Ray A. Kroc, the man who went down in history as McDonald's first chairman, must have been pretty shocked the first time he heard that Burger King, Roy Rogers, Chick Fil-A or Wendy's were getting into the fast food business. He probably thought that he had cornered the market, and that people wouldn't clamor for the Whopper or the Classic as much as they loved the Big Mac. However, much to the credit of the proprietors of the competition, they didn't open their stores inside McDonald's every single day, and have McDonald's employees selling Big Macs and Whoppers at he same time.
Major League Wrestling's attempt at using a significant portion of Ring of Honor's major name talent, as well as talent "blacklisted" by the organization, is curious. Even still, MLW billing their "new" ideal of wrestling as "athletic and hard-hitting" is pretty humorous. MLW running the same venues as ROH while doing the first two things is downright predatory and insidious. For another apt comparison, it's as if a husband builds a home by hand, using his own money. He then moves himself, and his wife and children into said home, and begins to live there peaceably. Suddenly, without warning, some other guy shows up at the door unannounced, claiming to be married to the wife also, and claims custody of the children as well, and takes up residence in a home that he did not build.
For those of you out there who feel that anyone angry at the situation is pouting like a petulant child, and that Ring of Honor deserves competition, I say to you that they are likely to get it in a year or two or so, as California upstart Pro Wrestling Guerilla has really impressed me with a sound marketing plan, and using a preponderance of west coast talents in addition to the established ROH stalwarts like Samoa Joe, Colt Cabana, AJ Styles and CM Punk. Or, even further, let's discuss Combat Zone Wrestling, an organization that I have shook a mighty angry fist at in this column before, but, one that still makes a name for itself by marketing a different brand of wrestling, as well as creating pure wrestling stars of its own for the most part, such as B-Boy, Sonjay Dutt, the Backseat Boyz and Jimmy Rave. In addendum, they also use stars from the IWA-Mid South Wrestling organization, including Chris Hero, creating an entertaining mix of different talent. As well, they also use ROH mainstays Homicide, Dan Maff, Deranged and Azrael (Special K's Angel Dust) in such vastly different ways than ROH would ever imagine, at least enforcing a difference in their product from the competition's.
Down to everything but shaking hands and the All Japan, "Royal Road" era inspired ring, MLW has rechristened themselves as a cheap grade Ring of Honor rip-off, instead of being the cheap grade ECW rip-off they were prior to that. The things that defined ECW and define ROH as unique and special are that these organizations took great effort to dare to be different. Both ECW and ROH spat defiantly in the face at what mainstream promoters felt pro wrestling had become, and re-evolved it using elements of classic wrestling excitement. You can't re-evolve and evolution. That's a 360 degree turn, which means that at the end of the day, you end up right back where you started again. And, given that independent wrestling fans in the year 2003 aren't so gullible anymore, I find it extremely hard to believe that they're going to buy this crap as legitimate.
When I initially found out that MLW was reopening, I was pretty excited. In fact, I went as far as to let Court Bauer know that I would be more than glad to write about his shows, and offer some assistance. Over the past year, I've done this for many other promoters, and, given that all I saw on the release was that it looked like the entire west coast (sans Joey Ryan and Super Dragon) were invading the east coast, I was pretty geeked. Even seeing Teddy Hart's name didn't really tick me off, as, he's ten dimes short of a dollar, but, he's a mega talented guy. However, I neglected to notice the main event offering for January 9th in Philadelphia. Low-Ki v. Homicide. Wow. In ROH's backyard, Court Bauer is going to run a main event that ROH unsuccessfully attempted to run for a myriad of reasons that made a certain respected, world renowned junior heavyweight in my eyes look uncompromising and unprofessional. Immediately, I felt pretty silly for contacting him, and honestly wished I never had.
To run a show using almost the exact same talent as another promoter, in that promoter's backyard, and running a main event that the other promoter unsuccessfully tried to run under dubious circumstances is, in my eyes, one of the few truly despicable acts left in wrestling. I agree that ROH needs competition. But, when a promoter goes out and usurps someone else's hard work and brainpower for their own financial gain, that's just bush league. Heck, as much as I think that Teddy Hart needs his head examined, putting him, or Michael Modest, or B-Boy, or Chris Hero, or Sonjay Dutt, or Dustin Rhodes, or Sabu or Abdullah the Butcher, or Josh Deeley, or Dana Dameson, or ANYBODY who is not a completely recognizable main event name from Ring of Honor in the main event would have gone far to differentiate MLW from ROH. However, by putting that match as a main event in the Philadelphia National Guard Armory only 13 days after the Great Muta and Satoshi Kojima are running around in there for ROH is absurd. It makes Court Bauer look like a legitimate Rob Black, using not even B, but C level shock and awe tactics to promote a wrestling show.
When MLW ran Florida, I had NO problem with them using ROH talent. Florida is a completely different market, and ROH has never been there. And, even though they had national TV, it didn't penetrate enough of the nation in my opinion to adversely effect anyone else using much of the same talent anywhere else. Just wanted to add a disclaimer.
OK. So I know that ROH is the best wrestling organization in the world right now. Hands down. And, I even know that it may be the one organization that many promoters look at and just marvel at just how smoothly run and professional thing are there. Even further, they look at the exponentially growing crowds, and see the money in what they believe the ideal of ROH is. They see 5 star workrate, and fans popping. They see guys busting their a**, and fans popping. So, a guy like Court Bauer comes along, and just transplants all of that and slaps a liberal coating of hot lime green paint on it. No. That's creatively stifling bulls**t plain and simple.
The only angle that ever drew any money in the history of MLW was what appeared to be, to this well tuned in observer, Steve Corino's childhood dream of kicking the dog stuffing out of Terry Funk. Due to the vitriol and real appearance of anger from Corino and his cohorts, it may have represented the last time that Terry Funk will be a consistent main event draw for a wrestling company. This angle was outstanding, but the emotion, by the end, fizzled out, as MLW couldn't attract any new fans. I wonder why. The last company Terry Funk consistently drew main event money for...ECW...but MLW isn't ECW anymore...right. Okay then.
So now, if I were to be a betting man, I'd say that Teddy Hart and his Hart Foundation 2003 cronies will likely not want to shake the hands of their opponents, and will, about 3 months in, state that they want to recreate MLW in their image. They'll bring down Nattie Neidhart to play the role of Simply Luscious, and the three ways between Low-Ki, Homicide and Ted Hart will commence. Of course, at some point TJ Wilson and Harry Smith need to win the tag straps, and yadda yadda yadda.
Apologies for the rant, but the larger point to be made here is that Ring of Honor needs competition, but that MLW is going about providing it in the totally wrong way. Before anyone states that MLW is doing nothing wrong, and that there are no blocks on using buildings or talent, let me make a point. The greatest era of competition in wrestling were the "Monday Night Wars" that lasted for seven years between the WWF and WCW. What made them exciting was that there was equal talent of equal skill on each show, and that it was the talent busting their rear end that made the shows interesting. MLW and ROH using the same talent is a battle of bookers and promoters. And, to be honest, I'll take Gabe Saplosky, with Jim Cornette working in the company and having his two cents to say, along with Rob Feinstein (who has some responsibility to shoulder as it was the tapes that a company bearing his initials has sold that I point to leading to the "puro heavy" workrate driven style that's all the rage right now), over Kevin Kelly, Court Bauer and his crew any day of the week. And, in the final point of this paragraph, let me state that the wresling community has gotten to be a pretty geeky and infantile place to be when we're getting into our bunkers for a battle of people's capacity to write on a piece of paper.
In all reality, Court Bauer made a great point when, in a statement released to 1wrestling.com's Michael K. Johnson II, he loosely said that MLW running was a great thing because it gave the boys more chances to make a paycheck. As a fan of indy wrestling, I'm all for Steve Corino adding to Colby's savings account so that he can get a great college education. Steve Corino entertains me to no end, and, because he does so, I honestly wish him nothing but the best. If he makes another paycheck, he deserves it.
However, there are literally hundreds of really talented wrestlers out there right now, and many of you reading my article can probably name all the ones that I forget. Even better, because ROH wants to stay around for a few years apparently, they can't all get booked by the organization. Why Court Bauer hasn't realized that indy wrestling fans love ROH, but love WRESTLING much, much more than that is beyond my comprehension.
In final, I urge everyone who believes in individuality, freedom of thought, good common sense and logic to not attend MLW. I'm drawing a line in the sand right now. Support ROH. Please. Even more so, don't just support ROH, support, CZW, IWA Mid-South, NWA Florida (for whom Steve Corino is booked on April 10th --sorry Court!), Jersey All Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, NWA Wildside and the Heartland Wrestling Association, just to name a few. And, if you want some quality independent workers in your area, and you don't think you have them already, contact Court and tell him to bring "ROH" to your town. It'll save RF and company a few dollars. And, as a fan of the real ROH, I'd appreciate that. Originality and excellence can co-exist peacefully in wrestling. In school, being a copycat got you kicked out of class...being a copycat in wrestling should at least get you kicked out of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The darkest hour is just before dawn.
For any questions, comments or feedback, please contact me at
[email protected], or AIM me at MarcusKDowling. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
