McPinions
By: Sean “The MiC” McCaffrey

Back in the early 1900's, wrestling's World Heavyweight Title matches were covered in the biggest media outlet at the time, the newspaper. The series between Frank Gotch/George Hackenschmidt was covered in every major newspaper and wrestling was treated as a pro sport. Once the newspapers found out that Gotch hired a ringer to take George Hackenschmidt out during a sparring session, wrestling was frowned upon. Making matters worse, was when a NY promoter, who was on his way to being blackballed from the business, called up every major newspaper to let everyone know that wrestling was "staged" and "fixed."

With the print media, the only media at the time, ignoring wrestling in its pages during the Depression and during World War II, wrestling was having a hard time getting coverage. Sure the thrill of a World Champion, such as Ed "The Strangler" Lewis made things exciting, but wrestling lost some of its credibility that it once had, due to Gotch's nefarious activity and a promoter exposing wrestling's secrets. But eventually, a new invention, the television, was introduced to America.

Wrestling is a visual sport. It is not like baseball or football, or any other sport for that matter. Calling wrestling matches on the radio doesn't work like it does for other sports. Wrestling must be seen to be believed. Radio and broadcasters can't capture the emotion and feeling of pro wrestling. Since wrestling already fell out of favor with the newspapers and doesn't translate well on radio, wrestling happily embraced television, and soon enough, television embraced wrestling.

Wrestling regained some of the popularity it lost once television came around. Everyone knows how Gorgeous George used television to his advantage. By being guady and feminine, fans were outraged at their television sets, and would buy a ticket to the next local show to let George know what they thought of him. Gorgeous George is arguably the first-ever heel "television-draw."

Television, in the 50's to today, has become wrestling's biggest media. During the territory days of the 60's-early 80's, television sold wrestling. If you didn't have television, your shows didn't draw. Everyone had television. Eddie Graham in Florida had TV. Lawler in Memphis had TV. McMahon in NY had TV. Don Owens, Verne Gagne and everyone else that had a territory had TV. TV was a free way of advertising your product, in addition to bringing in sponsors who could advertise on your program.

That brings us to today. Although the following statement is debatable, it is worth thinking about: "The internet is the biggest form of media today." Want news? Go to CNN.com. Want sports? Go to ESPN.com. Weather? Weatherchannel.com. Need to look someone up? Yellowpages.com. Want to find a naked black midget humping an Oriental midget? Google.com. EVERYTHING and ANYTHING can be found in 2 seconds today. The TV is still useful, but the internet makes everything quicker and easier, and wrestling promoters are realizing that today.

If you have noticed, a new phenomenon in indy wrestling, and wrestling in general, is not state-of-the-art websites. It's not message board where fans can talk about the product. The new phenomenon is internet tv wrestling. By going to several sites, you can watch and get a preview of a particular indy promotion. Wrestling promoters are realizing that wrestling fans are online for a large portion of their days. Just like how previous generations sat in front of the tube, today's generation sits in front of a monitor, IMing and Emailing away. The internet has become a wrestling promoter's friend.

Today there are several internet wrestling TV shows. There is JAPW World Wide. There is World 1 TV. There's also AWA "Hotwired", NECW-TV, NWA Main Event, NWA Virginia, NWA Rocky Top, Pro Wrestling Evolution, WTF, UWC Live, NWA Anarchy and more, all on TV. NWA TNA, the second largest wrestling company in America, is also on the internet with their "IMPACT!" program. There are so many different FREE shows on the internet that it is hard to catch up on them all. Just like the territory days of wrestling, if you don't have internet TV, then you're going to be stuck in the mud.

Internet TV in wrestling is the next big thing. It is free advertising. It allows you to progress storylines. You can sell ad space on it. It is a free money making tool to help promote your wrestling company. Promotions who don't catch up and realize this phenomenon will be wondering why people don't care about them as much as other promotions with internet TV. It's only a matter of time before internet wrestling TV is mandatory. It is the next "big thing " in wrestling.

Right now, there are about 20 different online internet wrestling tv shows to choose from. It's tough to catch them all. So how does someone stand out? The best idea, in my opinion, is to follow JAPW's format. JAPW's World Wide TV, which in my opinion, is the best show of the lot, focuses on putting over as many wrestlers as possible, further as many storylines as possible, and put on some quality matches to push future shows. It is a system that has worked, as more fans are aware of JAPW, and JAPW's attendance is rising.

That will be a new trend to follow in wrestling and that is to see if attendance numbers will boost due to internet TV. The internet is free and to watch a show is free, so will a common fan come out and pay to check out your live show, based on what he/she saw on your internet tv? Internet TV hasn't been around long enough to reach a conclusion, but it is something to watch and follow.

With ROH having plans to enter the TV market, and TNA already having a program, you have 2/3 "major" American companies providing internet wrestling content. The WWE doesn't need to go this route as they have enough mainstream TV as it is, but it does show you the power of the internet that TNA and ROH would focus their energies on internet wrestling TV.

So where do I see indy wrestling in a year? If you don't have internet TV, you'll draw a small crowd, unless you're doing a huge spot charity show. If you have good internet TV, you'll be very successful and generate more revenue to your product.

Of course, the real money making idea would be for someone, like an RF Video, a Smart Mark Video, or another wrestling video company to create a huge online library of shoot interviews and random indy shows. If people are willing to watch shows online, and the hits/traffic says they are, then some fans will probably be willing to pay 7 or 8 bucks a month to watch high quality Shoot Interview clips and random indy matches such as a Necro Butcher vs Samoa Joe or a Raven vs Sandman. This idea will be next in line, in my opinion, in the internet wrestling TV world.

As the internet becomes the biggest form of media for wrestling, expect bigger changes to the internet TV shows you're watching today. It's only a matter of time before the big ad companies realize the potential in this, and start putting spyware and other crap on these shows. It will be the real promoters who avoid this and continue to put on a strong product who will survive.

How convenient it is to be a wrestling fan today. The wrestling world is at your finger tips. Instead of watching "Full House" on your TV in the background, you can watch World-1 TV or 20 other internet wrestling shows on your monitor, as you browse the internet. Wrestling is being made easier accessible, and that my friends, is a good thing.

All feedback can be sent to:
Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com