Caught in the Ropes-From Boom to Bust: The WWE’s Talent Drought

Columns, Top Story

Welcome back to Caught in the Ropes, and a full-fledged column this week! I’m still working on a new project, and I’ll fill you in on the details at a later date when everything is put in place, but for now I’ll simply say that I’m excited about it. That being said, I wanted to elaborate on something reader Phil said in the comments section of my 10 Thoughts on Raw column last week regarding the WWE’s roster. I know I’ve been talking about the WWE quite a bit lately, as have a lot of people around Pulse Wrestling, so I’ll try to branch out and talk about something different next week. For now, let’s get to it.

The WWE’s championship tournament on last week’s episode of Raw really shined a light on one of the biggest weaknesses of the company: its thread-bare roster. The bulk of the young talent in the competition were heels such as the Miz, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, and Alberto del Rio. The only established upper-mid-card or main-event star in the entire tournament was an older, well-traveled Rey Mysterio. For much of the night the Green Bay crowd felt dead and disconnected from an event that should be explosive and exciting. Without CM Punk, Cena, and Orton, the fact that the WWE has few bankable stars was laid out before us. How on Earth did the biggest wrestling promotion in the world dig themselves into this hole, and what can they do to get out?

What happened was simple: the WWE rested on their laurels for far too long. After ECW folded and WCW was purchased, the WWE was flooded with veteran talent. Let’s go back to 2002; the WWE roster included: The Rock, Stone Cold (for half the year), Eddie Guerrero, Ric Flair, HHH, Mick Foley (occasionally), HBK, The Undertaker, Chris Benoit, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, RVD, Batista, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Big Show, Jeff Hardy, and Booker T. The list goes on and on with a good mix of veteran stars and young, up-and-coming talent that could, presumably, lead the company into the next two decades. In later years, WWE would also pick up talent that they believed, at the time, would become popular stars to help fill the gaps left by departing legends like Mick Foley, The Rock, and Stone Cold. Bobby Lashley (remember how big they were on him?), Mr. Kennedy, MVP (another guy they were big on for a while), Ted DiBiase Jr., etc.

However, things didn’t work out the way the WWE planned. As I mentioned, Stone Cold was dealing with neck injuries and got sick of his role in the Invasion storyline and quit. The Rock ran off to Hollywood, Mick Foley essentially retired, Brock Lesnar moved on to the UFC, Batista tried to do the same, and a number of older legends and mid-carders fled to TNA in search of greener pastures. That’s to say nothing of guys like Lashley and Mr. Anderson, who the WWE obviously had high hopes for but whose WWE careers ended up exploding on the tarmac before take-off.

Whether it was because the WWE felt that without competition they could maintain a stranglehold on the world’s wrestling talent or because the WWE stopped looking for and developing new talent in their developmental territories, the end result is the same. Their roster became patchier each successive year, and when the problem reached DEFCON-1-levels of severity, they didn’t have anybody in OVW, FCW, or DSW who was ready to step into the main-event. In my own personal opinion, I think the WWE’s success during the Attitude Era deluded the company into thinking they were king-makers, capable of taking any meddling mid-card worker and moulding them into a mega-star. In reality, guys like Stone Cold and The Rock were once-in-a-lifetime talents, the likes of which the WWE just couldn’t reproduce on a whim. The WWE seemed to think that great, charismatic talent would naturally funnel into the company since they became the only major game in town, and they could pick up those pieces as needed and plug them into the roster.

It’s easy to draw a parallel to the talent-drought that has faced the WWE over the last several years and the same issue plaguing the sport of boxing. Boxing used to be a massively popular sport, particularly the heavyweight division. As time went on however, more young athletes who could have competed as boxers gave it up in favor of other sports with less dangerous long-term physical effects. I think the same has happened to wrestling; it’s a taxing business, both physically and mentally, and possible future talent might be forsaking wrestling in favor of either professional sports (NFL, UFC, etc.) or entertainment (movies, TV, etc.). For one, the potential payday is bigger in something like the UFC than it is in the WWE–WWE superstars aren’t under-paid by any means, though. Second, the schedule is less difficult.

Now, this is a potentially dangerous idea, but I think the WWE should be building up the accomplishments of guys like Dwayne or Brock, at least when it comes to talent acquisition. It’s a great platform to create name recognition, and stars can possibly use it to catapult themselves into other endeavors later. It might be better to have a big, charismatic star akin to The Rock for five or six years than to miss out on them entirely, so long as the WWE doesn’t base their entire company around several guys like them. Wrestlers who are lifers, guys like Punk, should be the core of the company, and talented mercenaries who want to use the WWE as a springboard can be used to fill out the roster.

Another missed opportunity comes courtesy of the Miz. Miz stated previously that he had worked with an improv comedy coach to help him with his promos. This is a great idea, and I don’t know why the WWE doesn’t utilize something like it in their developmental system, from what I can tell. The possible benefits from bringing in an improv coach and acting coach once-a-week or twice-a-month would vastly outweigh the costs. While new talent would still have to deal with the transition to a big stage, creating a good base for cutting promos and doing interviews would be a huge step forward, especially if young talent is called upon to work in a big angle or feud.

One more thought here: the WWE can get more mileage out of the few talented talkers they do have if they would let them off the leash a bit. Guys who could really cut a promo, like Mick Foley, were usually given a lot of free-range in what they could say because they were trusted and they knew their characters inside and out. The buzz around Punk is a perfect illustration of that; even in the PG-era, a guy who’s great on the mic is great on the mic, regardless. Give them some bullet-points to hit, and let them go out there and do their thing. I think the Miz can become an even greater promo-man if the WWE wouldn’t feel the need to script everything. The same goes with Cena; I think he’s done better than usual as of late, but that doesn’t erase the fact that so much of his promo work over the last few years has just been boring. Cut the guy some slack and let him do what’s right for the character.

What it all boils down to is that WWE has really crapped the bed when it comes to managing talent, keeping them happy, and developing new talent. They did none of the above over the last few years, and look where it has taken them. The Raw championship tournament was filled with guys, who for quite a while, have been pigeon-holed as mid-carders. I don’t blame the workers themselves; I’d love to see Daniel Bryan pushed (and he just might be getting it) along with Dolph Ziggler. But the WWE hasn’t done its job over the last decade. We’ll see if they can pull the bus out of the ditch now.

Patrick Spohr learned everything he needed to know about the English language from the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic "Cyborg", including how to artfully describe Jean-Claude being crucified. Armed with this knowledge, Patrick has become a freelance writer of fiction and not-quite-fiction, or non-fiction to the layman.