After
several weeks of nothing much happening in the wrestling world, every bubble
suddenly burst at once and we’re left sifting through the information trying to
find what is best to talk about this week. Luckily for you wonderful people, I
have chosen three subjects which should hopefully provide some talking points
amongst you and will certainly impact on the wrestling world for the next few
months to come should they transpire when 2014 rolls around.
Coming Home
I
think it’s fair to say that I’ve made my feelings on Hulk Hogan clear in the
past. I respect him as a professional wrestler and for everything he’s done for
WWE and the wrestling industry but as a wrestler I cannot stand him. He’s an egotistical, deluded meat head who has
a grandiose idea of his own self importance. With that being said, it’s only
right that Hulk Hogan returns to the company which made him a star to celebrate
the thirtieth year of the event he headlined more than anyone else.
In
case you’re puzzling over what your Wrestling God means, then the recent news
coming out of Titan Towers, is that now Hulk Hogan and TNA have parted company,
Hogan has verbally agreed to rejoin WWE for at least three months in 2014. It
was no surprise that Hogan departed TNA. The company are entering financial
ruin thanks to trying to be clever and taking TNA iMPACT! on the road to try and add a little variety
to the product. TNA are a prime example of a company buckling to peer pressure
and now suffering the consequences because they didn’t have the sense to ignore
those who criticised them.
When
they were taping their iMPACT! shows in Orlando, Florida at the Universal
Studios Sound Stage 1, the expenses were minimal. Now they’ve taken the show on
the road as WWE does every week, the company which was in debt to being with is
really beginning to feel the financial strain of the half a million dollars it
takes to tape a wrestling television show in different arenas per week. There
is more on this later on, but thanks to the financial pressure they’re under
the writing was on the wall for Hulk Hogan and the company to part ways when
TNA let Brooke Hogan go. True, it was no great loss to the company but it was
clear that her father wasn’t going to be far behind her.
Depending
on what you read and who you believe, Hulk Hogan was either let go by the
company who could no longer afford his huge fee or Hogan voluntarily left the
company when his contract expired. Either way, it’s a massive drain off of
TNA’s resources now Hogan is no longer on the pay roll.
Many
saw Hogan’s supposed return to WWE coming a mile away. After all, where else is
an ageing folk law hero going to go now that the only company in the world who
professed to need his help has shed him from their family? At his age and physical
condition – Hogan has had numerous hip and back operations and can no longer
wrestle long matches should he opt to step back in the ring – Hulk Hogan isn’t
a necessity any longer to any promotion around the world. New Japan and All
Japan aren’t interested in him and Ring of Honor certainly can’t afford his
services even though he may add a few more spectators to the company’s fan
base. WWE is the only company that can afford Hulk Hogan and I hate to say it,
need him.
Hulk
Hogan was always at his best he wasn’t in control of what happened. He was one
of the major factors of WCW going out of business thanks his short mindedness
and Eric Bischoff’s willingness to do anything Hogan demanded saw talent which
could have kept the company interesting fall by the wayside in favour of the
NWO. Hogan wasn’t the sole reason WCW went out of business but he was a major
factor and his reign at the top of TNA has been less than exceptional almost
completely dumping the X-Division talent which set the company apart from WWE
and doing away with the six sided ring which also lent an air of difference to
the offerings.
When
Hulk Hogan is merely an employee then he’s much more effective in his role.
Fortuitous, is the word I would use for Hogan’s status as a free agent in the
wrestling industry in November 2013. With WrestleMania 30 fast approaching, WWE
need a big draw and they need it fast. The Undertaker is running out of
opponents so his part on the card is going to be diminished as far as box
office receipts are concerned; after his injury in last years main event The
Rock had said he may never wrestle again because quite rightly, he doesn’t wish
to jeopardise his acting career and neither should he – The Rock doesn’t need
WWE anymore, but the company certainly need him, they would never have broken
the one million purchases barrier these last three years had it not been for
The Rock – and Vince McMahon has failed to build any new talent which could be
classed as ‘must see’.
For
Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan – the man McMahon swore to never to do business with
again when he left WWE the last time around – could be a blessing in disguise.
Hulk Hogan is that main event attraction that people will pay to see, even if
he competes in a short match against a major name. If The Rock decides to turn
down WWE’s offer to face Brock Lesnar in what would be Rock’s farewell match
and the best the company can dig up for The Undertaker is Ryback, then the
thirty year celebrations are going to need all the help they can get.
Of
course Hogan’s verbal agreement allows WWE to go ahead and make plans for
April. Now the company can book that dream match they believe will sell
WrestleMania 30 to the masses and that of course is John Cena vs Hulk Hogan,
possibly for the World Heavyweight Championship. WWE could of course try to pit
WrestleMania 30 as the past vs the future and try to get wrestlers of standing
who have competed at WrestleMania previously to face current WWE stars. Hulk
Hogan vs John Cena would be a huge attraction as would The Undertaker vs C.M
Punk II or C.M Punk vs Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock vs Brock Lesnar, The
New Age Outlaws vs The Shield. That though is just a suggestion.
It
has been muted that Hogan will return to WWE at the Royal Rumble as a surprise
entrant and win the match, which he has won twice before and challenge John
Cena at WrestleMania 30. It would be a very wise move for WWE if they have no
intention of pushing Daniel Bryan anymore. Let’s be honest, between Royal
Rumble and WrestleMania 30 there is nowhere near enough time for the company to
push and build a new star, and WrestleMania is generally used as a time to
bring back golden oldies anyway whilst ignoring the new and upcoming talent. If
Hulk Hogan entered the match number 27 – 30 and did little but taking a watered
down beating until he Hulked-up and cleared the ring, booking his place at
WrestleMania 30. It would be a momentous moment, not to mention drawing back
all the lapsed fans that have great memories of Hogan, but less fond ones of
the current WWE product. Everyone would pay the asking price to see Hogan beat
Cena even though the match would probably be awful.
There
is another incentive for WWE to hire back Hogan as well. Friends with the man
born Steve Borden, known to the wrestling world as Sting; who better to tempt
Sting over to WWE when his TNA contract expires soon? I’m not sure if Sting’s
contract expires before WrestleMania 30, though if it does WWE would have two
dream matches and possibly their largest WrestleMania audience ever. That is
what Hulk Hogan vs John Cena and The Undertaker vs Sting will do on one card.
Whatever
way you look at it, whether you love him or hate him, whether he’s facing John
Cena or chosen to end The Corporation – which is another alternative – Hulk
Hogan’s return for WWE really is ‘best for business’, in the short term.
Ryback-stage Heat
How
long have I been saying that Ryback shouldn’t be anywhere near the top of WWE’s
tree? Too long for me to remember in my recollection! Don’t get me wrong,
Ryback – real name Ryan Reeves – has the looks to be a star in wrestling. He
harks back to wrestlers such as ‘The Mighty’ Hercules and those bodybuilding
types which frequented WWE in the late 1980’s. It’s the jacked up look Vince
McMahon prefers from his top tier talent even if it’s not all kosher.
It’s
not Ryback’s look I have a problem with, it’s his efforts in the ring and the
way he was pushed when he was rebranded from Skip Sheffield to the Goldberg
imitating Ryback. It’s well documented that WWE should have learnt from WCW’s
mistakes with Goldberg, booking him in longer matches at the very beginning
which allowed him to prosper in the ring, instead of short matches in which he
only had to exert the minimum effort and skill. It was obvious how much it
backfired on WWE later on in 2012 and in 2013 Ryback has to rank as one of the
worst wrestler WWE has. Though he has had some superior matches with Daniel
Bryan on Raw and against The Shield at TLC 2012, everything else he’s done has
been worthless.
And
thankfully, after so long going on and on and on, your Wrestling God isn’t the
only one who can see it. Now, almost two years after his rebranding and
introduction to the WWE Universe, Ryback has fallen out of favour with the
bigwigs at WWE. Though I will point out that Vince McMahon isn’t one of these
people. Incredibly McMahon still believes Ryback can be a top level star – he
can’t. WWE producers and agents have seen the truth about Ryback and it’s not
going to do the Goldberg imitator any favours as 2014 rolls around.
Maddeningly
it’s not Ryback’s in ring output that producers and agents are concerned about backstage;
it’s his lackadaisical treatment of wrestlers who put their bodies in his hands
when they’re out in the ring. The first thing wrestlers are taught when they
step into a training school is how to take care of another wrestler. There’s no
sport, no reason and no sense in hurting other wrestlers because you can’t be
bothered to look after them in the ring. If others were as rough with Ryback as
he is with them then he’d have something to say about it. Reports coming from
WWE are that people reporting Ryback as rough and uncaring in the ring were
fabricating their stories, but you only have to watch the guy to see that he’s
inherited Bill Goldberg’s shoddiness when it comes to safeguarding other
wrestlers.
Of
course, it doesn’t help Ryback shake the comparisons to Goldberg. Inside the
squared circle, Goldberg was a dangerous man who either didn’t know or wasn’t
taught how to look after his fellow man in the ring. If you need proof then I
have two cases in point for you, the first being on his latest mediocre release
‘Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection’. For those who have already purchased one
of the disappointments of the year will have seen and those still to watch it
will see Goldberg’s shocking treatment of Scott Hall in a match from WCW Monday
Nitro early on in Goldberg’s career. Several times Goldberg nearly breaks
Hall’s neck and other bones as he uses the artist formerly known as Razor Ramon
as a rag doll in a disgusting display of lack of respect.
The
second is Bret Hart. ‘The Hitman’ could have had another five or ten years
worth of in ring competitiveness left in him until he met Goldberg at WCW
Starrcade 1999. For those not familiar with that fateful night, Goldberg ended
Bret Hart’s in ring career with a lethal and dangerous kick to the head which
gave Hart concussion. Two years later, Hart suffered a stroke which he and many
medical experts attribute to the effects of Goldberg’s careless kick. When you
go back and review the footage you’ll see Goldberg isn’t even looking at Hart
as Bret comes off the ropes and Goldberg stick out a foot which catches Hart
square in the head. On the excellent ‘Wrestling With Shadows’ release in a sit
down interview with Bret Hart, ‘The Excellence of Execution’ states that
Goldberg treated him and all his opponents like ragdolls and showed them no
care or respect in the ring.
Now
this part isn’t about Goldberg, but it is to illustrate that the comparison
between Ryback and Goldberg goes further than their rise through the wrestling
ranks and in ring product. Where Ryback is concerned, I’ve seen many moments of
cringe inducing carelessness from the former Nexus member but what many believe
began the producers and agents questioning Ryback’s safety in the ring was at
Night of Champions. Those who watched it live and those who purchase the
release on November 18th or after will see Ryback come to the aid of Paul
Heyman and drive C.M Punk through a table. The action isn’t one someone can
mess up easily. Hundreds of people have driven opponents through tables in the
past and never hurt or injured them once. There are the odd couple of accidents
and no one will quickly forget Hardcore Bob Holly’s horrific cut which happened
on an episode of WWE’s ECW in 2006, when Holly fell through a table which
sliced his back so deep you could visibly see muscle beneath the skin.
However
these accidents are few and far between. With professionals, wrestlers never
get hurt. But at Night of Champions, instead of driving Punk into the centre of
the table thus avoiding the metal structure which held the table, Ryback
slammed Punk towards the edge and when the table broke in two the metal support
cut Punk over his right shoulder. Something which neither Punk nor WWE
officials were thrilled about when they got back to the locker room. How WWE
can say that these allegations are fabricated are beyond me. It’s there for
them to see and those who have had enough of turning a blind eye and beginning
to finally notice it.
So
much so that after the first Raw of November, Ryback was buried by almost
everyone in an emergency production meeting; no one had a good word to say
about him and had there been one it would have been lies. Ryback’s reputation
is now said to be so bad with those who pull the strings backstage that his
main roster status is short term and won’t last beyond WrestleMania 30. Of
course that’s not for those people to decide. The only person who decides
whether someone gets ‘Future Endeavoured’ is Vince McMahon himself who can’t be
happy about Ryback’s shoddiness either, even though he’s not come out to
lambast Ryback for his wrongs.
Being
so careless, Ryback has cost McMahon at least a months worth of storyline and
planning. Because no one wants him up the card and C.M Punk certainly doesn’t
want to work him again, McMahon and his minions have had to rip up a whole
month of programming and storylines and wing it. The Ryback and Paul Heyman vs
C.M Punk feud was meant to last until after Survivor Series, supposedly Punk
was to lead a team against one fronted by Heyman with the ruling that if Punk’s
team won he would get time alone in the ring with Heyman without any
interference from talent backstage. That was meant to be Punk’s big revenge and
one which would have been earned.
WWE
may have been wrong to give the payback away at Night of Champions, but under
pressure from those below him, McMahon granted the request to remove Ryback
from storylines which necessitated the company ending the feud at Hell in a
Cell, WWE retracting Paul Heyman from WWE television because they had nothing
else to do with him and rushing C.M Punk into a feud which is going nowhere
with The Wyatt Family. Ryback has cost Vince McMahon a lot of creative time and
therefore a lot of money which goes into the production of storylines planned
out in advance. Vince McMahon doesn’t care of you’re God. If you cost him money
then you will pay for it.
That’s
what Ryback is doing now. Treading water in WWE, Ryback’s main event hopes are
over. He will never be considered for a main event run by the company again and
when McMahon sees there are more talented people than Ryback who the fans are
willing to buy into, Ryan Reeves may well be looking for employment elsewhere.
As
far as poor old Paul Heyman goes, don’t expect to see him on television again
until 2014. Having to turn their attention to plunge Punk into an emergency
feud and changing their Survivor Series plans, the company haven’t had time to
come up with anything for Paul Heyman. Whilst Heyman will enjoy his time off he
will undoubtedly be a loss to WWE in the run up to Royal Rumble as he’s been
one of the highlights of the company this year. Paul Heyman will be back though
and when Brock Lesnar returns to WWE for a surprise Royal Rumble appearance or
failing that his build up for his WrestleMania 30 match, Heyman will be in tow.
Let’s
just hope that in 2014, WWE gives Paul Heyman someone who can wrestle, someone
who deserves the spotlight and not someone who has wasted two years and
countless millions of dollars invested in him.
Will The Snake Strike
the Royal Rumble?
Jake
Roberts is a name which will go down in wrestling history. From the late 1970’s
to the early 1990’s Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts was renound as one of the best and
most reliable wrestlers in the industry. He waged wars with the best of the
industry and with his trusty Python ‘Damien’ accompanying him to the ring,
Roberts was a main attraction wherever he went.
Roberts’
demons are no secret to those with long enough memories. A notorious drug and
alcohol user, Roberts is one of the few wrestlers from the era to abuse both
substances and still be alive to tell the tale in 2013. An alcoholic, cocaine
addict, absent father and ex-inmate (Roberts served time for non payment of
child maintenance), his wrestling legacy is the only thing that Roberts has
left. It’s a legacy which is still well remembered and coveted by the most
fierce of wrestling purists as whatever happens outside the ring, should never
tarnish what happens inside it, it’s a theory which WWE should remember when
dealing with Chris Benoit.
Just
when everyone though Jake Roberts was a lost cause, he surprised us all by
getting clean with the help of Diamond Dallas Page. For most of 2013 Roberts
and Scott Hall have been living with Page and took up his Yoga programme which
many current WWE stars adhere to in order to ease ache and pains without the
help of pain medication. Now a reformed drug user and alcoholic, Roberts came
out in public this week and shocked the wrestling world with two very
surprising comments. The first forms the title of this piece.
In
the best shape of his life, since he got clean, Roberts and WWE have been in
talks for Jake to enter the 2014 Royal Rumble match as a surprise participant.
Many who thought they’d never see Jake in the ring again were shocked and many
who know that wrestling were the foundations of Roberts’ problems feared for
his health and sanity when he made the announcement. As of yet it still remains
to be seen whether WWE allows Roberts back, even for a one off appearance
considering his history and that WWE are now a PG product (though no one even
mentioned this when WWE talked about re-hiring Hulk Hogan even though his sex
tape scandal broke last year, in which Hogan was seen having sex with his best
friend’s wife who was many years his junior).
The
second comment Roberts made was of the wall and came from left field. Roberts
made the declaration that he would be interested in buying TNA and giving Vince
McMahon a run for his money. Apart from the fact that Roberts couldn’t afford
the company even though he could probably make it better with his wrestling
acumen and it’s been touted in the last week that Billy Corgan (the former
front man of The Smashing Pumpkins) is thinking about purchasing the company,
it’s not a good idea at this moment for anyone to buy or stake money in TNA.
You’ll
have seen me mention TNA’s financial worries above and for the vague on the
issue allow me to fill you in. Taped in one studio which was redubbed ‘The
Impact Zone’ in Orlando, Florida inside Universal Studios for years, TNA lost
money but could afford to still hire talent and put up a modicum of a fight.
The pressure got to TNA at the beginning of this year when fans and critics
came out and said the company would never be as ambitious as WWE if they didn’t
start taking their television tapings on the road. TNA took that as throwing
the gauntlet down and uprooted their show from Orlando to different cities
around the country to prove they could.
The
only problem was that they couldn’t. Not financially at least. The owners of TNA,
a modestly rich business have plugged millions or dollars into the company to
make it a success and the company have pissed all that work away in merely one
year. Many said it was a bad idea for TNA to stay in Orlando but in hindsight
it was the wisest thing they could have done. The ring, the stage, the lighting
rigs, everything they needed to tape their weekly iMPACT! shows was there, set
up. All the staff had to do was turn up and get to work. Now, travelling from
city to city (TNA tape two weeks worth of iMPACT! at one arena in 2013 before
moving on) is costing the company millions of dollars they do not have to both
stage the shows and transport the set, ring, wrestlers and lighting equipment.
Already
in the few months the company have been on the road they have had to cut
wrestlers and backstage staff including Jessie Sorenson who it was said had
been promised a job for life backstage after he suffered a truly horrific neck
injury in a match and couldn’t wrestle anymore. Brooke Hogan and Hulk Hogan
along with roughly sixty percent of TNA’s most promising talent have fallen by
the wayside and soon the company will also lose Sting who they cannot afford to
keep when his contract expires. It was madness to think they’d fare any better
on the road than they would in Orlando where their cost of taping weekly
television shows (in Orlando, TNA would tape four weeks worth of shows over the
course of one or two days) was a fraction of what it is taping it on the road.
Who
cares about ambition when you’re spending yourself into a hole? This is how the
end began for ECW and TNA would be wise to learn from history. That TNA
actually believed they would make more money from going on the road was a
misguided judgment by management. In Orlando, TNA didn’t charge for television
or pay-per view tickets for audiences. The price of admission was covered for
the audience in their Universal Studios package when they entered the park and
TNA would pay the park a paltry amount to stage and keep their shows there. The
thinking was that they were attracting people who weren’t wrestling fans and
who were just there because it was part of the package – thus some of the fans
had no idea about the wrestlers or storylines.
Going
on the road, TNA believed that they could make their killing on the ticket
prices to actual wrestling fans. The problem there is that to do that you have
to have a great product with new faces fans will pay to see. TNA didn’t have
half of that. The product was stale by the time it went on the road and the
fans who watched on television weren’t prepared to pay to see the show live.
The new talent was penned back in favour of people like Sting and Hulk Hogan
and it was nothing people hadn’t seen before. TNA lost more money on the road
in their first couple of weeks than they would have keeping their show at
Universal Studios for another year.
In
2013, TNA is headed for financial ruin with some predicting that the company
will not be in business when Christmas 2014 rolls around. It would be an unwise
move for anyone to buy the company or even set up their own wrestling company
right now. To compete on a level with WWE, the owner would have to plug
literally hundreds of millions of pounds into the product with no hope of
recouping that money for ten plus years. A new company or someone buying TNA
would have to be prepared to take a hefty loss before they began making money
from the promotion. And then there’s the cost of new wrestlers (no one will
bother watching if there’s no one new to watch), booking arenas, buying weekly
television and monthly pay-per view time just to start with. In Short, buying
TNA would amount to business suicide.
Jake
Roberts doesn’t need that at this stage in his life now. Even if Roberts had
the money which I don’t believe he does, the guy has just gotten clean, began a
new life. Can you imagine what losing everything he’d ever worked for would do
to him when the promotion didn’t work out? He wouldn’t be able to sell it on,
no one else will buy a failing company and bankruptcy would only be the
downward spiral for Roberts to begin using again. The only money anyone would
ever make out of TNA right now would be when it went out business and Vince
McMahon brought the video library – which he is interested in – in order to add
to WWE’s already in-exhaustive archive. Should that happen, the owner would
have to use that money to pay off their already bulging debts and WWE would own
almost every piece of American wrestling footage from professional
organisations, which ever existed.
If
Roberts wants to concentrate on something then getting back in the ring for a
one-off appearance should be his priority if he really wants it. But then
there’s always the question of should he and would WWE really ever allow him
back.
Should
Jake Roberts be allowed back in the ring? No, not if it’s going to send him
spiralling back out of control again. It’s best for him personally if he stays
away from the ring knowing it may push him back off of the wagon. However, if
this is the only way Roberts can gain closure and shut the door on the past
then yes. By all means. If it’s going to make for a better, healthier Jake
Roberts who can walk away from the business after he’s walked that aisle one
last time then we’ll all welcome him back with open arms. Of course Jake
Roberts’ affiliation with wrestling won’t end at the Royal Rumble should be a
surprise participant. Jake Roberts can’t truly rest until he’s indicted into
the WWE Hall of Fame. An honour which – should he stay clean – will surely be
bestowed upon him in 2014 and one which would be truly deserved.
Onwards
and upwards...
