It’s 2018 and we are witnessing arguably the best time to be a pro wrestling fan since the Attitude Era! Outside of all the WWE properties, the pro wrestling industry is the healthiest it has ever been. There are more ways to watch pro wrestling than ever and more importantly it seems as if television companies are looking to add pro wrestling to their schedules! I don’t think there is a set recipe for success that’s happening here, but rather a lot of little things that are making a big difference and satisfying the fans’ need for variety.
During the Attitude Era, we had three sources for variety; WWF, WCW, and ECW. During that time you got most of your information through magazines, video stores for content, and what little you could get on the internet then. You didn’t have YouTube or apps to access other ways to get pro wrestling content. Despite ROH and TNA coming around in 2002, WWE still was it.
The WWE were where all talents wanted to be. There was no real competition to be found to give WWE a challenge or seemingly any reason to put maximum effort into the production of their weekly television shows. ROH and TNA have signed and lost television deals in that time too for one reason or another.
It just seemed like because of WWE’s resources they would have this “Sleeper Hold” on wrestling forever.
Fast forward to October of 2018, the time of this writing, and we have many ways of watching quality wrestling content! ROH, New Japan, and IMPACT Wrestling all have their own app services much like the WWE Network. You also have the FITE TV app which have broadcasted such event as All In and are about to broadcast the much talked about NWA 70th Anniversary Show. There’s also other ways people are getting their wrestling content from whether it be from Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook.
Now, the accessibility is great and all but the performers need to be able to bring those eyes to their respective product as well. Names like “The American Nightmare” Cody, The Bullet Club(Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll), Joey Ryan, Joey Janela, Tessa Blanchard, Su Yung, Toni Storm, WALTER, PCO, Jay Lethal, Flip Gordon, Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, Pentagon Jr, and many more! ROH is the first company in decades to run out of Madison Square Garden and sell it out for WrestleMania weekend!
While WWE just signed two major lucrative television deals with FOX and USA, other television companies see that wrestling is bringing all of this mainstream attention again. This is where Bein Sports, Pop TV, and AXS come in to play as they have signed and air IMPACT, MLW, and NJPW respectively as well as airing the All In Zero Hour pre show. All In, the biggest independent show ever assembled, sold out a 10,000+ seat arena in Chicago in under an hour which would have been impossible years ago!
Do I think that all of this is competition for WWE? I’m going to say no because of the resources the WWE has. If the Attitude Era showed us anything is even with three major companies, each company gave us some sort of variety. We’re in the era where we are exposed to the most variety of everything but for the purpose of this article, the most variety of pro wrestling ever.
While I can’t blame talent for wanting the WWE money and exposure, my hope is that many of the big names take a page out of Hangman Page’s book and stick around outside of the WWE. Pro wrestling needs those names in other companies like MLW, ROH, NJPW, and IMPACT. We are witnessing the biggest boom in pro wrestling history and it is only getting started! For more of my work, please follow me @Kalypso426.
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