Competition

Here I am again... Lately the creative juices have been flowin'. Which weren't flowing for awhile.

ANYWAY...

Over the last week or two the idea about competition in wrestling has been on my mind. It is no secret that I "left" Pro Wrestling Unuplugged for a brief time to join the new Velocity Pro. And its no secret that I "left" Velocity Pro to come back to PWU. Yes, there is a whole story behind it... But no I won't go into all that now.

However very recently it all started getting me thinking. Granted I am on the side of letting the workers work wherever they want and pretty much be booked however the promotion feels fit, within reason. I say within reason because... Well its not good for one company's champion to be booked for the "competition" and to not be booked to win. Hence why I totally agree with the decision to dismiss The S.A.T. from PWU... They were PWU TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS JOBBING IN CZW! Yeah I know... I contradicted myself. But it makes sense. Other wrestlers have worked both and some currently work both PWU and CZW or CZW and Chikara, or whatever. But very rarely to champions get "jobbed out." Now if its out of state say like PWG all the way out in Cali... Well then who cares?! But when its in the same market (in this case Philly) its a huge deal. Otherwise I don't really care who works where.

With that being said now... I do understand why other promoters are uncomfortable with people working competing companies within the same market. While I don't really like it... I understand it. And this is the thought that has been "haunting" me. Because it really gets me contradiction myself. Rewind to January 2007... The Philadelphia Wrestling scene was seemingly hot! Maybe not as hot as it was in the late-90s into early 2000s, but it was hot! I was still a young buck in the wrestling business and it was exciting. I'm sure if you go back in the posts on DOI you'll see the back and forth battle between PWU and CZW. At the time, talent was held closely by the management by either company. Very, very, very few worked both at the same time. And it made sense. It was almost a mini-WWE/WCW feud. I think a few of the workers benefitted from this "war" as I know some people were paid hefty just to stay with one company or another. And who won in all of this? The Philadelphia Wrestling Fans! All the message boards were on fire. People were choosing sides. It was great. Competition is a very good thing.

Now February, 2009... The war is more or less over. Maybe it will flare up again. Who knows? But now I sit here and go... Why? Why can't this person work here, etc.? Who cares?! Do I look at things this way because I'm not out there calling all the matches like I was back in 2006-2008? And at the same token... People are calling it all a "war" when there really isn't. We're in a terrible economy and no company is staying afloat easily. Here now I look at things like... Well I think a few of us should try to team up to keep going. Or do we try that competition thing again to get people into it. Because we all know, no one will go out to a show or buy into a product that doesn't satisfy us. We all do it. What are we to do?

It looks like the wrestling world has decided to keep competing with each other. So that's what the name of the game is. Some will be left behind, while others will strive. And honestly... Although I am a little worried about the not only the state of the wrestling world, but the economy... I remember that I'm a history teacher and remember that this was all experienced before and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So the thought of competition gives me hope that the wrestling world will survive and be stronger.

Stay classy...
Dan "The Phan" Cowhey