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About The Webmaster

My biggest opinion centers around one simple fact about present day wrestling. Considering the TV ratings war, the number of apparently profitable pay-per-view shows put on each year, and the amount of mainstream media coverage given to both promotions, I feel that it is safe to say that the popularity of wrestling is at an *all time* peak right now. What's the single biggest factor in the resurgence of what was the "uncool entertainment" of the early '90s?

Competition.

Pure and simple, the head-to-head Monday night wars along with the various talent jumping between the rosters over the last few years is what's brought pro wrestling back from digging its own grave. The sudden appearance of WCW along with its relatively fresh faces forced the WWF to raise its own standards and actually provide quality entertainment. WCW themselves, meanwhile, learned what it was like to finally be in the big time and gradually began to get a feel for what the fans wanted to see. One thing led to another, and soon the two shows' ratings were competitive. The next move? Give the fans even more of what they wanted to see. Both shows switched from their 1-hour head-to-head formats to identical 2-hour timeslots and their popularity continued to rise.

So at this point, we've established that there is, in fact, direct competition between the WCW and the WWF. The next interesting question is about what they have in common that can attract such large numbers of fans in such equal numbers. To make this easier, it is a good idea to first look at what they don't have in common. And this leads me to one of my favorite topics, which is the differences in style and presentation of the two largest promotions, and the relative merits of each.

I'd like to start with characters and storylines, since I think these are the single biggest factors in the decision of many fans as to which organization is "better". The WWF tends to present to its fans stories that could often be considered far-fetched, or more easily identifiable as fictional. Meanwhile, the characters WCW gives its performers and the storylines it puts them in seem to me to be much more rooted in reality. This is not to say that many of WCW's storylines reflect wrestlers real feelings toward one another, not at all. Simply that the stories are more realistic, or at least plausible. I watch them and think "you know, this isn't real, but it sure could happen." Then, I switch over to the USA Network to catch Jim Ross exclaiming about the awesome "powers" possessed by Kane and the Undertaker, and I don't even begin to get that same feeling. Who really believes that Kane stands at the top of the ramp and actually *wills* fire to appear on top of the ring posts?

Don't take this as a knock on the WWF, because it's not. Frankly, once you allow yourself to move past the unreality of their scripts, they're every bit as entertaining (and often more so) as WCW. Or maybe the pure fiction of some of the stuff they throw at us is *why* it's becoming popular again and always has been. I'm still out on that one, but I've generally gone out of my way to find the good points to both shows.

More examples: "The Deranged Mankind" and his various multiple personalities. Okay, sure, this sort of thing could happen, at least a lot sooner than Kane's mystical powers could, but it's still the sort of character that's "out there" in my book. WCW doesn't tend to take part in this sort of thing. The nWo is, ironically, one of the best examples of this. The appearance of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, along with their "anti-WCW" campaign, was spun in such a way that for a while, it appeared that these guys were actually coming from outside the promotion to wage war against it. Naturally, any mature fan is going to immediately realize that if this were really the case, they'd never get on WCW TV, but it's a more realistic storyline than most, and that's one reason why it developed so much intrigue at first.

One "unreal" thing I noticed WCW do for an insane amount of time last year was Sting's various descents from the top of the building. Again, I happen to be a Sting fan, particularly now that his old personality is returning, but this particular stunt was completely and utterly overused. Along with that, the unreal portion of it was that the announcers did their absolute best to convince the audience that they had no idea whether or not Sting was in the building, or where he was. As if Sting could somehow arrive at the building, get into the roof, and set up his whole rope and whatnot without anyone noticing. But, for fans like myself, I suppose, the aim wasn't to get me to believe that he could move undetected this way, but it was all supposed to add to the "mysterious" nature of his new persona. It was this sort of clever marketing that helped make the WCW so popular in 1997.

Now, it's mid-1998 and the tables have turned. I will tell you the single biggest reason why they've turned in the WWF's favor: Quite simply, Vince McMahon is startlingly good at building new talent from nothing. Near the end of 1997, when Bret Hart left the organization, I found myself thinking "Boy, what does the WWF have left?" The answer to that question, at the time, seemed to be the often-injured Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, and occasionally the Undertaker, whom I was afraid was in the process of being buried (bad pun) by a bad plot involving his "brother". But where are we now? Michaels is effectively out of the picture, possibly for some time yet, but the WWF is on top of the wrestling world once again.

I don't think this is only because of dwindling interest in WCW, although that may be part of it. Rather, I look at the talent roster in the WWF nowadays, and I'm amazed at how far it's come in about 6 months' time. HHH has surged from a struggling mid-carder to a wrestler with a great gimmick, a popular stable, and wonderful mike skills. The same exact statement applies to The Rock, in fact. I quickly got bored when either of these guys appeared on my TV screen at the beginning of the year, but now I find each of them quite entertaining in their own way.

Then there's Mick Foley, an individual who, at the start of 1998, was busily bouncing from gimmick to gimmick and never really getting anywhere, before finally returning recently to the heal Mankind persona that he should have maintained all along. He draws heat for his attacks on the Undertaker and Austin these days, and it works well. Also, he gains the respect of a ton of fans for the way he puts his body on the line to deliver great performances.

So, basically, the WWF's useful talent roster has increased dramatically in my opinion in the last 6 months or so, without really bringing in too many brand new wrestlers. McMahon has simply done a phenomenal job of using what he has available, while WCW has to rely largely upon name power to draw viewers.

I could go on and on about things like this, and I will eventually, but I will save some for another time. Suffice it to say, I find both major organizations interesting in their own way, and I continue to be a fan of both. I will always attempt to remain unbiased in my views of each, but I won't hesitate to speak my mind. Oh, one last thing, for ECW fans. I'm not ignoring ECW in my commentary, but I get absolutely no opportunity to watch it and know virtually nothing about it. From everything I hear, it has its own merits and is great fun to watch. I'd love to be able to follow it, but I just can't, and that's why this web site does and will continue to focus on the WWF and WCW.

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