Wrestling.net.au

Get Your House in Order
By Rohan Herbstreit

Paul Heyman’s open and honest interview after UFC 116 should be a wakeup call for everyone currently working in the wrestling industry.

Not only is Heyman very open and honest about the industry as it stands currently, but he is an extremely smart business man. You want me TNA? then pay me the big dollars because otherwise I am not interested!

It’s just great stuff to sit back and watch this unfold, and whether or not TNA have agreed to his terms already, or most likely not, it goes to show you that a name like Hulk Hogan, Sting or even Kurt Angle for that matter really doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things unless you have the machine behind the name.

And for a cool 30 million you too can have a Paul Heyman work on building the machine that can make or break a star, and in TNA’s case perhaps put a company on the right track to becoming the success it deserves to be.

How it all got down to this I have no idea as it just seemed a few months ago we were all taking about Hulk Hogan coming in to revolutionise TNA with Eric Bischoff to take it to the next level in every aspect of the company.

“I knew when I signed with TNA, that it would be important to make a statement with the first episode. Going head-to-head on January 4 makes the statement loud and clear: Game on!" - nydailynews.com 11/12/09

“My fans have been asking me to return to the business for many years on a full time basis, but the timing or the opportunity has never been right until now. TNA Wrestling is a great company with an already excellent fan base, business and broadcast partner. I firmly believe now is the time for some change at TNA as they are positioned to jump to the next level in their development and I’m here to work with Dixie to help make that a reality” – madman.com.au 28/10/09

“It's gonna be better for everybody. Vince is going to have to get serious. Instead of all the "hee hee ha ha. Let's just give the fans weak programming" thing that he does. Because I'm serious. I'm coming in and I'm going to take a look at everything from the ring to Vince Russo's underwear. I'm going to turn this place upside down. I'm going to take guys like AJ Styles, who works his butt off, so that when AJ Styles goes through an airport a year from now I want people to snap their heads around like it's Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan. There is a lot of talent there but someone needs to breathe life into them and make them larger than life. And to get them to really think about what they're doing in the ring. To really dial their characters in. And that's what I'm coming to do” - au.tv.ign.com 1/1/10.

Now 7 months later we can all see the value of the “Hulk Hogan” brand in 2010, and we can also see why Hogan never ran a wrestling company before.

WWE must be sitting back watching all this unfold with a smirk, but the truth is the wrestling business needs a company like TNA to succeed, as Paul Heyman said – “wrestling isn’t cool anymore”. The main dance in town is run by a 64 year old grandfather who currently has 95% of the industry.

Heyman knows how to create stars, we have seen his track record and it’s pretty good. We know he can’t run a company from a financial and pure business point of view but he has his finger on the pulse with pop-culture and what's current in the world, and while he was kept on a leash in WWE he obviously still has the passion for it.

TNA currently is a creative mess, start-stop pushes, people appearing on TV and then disappearing the week after, inconsistent storylines and almost the weekly promise of “something big” and “huge announcement” being thrown out on the Twitter world. One minute Orlando Jordan is being lowered from the ceiling and the next week they are trying to be the alternative to WWE with blood and gore and “team asshole”.

So where we head now is anyone’s guess.

These are certainly interesting times in the sports entertainment world as UFC goes from strength to strength and the top tier talent in the current wrestling business are either retiring, over the age of 40 or in Batista’s case jumping into MMA.

The worrying thing about all this is without new stars being created there won’t be a wrestling industry in 50 years time regardless of how “cool” RAW is.

It simply won’t exist because nobody will be lining up in training schools wanting to learn it.

Without people learning the business, working with people who are booking and running promotions there won’t be anyone left who can demand 30 million to run a company.

Everyone needs to have a hard look at themselves and what they are presenting as a professional wrestling product in 2010.

Get your house in order before there isn’t a house left!

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