WWE and TNA Need to Focus on Young Talent
Written by Joe L. for OWW Genesis
2009 was another mediocre year in professional wrestling as WWE and TNA continued to deliver subpar products when they should be doing better than they are. The two biggest problems in both companies, especially the WWE, is the stale main event scene and the inability to push new young talent. The WWE, and TNA, need to realize that you cannot rely on the same people to draw PPV buyrates and new fans to the product. This would not be a problem if any main eventer had the same superstar aura as Steve Austin or the Rock but it is.
The fact is, the Undertaker is retiring soon and, if rumors are true, so will Shawn Michaels. Sting is working part-time and HE may retire. Triple H is going to run behind-the-scenes operations sometime in the future. Kurt Angle was involved in a few scandals that could blemish his career. Chris Jericho will eventually lose the Tag Team titles and be stuck on SMACKDOWN. And fans are sick of the neverending John Cena and Randy Orton matches, even though both are damn good workers. This, coupled with injuries plaguing wrestlers such as Rey Mysterio, Jeff Jarrett and Edge, illustrates without a doubt that the products are stagnant and in need of improvement.
Perhaps the best and most logical way to improve their product is for the WWE and TNA to go back to the basics: they have to introduce lots of new young talent. Not just push talent into incoming traffic a la Mordecai or Great Khali or shove them down the fans’ throats like Mark Henry but train them, package them, develop them and then put them on TV to see what they could do and how fans will react towards them. To WWE’s credits, they have tried that late this year. There are many wrestlers out there like MVP, The Miz, Dolph Zigger, R-Truth, John Morrison, Evan Bourne, Sheamus and Kofi Kingston ready and willing to take major spotlights once Cena and HHH are out of the main events. They have revitalized Batista with a monster heel turn, pushed Jeff Hardy to top of the card (before he blew it with his drug problems) and made CM Punk “Straight Edge” again. And TNA is safe, knowing they’ve got Abyss (who in my view is the next Big Van Vader), Samoa Joe, Chris Daniels, Amazing Red, Eric Young and especially A.J. Styles under their wings, along with veterans like Mick Foley, Kurt Angle and Sting willing to help the younger talent and guide them to the promise land. And with the arrival of Nigel McGuiness to freshen things up, things look bright for TNA. So there is hope for both companies.
Only time will tell if things get better for the WWE and TNA. But for the sake of the companies’ future, there better be some kind of improvement. When one of the best matches of the year was between two 40-year old+ men at WrestleMania, then it is time to really look at your own product and make some changes.
This is Joe L. See ya later.