Homegrown

[Guest snuffbox]

So the WWE has this supposed 'homegrown policy' for only giving serious pushes to homegrown talent. Im afraid I just dont get it.

 

Hulk Hogan came in from AWA, and was allready fairly over, from Rocky 3 and some high-profile previous wrestling.

 

Steve Austin had allready been a mid- uppermidcarder in WCW for over 5 years.

 

Foley, Undertaker, HHH, and Kevin Nash werent homegrown and several other world champions I fail to remember at the moment.

 

The Rock comes to mind as a good example of homegrown talent, and Angle. Edge, if he reaches the main event sometime!

 

But it seems the WWF/E has pushed 'foreign' talent before, why seemingly refuse now. Benoit? Jericho? RVD? Etc etc etc?

[Guest subliminal_animal]

So the WWE has this supposed 'homegrown policy' for only giving serious pushes to homegrown talent. Im afraid I just dont get it.

 

Hulk Hogan came in from AWA, and was allready fairly over, from Rocky 3 and some high-profile previous wrestling.

 

Steve Austin had allready been a mid- uppermidcarder in WCW for over 5 years.

 

Foley, Undertaker, HHH, and Kevin Nash werent homegrown and several other world champions I fail to remember at the moment.

 

The Rock comes to mind as a good example of homegrown talent, and Angle. Edge, if he reaches the main event sometime!

 

But it seems the WWF/E has pushed 'foreign' talent before, why seemingly refuse now. Benoit? Jericho? RVD? Etc etc etc?

Undertaker, Nash and HHH were only stars in the WWE. Foley, Hogan and Austin were bigger than the previous three, but only became huge with Vince.

[Guest snuffbox]

Thats my problem with this 'homegrown' shit dude! (wow, that sentence could reallly be misinterpreted!)

 

None of them were huge stars when they got to WWF but they had some/fair amount usually of exposure in another company. Then Vince pushed them to the moon.

 

Benoit, Jericho, Guerro etc were never big stars but got some exposure in WCW. RVD was a big dog in the small pond of ECW. But none were allready big stars or mainstream by any means. Theyre all kinda in the same boat that Foley, Taker, etc had been. They held belts in midcard and lower roles in regional feds and WCW and got some tv time. Why is it now different for these talented guys who WWE, one would think, should want to push?

[Guest Anglesault]

Thats my problem with this 'homegrown' shit dude!

::RVD walks by, hears that sentence, and gets excited. He realizes what you are talking about and storms away.::

[Guest subliminal_animal]

Thats my problem with this 'homegrown' shit dude!

::RVD walks by, hears that sentence, and gets excited. He realizes what you are talking about and storms away.::

Great joke.

[Guest EricMM]

Benoit, Jericho, Guerro etc were never big stars but got some exposure in WCW.

Do you see them getting a big push? A big solid "We're relying on you to make us big bucks" push?

RVD was a big dog in the small pond of ECW.

Or RVD?

 

The Undertaker was brought in with a totally different gimmick than he had in other feds. He was totally made by the WWF. There was no carry-over heat. Foley was almost completely changed -and- it took forever for him to get to the top of the card. If you think Stone Cold was over because of his WCW work, you're mistaken. Vince knows he created Stone Cold, or his writers whatever. But Jericho still has Jerichoholics, RVD is still a stoner flyer, Booker is the spinning ex-WCW champ, sucka! For whatever reason Vince just feels more comfortable pushing someone that has come from a WWE farm-fed. Such as Brock Lesnar. It's very clear that Kane has been pushed harder than even Booker. Many people think it's because Kane has been WWE for a long time, whereas this relatively fresh crop of WCW and ECWers... well they aren't really getting the pushes are they?

 

Except there is the glaring exceptions of Paul Wight and Scott Steiner. But really, what do they have that Jericho doesn't...... hmm......

[Guest snuffbox]

Im not saying that these guys (SCSA, Foley, Taker, I knew he was Mean Mark when he came out at Survivor Series 90 and I was a total mark) were made in other feds, or even got really over in them. They did get a good start in these other, respectable, places, and got a certain ammount of exposure. Its only my opinion that the exposure of these pushed stars is about equal, give or take and case by case, to the currently held down, 'foreign' stars. To me, it just doesnt add up, but then again, nothing in the awawwe does anymore.

[Guest Raven_Effect01]

Except there is the glaring exceptions of Paul Wight and Scott Steiner. But really, what do they have that Jericho doesn't...... hmm......

Apparently, the WWE home-grown policy's exceptions are for big stars in rival promotions who aren't talented and are either roided-up or big like a hoss, which JR creams over a lot.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

The homegrown thing is blown out of proportion. Vince is quite a pansyfied version of his former self. I mean, it's a suprise he didn't Montreal on SCSA when he started having attitude problems, and he's even talking kindly to Bret Hart nowadays for chrissakes.

 

However, the rumors about HOSS = PUSH, are all true.

[Guest Goodear]

Basically the whole 'home grown' stuff is just something the internet made up to explain why certain guys don't get pushes to the World Title (or in the case of Jericho, get the World Title and do nothing with it). The WWE would prefer that people learn to wrestle the WWE way and once/if they get that down... they get better pushes.

[Guest Mole]

Basically the whole 'home grown' stuff is just something the internet made up to explain why certain guys don't get pushes to the World Title (or in the case of Jericho, get the World Title and do nothing with it). The WWE would prefer that people learn to wrestle the WWE way and once/if they get that down... they get better pushes.

Actually, I think it is true. Vince pefers to push people that he has 'grown' himself, so he can get all the credit.

 

Why do you think O'Haire never got a big push or anything? Because Bischoff loved him, so it was a slap to the face to Eric.

[Guest Goodear]

But Chuck Palumbo had almost the exact same history that O'Haire did and got a very nice tag team run with Billy Gunn. Sean was just so seriously green at that point that sending him down to OVW for some seasoning was probably the best thing for him.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

I'm a big O'Haire fan, but he was still green coming into the fed.

 

Of course, that hasn't kept Maven, Nowinski, Orton, & Batista from getting significant TV time.

[Guest Goodear]

Yeah, but those guys were brought up the 'WWE way'. I think I've heard where the trainers for WWE had to really undo a lot of the learning former WCW Powerplanters picked up in camp, since it was like, the worst training place ever or some such.

 

I'm not saying this whole WWE style thing is good for business by the way, I just think it makes more sense than the homegrown idea.

[Guest webmasterofwrestlegame]

I think now is the WRONG time for any competition to start up. I'll explain why.

 

Its got to the point where only the diehard wrestling fans are watching, and not the casual fans. In order for the casual fans to watch, Vince needs to stumble across the big idea, angle, or wrestler. Who knows what this is.

 

Once casual fans start to watch again, then it is the time to start-up as the fanbase will be there.

 

For NWA:TNA to start up saying that they will offer something different to what he WWE offer (i.e. more wrestling) and for it to fail is no news to me - the market is not there now. In the whole, the only people watching NWA:TNA are those that watch WWE. they have no other alternative audience, and that is why Vince is not bothered about them right now and will continue to release wrestlers.

 

Now NWA:TNA have gone back to Sports Entertainment, which is the right move at this point in time.

 

If/when business picks up again, NWA:TNA should then do something to make them different from WWE to gives viewers (some of whom will be new to wrestling and think WWE IS wrestling) an alternative. We then have real competition on our hands and that is when Vince thrives. They will both be after the viewer, and not sharing them.

 

That is what I think, anyway.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

This is like the stockmarket in a recession - sure the numbers are low, but if you start investing and buying stocks right now, when the market starts to boom you will be very successful (generalizing the stockmarket).

 

Vince will push his own creation with much more power than he would with someone elses. (NWO)

 

Vince uses different ropes, a different ring size, different cages, different referees, different announce positions, different everything. Sometimes this is smart because it separates himself from the competition and sometimes it isn't because it isn't practical.

[Guest webmasterofwrestlegame]

But keeping the stockmarket theme....when the stockmarket is good it is being unique that is seen as a good thing as people will look at growth opportunities.

 

However, when it is down it comes down to the raw numbers and profit/loss account. And if all this uniqueness does not result in good numbers, it means nothing.

[Guest El Satanico]

Well I think the homegrown stuff is a more recent thing. This homegrown stuff hasn't existed since the very beginning of WWF.

 

When Hogan came in there was a totally different enviroment. WWF didn't have a homegrown policy then because the company was still new and they had no homegrown talent. Besides at that time Vince was stealing all the stars from other feds to build up WWF.

 

WWF didn't have much by way of training camps when alot of the guys like Foley and Undertaker came in to be "instant stars".

 

Now a days WWE has a long list of home grown talents and they don't need to push the big stars of another company. Of course Vince is going to favor a home grown talent. WWE has put time and money into these guys and I'm sure Vince rather turn them into stars over someone built up by another promoter.

 

In the last lets say 3 years how many guys that aren't born and bred WWF have recieved good pushes that didn't leave him looking like a lame duck champ.

[Guest Brian]

He saw big money with Hogan, and it's one of the reasons he double-crossed Backlund with his title switch for the sheik.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

*recalls Dusty Rhodes*

 

Nope, it's not a new thing.

 

There are 4 stages in a products development.

 

Intro

Growth

Maturity

Decline

 

Growth is the best time to get in, but that's not practical with a wrestling company.

 

Look at ECW - they started when the wrestling industry was on the bottom but was there when it started to boom. In a few years they were able to get national television. Bad business moves and over-expansion and a tough competitive market killed them, but that's irrelevant as it's within a promoters sphere of influence (well, not competition - but then again, ECW had a such brand loyalty that it didn't matter who was 'stolen'.