Professional Wrestling: It’s A Business!!

My piece last week got a lot of people riled up, so I felt the need to expand one of the points I made, that Roman Reigns is in the spot he’s in because what he does for the WWE’s bottom line.  Some people disputed the notion that he brings in that much, and some conceded that point but didn’t care and expressed that the best worker should be your number one guy.  And that second dispute somehow got expanded into saying that they shouldn’t care about the money and just worry about wrestling.  All of those things lead me to think that a lot of people just don’t understand how the business works, either today or throughout history.  And I don’t want to be that guy but sometimes you just have to be because logic is being denied and defied all around you.  So here we go….

Yes, Roman Reigns is one of the top moneymakers in the company.  Dave Meltzer occasionally reports what he hears from the WWE people as far as merchandise sales, and has said repeatedly that Roman and AJ are the top two full time guys for merchandise sales (John Cena is still the number one guy in the whole company).  Either you believe Meltzer or you don’t, I guess.  But if you trust him on star ratings and backstage rumors but question him on merch sales, you’re telling on yourselves.  Other than merch sales go check the YouTube video view numbers every week.  Considering that run of the mill YouTube show makers with a few hundred subscribers can make money from their shows imagine what a company that has over 29 million YouTube subscribers and has videos topping a million views every week is making.  Roman Reigns routinely gets over a million views on his show segments and gets more than anyone other than Ronda Rousey and occasionally Braun Strowman.  That translates into money, boys and girls, plain and simple.  No getting around that.

Now as far as putting your best worker in your top spot……..yeeaahhhhh.  If your top worker is Ric Flair that’s fine.  But if it’s somebody who isn’t bringing in as much money as some other people on your roster that’s a bad idea.  And by top guy that doesn’t mean world champion, just the guy who’s in most of your main events and big matches.  At the height of his popularity during the Attitude Era Stone Cold Steve Austin was never the best worker in the WWF.  Neither was the Rock. Hulk Hogan was never the best wrestler either in the WWF/E or WCW.  Even back in the territory days guys like Dusty Rhodes and Junkyard Dog were the biggest names despite not being the best worker in the place.  Heck, Bruno Sammartino was not the worker that Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne were either, but he was the biggest draw in the country.  On the flip side Verne Gagne the promoter decided that Nick Bockwinkel was a better option to headline in the AWA instead of Hogan….how’d that work out?  I sincerely doubt that WCW would have overtaken the WWF when it did if they ran with Dean Malenko instead of the NWO.  And lastly, when the WWF did go with the best workers in Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels they fell behind in the Monday Night Wars.

But why care about the money, what about the WRESTLING?  It’s a business.

Without the money there is no wrestling for us to watch.

Unless your company is owned by a TV network like Sinclair or fronted by a billionaire with endless cash to burn like Ted Turner then you have to maximize your revenues and profits.  You have to maximize TV ratings so that you get the most lucrative TV deals you can.  So to do that you have to feature people who sell merchandise, get clicks on your YouTube channel to get you more ad money, and sell more tickets.  New Japan isn’t booking Chris Jericho and putting a belt on him just because he’s good in the ring.  His presence draws the attention of people who don’t care about New Japan Pro Wrestling, or people who don’t watch wrestling but listen to his band Fozzy. Even your local indie companies have to book people with some name recognition to get people to come in who might otherwise pass on their shows.  They’re not doing Make a Wish stuff for people who only want to see great in ring workers, they’re running a business.  And the hard truth of the wrestling business is that workrate doesn’t sell anywhere as much as you might think.   Here’s how I know:

Ring of Honor is on free television every week,  Truly free, not even basic cable.  They don’t just have jobber matches either, they have title matches and title changes.  On free TV.  You don’t have to spend a dime to see all their best wrestlers in real, important matches.  And if you can’t swing their pay per view prices or their subscription service fee most of their archival stuff that’s worth seeing can be found on YouTube.  Do you look any of it up?  They tour all over the US, and their tickets are cheaper than WWE shows.  Have you been to a show?  Do you even check to see if they’re coming to your town?  I’m willing to be your answer to most if not all of those questions is no.  Why?  Because look at the crowds at ROH shows.  I went to Best in the World in June; the building was half full and yet that was such a success for them that they’re doing another Pay Per View there in October.  And that’s in one of the easiest places to get to in the country.  Ring of Honor built it but not only are most of you not coming you’re not checking to see if it’s there even though it’s the cheapest and easiest one to get into.  So no, you don’t really care about workrate that much.  You care the most about stars, characters, and people that get your attention at the surface level.  Which is fine!  Just be honest about it, ok?

As always, the proof is in the pudding–not the tweets.  Until next time.