Let me start this column by first making something PERFECTLY CLEAR: CREATIVE IS SUBJECTIVE.
Whether YOU like something or you don’t doesn’t really matter. It is just YOUR OPINION. Your opinion is 100% SUBJECTIVE. Everybody looks at everything. . . DIFFERENTLY. My ratings success in the wrestling business (Yes, WCW was increasing ratings during my first 90 days before “Wrestling Politics” kicked in and I decided to go home, and yes, TNA reaching 2 Million Viewers was deemed a HUGE success for “Spike TV” at the time) was simple. No, I am not a genius, and no, it is not Rocket Science. I just followed what the Nielsen Ratings were telling me.
The truth is—the “Ratings” are all that you have. They are factual; they don’t lie. The opinions of “Wrestling Journalists,” pardon my French— DON’T MEAN SHIT. What matters is what the MASSES are telling you. Not a niche, cult audience, which is going to put over the show regardless of what’s on it, but the CASUAL TELEVISION VIEWING AUDIENCE. When I was writing for WWE, WCW, or TNA, I wasn’t writing for ME. I wasn’t writing a show based on MY LIKES. I was writing a show for THEM—the Mass Television Audience.
And honestly, it’s pretty simple when you follow what they are telling you. Looking at the numbers gives them MORE of what they want or are watching and takes away from what they don’t like or are tuning out of. It’s all there for you on a very simple spreadsheet. The NUMBERS DICTATE EVERYTHING.
The problem that we have today is that you have two people running two wrestling companies who are producing a product that THEY LIKE. Yes, I’m talking about Triple H and Tony Khan. And, to put it quite bluntly . . . WHO CARES what you like? It is NOT ABOUT YOU—it is, IN FACT, about the Casual Television Audience. The key to any successful television show is to get as MANY PEOPLE TO WATCH—BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
Now, if you are going to cater to a “Mark” Wrestling Audience that thrives on 20-minute choreographed matches, with an abundance of Super Kicks and NO Storylines— then that is the audience you’re going to draw. The ironic thing is, those same people would watch no matter what is on the show as long as “WRESTLING” is on the Marquee. The trick is to have something for EVERYBODY, that’s how you will draw the largest audience—yes—even if they don’t like wrestling.
Characters and Storylines draw the masses- they always have and always will. The lack of either, or both, will limit your audience to just those who get off on the “cool moves.” You see, the rest of the world really doesn’t care about the “cool movies” because they understand that wrestling is a WORK. It is NOT REAL. Nobody is really losing, and nobody is really winning. They get caught up in the connection to the Character and the story’s emotions.
I literally had to laugh out loud this week when Tony Khan was “questioned” about the lack of storylines in his AEW booking. Tony’s answer was, “Every match has a storyline. The storyline is that everybody wants to be the BEST.” Um, no, Tony, that is the very context of Professional Wrestling. It is ASSUMED that everybody wants to be the best. That is not a storyline—not even close to one. What that is is simply your inexperience.
There is an Art to scripting a television show, any television show. It takes education. It takes writing hundreds and hundreds of scripts. It takes working and learning from those who DID IT, in my case, the GREAT Ed Ferrara. It takes understanding formatting, having a beginning, a middle, and an end. It takes knowing how to hook an audience—not losing them during commercial breaks. It takes that cliffhanger at the end of the show that is going to bring them back next week. It takes UNDERSTANDING your characters and having the ability to put yourself in their boots—why—because every single Character on your show is going to handle the same situation DIFFERENTLY. It’s about understanding how to write— BELIEVABLE, REAL LIFE Storylines—not really bad wrestling ones. It’s about knowing how to evoke emotion from your audience. It’s about knowing how REAL PEOPLE SPEAK. Let’s face it, on these shows, the only people on the planet that talk like PRO WRESTLERS are PRO WRESTLERS.
Triple H and Tony Khan both know how to do NONE of that. And that’s not a knock on them. We all can’t be good at everything. I suck at business, and I know that, so I hire a business professional who can take care of that end of it for me. I’m not a good painter, but I enjoy doing it. A green thumb? Forget it; I have KILLED more Greenery than I have grown. Yeah— I’ll let a landscaper do that.
Being a 50-time world champion doesn’t qualify you to be a professional television writer. Being born into money doesn’t qualify you to be a professional television writer—regardless of the fact that you were “booking” wrestling shows for E-Feds when you were five. I’ve always taken offense to the notion that ANYBODY can write a wrestling show. That is BULLSHIT, everybody can’t. You may be able to BOOK a wrestling show where Wrestler A vs. Wrestler B because it will be a five-star match—but that is a far cry from writing a Compelling TV Show. And that’s what wrestling is—a TV SHOW.
Now, let me make one thing PERFECTLY CLEAR to everybody reading this. NO—I DO NOT WANT A JOB WITH THE WWE or AEW. Absolutely not, no how, no way. At my age, the Political BS that goes along with the business would absolutely KILL ME. I’d literally be DEAD in a matter of weeks. So, please take me off the list. There are literally thousands of TV writers out there looking for work. PROFESSIONAL TV Writers. Now you pair them with decent human beings who understand wrestling, not the HANGER-ONERS still employed because they have held their spot for 30 years by burying others, so they can’t advance—NO—and, that is another story for another day. You find the right mix of people to work together, who actually know what the HELL THEY ARE DOING!!!
Man, at some point, there has to be some accountability for the disastrous ratings, but who is going to hold accountable a Billionaire Boss and a Son-in-Law who married himself into the Royal Family? WHO? Thus—your problem.
So, ratings will continue to decline in 2023. You keep repeating the same mistakes, you get the same results. But, regardless of it all, I DO KNOW one thing.
Tony—wanting to be the best has NEVER BEEN, ISN’T, and NEVER WILL BE a “storyline.”
Look, man, I am NOT THE ENEMY. I am just somebody from the outside looking in who has been there and done that. Believe it or not, I am only trying to help—there is no other motivation. But the cold, harsh truth is—sometimes we need to leave our egos at the door.
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