AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
OK...here's a good one to argue in this day and age.
With the age of DVD/VHS distribution on the Internet via tape selling websites ranging from Smart Mark Video to ROH Video to WWN to Highspots; it seems that the local promotion isn't quite so local anymore. A large number of workers are known by people via DVD/VHS that haven't gotten the chance to see them live.
Workers like Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Super Dragon, Excalibur, Puma, Quicksilver, and Scorpio Sky are now well known by east coast audiences, and used by independent promotions such as CZW.Kevin Steen, El Generico, The Arsenal, Beef Wellington, El Generico, and Sexxxy Eddy out of Montreal's International Wrestling Syndicate are known as far away as the west coast and are the recent darlings of independent promotions all over the east coast.
While this phenomenon it helps these workers get independent bookings, it also presents challenges for bookers of local and regional independents in that the worker that they present in a featured role in their shows may be putting over someone that is considered on a lesser level in their promotion, or is even considered wotth booking in their promotion.
Then...there's the problem of professional wrestling's 900 pound gorilla.
Pretend you're a booker and/or promoter...what do you do in the following situation?
You're a promoter, and you have a primary or secondary champion. He (or she) gets a chance to appear on Monday Night RAW or Smackdown...not just in one of those roles where they play a "Druid" or "security guard" or some sort of background role that doesn't actually involve them wrestling. That's just an extra payday for doing little more than standing around
Now witness the recent situation of John Walters, who...as of the Saturday morning I'm writing this, is the Ring of Honor Pure (Wrestling) Champion. The title, for those who don't know, is the promotion's secondary championship.
A week ago Monday, Walters was squashed out in less than 2 minutes by greener-than-Astroturf Chris Masters, whose main qualification for being employed by WWE is that he has a great body for....period. The previous week, Masters managed to break the nose of Steven Richards badly enough that surgery was required after botching a Ivan Putski-like "Polish Hammer"
While it isn't the first time Walters has worked for WWF/E...as he's had the advantage of a connection with Jim Kettner's ECWA and Chaotic Wrestling, both of whom provide talent for WWE tapings as either extras or enhancement talent; it IS the first time he's done so while having a belt as widely known as Ring of Honor's.
Now let's start with these thoughts...
Before I start getting hate mail about picking on John Walters...understand that I'm using Walters as an example, owing to the high profile of Ring of Honor among many fans around the United States and abroad. I'm not picking on Walters...but using him as the most obvious example of such a situation.
Now...I can appreciate someone like Walters taking whatever bookings he can. A worker has to do whatever they need to do for their career. If Walters feels the need to take a WWE deal, or a OVW deal...if he felt that was the best thing for his career. If he could get either, more power to him.
But make yourself the booker of Ring of Honor (or again, whatever other promotion that is affected by such a situation). Im ny opinion, for Ring of Honor's own protection... if Walters is going to take such bookings; then the Pure title needs to be taken off Walters as soon as physically possible (which, again, he holds as of my writing of this column on the morning of March 5th).
In a rather loud discussion on the matter...a number of Ring of Honor and other wrestling fans saw nothing wrong with Walters taking such a booking and retaining Ring Of Honor's Pure Title. Others, including myself did.
Those arguing that it didn't matter used the arguments that: wrestling is a work (congratulations on figuring out that one...next week, they'll be telling us about Santa Claus). A more reasonable opinion involved the argument that a wrestler should give an independent promotion some kind of notice if he's going to take a booking with WWE and do a job in the manner that Walters did, this allowing him to do what he needs to do for his career, the promotion to protect its belt.
WWE and ROH may be "separate universes", but when most casual fans thinking wrestling they think WWE. If someone is jobbing out on a WWE show, and that someone is holding your second highest title...to that casual fan, it doesn't say much about your promotion.
In my opinion, to do a job in the manner in which he did...on WWE's most viewed show, while holding the secondary title of ROH without having given advance notice to ROH... that's wrong. If he knows he's going to work these matches, let Walters give up the belt, or give Gabe notice so he could get the belt off of him this past weekend.
Using this scenario, ROH gets to keep their belt without it being diminished. Walters gets to work his gigs and makes money. Everyone benefits.
As for your other comment, to say that there are no casual fans watching ROH is nonsense.
What happens when ROH goes to new locations, as they're doing later this year?
These locations don't all come with built-in netmarks/smart marks like the New York/Philadelphia region. Some of those fans in new markets are, yes, casual fans...who GASP...watch WWE. When the secondary champion of ROH is jobbing to a no talent musclehead that would make Lou Thesz cry, it DOES put an image in the minds of those fans.
ADDENDUM/Sunday: Jay Lethal defeated John Walters to win the ROH Pure Championship, thus accomplishing the very thing I stated above.
The crowd was all over Walters as could be expected, after his two minute squash to Chris Masters on last week's Monday Night RAW. The crowd greeted Walters with "Masterpiece" chants and other chants not repeatable here.
Walters looked pissed and said back to one heckler "When was the last time you made $250 for 5 minutes of easy work?". That didn't help and the heckling from ring-side increased for the remainder of the match, including chants of "full nelson" every time (referring to the way Walters had been defeated on RAW) Lethal teased his trademark dragon suplex.].
Until next time...
If you have comments/questions, or if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com.AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
OK...here's a good one to argue in this day and age.
With the age of DVD/VHS distribution on the Internet via tape selling websites ranging from Smart Mark Video to ROH Video to WWN to Highspots; it seems that the local promotion isn't quite so local anymore. A large number of workers are known by people via DVD/VHS that haven't gotten the chance to see them live.
Workers like Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Super Dragon, Excalibur, Puma, Quicksilver, and Scorpio Sky are now well known by east coast audiences, and used by independent promotions such as CZW.Kevin Steen, El Generico, The Arsenal, Beef Wellington, El Generico, and Sexxxy Eddy out of Montreal's International Wrestling Syndicate are known as far away as the west coast and are the recent darlings of independent promotions all over the east coast.
While this phenomenon it helps these workers get independent bookings, it also presents challenges for bookers of local and regional independents in that the worker that they present in a featured role in their shows may be putting over someone that is considered on a lesser level in their promotion, or is even considered wotth booking in their promotion.
Then...there's the problem of professional wrestling's 900 pound gorilla.
Pretend you're a booker and/or promoter...what do you do in the following situation?
You're a promoter, and you have a primary or secondary champion. He (or she) gets a chance to appear on Monday Night RAW or Smackdown...not just in one of those roles where they play a "Druid" or "security guard" or some sort of background role that doesn't actually involve them wrestling. That's just an extra payday for doing little more than standing around
Now witness the recent situation of John Walters, who...as of the Saturday morning I'm writing this, is the Ring of Honor Pure (Wrestling) Champion. The title, for those who don't know, is the promotion's secondary championship.
A week ago Monday, Walters was squashed out in less than 2 minutes by greener-than-Astroturf Chris Masters, whose main qualification for being employed by WWE is that he has a great body for....period. The previous week, Masters managed to break the nose of Steven Richards badly enough that surgery was required after botching a Ivan Putski-like "Polish Hammer"
While it isn't the first time Walters has worked for WWF/E...as he's had the advantage of a connection with Jim Kettner's ECWA and Chaotic Wrestling, both of whom provide talent for WWE tapings as either extras or enhancement talent; it IS the first time he's done so while having a belt as widely known as Ring of Honor's.
Now let's start with these thoughts...
Before I start getting hate mail about picking on John Walters...understand that I'm using Walters as an example, owing to the high profile of Ring of Honor among many fans around the United States and abroad. I'm not picking on Walters...but using him as the most obvious example of such a situation.
Now...I can appreciate someone like Walters taking whatever bookings he can. A worker has to do whatever they need to do for their career. If Walters feels the need to take a WWE deal, or a OVW deal...if he felt that was the best thing for his career. If he could get either, more power to him.
But make yourself the booker of Ring of Honor (or again, whatever other promotion that is affected by such a situation). Im ny opinion, for Ring of Honor's own protection... if Walters is going to take such bookings; then the Pure title needs to be taken off Walters as soon as physically possible (which, again, he holds as of my writing of this column on the morning of March 5th).
In a rather loud discussion on the matter...a number of Ring of Honor and other wrestling fans saw nothing wrong with Walters taking such a booking and retaining Ring Of Honor's Pure Title. Others, including myself did.
Those arguing that it didn't matter used the arguments that: wrestling is a work (congratulations on figuring out that one...next week, they'll be telling us about Santa Claus). A more reasonable opinion involved the argument that a wrestler should give an independent promotion some kind of notice if he's going to take a booking with WWE and do a job in the manner that Walters did, this allowing him to do what he needs to do for his career, the promotion to protect its belt.
WWE and ROH may be "separate universes", but when most casual fans thinking wrestling they think WWE. If someone is jobbing out on a WWE show, and that someone is holding your second highest title...to that casual fan, it doesn't say much about your promotion.
In my opinion, to do a job in the manner in which he did...on WWE's most viewed show, while holding the secondary title of ROH without having given advance notice to ROH... that's wrong. If he knows he's going to work these matches, let Walters give up the belt, or give Gabe notice so he could get the belt off of him this past weekend.
Using this scenario, ROH gets to keep their belt without it being diminished. Walters gets to work his gigs and makes money. Everyone benefits.
As for your other comment, to say that there are no casual fans watching ROH is nonsense.
What happens when ROH goes to new locations, as they're doing later this year?
These locations don't all come with built-in netmarks/smart marks like the New York/Philadelphia region. Some of those fans in new markets are, yes, casual fans...who GASP...watch WWE. When the secondary champion of ROH is jobbing to a no talent musclehead that would make Lou Thesz cry, it DOES put an image in the minds of those fans.
ADDENDUM/Sunday: Jay Lethal defeated John Walters to win the ROH Pure Championship, thus accomplishing the very thing I stated above.
The crowd was all over Walters as could be expected, after his two minute squash to Chris Masters on last week's Monday Night RAW. The crowd greeted Walters with "Masterpiece" chants and other chants not repeatable here.
Walters looked pissed and said back to one heckler "When was the last time you made $250 for 5 minutes of easy work?". That didn't help and the heckling from ring-side increased for the remainder of the match, including chants of "full nelson" every time (referring to the way Walters had been defeated on RAW) Lethal teased his trademark dragon suplex.].
Until next time...
_________________________________________________________
If you have comments/questions, or if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT
column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com)