Terry Taylor's Perspective 7/11/02
Al Isaacs called me today and asked why I didn’t write a column last week. To tell the truth, I didn’t have anything dying to come out on paper. The problem with writers’ block is it tends to continue until something, anything breaks the cycle. Al asked what was the subject of this article and I really didn’t know. As Al and I spoke, we started talking about the state of the wrestling industry. Al told me one of his favorite periods of wrestling history was the old Mid-South Wrestling owned by Bill Watts from 1984 to 1987.
The name changed to the Universal Wrestling Federation and Bill decided to pro-mote nationwide competing with the WWF and the NWA owned by Jim Crocket Promotions based out of Charlotte, NC. The UWF was hugely successful because the television shows were fast paced with intricate, logical storylines pitting good verses evil. Bill’s genius along with Eddie Gilbert’s creative writing propelled the UWF ahead of Jim Crocket and was closing in on the WWF – who at the time was building the future of wrestling on the broad shoulders of Hulk Hogan.
As happens so often in business, the UWF didn’t have the multimillion-dollar budget of a Ted Turner or Vince McMahon to fund the company when unexpected costs arise. The UWF was funded with Bill Watt’s personal money. Watts couldn’t take the chance of going bankrupt so he sold the UWF to Jim Crocket Promotions.
If you don’t believe history repeats itself – try this. The NWA writer tried to use the extremely successful UWF stars to elevate his floundering NWA (Crocket) stars. This senseless act of jealousy killed BOTH companies. People were force-fed the NWA to the detriment of the UWF stars and they didn’t buy it. Vince McMahon says, “The audience will decide.” Well, decide they did. They ended up getting disgusted with the poorly disguised political annihilation of the UWF and turned away from the remaining NWA.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Watch this:
*An ultra successful company goes head to head with the market leader.
*The upstart is new, fresh, and different with competitive matches and compelling storylines.
*The new company passes the established dinosaur dominating the ratings.
*Poor management and shortsightedness by President of the company causes a disastrous decline and the closing of the company.
*The market leader buys the failed company and immediately uses the other company’s stars to elevate their stars and the people didn’t buy it.
AGAIN, THE PLAN FAILED! IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW – I’M TALKING ABOUT THE WWE AND WCW!
History has certainly repeated itself, but how could that happen – AGAIN?!?!?!
People know the wrestling business is cyclical. The cycles can be very good or they can be very bad. No one knows how long a cycle will last, so one should be preparing for the downturns. The way to prepare is two fold and they go hand in hand.
That sounds simple, but I’ve been in the hot seat as head writer for WCW. This was a boom period right before (mis)management allowed a selfish talent to talk him into beating the biggest star WCW ever created – GOLDBERG.
I quit the booking job the day I heard the plan.
Beating Goldberg was like deflowering a virgin: you can never get it back. WCW never got it back.
If you’re in a boom period, people are watching your product. If they’re interested enough to watch and you’re riding a wave, the audience will be receptive to new talent. The opposite is true when a company is in a slump. The audience can be brutal, but that’s their right. They want to be entertained and if something doesn’t interest them, they find something that will.
If while in a slump a company tries to debut new talent, it can be death. The audience is already soured to the bland repetitiveness of the show and becomes hypercritical. Not the best way to make one’s debut, is it?
If planning ahead and recognizing young prospects is an ongoing process, a company will survive because the new talent is exposed at a pace that isn’t noticeable. If there is no leadership and a panic to immediately increase the ratings by doing anything happens, the young talent is burned up in the process, as is everything else. This leaves nothing to pull out of the slump. Usually, the owner will try and do what’s worked before with the same talent. Except by this time, the talent is older and times have changed.
Sound familiar?
What exactly does that mean? The “heels” are the ‘bad guys’ and the only way for right to overcome in the end is to have people mad at the heels. This is done in a lot of ways, but the main way is to have them cheat to win and do dastardly things to the good guys. We have to care about the good guys for this to work.
How do we get the people to care? The audience has to get to know the good guy and like him. This is done with vignettes, skits, music videos, and winning matches in the clutch. The audience has to know their hero can win when the chips are down. There’s a fine line to be walked here.
There must be a distinct balance of heat and gratification. Too much of either and the people get disgusted. If there’s too much heat – why should they care? Their hero is going to lose. Everybody roots for the underdog, but if the underdog never overcomes his nemesis, he’s a loser and people don’t cheer for losers. Or, there’s no reason to cheer because the good guy always wins. There’s no struggle and the hero doesn’t need our support. It’s always been “The Thrill of the Chase” that’s kept audiences glued to stories. When righteousness reigns – there are no more dragons to slay; the hero is no longer needed. If that is the end of a movie or book – fine. If it’s an episodic wrestling show where the hero always has to come back to fight another day – not fine. It is an art to juggle that balance.
This is the end of “Booking Wrestling 101”. If you understand the principles described here, then maybe you could be a writer in the WWE or NWA/TNA.
The one caveat though, “Know your history.”
It will come back around and if you don’t know history: you’re bound to repeat it.
Sound familiar?
Until next week,
Terry Taylor