How long before pro wrestling falls off for good?

Arrogance.

King Novak of Melbourne, the First of His Name
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to go very deep into this question, pro wrestling will never die. there will always be local indies running in VF halls in front of 200 people somewhere. It also won't ever capture the cultural zeitgeist here in America ever again, or at least not for another 20-30 years. when I think about pro wrestling as a business, I think about how the culture is usually passed down, from generation to generation. often it's an older sibling or an uncle that introduces a child to the spectacle, and it takes root in some way. some of us become lifelong fans, others waver from the product and come back, but there's something to the show itself that will continue to find an audience going into the future.

WWE won't die either. they've already put themselves in position to continue to be viable just by buying the tape libraries of all of their north american competitors. eventually they will have to scale down and figure out new ways to sell the product, the tv model is dying and sooner or later they will be dependent on their web properties, like every other media company in existence. it would be nice for shane o'mac to come back on board and help steer the ship but :yeshrug:
 

DocZulu

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I prefer to post on positive topics, but I can't ignore this thread.

This is an opinion piece from a Brotha who goes all the way back to the 80's. I've seen the best and worst of professional wrestling. I've loved the AWA (but I don't remember much of it) and distinctly recall the NWA, WCW, ECW and WWF/WWE.

WWE is at their creative nadir and it is primarily due to a failed vision. They no longer see value in anything other than their three main brands: Wrestlemania, John Cena, and the McMahon family.

Those brands are inviolable and the WWE will do everything they can to sell these products to their fans. Every decision is predicated on maintaining those brands. That means that they are willing to ignore, sacrifice and undermine the value of everything else:

They don't value championships.

They don't value booking logic, professional wrestling history, or creating compelling, wrestling-based storylines

They don't value tag teams or undercards.

So what we have left are the brands. For example, WWE brings in lapsed viewers by utilizing nostalgia and the promise of Hall of Famers during Wrestlemania.

The Wrestlemania brand is worth more than the actual matches. Fans flock to it because we expect big things from the event. However, Wrestlemania is just a brand name, like Doritos.

It doesn't mean that it's any good, and all of us remember a time back when it was better.

What happens when we run out of "legends"? What happens when John Cena turns 40? Or when Undertaker retires? What happens after Stone Cold "wrestles his last match"? Hulk Hogan? How many times can they keep wheeling out a greying and balding Shawn Michaels?

Vince McMahon lost his edge (no pun intended) when he went corporate. He no longer takes chances and he does not value the in-ring product. Look at how they botched Daniel Bryan's storyline.

It sold itself. Even if Vince relegated DB to a short term run, Vince should have layered it with other stories to build toward the Royal Rumble.

Superstars build new stars, and new stars are supposed to provide new angles and storylines.

Now, we're back to a 2007 remix/rematch: John Cena vs. Randy Orton. Think on that.

When Wrestlemania buy-rates begin to dip, we'll know whether a national professional wrestling enterprise is still viable. For now, the WWE is making money, and that is all that matters.

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No_bammer_weed

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in the '80s the WWE had to PAY hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to secure slots on television stations, and throughout most of the 90s they had a glorified barter system with the USA network (they had to even split costs of producing the show). When their tv contract ends next year, they will have networks ready to sell their children to lock them up in a deal that will pay the company in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Their tv deal alone will dwarf the overall profits made during any year of the "golden era". That puts their financial standing in context.

You dont like wrestling nowadays? Its understandable. You're not the target demo anymore. The demo is young children, and cleaning up the product has allowed the WWE to hit a cultural sweet spot with advertisers, executives, and shareholders. The monday night war era was a unique space and time in the wrestling business, and overall culture that will more than likely never be repeated. Stop being so damn selfish, and wishing for those days to come back. The WWE is family oriented, marketed towards children, and thats the way it will stay. Dont like it, move on.
 

DocZulu

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Gotta disagree with you, Bammer.

It's too simple to say that the wrestling "isn't for us." Heck, look at the audiences on old AWA/NWA/WCW/WWF tv and you'll see kids and adults.

GO back and watch some of those 80's wrestling shows on youtube. Pay attention to the narratives. While they were catered toward kids the storylines, promos and angles were deliberate.

During the 90's, Stone Cold and the Rock became mainstream figures. The NWO? Kids and college students were rocking their t-shirts.

You could hear "suck it" on the school yards! Kids used to talk about finishers.

More importantly, though, they also saw well-planned character arcs that created audience loyalty.
 

Nintendough

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I think WWE has another 7 years on top. In that time, SOMEONE will start a brand and bring the heat to them. Too many good video platforms opening up like Hulu, Netflix, ChromeCast, etc. someone will disrupt the McMahon's.



One thing execs don't like to admit is that wrestling is a cashcow when done right. Why do you think that Spike refuses to give up on TNA? They know once they find the right leader for it, sky is the limit.
 

Momentum

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not gonna happen.

TNA out-classed the wwe for years and at the end of the day, all they have to show for it is baby steps.....and most of those baby steps were taken after they dumbed down the product. and they had a good timeslot. you think people are gonna go out of their way to check something out on Netflix? hell no. I mean, you have people fakin the funk, and proppin up indies(that they know will never be a threat as a company) to make themselves feel like real heads. you know all the wannabe ecw/roh fans that aint really bout it.

that's when I knew wrestling was done. new-aged wrestling "fans" and their product bias. dudes forced themselves to watch the wwe thru its worst years ever, and chose to complain about the bad product, rather than support the better products.

I saw the writing on the wall. I don't even bother with wrestling much anymore.
TNA is the worst run wrestling company of all time. They had a head start with that roster they had in 05-06 and still managed to fukk it up.

I hate ROH, they're storylines are trash that's why I said someone else would do it... wrestling is simply a scripted male drama. If Vince could get away with getting rid of the ring he would have done it a long time ago. We all admit the storylines suck, someone can and will present stories better, develop characters better, and give fire matches. And all they need is cheap distribution which technology has implemented with Google/Amazon/Hulu/Netflix.

It may sound crazy but this is exactly how big companies like WWE fall. They get disrupted. No one can do what they do right now with traditional television platforms which is why new platforms have created this major opportunity. If you dont think guys like Jericho, Hogan, etc. who have done a lot of TV can't see this and aren't thinking of competing with WWE I don't know what to tell you. I guarantee everything I'm typing will happen. Someone will disrupt the McMahons in the next decade.
 
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