Opening Thoughts

By: Larry Matysik

One thing that has become more clear to me than ever as I write and think is that professional wrestling itself has two faces, two sides to the coin.

On one side is WRESTLING, the spectacle and the event. This is the part that the fans can enjoy (or get angry with) without any deep examination. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's the action, what happens in the ring or around on it, what story is being told on the TV screen. This is the magic part of equation.

And it even includes the gossip of wrestling, some of it accurate and some of it horribly exaggerated and even a bit completely false. Nonetheless, that side of WRESTLING is its public face and what most followers are familiar with.

The other side of wrestling is the WRESTLING BUSINESS. This is much more private and hidden, but the decisions that are made on the business side drive the WRESTLING side, determining what and how its fans see the excitement.

It also drives profit and loss, because if the wrong choices are made, WRESTLING doesn't have as many followers as it would if the correct decisions are enacted.

For that reason, and acknowledging that the WRESTLING side can be easier to enjoy without delving deep beneath the surface to examine what is happening and why, I'm always drawn the WRESTLING BUSINESS considerations when figuring out this fascinating endeavor, with which I have been a part of for forty-plus years. (Hey, I started working for legendary St. Louis promoter Sam Muchnick when I was 16!)

At any rate, the business side really is eye catching as the last quarter of 2009 and a new season of Monday Night Mayhem gets rolling. Talk is that TNA, after some contractual commitments are fulfilled, may cut back on the number of Pay-Per-View shows, in hopes that less might mean more. That philosophy actually has some tradition behind it, in that many promotions over the decades realized that a few fewer shows with bigger houses (thus less expense with equal or more income) meant more profit at year's end. Each event became more special when there weren't so many of them, where a growing number of programs actually drew a lesser number of buyers per show.

And the WWE is...drum roll please...changing the name of some PPV's! New paint. Same house. Well, maybe an extra gimmick or two plus a couple more cage matches. It's as if cornflakes got a new color box, but the cereal is still the same. This, in contemporary terms, is called marketing. I'm waiting for the new PPV dubbed Hammers, Guns, & Machetes.

Geez...Give wrestling fans some credit. In the end, the success of PPV's (the number of paying customers) will...as always...on main events with the right characters who have serious charisma in compelling circumstances battling for a prize that means something, be it a title (do they mean anything anymore?) or pride. Wrong performers, silly situations, no meaningful goal -- that all equals a lousy house, or in today’s terms a poor PPV rate.

That's one basic that has never changed in wrestling, the wrestling business, or the long history of the entire industry.

And my pals at Monday Night Mayhem will be right on top of developments, in addition to welcoming some truly remarkable guests, thus making it easier for The Mayhem's followers to decide just what they think of the WRESTLING that today’s WRESTLING BUSINESS has generated.

(Larry Matysik has just released his third book, "Drawing Heat The Hard Way: How Wrestling Works" through ECW Press. He learned wrestling from Sam Muchnick in St. Louis, where he eventually was the television announcer, booker, & publicity man for the sport's most unique promotion; then Larry spent a decade with the World Wrestling Federation, and has also promoted numerous independent shows. Contact Larry with any thoughts, comments, or feedback at the MNM/Sizzlin' Sauces inbox, or via the program's official Facebook & MySpace pages.)