:09:45 GMT -5
My thought is that in his mind Vince believed with his promotion, marketing and money he could take bodybuilding out of its "niche" audience and make it a mainstream attraction. Problem with Vince is that instead of building upon the core bodybuilding audience, he pissed those people off and in turn killed off what should and could have been a solid fan base to support the product. Once you lose your loyal audience you have little hope of succeeding. I compare it to Impact Wrestling. The core wrestling audience has already moved on from Impact. Now, no matter how well Impact is booked they will have trouble drawing a solid crowd. You have to have a hardcore audience to build a base and then you can try and attract the casual audience. In its own way bodybuilding is already mainstream-the mere commonality of lifting weights for fitness is proof of that. And in their own way Arnold and Weider were to bodybuilding what Vince and Hogan where to wrestling. So from that angle I can probably see where Vince thought he could take it to a whole new level-but failed to appreciate the differences. And Arnold in his prime as a muscle champion would have fit in wrestling without a doubt-he had that charisma, drive, and he played his public persona to the hilt. But I also think Vince failed to appreciate that bodybuilding is, in some way, a competitive sport rather than sports entertainment, and that diluting that element was bound to negate the audience appeal. And for its niche status bodybuilding is a hugely profitable industry-but that is not simply based off the spectacle of big, oily, muscely guys posing;its off fitness products, publications, and supplements. And, as I stated above, Vince tried to break into that market and achieve over night what it took Weider and some others decades to achieve. In the 70’s, 80’s, and through the 90’s there was no bigger marketer of barbells, weight benches, and protein powders than the name Weider. You just can’t match that kind of market share no matter how ambitious you are, at least not that easily. Fitness and lifting weights is not at all the same as competitive body building. My thought is that in his mind Vince believed with his promotion, marketing and money he could take bodybuilding out of its "niche" audience and make it a mainstream attraction. Problem with Vince is that instead of building upon the core bodybuilding audience, he pissed those people off and in turn killed off what should and could have been a solid fan base to support the product. Once you lose your loyal audience you have little hope of succeeding. I compare it to Impact Wrestling. The core wrestling audience has already moved on from Impact. Now, no matter how well Impact is booked they will have trouble drawing a solid crowd. You have to have a hardcore audience to build a base and then you can try and attract the casual audience. Actually TNA is a really good point of comparison because they regularly took pot shots at The same WWE fans they were trying so hard to court. I bring this up a lot but there was some Monday where Raw was preempted for some reason... Impact rightfully fought to get a monday special on Spike... within like the first 15 minutes one of the announcers mocked anyone that was a fan of any other televised wrestling event. Also known as the people they were actively trying to attract with the Monday night spot. |
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Post by Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster on Jan 12, 2018 22:12:25 GMT -5
What went wrong was that it was a stupid idea that was never going to work.
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Post by Natural Born Farmer on Jan 12, 2018 22:20:33 GMT -5
What went wrong was that it was a stupid idea that never going to work. But Vince loves those! See: reviving the XFL at a time when NFL ratings are down and the sport as a whole is in what looks like a permanent decline. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2018 23:01:26 GMT -5
only the friends and family of the bodybuilders care about it
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2018 23:38:32 GMT -5
On the bright side, we got Vince’s commentary during Gary Strydom’s posing in the history books forever. That alone probably made the entire debacle worth it.
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Post by dreamer75 on Jan 13, 2018 23:51:57 GMT -5
On the bright side, we got Vince’s commentary during Gary Strydom’s posing in the history books forever. That alone probably made the entire debacle worth it. I am curious now i want to see it, is it like mid 90's Shawn levels? |
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Post by A Platypus Rave is Correct on Jan 14, 2018 1:44:29 GMT -5
On the bright side, we got Vince’s commentary during Gary Strydom’s posing in the history books forever. That alone probably made the entire debacle worth it. I am curious now i want to see it, is it like mid 90's Shawn levels? |
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 14, 2018 1:53:38 GMT -5
 Why did it fail? Because only a small percentage of people are like this. |
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jan 14, 2018 9:18:49 GMT -5
Professional bodybuilding is far more niche than pro wrestling, it had its "boom" in the early 70's with Arnold. Why Vince thought the general public would have any interest in it is beyond me. The reason is a secret and that’s between Vince and his erection. |
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Post by Hit Girl on Jan 14, 2018 14:11:44 GMT -5
On the bright side, we got Vince’s commentary during Gary Strydom’s posing in the history books forever. That alone probably made the entire debacle worth it. It's even better with the porno-type music Strydom was using while he was posing. |
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Post by dreamer75 on Jan 15, 2018 23:04:56 GMT -5
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