Hello and welcome all to another edition of The Trebor Mint and the latest in The Perfect Series. So far while writing this series I have had an idea of what I was going to write about in each column, and I have covered the basics of what I wanted to cover with my four columns so far. In a way I have covered the basics of wrestling, the two opponents, the rivalry between them and the setting for which their fight will take place. The obvious next step in this writers eyes is to cover The Perfect Match, but that’s not what I’m going to write about for now as I don’t feel that it is the right time for it.
Instead as you will have seen by the title I am going to focus on The Perfect Promotion, my initial thought was as to how to promote a wrestler or how to rise up the ranks in a wrestling organisation, but then I came to my senses and realised that if you say to any wrestling fan Promotion they will nearly always think you are talking about a wrestling company. So without further ado here is my interpretation of The Perfect Promotion.
Now every wrestling fan will have their own version of The Perfect Promotion, and there will be some that will say that it is already here in WWE or has been and gone with ECW and I don’t have any chance to show the otherwise. So as with all of The Perfect Series I’m focusing on the important aspects of The Perfect Promotion.
They say that behind every great army there is a great leader and that is true looking through history. It has been proven, by Napoleon, Cesar, Churchill and even Genghis Kahn. All these men led great armies, and yes I do know Churchill didn’t lead the British army but he was still one of the greatest leaders of all time. This saying is also true about wrestling promotions, behind every great promotion there a great leader. In wrestling there have been 6 men who have bought it or made it onto a truly national/international stage Vincent Kennedy McMahon Senior and Junior, Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, Vince Russo and Jerry Jarret.
The McMahon’s are probably the most famous family in wrestling and have been at the forefront of the business side of wrestling be it TV deals, PPV wrestling or the Supershows like WrestleMania the McMahon’s were there. This business aspect is the first part of the Perfect Promotion and the leadership behind it. The Perfect Promotion needs an owner that is innovative and willing to take risks, be it on talent or on ideas. The Perfect Promotion needs to be at the front of technology and the only way this can be done is through innovation.
Leadership also needs to be about risk Paul Heyman and Jerry Jarret, took risks in setting up their promotions. Jarret took the risk in basing a promotion’s start-up totally around weekly PPV’s, which is basing a lot of hope on the fans wanting to see popular names. Heyman took a risk changing a promotion from general wrestling to one based totally on one style of wrestling at a time where the big two were so dominant. This risk taking attitude will help a promotion to grow and expand, and hopefully not become stale which is something that the Perfect Promotion must never be.
The Perfect promotion needs to be lead/owned by someone who not only can take risks and be innovative, but has a love for wrestling and an ability to write and book wrestling. This was proven with WCW, when it was bought by Ted Turner, it looked hopeful that it would grow, which it did, but over time the owners got bored with it and it wasn’t profitable so they gave up with it. If the owner doesn’t have passion for wrestling the Perfect Promotion will never happen. The leader of the Perfect Promotion needs to be able to write wrestling and have new ideas. Bischoff could be said to be one of the best at this, because when he was there he was WCW, and although he had his floors he knows good wrestling and good storylines. Russo although hated by many had some good points and it could be said WCW could have been a lot worse by the end if someone unknown was in charge of booking instead of Russo.
The next part of the Perfect Promotion is the roster. The Perfect Promotion needs to have a good varied and flexible roster, but most of all a roster that is committed and there for the love of wrestling. If a promotion has a roster that is big on stars, but the stars won’t team together there will be a clash of heads and most of all egos, good programming will no longer be the highest priority. WCW proved this. To start with all was well, they had the big names and a good storylines, but slowly cracks appeared and egos took over. Compare this to ECW, a company with a reputation built on respect and love for wrestling and it’s fans. The wrestlers in ECW although not 100% happy knew that to succeed they would need to bust a gut every night to prove they had what it took, they did and helped make a legend that will stick with wrestling forever.
The Perfect promotion could have great leadership; a talented writer at the forefront and a great roster, but without a good writing team it will never achieve perfection. It is said man cannot live on bread alone, this could be said true about wrestling storylines. Fresh ideas and stories won’t come from just one man. He needs to team to help out and improve his ideas, tell him he’s wrong and a team to bring their own special something to a story. This is one of the major WWE downfalls, that although they have a writing team, if the team tries to discourage an idea from a McMahon, or Gerwitz they get shot down, or in some cases fired or given menial jobs. This is one reason why WWE will never achieve perfection, because good ideas don’t always get through and bad ones can’t be improved or rejected.
There is one more main point that the Perfect Promotion needs this is a good backing team, be it road agents, extra staff or the wrestlers themselves that get there early to set up the ring, and help newer guys to go through their match. Without this a promotion won’t grow. The wrestlers wont bond and more importantly there won’t be a level of trust that is needed when two guys are performing life threatening moves on each other. If there isn’t this backing be it medical or general moral there is little hope. Indy promotions probably have this backing the best, just for the fact that the backing is the wrestlers. They do most of the work for the promotion, themselves as a team, and it shows in their matches, as there is more passion and commitment shown, than someone who shows up at the latest possible time and wrestles for just the money.
I list these six points as the main basis for The Perfect Promotion, there are other that could be in like a good fan base, the right venues or enough money, but these things will come with times, and if a promotion is Perfect then it will succeed. Money is important, but isn’t the be all and end all of wrestling everyone promotion has to start somewhere and normally that’s with limited funds which should in theory then grown. The Perfect Promotion shouldn’t be based on ratings, or profits alone. It should be a combination of everything, but most of all a Promotion that the fans will always enjoy, and wont get bored of.
This has been my interpretation of The Perfect Promotion and as usual if you have any comments, feedback, questions please send them too thetrebormint@hotmail.com
This has been The Trebor Mint, whether you loved it, hated it, or just want to give you’re opinion or just need to answer my question email me at the above address.
Have a Nice Day!!
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