"Entertainment" will only Hurt WWE in the end...

This is the first entry into the Rassling Geek Blog. I, of course, am the Rasslin Geek.

I started following professional wrestling at a very young age. Towards the end of the Golden Era (Late 80s early 90s), and have seen wrestling empires rise, and crumble. I've seen the new guys become greats, and the greats fall. Many scandals, bad story lines, good story lines, factions, and eras later, I'm still a fan. And it will likely stay that way for a long time. Which brings us the this current day and age. The "Entertainment" age.

Of course the global leader in professional wrestling today is the WWE. The crazy thing about this, is that the WWE is no longer a Professional Wrestling Company. Vince McMahon has put a stop to the use of the words "Wrestling" and "Wrestler" in all of his so called "Wrestling Products", being replaced with the words "Entertainer","Superstar", and "Diva". The name World Wrestling Entertainment has now been shortened to just "WWE", similar to when Kentucky Fried Chicken shortened its name it simply "KFC".

Now, I know the difference between John Cena, and a piece of Original Recipe Chicken, but obviously Vinny Mac does not. To him, they are both products that a company sells to a mass consumer. They are both the face of a major company, and are both bad for our health. (Im not a Cena hater, but too much of one thing is bad, right?)

So with any major corporation, the goal is to get bigger, to expand, and to make more cash. Of course, in the eyes of WWE's high-ups, a measly Wrestling Federation can not continue to expand globally, if it only knows one product, which is Wrestling. Therefor a new term must be used, a term that becomes more appealing to a mass market, the term is "Entertainment".

I'm not a fan of the term "Entertainment", frankly because Entertainment can mean a number of things. A Mexican donkey show could be considered "Entertainment", Lilo and Stitch on Ice could be considered "Entertainment", hell I could could go out to a slam poetry open mic night, and start screaming into a microphone, and to some crazy, coffee drinking hippie, that would be "Entertainment".

But for the WWE, this gives them room to expand their horizons.(XFL, WWE Films, No Holds Barred Part 2, ect.)

One major downside to this that the WWE did not consider, is the fact that TNA now has the privilege and right to call themselves the Number One Wrestling Company on the planet (Though some may not agree, but we will save that for another time). This is a huge advantage to TNA, because it looks way better when looking for advertisers, or a second show on another network. This will only work to TNA's benefit, because WWE fans, who are sick of "Entertainment" will begin to tune into TNA instead.

Think of it this way: You are a 14 to 24 year old male, sitting in front of a blank TV. When someone walks up to you with 2 generic DVD cases. One says "Entertainment" on
the label, while the other says "Pro Wrestling". Which one would you choose to watch?

Now the 14 to 24 male demographic might not seem like a lot when your trying to please every demographic like the WWE is trying to do, but losing that demographic will eventually hurt the ratings. If you're trying to get a 60 year old Grandmother to tune into your show for the first time and stay a viewer for a long time,you better hire Bob Barker to make more appearances (Possibly a few in a speedo), because she is not likely to stay a viewer. While your original core audience is flocking to TNA or ROH.

Even the slightest drop in Raw or Smackdown ratings will affect advertisers and eventually affect Vinny Mac's wallet. This could set off a downward spiral that could spell the end of the WWE in a decade or so. (Though unlikely)

Just as well, the slightest increase in TNA ratings will help TNA in every way. Advertisers will pay more cash, they will be able to tour and do more live Impact tapings on the road (which look way better on TV than the Impact Zone). TNA will gain a larger share of the DVD, PPV, and merchandise market. This will slowly chop away at the WWE's core audience.

Alot of people (Including WWE themselves) say that Vince isn't concerned with TNA, and that they aren't even in competition with them. This makes me laugh. If you have ever worked for a corporation or big business in your lifetime, and most of us have, you'll know that the higher ups are always concerned about losing customers, even if its just one or two.

I worked for one of the top grocery store chains in America a few years back. One thing the managers always stressed was pleasing all the customers, no matter what. Because if that grocery store lost just one of its customers to its competitor down the street, that would add up to a total loss of just over 20 million dollars! 20 million dollars spent over that customers lifetime would no longer be spent at that store. Imagine if that store lost 50, or even a 100 customers.

Fact is WWE is shunning their core audience. Its not just about them using the term "Entertainment", but it sure is a big part, and it represents the bigger picture of whats going on withing the company. Burying talent like Daniel Bryan, and Kaval. Breaking up the tag team division, and making a mockery of the women's division. Yet they have no problem putting Snooki on the WM 27 card, or hiring models who wouldn't know a wrist lock from a wrist lock to wrestle in the Divas division.

I see a few people, one by one, die hard wrestling fans who are slowly turning away from the WWE, in favor of TNA, ROH, or Dragon Gate. The WWE is turning their back on their core audience in favor of a POSSIBLE larger world audience.

The wrestling fans that made them a global phenomenon, no longer matter to them, WWE wants the people that watch Jersey Shore, and listen to Justin Bieber. But what the WWE doesn't realize, is that in 2 years, nobody is gonna give a crap about Justin Bieber or Jersey shore. They are what we call in America "Fads". We've seen it before (New Kids on the Block, Laguna Beach, MC Hammer). The funny thing is, all of those things were considered "Entertainment".

Remember, a major company losing even a handful of consumers, hurts the company in profound ways. The core wrestling audience will soon flock to what they crave, which is wrestling, and the pretentious pop cultured entertainment fans, will change the channel as soon as it becomes boring to the, and the WWE loses.

It is fun to speculate just what could happen because of this. In my opinion, it will just hurt the WWE in the end, and maybe just maybe, we will see the WWE return to its grass roots in the future, hopefully with a better all around product. We all learn from our mistakes, and Vinny Boy, this could be your worst mistake...

Rob Van Dam vs John Cena ECW One Night Stand 2006 Part 1

The Rasslin Geek: This week in pro rasslin history: America's new childhood hero, John Cena goes to NYC to face RVD in a match that should have been banned from the WWE video library...The crowed absolutely tears Cena apart, and at one point the actually tear his shirt. Never seen a more aggressive crowd than in this 2006 classic.Thoughts? Enjoy

REPO MAN LIVES

Oh yeah, one of the greats