Analyse This - The Failure Of The Invasion

It is viewed as the biggest dropped ball and missed opportunity in history. And it was. But when you look a little deeper, my theory is that it was always destined to disappoint no matter what.

There are three major elements to consider when looking at what happened to piss away such amazing potential - The Fans, The Stars, and The Booking.

The Fans

Looking at the facts and figures, the WWF was starting to lose momentum in early 2001. Ratings had began to fall, even if slightly, from their peak. Things were getting stale on top, and people following closely knew it. WCW clearly would have filled this void, had it been executed the way most fans would like it. But I want to touch on something modern fans may lose sight of.

Back then, in the days of wrestling magazines, talent jumping back and forth, and two powerful national promotions, fan allegiance to the WWF or WCW was almost tribal. No matter if you watched both, you had a side that you grew up on, or fell in love with first, that deep down you rooted for. WCW fans hated the WWF and anything that resembled it. WWF fans were told to never accept WCW. It bred a visceral hatred within millions of people.

When WCW was purchased, and early  mentions of WCW matches or shows were made, they were booed out the building by WWF fans. Ultimately, casting WCW as babyface in the early going was a huge mistake, and the first misread of many.

Everybody remembers the famous Booker/Bagwell stinkfest from Tacoma on Raw, the match that caused Vince McMahon to completely change course and bring in ECW to "save" the invasion angle. And as nice a moment as that was, at the time and in hindsight, the fact they even had to do that so early into the WCW angle is appalling. And with even a minute of analytical thought, how they thought Booker Vs. Bagwell was a good idea blows my mind.

WWF fans didn't want WCW Vs. WCW on their time. Take that shit to TBS, it's second rate, it's garbage, it's inferior. The WWF had conditioned these people to despise this for years. And now, that's what you are presenting them, and you wanted people to cheer. Instead, the Tacoma crowd violently turned on the match and direction of the angle. But in a major faux pas, WWF saw that and took it as a sign that the WCW brand was too damaged, and that there wasn't money in the WWF Vs. WCW story. But there was. That was the dream for years.

And as it turned out, the dream alone, even with a terrible build, helped do the best non-WrestleMania buyrate of all-time at the Invasion Pay-Per-View. Conflict they liked. Conflict they believed. Conflict they wanted. The people just didn't want what you gave them. The fans were not the problem. They were ready to see the dream. There was just something massive missing.

The Stars

WWF Vs. WCW relies on one thing. Stars Vs. Stars. That's the fantasy that fans had argued about for years, read about in magazines, and always wanted to see. The ultimate "what would happen" scenario.

And therein lies the major issue. WWF wasn't willing to get the stars. They did in the end anyway, but Goldberg, Flair, Steiner, Nash, Sting, DDP, Booker T and many more of the potential difference makers were under Time Warner deals, and were offered buyouts at 30 cents on the dollar, hoping the WWF would come calling with contracts for the guys and help offset the costs. This meant the WWF would have to make massive offers in order to convince the WCW wrestlers sitting at home, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars, that they should get off the couch and take bumps.

And as it turned out, that wasn't a game WWF was willing to play. Booker and DDP (who has since said he lost $487,000 by making the deal) were happy to take the gamble of the buyout and a comparitively low WWF offer to be part of the angle. The others weren't.

When it comes to the stars needed to make it really work, WWF came in without the ammunition. And while we can wax lyrical about all the guys, Goldberg was the one that mattered. The discussion starts and ends with him. Bischoff would have been great for the promos and the heat. Flair would have been great for the identity. Sting and Steiner would have been tasty bonuses. But the big money was in Goldberg.

When looking at the Time Warner deal and the amount needed to get Goldberg, you were looking at paying him anywhere from 3 to 6 million dollars. The company could easily afford it, and the reason stars get paid more is because they produce more. At that time, Goldberg was worth every penny, because his market value dictated it, and the potential was there to make it back tenfold. Goldberg without WWE wasn't worth 6 million dollars. Goldberg with WWE was worth a boatload more in 2001. But a few issues popped up. While logic lets you justify that contract, the wrestlers on the winning side making significantly less were likely not so eager to.

Nowadays, it's different if Brock Lesnar and The Rock, guys who were considered successes outside the business, come in and get big money with the hopes of shifting buyrates, because the rest of the guys can't compare themselves to that success. That's okay. But in their minds, the comparison to Goldberg does nothing but piss them off. The salary structure is gone.

So there's the dilemma that kills it. You either spend a shitload on buying contracts, paying (some of) the WCW guys more than the WWF crew and pissing them off royally, or you do what they did, and hold out.

Granted, the WWF guys would have had nowhere to go. But for the long term health of the company backstage, that creates a poisonous atmosphere, rife with bitter feeling amongst colleagues. Jealously. Undercutting. Sounds just like WCW.

The catch-22 here certainly makes it difficult to get the stars you need. But lack of star power wasn't the only reason it was fucked.

The Booking

You could, I suppose, wait until all those contracts expired and sign the guys like they ended up doing anyway. But does that really fly?

Unfortunately, the answer is probably no. At that time, the business moved so fast. A week was like a month. Four months felt like a year. A year was a lifetime. Things evolved so fast you had to strike while the iron was hot. But for that reason, it was never going to work. You had to do the angle there and then in 2001, while the product, the news of the sale and the hatred in the fans was there, when the stars were still relevant and not nostalgic retreads.

As mentioned, casting them as babyfaces was a mistake. Putting Shane with them was another mistake.
The only way it could have worked was to keep it the way it was. The "evolution" of WCW died the second it was purchased. This kind of angle, as much as it is about the personalities, is also about the bigger picture. You are pitting image Vs. image, history Vs. history, that is what is selling. Once you change the image to fit a WWF guy in there, the fundamental element of what people were paying to see was gone. Down the line, four to six months in, there is money in a turncoat. But the leader of WCW having the last name McMahon? Not gonna work.

I also think that you make a mistake ever lying to the people. Even if people know wrestling is a work, nobody ever questioned that the WWF and WCW hated each others guts for real. That's the raw, once in a lifetime emotion that does the biggest PPV number ever. Once you give them something they can't buy into, something that takes it into the realm of just another WWF angle, while it may not kill it, it does more damage than good.

Let's not forgot egos. Obviously Vince, Kevin Dunn, and all the WWF guys, even though they purchased WCW, and owned the company, still had a grudge, and was reluctant to put it over as an equal. I don't care what anybody says, the Undertaker was fucking unbearable during this time, burying DDP, Kanyon, Booker T, Mike Awesome, Sean O'Haire, Chuck Palumbo and others, both on and off screen. The locker room being worked up could make for great on-screen chemistry. Letting the WWF guys slaughter the WCW crew maliciously was bad business.

WCW has to be equal in perception. A massive threat. WCW.Com, post WWF-purchase, ran an article with Stacy Keibler, referring to her as being signed by "the now-defunct WCW". An interview with Gregory Helms on WCW.Com noted that the WWF was the big time and he was so glad to be a part of it. Same writers on both website. WWF.Com selling WCW shirts. This is the kind of shit that would get you a knuckle sandwich from Bill Watts back in '84. Attention to detail was lacking, big time.

Their initial idea to do essentially a brand split, and maintain WCW as its own TV show, was nice on paper. But TNN wasn't so hot on a WCW show. Logically, they could have expanded Heat on MTV, since nobody gave a shit about that show anyway. How did "Excess" make air in 2001 when WCW couldn't, by the way? Ultimately the WCW brand looked to TNN like it fell out of a dog's ass, and they just didn't want that show. Believe it or not, before the Booker/Bagwell match, the plan was for the Vince and Linda divorce angle to split everything down the middle, to give Raw to "WCW", and have all WWF/Alliance wrestlers in the first ever draft, so "WCW Raw" would actually be half WWF guys, and "WWF Smackdown" was half WCW guys.

A WCW show on it's own, or even the horrible half-and-half draft idea, faces the same issues - without the iconic stars, it's stillborn. And in the end, without giving people the stars they first think of when the letters "WCW" enter their mind, there is only so well a TV show or an invasion angle is going to do, even perfectly booked. In an ideal world, if you could do anything you wanted, you'd deal with it significantly differently...

The Dream

Jim Cornette's Guest Booker, while highly questionable for a lot of his ideas, did have the best idea I've heard for how to acknowledge the sale. Be honest. Vince bought it. The war is, in reality, over.

And by the way, in my ideal world, Steve Austin doesn't turn heel at Mania when you're bringing in WCW. Why the fuck would you ever think you need a new top heel when WCW is coming in for Christ's sake?

From day one, the WCW guys should be completely isolationist. Vince cuts his glorious "I rule the world" speech that he'd no doubt practiced for twenty years. No Shane McMahon, no "somebody else owns it". But a harsh reality soon becomes apparent concerning his new purchase. The WWF guys want nothing to do with these motherfuckers. No sharing a locker room, no trust, no respect, nothing. They hate them being on their turf.

And more importantly, WCW is now in Vince's building. And they're fucking pissed at Vince McMahon and the WWF for killing their company. Some of the biggest names in the business, WCW to their core, united.
You have the big stand-off, guys like Flair, Booker, DDP, Sting, Steiner in the crowd or at ringside, Austin, Triple H, Taker, Angle, Jericho, the whole WWF locker room, on the ramp, Vince in the ring in between it all, and McMahon slowly starts to realise he's actually got a major problem on his hands. You create an immediate divide, steeped in real tensions, and you don't show all your cards at once. What is Vince going to do?

As things go on, Vince decides not to book WCW wrestlers on the show, because he's afraid of what could happen. He "ices" them, until he can figure out what to do. But WCW, who are employed, have carte blanche to show up when they want and do damage. Serious damage. Vince is trying to play peacemaker, and failing miserably. He declares that nobody from either side is to have any physical contact with the other until he says otherwise. But of course, WCW has other plans.

Right as McMahon is making his declaration, Eric Bischoff shows up as the ultimate outsider, personally employed by the WCW guys, and not the WWF, as their "strategic advisor". Some of the best promos and angles in history can now begin.

Bischoff in the crowd, surrounded by WCW guys, cutting a promo on Vince McMahon and the WWF, vowing revenge. Imagine. While Vince has disgust for WCW, and doesn't know what to do about the wrestlers yet, he utterly despises Bischoff, and it begins to cloud his judgment further, insulting the WCW stars directly. Bischoff's presence only intensifies Austin further, the guy who fired him is now on the scene.

At the same time, the WCW guys are chomping at the bit. Booker T calling himself the best World Champion there is and that Austin is a fraud. Scott Steiner threatening to kill Vince and his family. Ric Flair cutting a promo on anything that moves.

Things are very clearly escalating. Regardless, on one fateful episode of Raw, McMahon orders an incredible fleet of security, the most we've ever seen, to not let any WWF wrestler touch a WCW wrestler, or vice versa, in any circumstances. Things are reaching a boiling point, but he is still going to try and contain this.

But Chris Jericho is found laid out backstage, and when he's asked what happened, he points the finger directly at WCW. McMahon's order has been ignored. Austin is furious, and since Vince doesn't want them to fight on his turf, we'll do it outside in the parking lot, where security can't stop it. Just visualise that fucking promo for a second. Austin challenging WCW to the first fight. Potentially incredible.

Vince runs to the ring, demanding Austin, the guy he's never been able to control, to stop. But the WWF has had enough. Years of insults back and forth, they're on our turf, one of our own has been attacked, and we want to fight. Of course, it doesn't happen. The WWF guys are ready in the parking lot, but WCW is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, the doors to the building slam shut. The WWF guys are locked out.

Back in the arena. the not-employed by the WWF Bischoff hops the rail. Vince is livid. Security rushes to pull outsider Bischoff away from the ring, and succeeds. But Vince's attention is diverted, calling Bischoff every name under the sun on the mic, when from behind, for the very first time in a WWF ring, is Bill Goldberg. There is no way the crowd doesn't go ballistic. And he spears Vince McMahon to death.

The WWF guys break down the door. They're charging back in, Austin leading the way, to get to Bill Goldberg. Security bombards the scene, holding everybody apart, exactly as Vince ordered. And in a very important detail, Goldberg doesn't run away, he's fighting to get past security, a one man army in his own right. The scene is as wild as any ever seen. Jim Ross and Paul Heyman are going insane on commentary. And the show abruptly cuts to black.

It'll turn out, way down the line at a crucial moment, that Jericho is a mole, and never was attacked by WCW in the first place, his claim was simply to get the WWF worked up and out the building to allow Goldberg to get to Vince.

Vince McMahon declares all out war. He doesn't fire them, because he wants to squash them for good. And with Bischoff as the surefire heel heat magnet, WCW can stay one step ahead and keep the heat.

From this point, any manner of promos, confrontations, attacks, Nexus debut-style ringside destructions, ANYTHING, is fair game. Keep it tense, don't do interpromotional matches on TV unless it's rare and a very big deal. The anticipation of violence and conflict is key. Make people WANT it. Give them just enough to make them want more. You can do a major beatdown angle where the WCW absolutely destroys the WWF, nWo style, so long as Austin isn't there. You can have the WWF catch a hit-and-run angle and beat the fuck out of an O'Haire and Palumbo the way they did, but WWF moments of victory are rare in the beginning. Austin and Goldberg, despite a mutual desire to fight, never touch, even when war breaks out. Not until the Pay-Per-View you want to do that match on, do they ever make contact.

Whichever direction you wish to take it - what a platform you'd have, huh? Sound good? Sound like a blueprint that could sell a Pay-Per-View or six?

Wake Up Call

It's just a dream. We all had ideas. But the realities of the world in 2001 didn't allow something like this, not even close. The problem for the WWF was that this is the stuff people wanted. For years they salivated at the thought, and they never truly believed they would. And then it happened. The sale heard around the world, and fans couldn't help but think big. Because it was big...potentially the biggest they would ever see.

Unfortunately for all of us in 2001, we found out that dreams don't always come true.

The WWE Network - A Lesson In "Value"

I've been mulling over an article on the WWE Network for a number of months, but held off because I was genuinely interested to see how things were going to play out first.

Back in January, I had a conversation with my good friend Tom Campbell about the WWE building their business around the Network, and immediately brought up my feelings that this project was doomed to fail. Campbell, to my surprise, said I was the first person he'd heard be negative on it.

I'm sure I wasn't, but looking at how things are playing out, I'm more baffled that people didn't see this coming. Looking at the basic principles and mathematics, it's an awful premise. Let's evaluate:

The biggest audience WWE gets is 4 million viewers, give or take, for Raw (in the US). For their Pay-Per-Views, they would average about 200,000 buys, with the exception of Rumble and Mania. This would be converting about 5% of free viewers into buyers. 

Their plan was to cannabilize Pay-Per-View. As a result, the WWE Network, as it was laid out from almost the beginning, needed 1.5 million subscribers in the US alone to break even. TO FUCKING BREAK EVEN.

That's 37.5% of its Raw viewers. They were hoping to go from 5% to 37.5%, on the premise that putting Pay-Per-Views and archived content on at a lower price would create a significantly higher viewers-to-buyers conversion rate. On paper, it sounds difficult, but possible. But to believe this was going to work ignores a fundamental aspect of why Pay-Per-Views weren't doing better in the first place.

The vast majority of those free viewers are not conditioned, and haven't been for some time, to spend money on wrestling. They'll tune in for free, granted, but most of them don't separate from their cash to see more of it on their television. They get 3 hours of Raw every single week, and seldom is there a show where, at some point, it isn't dragging a bit. 3 hours is more than enough for the casual fan, and even if it wasn't, and were looking for an extra dose of wrestling, they also get a bonus two hours of Smackdown for free as well. Why would that fan, Mr. John Q. Walmart if you will, possibly want to pay for more? To see the Pay-Per-Views? Value doesn't work that way, and that's been historically proven.

WWF's In Your House series was supposed to be a cheaper alternative for major Pay-Per-Views, and it failed, because while the idea of attracting people that didn't buy before is nice, none of them did, because they weren't conditioned to. Meanwhile, the consistent buyers purchased the show in lower numbers, because they saw them as missable. Cheaper. Less important. Less value = fewer buys. When the In Your House shows were raised from 20 dollars to 30 dollars in September 1997, in line with the major shows, they didn't do any less buys, and they made 50% more money.

People will buy WrestleMania whether it's ten dollars or fifty dollars, because the buying audience that's there sees its value. And value does not come in dollar figures, it comes in your personal sense of gain, which stems from passion you have for the medium, and the importance you place on the item (in this case PPV/Network) in context to it.

WWE has NEVER convinced 1.5 millions fans in the US to purchase WrestleMania, the most valuable thing they sell. 1.5 million subscribers was a fantasy, a number they didn't have a prayer of reaching, at least at first. WWE announced 667,000 subscribers in their first conference call discussing figures. Consider again that a chunk of the more passionate overseas fans figured out how to get it as soon as, and it makes you question what the true American number is.

On July 31st, WWE is announcing the updated number of subscribers. Anything less than 850,000 should be considered horrifying, but I will be very, very surprised if it's that high. There is potential for growth when it gets launched internationally, don't get me wrong. The British market is thriving for wrestling, they're the ones who dominate WrestleMania and Raw, flying across the world to be part of the product and express themselves, the latest breed of "ECW fan". They are willing to spend the most money on the product out of anyone in the world right now.

In addition, Japan is an interesting nut to crack, especially if KENTA gets some traction in the WWE. But as the Network expands, so do the costs, and the necessary number of subscribers to make it all fly.

The Network is not the XFL, a "nice-to-have". They have changed the face of how they operate their core business. As a result, I'm surprised they aren't pushing the Network harder. The last two weeks they've done a fairly serious sell for it, but given how much constant verbal fellatio we had to put up with about Tout and Twitter a couple of years ago, which made nobody any money at all, it's baffling to me why there isn't a new video package every week on Raw detailing a historic moment, match or television show, giving people a taste of something distinctly different every time, saying they can only see it in full on the Network.

Pay-Per-Views should be more important than ever in terms of promotion, but they'd rather spent valuable TV time on the Fandango/Layla/Summer Rae fiasco than focus more seriously on reasons to separate fans from cash for the monthly megashows. The television needs more focus. Things have been a bit better lately, but they need to tighten up what we're seeing. When you have so much time to fill, it's harder than ever to create a perfect product, but there is very little in the WWE that seems important of late.

We have some rising stars, but outside the key 6 or 7 guys and the World Title, everything else is filler - guys treading water, fighting for unimportant belts they've all held before that didn't get them anywhere the first time. This needs to change. And it can. Whenever people think back to the time they loved wrestling the most, they almost always talk about how much things meant back then. How important something was portrayed as being. In those moments, people attached great personal value to the product. That doesn't exist to many people today. They follow it, but the high stakes that the product thrived on in years past is gone. A lot of it is due to the same talent being in the same positions for so long. Results matter far less when the consequences are negligible.

While Vince McMahon is pulled in a million different directions, has countless masters to serve, and is hellbound, till the day he dies, to do it all his way, he surely hasn't lost sight of the fact that separating fans from cash is, was, and will always be what the wrestling business is really about. And he'd better figure out how this Network is going to go about doing that real soon, because it's going to take a lot more than Jerry Lawler's begging like a homeless man to recondition a million people.

SCG Radio #7 - The Underrated In Pro Wrestling

Join myself, G. John Chase, Karl Jones and Luke Edwards, as we take your comments and discuss the Underrated in Pro Wrestling, featuring discussion on Mick Foley, DDP, Ronnie Garvin, Lex Luger, Terry Taylor, Randy Orton's 2004 push, music videos, and much more. A great show, check it out!!

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/f8gusp/SCGRadio7-TheUnderratedInProWrestling.mp3

The Final Swerve?

I've debated Vince Russo on a number of occasions with a number of different people. But regardless of his merits in WWE or his negative effect on WCW, the latest news concerning Vinnie Ru and TNA is jaw-dropping stuff.

In case you didn't know, Vince Russo, by accidentally emailing somebody in charge of a wrestling news site instead of Mike Tenay and Taz, exposed a fact that TNA didn't want out - that Russo was, in fact, working with TNA again as a consultant. Where this becomes a hilarious story is not just that TNA management lied to the wrestlers and lied to others in the industry, not just that it knew that Russo's reputation was so bad they made him sign a confidentiality clause so nobody would know, but in the fact that Spike TV, the single most important aspect of TNA's existence, was bold-faced lied to, and told Russo wasn't working there.

Spike doesn't like Russo’s work. Most people with a functioning brain don't. His run as TNA writer from 2006 to 2012 was utter shite, and at a pivotal time for the company, he helped eviscerate any chance for the product to catch fire and for the company to make money on Pay-Per-View. Spike knew he wasn't good for the wrestling show they air, so they didn't want him back.

Don't worry, said Aunt Dixie, it's all bullshit.

TNA's television contract expires in two months. Spike doesn't usually let things slide this late, and the fact they are this time is not a promising sign. The company has been in dire straights for months and months, with financial cutbacks changing the roster and look of the television drastically. Sale rumours have been floating since late last year, all of which Spike is surely aware.

Then they get lied to. Not only is it indicative that Dixie Carter will truly never learn a single thing about wrestling by bringing back the guy who failed to get the job done before, but it's a massive, arrogant slap in the face, especially considering that without Spike, TNA is dead. And I don't mean that to be dramatic, it’s true. There is no TNA Wrestling if Spike TV drops them. It's over.

Despite what its defenders may say, the product has never been firing on all cylinders. It was never a great show. There were times when certain things happened of merit, a great match, a good character, a bit of momentum gathered for something. But it almost always fell short. And typically, the bad far outweighed the good.

And that comes down to Dixie Carter's fuck awful decisions regarding who runs the show. Decisions that have bitten her time and again, but through her almost admirable stubbornness and award-winning inability to open her doe-eyes (well, Worst Promotion Of The Year is an award in the Observer Newsletter), have replicated themselves to the point of comedy. Remember in the early 90s, how WCW relied on a steady-string of people to book, one after the other, all either completely unqualified, or guys from the past who had no idea of wrestling in 2014 and beyond? Dusty, Ole, Herd, Frye, Watts. And oh yeh, Russo.

Sometimes I feel bad for Vince Russo. He doesn't seem like a bad guy, really. It's got to be tough to get constantly joked about and insulted for doing something he wanted to do all his life, a dream job that most of us would take if we had the chance. And hell, I’m not afraid to say it, a job that Russo was actually successful in for a brief period of time in the WWF. So in fairness to Vince, this isn't about him this time. He took a job to help, and do it to the best of his ability.

Granted, he wasn't right for the job at all. But the fact he was kept for so long is not his fault, nor is it his fault that the company lied to its business partner. We may be about to witness a sad moment in wrestling - I want a healthy number two promotion to thrive, it only benefits us as fans, and TNA, which has always struggled to fill even modest expectations for "number two", may soon be a thing of the past. It’s all in Spike’s hands, and it may all depend on much that slap stung.

If that is the case, maybe Dixie will finally learn this lesson - You don't shit where you eat. But given her track record, I just don't have the faith in her learning a single thing.

But at the very least, you'd hope they'll use this as a chance to learn how to put the right name in the fucking email.

SCG Radio #6 - The Trial Of Triple H

Join myself, G. John Chase, Karl Jones, Luke Edwards and Kieran O'Rourke, as we engage in the first ever SCG Court Case! We hold Triple H up for debate for his potential crimes against the wrestling industry - his one man conspiracy to manipulate the system to the detriment of the company, and indecent overexposure. Judge Chase presides, Karl Jones and I are the prosecution, while Luke Edwards and Kieran O'Rourke form the defence. Does Triple H walk away a free man? Listen in!

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/ay7qrj/SCGRadio6-TheTrialOfTripleH.mp3

The Bullet Club Fucking Sucks Ass

I can't come up with a more apropos and fitting title, creativity be damned. "Bullet Club Firing Blanks" did come to mind, but why sugarcoat my feelings?

The Aces and Eights of New Japan Pro Wrestling have dominated the landscape in 2014, much to the chagrin of anybody that's been watching the product closely for the last couple of years. Now, I like to write impartially, to analyse and explore both sides of the story. Not in this case, and I'll tell you why.

New Japan has been so good, for so long, it was almost hard to believe. The superb roster, the most consistently great Pay-Per-Views in years, excellent matches, exciting new stars and established acts reinventing themselves. As the clock turned to midnight on December 31st, 2013, it appeared as though things were heading in a direction reflective of it's current hot streak. Sure, the Tetsuya Naito experiment didn't pan out. The push was an honest attempt, but it was the wrong place and time for Naito, and people seemed to resist the idea of him being anything more than he currently was after his comeback.

Regardless, New Japan had so much going for it that it didn't matter. Kazuchika Okada as champion, engaging in a staredown with Katsuyori Shibata after defeating Hirooki Goto, teasing a match that had incredible potential. Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi waging war for the prestigious Intercontinental title. The rise of Tomohiro Ishii, and his excellent series of matches with Naito. Kota Ibushi signing a contract and tearing the house down every time he had a chance. Things were great. Moving forward, they could have gotten even better.

Instead, they signed AJ Styles, and went all in on The Bullet Club.

I love AJ, incredible wrestler, but there is nothing worse in wrestling today than watching this group of nerds make nWo hand signs, crotch-chopping and screaming "suck it", like a bunch of backyarders acting like their heroes in 1999. Styles immediately getting the IWGP Championship seemed like a decision so disconnected from the audience, who had no desire to see Okada lose to this type of act (and not in a money drawing way). The large New Japan audience didn't know AJ well enough, and of all the things Okada was lined up for, this was such an anticlimax for his great reign. That would be bad enough.

But oh no. Shinsuke Nakamura, who has made the Intercontinental Title as important as the IWGP World Title in the last two years, loses the belt to Bad Luck Fale (pronounced Far-Lay, enough if "Fail" is a more accurate description), a man who has no business playing a role of importance in a company this good. Quite why this guy is in the spot, other than the fact he's big, is a mystery.

The insanity continues, as Yujiro Takahashi, a guy who was in the exact spot he deserved to be in, a midcard sleaze who didn't chew up too much of the scenery, was turned heel, put in the Club, and beats Tomohiro Ishii for the Never Title. Ishii was the breakout guy of 2013, and this was the year for that to pay dividends, putting him in important matches people were dying to see. Instead, he's cast aside. Yujiro, bless him, doesn't have close to the upside of Ishii.

Add Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows as tag champs (the only decision I don't have a problem with), and clearly the theme, by design, is Bullet Club domination of New Japan. Awesome. But the fact is that nobody cares. Gauging opinions from Japan, nobody hates them in a way to pay to see them lose. Like me, they just want it over with so we can get back to what we wanted, the product we loved.

Shibata, Ishii, Ibushi, Nakamura, Goto, Naito, Okada, Tanahashi. They make New Japan great. I will say, as my only defence of the Bullet Club, that they aren't the sole reason for NJPW's booking woes. It feels like Minoru Suzuki and Toru Yano have been feuding for about six years now, and the "divisions" that have been strong in previous years (Tags and Jr) are lacking in depth, which means the undercard feels the same, give or take, as it has for a while now. And maybe that is the reason why they took the gamble with the Bullet Club - to give the company a different vibe until the G-1 Climax, where the cards will really start to shift in a positive manner.

But like Naito, the Bullet Club is an experiment that didn't work. The entire foundation of the group was Prince Devitt, and once he was gone, the pure heel backbone was ripped out. Even when Devitt was around, the idea of Devitt getting the title and the company being built around them was utterly absurd. Of the members now - Styles, Gallows, Anderson, Tonga, Yujiro, Young Bucks, nobody has the charisma or appeal to justify basing a company around them in Japan. Styles was in the unfortunate position of being the stand-in for somebody else's faction, a no-win situation to begin with, that has gotten worse because they decided to go balls-out. All it did was shine a bigger light on the failure.

Shinsuke Nakamura should win the G-1 Climax at the Seibu Dome. Kazuchika Okada needs to beat AJ Styles for the IWGP World Title before the end of the year. That's your main event for Wrestle Kingdom on January 4th, 2015, and I believe this will occur.

But sooner rather than later, for the sake of New Japan Pro Wrestling, the company I've loved so dearly - somebody please put a Bullet in the Club.

SCG Radio #5 - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of 1994

Join myself, G. John Chase, Karl Jones and Kieran O'Rourke, as we take your feedback, and talk about the Good, Bad and Ugly of 1994 in pro wrestling, including WrestleMania X, Taker Vs. Taker, Hulk Hogan, and all things WWF, WCW, ECW, Mexico and Japan.

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/play/hjbyi2/SCGRadio5-TheGoodBadandUglyof1994.mp3

The John Cena Appreciation Society

 By Kieran O'Rourke

Ok, I get it. John Cena isn't everyone's cup of tea. His body mechanics are clunky. His promos containing the word "poop" can be cringeworthy and heat killers. And he's been pretty much the same guy in the same position for a decade.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and everyone is free to like or dislike whoever they feel compelled to. But the polarisation of Cena is often used as evidence of his talents or, more often, the lack there of. The marketing appeals to kids, but 'smart' fans see through it and him. I guess that's the gist right?

Like I said, it's understandable. I'm not trying to get grown men to denounce their citizenship and emigrate to the Cenation, but I do think Cena is, by many, the most under rated and under appreciated wrestler around. And one day it'll change.

Let's not forget, once upon a time John Cena was cool. He was charismatic. He was edgy. He got popular. Really popular. And he was changed in order to cater to the populous. To carry the company. Witty innuendo was replaced with clichéd slogans and merchandise a grown man would be embarrassed to wear in public, other than for fancy dress or general ironic social commentary.

Therein lies the dichotomy of John Cena. Vital to the survival of a company who's most faithful fans are alienated specifically from him. Kinda like the other JC carrying his cross. That's right, John Cena is a bloody martyr.

Ok maybe not. But what would the WWE (née the mainstream wrestling industry) meant opportunities for other people to be positioned and protected as the top guy, would any have broken out and been more successful than Cena has been? Any answer is hypothetical. But what I would say is it's not like there would have been a different roster to consider. Hypothetically, had Steve Austin come around in 2010, and made the same undercard waves he did in '96-'97, do you think he would have been made stoop for Cena's glass ceiling?

To this day Cena is still the most certain ratings and box office draw on the roster. While emphasis on WWE as the key the brand somewhat guarantees (although not always a benefit) a relatively stable ratings environment, Cena is still the guy who consistently affects business metrics positively.

Yes, Cena appeals to kids. How old were you when you first got drawn to wrestling? New fans and kids in particular are the lifeblood of the wrestling business. We wrestling fans probably don't want to hear this, we're forced to defend our love enough as it is. But I don't mean it's a business for kids only. Today's WWE caters for a broader demographic audience than any wrestling company in history. But it's rare for the roots of an individual's wrestling fandom not to originate in their childhood.

Quite simply, John Cena has brought WWE more new fans over the last ten years than anyone else. It's not even close. Without him the company wouldn't be dead. But I think the baseline for success would be lower. Maybe a guy like CM Punk would have been given a proper run sooner and stronger. Maybe in the absence of the spectre of Cena, as the true number one guy, someone else would have flourished in the role. The evidence suggests there's a bottom line difference between appealing to a new fan base and being popular with an existing one that isn't going anywhere.

But enough amount money. People who think Cena Sucks don't care if 900,000 extra people will tune into Raw for him and not Punk. And neither should they. But John Cena doesn't suck as a worker. In fact he's really rather good.

John Cena is a fantastic babyface. Yes he can look awkward, often when bumping, but he sells better than anyone. And he an absolute pro at connecting and interacting with the crowd. Watch him on the apron in a tag match. He works his ass off getting the crowd into the story of the match. Apart from knowing I'd be
jobbing if our team was losing, I'd pick him as my tag partner everyday of the week.

And he has a lot of really good matches. I challenge anyone to give me a list of guys who have had more 3.5+ star matches over the last ten years. Stylistically he's best suited to drawn out brawls (most recently with Bray Wyatt) where the emphasis is on selling and storytelling.

Is he Shawn Michaels? Of course not. Is he limited? Absolutely. Is a match with Kane a guaranteed stinker? He's only human. But he can go. Antonio Cesaro didn't carry Cena in their match before Elimination Chamber, he knew how bring out the physical, dramatic best in Cena while supplementing with his own talents.

One way or the other, Cena is always over. And one way or another his matches usually get over too. Which makes the claim that he's stale an interesting one. I equate staleness with apathy. The kids aren't apathetic. And everyone else seems to ferociously hate the guy.

Indeed, WWE seems to have been settled on how Cena is to be presented for a while, trying to cater to the Lets Goers while still manipulating his heat and rewarding the Cena Suckers with pay offs for their guys (think Punk at MITB, Bryan at Summerslam, even RVD at ECW) or, more recently, playing up to them with
Wyatt.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the Wyatt feud was the heavy handed, set piece orientated approach to the premise of fans gravitating towards Bray. They knew where the feud would go (think cellphones and sing alongs) but the feud was hollow. Bray was brilliant, and the association with Cena raised his stock. But the story told be Cena wasn't natural. It didn't grow and just felt phony.

As with the aforementioned "poop" promos, sometimes Cena's material does indeed suck. When Cena said he was scared of Wyatt, before anything had really happened between the two, it was an example the superficial, set piece and sound bite approach to booking and presentation WWE often takes. Maybe one of the reasons WWE highlight videos are so great is because angles are designed for SportsCenter moments rather than as narrative functions.

What's frustrating with the bad Cena material is he himself is capable of delivering such an intense, engaging promo. There's catering to kids and then there are shit promos. Poop = Shit. Can we blame him for bad material or angles? He could say no I suppose. But without knowing the man or the political situation maybe it's a little unfair to pass judgment. I think most would agree poopless Cena is usually a good to great promo.

By now you've probably assumed I'm a huge mark for Cena. I'm really not. If you're a wrestling fan you mark out for good stuff that has intrinsic appeal to you. So I don't mean that term negatively. I was a mark for The Shield. I wanted them to win. Always. I'm not a mark for Cena. I just think he's totally under
appreciated.

One day this will change. One day people will start using the word respect. Respect for Cena's talent. Respect for his work ethic. Respect for the respect he has for the business. Respect for asking to work with new guys.

Can the Cena Sucks crew be won over as things stand, while kids are still perceived as his target audience? Maybe not. While he may get an occasional standing ovation after a great match, Cena Sucks is a permanent part of the show. It's a contrary reaction to the PR of the Cenation.

A heel turn isn't happening in the foreseeable future. Not until a proven replacement comes along, and even then the stain of the Austin turn may weigh heavy. When one guy is so solely responsible for attracting a certain demographic, will turning him just alienate away his current fans and not bring in any new ones? The hardcores may be more entertained by his performance but they were watching anyway.

So maybe it can't happen until Cena's full time career is over. When there is no perception of being over pushed or in the way. Nostalgia and a change in perspective can make a believer out of anyone.

And if nothing else we've got all those kids to grow up and write their version of wrestling history.

The bandwagon will be picking up steam sooner or later so hope aboard today. Send a postal order for £50 (Sterling) to The John Cena Appreciation Society, PO Box 578, UK and receive your JCAS certificate, fridge magnet and tie clip.

SCG Radio # 4 - Who Is The Best "Big Man" In Wrestling History?

Join myself, G. John Chase, Luke Edwards and Kieran O'Rourke, as we take your feedback and discuss our own picks for the Best "Big Man" in the history of the business, featuring discussion on Andre The Giant, Vader, The Undertaker, Bam Bam Bigelow, Stan Hansen, Jerry Blackwell, Big Show and many more. A fun listen, so check it out!

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/ftwmvy/SCGRadio4-TheBestBigManInHistory.mp3