In this weekly column, I will comment on the past week's goings-on in WOW, and whatever else it occurs to me to discuss :-) I also hope that a big part of the column will be printing and responding to your e-mails. So please send them in (the address is thatthing35@yahoo.com)!
TFHWrestling.com - read my column, "Eat My Dust" by Tom Dean, and all the other (often WOW-related) content!
7/1/01: Fortune Re-Opens Checkbook
First off, the fantasy column is now a week behind because I am late on the updates. I am gonna keep it going, though, and I'll make it up eventually. I would also love if you checked out a fantasy episode sent to me by Chris Connor. It's really extremely funny and entertaining, and I'm glad to see that other people are trying to come up with compelling alternative ideas for WOW to pursue. It's all we've got... for now. Friday was the first sign in several months to indicate that that might not be a permanent situation.
Yes, WOW seems to have come up with a press release that is actually good news and not just BS. It's entitled "WOW Entertainment, Inc. Announces a Major Capital Restructuring to Allow for the Completion of Acquisitions Currently in Negotiations." Here are what I interpret as being the main points:
The first thing to note here is that this is actually extremely good news. As I've been saying ad infinitum, WOW has to take care of two things if it wants to come back: the debt, and the TV deal. The debt is now gone, since Fortune agreed to waive it in exchange for more ownership of the company. I have to say that I think Fortune is an absolute nut. He is going to be diverting money from presumably profitable businesses so that he can spend it on WOW, a business that spent 20 times as much as it brought in. This is more than a little crazy, which is why I was very sure it would never happen. But, seemingly, it has. Goes to show that there is a good deal of psychology in economics.
The TV deal is the sticking point now. As we have seen recently, the WWF was unable to get two more hours of TV time for WCW, and this on a station (TNN) that the WWF is carrying single-handedly. That suggests to me that a cable deal for WOW would be miraculous... even more miraculous than this recent announcement. After all, Fortune had already dumped a lot of money into WOW. He has an interest in seeing it succeed and make money. It's a lot harder to talk strangers into supporting you.
After having gone this far, if they don't get a cable deal, Fortune would almost be forced to buy the show on the air in syndication. The chance that that would work is extremely minimal. Remember, they spent 20 times as much as they brought in. Even if they do twice as well this time out, it's not even close to profitability. Also, remember that they lost their syndicator a few weeks back, so they would have to find a new one before they could even do it.
A lingering question is what becomes of McLane. Will Fortune get rid of him entirely? Since McLane has very recently contacted the wrestlers, the answer appears to be that McLane will be around in some capacity. However, even if he is around, he will be an employee, not an owner. He will not have the power he had as an owner, and he can be let go if management desires. McLane has reportedly informed the wrestlers that a future WOW will be less gimmick-oriented and more modern. This at least suggests that he is not calling the creative shots, since there is ample evidence that he would not go in that direction if it were up to him. In the least shocking development of the week, McLane also informed the wrestlers that not all of them would be asked back. We can safely assume that not all of them would want to be back anyway.
Potentially, this could all be fantastic news -- a new WOW, without McLane's stultifying influence, has gone from being seemingly impossible to being distinctly possible. This announcement means that the federation is no longer crippled by debt. But there is still a lot left to be done before it can actually have a hope of being profitable. (And we still don't know what McLane's role would be.)
Mailbag!
Some more awesome letters for y'all.
Jack Stark writes:
"'You know what it means when you wear sweatpants? It's means you've given
up.'
- Jerry Seinfeld to George Constanza
As a WOW fan, TR, my sweatpants are on. They've been on for a while. The only thing left of WOW is your website, and I hope you keep on with it, because it's the only good site I know of where fans of women's wrestling in this country can sound off on all the people/things they love to hate. I know this is all rather gloom and doom, but let's face it, WOW doesn't have a chance."
Jack's letter is a little old. I dunno if he would still say it doesn't have a chance, although it was a very reasonable thing to say at the time.
"I know what GLOOW is, I've seen their site, and if WOW teams up with them I think I'll puke. It would be the end.
"I want to suggest something to you, and I don't know what you'll think, but please bear with me for a second while I explain.
"As you may know already (did you watch those Dreamslams yet?), women's wrestling in Japan is par excellance. It's the best."
No, I haven't had the chance to watch my recently purchased Japanese tapes yet. But everyone I've ever heard agrees with you, and I'm sure you're right.
"And there is one organization I, and a surprising amount of others in the US like - ARSION. In fact, they are so popular there is now a ASC (Arsion Supporters Club) for English speakers which has some cool benefits if you join. Check it out at www.arsionworld.com
"Anyway, I recently suggested that they do a show sometime in Southern CA (or perhaps Vegas). This makes more sense than you might think. I know there must be a great number of Japanese wrestling and CMLL fans in CA, and many of ARSION's wreslters are known not only to the Japanese fans, but also to CMLL fans. In fact, Mariko Yoshida, their trainer and one of their top stars, was a CMLL champion. They probably think I'm nutty over at ARSION, but I bet if enough people e-mail them at arsiontoyko@hotmail.com they would have to think about doing it. I think it would be not only an historic event for wrestling, but also a great chance for fans of women's wrestling in America to see some of the best in the world. Look, I don't think WOW will be back, so this could be an opportunity to see great women's wrestling live again in the US. And who knows? Maybe it would start a trend."
Can't hurt, can it? Even if one is not a huge fan of the Japanese style specifically, it would still help the cause of women's wrestling in general if such a show occurred. I suggest everyone drop them a line.
Babyhawg writes:
"I've been on a little hiatus for the last few months. After WOW was pulled from FOX 5 NY I was left with no means to watch WOW on Dish Network (not that the reruns would have held my attention for too long anyway):). But I have managed to stay abreast on the various issues pertaining to WOW. But after reading your articles regarding GLOOW, I feel it is time to come out of my self-imposed internet exile. I have always respected your opinion. It's pretty easy to respect someone's opinion when you agree with them 95% of the time:)."
You are obviously a genius ;-)
"I have not only seen GLOOW's product, but have had to deal with them as a customer as well. Given the anemic size of their dwindling audience, I think this puts me in a unique position to critique the hell out of them. But I shall digress. I ordered a few tapes from them on JAN 10. I tried to select tapes from a broad time frame. So as to see if they actually got better as the months moved on. I find that I can tolerate a sub-par show so long as there is at least moderate improvement in the next one. Let's face it, no one gets it right the first time. Regardless of what it is that you are doing, you will only get better the more times you do it. Right? As Austin would say, 'EH! EH!'."
I loved that Austin/JR skit. "TALK TO ME, FOOTBALL BOY!!" Anyway, clearly WOW itself is the perfect example of what you're saying... the improvement is what had me hooked.
"After I recieved the tapes on MAY 10 ( that's not a typo, It took 5 freakin' months) I was dumbfounded. I saw the same mistakes, both in-ring and production-wise on every tape. From 6-14-00 to 12-8-00 they did not learn a single thing! You can only give some of the women credit for making an honest effort. Most seem to only be collecting a paycheck. To call the camera work horrid would be a massive understatement. The lighting is terrible (they're in strip clubs for God's sake). Oh, and I forgot to mention, the wrestling sucked! They made the average WOW match look like Flair vs. Steamboat. In the vast spectrum of wrestling matches WOW was no where near Flair vs. Steamboat, but GLOOW is a frickin' polar opposite! Their attempts to look and feel like a feminine ECW are blatant. I may be wrong, but isn't 'a feminine ECW' an oxymoron. They're trying to do it, I swear!"
Well, considering that ECW never made a dime (which is not a criticism of its very valuable contributions to the wrestling world -- it's just stating a financial fact), it is probably not a great business idea to copy it.
"The 5 months between order and arrival were filled with a veritible
plethora of enjoyable and polite email exchanges between myself and the sorry
sack of snake excrement named Steve O'Neil who runs the promotion:) And a great
5 months they were:)!
As for you theory of a WOW-GLOOW merger, GAWD I hope not! I have a feeling that
GLOOW is only after some of the WOW girls and not WOW itself. I doubt GLOOW
has 6 or 7 dollars handy, much less the 6 or 7 million it would take to buy
WOW out of debt."
That is the issue, isn't it. I do think GLOOW would at least want to merge with WOW. It would give GLOOW a little legitimacy. And GLOOW seems to hate WOW, so they might enjoy "triumphing" over them by buying them out. (Not to mention the huge interpromotional angle they could run... look out, nWo!!) I wouldn't minimize the significance of that, since I don't think most people would even want to get involved with WOW in the first place, under the current circumstances. But of course, it's not enough to want to do it, you have to actually be able to do it. I don't know anything about GLOOW's finances. I would suspect that they would probably have as hard a time finding $6 million as WOW would. But I can't totally say it for sure.
"I don't know if the WOW girls would heed the advice of someone who has never been involved in the wrestling business before, I know I wouldn't. But here goes anyway, if any of them are interested in staying in the wrestling industry, they should try to work for a WWF affiliate. UPW in southern California would seem to be the most natural place to start. OVW in Louisville should also be at the top of their list. Stay away from GLOOW! You're right TR, GLOOW will be dead in less than a year."
I think you're clearly right that the WWF developmental territories are where any non-WWF wrestler would want to be right now. It's actually not quite so clear which territories those currently are. Now that the WWF need no longer fear losing their prospects to another company, they are downsizing the developmental programs. MCW (in Memphis) was dropped as a developmental territory; half of its wrestlers will be moved to HWA (in Cincinnati), but the others were cut. I've heard a lot of speculation that UPW might be next on the chopping block.
If a WOW/GLOOW merger does occur, I don't expect many WOW women to go to GLOOW, if any go at all. It would be something that McLane does to try to save his company. The wrestlers have not been part of that company for months, so it wouldn't affect them, unless they wanted it to.
Please e-mail me with
your thoughts about anything WOW-related!
(e-mail: thatthing35@yahoo.com)