#1 – An Alternative
I had an old business professor that used to say "you can't reinvent the wheel, but you can innovate what the wheel is used for." Look at wrestling in the Bruno Sammartino era, then look at it today. On the surface it may look completely different, but it's still the same basic concept – sell tickets, butts in seats, wrestle, entertain, get paid, go home. It's the people like Toots Mondt and Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff that have looked at the wrestling game and said "what can we do different?" Those are the pioneers that know how to take a successful product and turn it into something bigger and better. Of course if you put all those guys in the same room they'd kill each other, but that's a different story.
In a lot of ways I think Jeff Jarrett did try and innovate with the birth of TNA wrestling. They took a 6-sided ring and made it popular. They took the cruiserweight style from WCW and lucha wrestling and turned it into the X-Division. There are many reasons between then and now why I don't think TNA succeeded as much as they should have, but I do think Jeff and the creative minds way back then were trying to do something special.
There are 3 hours of Raw, 2 hours of Smackdown, 2 hours of NXT and Main Event, 2 hours of Impact Wrestling, and on any given Sunday 3 hours of PPV. There's also Total Divas and Legends House out there now. To really stay on top of the game and be able to do my job effectively, I've got to watch all of that. Now, most fans don't, and shouldn't watch all that every week. I don't think you can. Unless you're getting paid a livable wage to work in wrestling in some fashion, you can't watch 14 hours of wrestling television every week and still function day-to-day. Never mind Ring of Honor, New Japan and all the indies and DVDs I want to get through!!
One of the biggest sentiments among the fans who took our survey, that actually took the time to write out responses, is that they want a true wrestling alternative. The terms "WWE lite" and "TNA lite" were used frequently. I can't fit another cookie-cutter show into my daily routine. More important, I DON'T WANT TO!!
I don't know what concepts and styles Jeff and Karen are working on to make GFW special. I know there's been talk of a reality style gimmick, which could have potential. But in that, you have to realize how much the fans know these days. I can't get through Total Divas because it's "reality TV" that is so very obviously NOT reality. It's just another over-scripted product; I'm sure they shoot some of those scenes a dozen times to get them right. I don't want GFW to be an eye-rolling experience. Pro wrestling is pre-determined and scripted, and we all know it – reality as a concept will be tricky to do without over-exposing your product, and thereby losing the suspension of disbelief that makes sports entertainment work.
But I do have faith that GFW can deliver, and can succeed, if it's done correctly and gives people a true alternative to the companies out there already. I think our readers have done a great job displaying some very important concepts that need to be talked about. As promised, I have sent all of this data and information to the folks behind Global Force Wrestling. Thank you all so much for the crazy amount of support and response we got!!
