WHY TRY HARDER? 10-5-01

Hello all and welcome to another installment of The Terry Taylor Perspective.

I really enjoy writing these pieces because it makes me look at things a bit differently and that opens my eyes to so much I wouldn’t normally see. Hopefully, in some small way they do the same for you. Let’s dig right in, shall we?

OK, here’s a trivia question for you. Whose tagline was, “We try harder?”

Pretty easy, huh?

For those that didn’t know, it was the motto for Avis Car Rental. Why did they say that? What did they mean by that phrase? What were the circumstances that caused Avis to market themselves this way? Hertz was (is) the #1 car rental company in the world by a huge margin. Avis wanted to let prospective customers know they were willing to do what ever it took to get the customer’s business. Avis was in direct competition with Hertz. Avis went after the customer aggressively and as a result made the giant Hertz work harder.

Do you know what happened? Both companies had to up their performance, quality, and service, which made the customer get more bang for his buck. The competition forced a better product from both companies. The customer won out! He got great service at a reasonable price and he got A CHOICE.

You ask what does this have to do with anything? If one removes the names “Hertz” and “Avis” and replaces them with WWF and WCW - the picture becomes somewhat clearer. In 1995 WCW launched Monday Nitro in direct competition with the standard bearer Monday Night Raw. This gutsy move by Eric Bischoff was borderline blasphemy! No one goes head to head with the most watched show in the history of cable television. It was certain suicide.

Or was it?

The result was two wrestling shows offering the same product at the same time and instead of offering the customer a choice - it FORCED a choice. One couldn’t watch both at the same time and there were millions of advertising dollars and viewers at stake. What happened to wrestling? Did one company die or move to a different timeslot? No, both companies COMPETED! The customer won! There were two dynamic shows on that were both “can’t miss” and this competition took wrestling to heights the Neilson ratings had never before seen!

This battle waged back and forth for six years. One company gained an advantage only to see the other create a scenario that grabbed the audience swinging the momentum back again. Oh, what a wonderful time to be a wrestling fan! It will be remembered as the greatest period in wrestling history.

What happened? Why aren’t WCW and the WWF slugging it out on Monday nights anymore? Why can’t we click back and forth - desperate not to miss any of the good stuff? Where are our favorites? Where’s Goldberg? Where’s Sting? Where are the Outsiders? Where is Ric Flair? Where are all the superstars responsible for making WCW a viable option? Where’s Nitro? Where’s my choice?

The WWF now owns WCW. There is no choice. There is no competition. Vince McMahon has won the Monday night wars. He has vanquished his competitor. While Vince may have won, even he knows competition MADE him work harder, made him sharper, and made him better. Without the specter of WCW or another wrestling company to push Vince and the WWF - the losers now are the fans and the business.

The WWF doesn’t have to “TRY HARDER” and it shows.