Writes Taki’s Magazine contributor and author/editor of The Left Conservative, Dylan Hales at the newly launched conservative journal Culture 11:
“It’s true that many of the problems that plague the wrestling industry today existed back then as well. For understandable reasons, the profession has always been prone to alcoholism, brawling, and backstabbing, and family life has never been easy. But there was also something much more humane about the locally-oriented, territorial roots of the wrestling industry in the United States. In his book Ring of Hell: The Story of Chris Benoit and the Fall of the Pro Wrestling Industry, author Matthew Randazzo writes:
“Unlike the NWA territories which kept a wrestler within driving distance of his family at most times, these international brands sent their wrestlers from one end of the continent to the other…This in effect put an end to the camaraderie that had existed in the territories. No longer were wrestlers members of a freewheeling carnie brotherhood, a traveling biker gang; now they were interchangeable cogs within a heavily bureaucratic corporate behemoth, cowering in their cubicles in fear of the next downsizing.”Â
While a “biker gang” may sound unseemly, it really was an ideal arrangement for many of the wrestlers, or “boys,” as they often referred to themselves. Jobs were plentiful, and performers had options in a diversified market; work could be found almost anywhere in the country. Though the pay wasn’t always great, many promoters had local connections that enabled their employees to eat and travel for cheap. Because the weekly and monthly schedules were concrete, with little deviation, even very active regions had schedules that gave wrestlers uniformity and a structured work environment. The relative smallness of the business also allowed more opportunities for spending time with his family, if he had one.
When Vince McMahon and Ted Turner seized the industry in the 80’s, it was a legal move, but not a moral one. Using slick financial techniques, the two moguls moved into the markets of the smaller companies, bought up their syndicated television time slots, signed away many of their stars and then purchased the hollow shells that were left, often at fire-sale prices. Along with these buyouts and takeovers came a switch from the standard good vs. evil plot lines for a model based on grandiosity and largesse. “Bigger is better” applied to the business model, the scope of the enterprise, and the actors themselves.
Since wrestlers were independent contractors, they had virtually no power in disputes with their employers. Tag Teams — two wrestlers who worked in conjunction against other tandems — were broken up at random, even though their success often depended on remaining a team. Releases were given for the most minor infractions and via the most insulting methods. The future “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was released from WCW by fax while out with an injury. The then soon-to-be Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, met a similar fate.
By early 2001, the layers of bureaucratic chaos created by Turner’s outfit — which had been extremely profitable just a few years before — collapsed under the weight of its own excesses and the company was purchased by the last remaining lion in the jungle, Vince McMahon. With no serious competition in the market place, the centralization of the sport was complete.
The business had become an industry, and the end result of this downturn has been entirely predictable: dozens of wrestlers have died, whatever semblance of family life wrestlers may have once enjoyed is gone, and the old pro wrestling so many grew up on has morphed into one of the most monstrous arrangements of corporate criminals and drug addicts imaginable.Â
In retrospect, bigger was not better for the wrestlers or their fans. It was just plain bad.
In the wake of the Benoit tragedy, many wrestling fans wanted some sort of action, but what could be done? The calls for industry regulation would drive the independents out of business altogether and further strengthen McMahon’s monopoly-like power over the industry. Breaking up the WWE would certainly embarrass McMahon, but it would likely lead to a drastic reduction in pay for the workers. Organic change is even more complex. Cosmopolitan elites and their yuppie hanger-ons are quick to disassociate themselves from a “faked” sport on which the supposedly tasteless American working class feeds, but ironically, showing contempt for the “phoniness” of wrestling actively contributes to devaluing the lives of its participants.Â
The sad reality is that pro wrestling cannot easily be changed back to what it once was. Perhaps wrestlers themselves could arrive at the realization that they are not cogs in a machine, but men with responsibilities and duties. Alternately, a fan boycott could be organized. But the the excesses of pro wrestling are so ingrained in our culture of hyper-urbanization and its accompanying pathologies that such efforts would be terribly difficult, if not impossible. For now, spectacle trumps sport in the squared circle, and its only a matter of time before the next Chris Benoit ducks under the rope.”
5 Comments
Interesting take. I have not been a follower of the sport, but I wonder whether the rise of the Mixed Martial Arts fighting leagues represents a return of the regional model. Certainly there are many, many leagues, what’s not clear to me is whether they are many competing leagues on the national scale, or a set of non-overlapping regional leagues.
Rob,
I think that most of the fighters in MMA style leagues sign contracts that keep them from competing with their current league. There is much controversy over this as of late, because people want to know which fighters really are the best. You have maybe 5 different “world champions” that cannot fight each other(ie- Pride, K2, UFC, etc).
Where did the Truffula Seed Blog go?
As an employee of WCW for the last few years before they sold out to WWF I can tell you that the main reason Turner closed up shop was the unwillingness to compete against the path WWF decided to take.
Our ratings were consistently better than WWF. When WWF started to use women in their matches as wrestlers TBS’s Standards and Practices balked at following suit.
We at WCW mindful of some of our younger audience would always cut away if actual blood was drawn at a live PP view event before WWF lowered the bar.
In order to compete we stopped that and even resorted to our refs carrying the rings wrestlers used to draw blood when it fit the story line. We even began to use female wrestlers against each other, something I was surprised to see.
The turning point for TBS was when the female wrestlers began to wrestle males. Our Standard and Practices Office, to their credit, refused to allow us to follow suit even though it meant a huge loss in ratings. We were simply not going to allow women to be struck by men on our TV show, something WWF used to great success.
We at WCW refused to compete in the race to the bottom that WWF was prepared to carry out. Some of the guys I worked with had been there from the beginning and the last few shows were hard to complete. Even though it meant our jobs we all pretty much agreed that wrestling was no longer a “fun” form of entertainment.
So now you know. WCW ended because of TBS’s refusal to show violence directed at or by women.
Oh by the way, I knew Benoit personally and can tell you he was the last wrestler I expected to do what he did.
He was a quite man who stayed to himself and kept a low profile on and off the job. He had to overcome many obstacles related to his own dwarfism, something that many didn’t know about and something not apparent on camera.
The drug use by wrestlers exploded after WWF admitted wrestling was “fake” thereby stopping the drug testing required by many of the athletic commissions at the venues we performed at.
All the pumping iron in the world can’t keep up with the steroids and other drugs many of tho wrestlers now rely upon to stay buff.
There were so many good people in the “sport” back then. We had fun even though it was a business.
RIP