Nothing truly shocks me in professional wrestling.
Occasionally, I’m surprised by what happens either on-screen or behind the scenes in sports entertainment, but at this point, nothing truly shocks me. The industry that originated from the carnival circuit, more often than not, stays true to those roots. Con artists, murders, predators, and sleazy promoters have all been involved in the business at some point.
There’s a reason that dozens of episodes of The Dark Side of The Ring series were produced, and there’s a seventh season in production.
As much as nothing would shock me in sports entertainment, I found myself completely flabbergasted with the claims from Vince Russo on a recent podcast that he will be writing for Billy Corgan’s National Wrestling Alliance for episodes of NWA Power that have yet to be taped. As of now, the NWA show airs on the Roku Sports channel. The show had previously aired on the CW app for roughly six months last year before the move to Roku. Basically, that means that it has a platform, but it’s not mainstream, easily accessible, or a big revenue stream for them.
That has essentially been the problem for the NWA since Corgan bought the brand in 2017. Don’t get me wrong, Billy Corgan has done more for the NWA brand than anyone else since the purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions by Ted Turner in 1988. Anyone else that had control of the initials did nothing more than try to prostitute the lineage to squeeze a few pennies from it or attempt to use it as a platform for self promotion, with Bruce Tharpe being the prime example of that.
However, when NWA Power originally gained some notoriety on Youtube, plucking talented individuals from the independent circuit, it basically became an audition for them to work elsewhere, particularly after the launch of All Elite Wrestling in 2019. The bottom line is, the ad revenue that can realistically be made from a wrestling show on Youtube isn’t anywhere close to the amount of cash needed to fund a national organization. That’s why I didn’t put too much stock into the Power project because there was a clear ceiling to how much of a dent it could make in the industry. Eddie Kingston and Ricky Starks both worked some of those early NWA episodes, but they eventually landed in AEW.
The reason for it is simple, Billy Corgan is a millionaire based on his tremendous success in the music industry with The Smashing Pumpkins, but the Khan family has billions of dollars, and the WWE is a billion dollar corporation so it’s a completely different scale as far as the economics.
Sure, the entire reason that a wrestling league looks to get television distribution is to be able to increase revenue and expand the product. The better the ratings, the more ad revenue you can generate from commercials and sponsorships. The wider the TV clearance, the more exposure to the product more regions of the country will have and thus there’s an ability to increase the touring schedule as a way to generate more cash.
There’s undoubtedly a reason why, even with the continuing evolution of the media landscape that rights fees remain the biggest revenue stream for both AEW and WWE.
Again, Billy Corgan is one guy with his personal cash on the line so there’s no doubt that if the NWA wants to continue to attempt to produce events on a semi-national level, they will need something that will bring in more cash in some form or fashion. If the talent is there that could move the needle or if there’s a demand for the NWA product in general is a completely different matter. The bottom line is, the ability to secure talent to contracts and expand with those performers under the NWA banner, there must be a revenue source beyond Corgan’s bank account.
How in the wide world of sports that Vince Russo is apparently the solution to take the NWA television product to the next level is absolutely mind-boggling.
This is the guy that wrote some of the most notorious drek in the history of the business, with almost too many examples to name. Clearly, if the Smashing Pumpkins front man is a wrestling historian if he purchased the National Wrestling Alliance so how hasn’t he taken note of the lessons of the history of the sport?
Vince Russo is the guy that tries to take credit for the Attitude era. the period of the business that happened to have Steve Austin, The Rock, and Mick Foley in the prime of their careers. He might be a sleazy deviant today, but it’s obvious that Vince McMahon didn’t need direction from Russo when he worked as one of the best heels of all time during that era. Vince Russo wrote for the WWF for roughly three and a half years, and he was able to parlay that into a job with not only WCW, but later TNA as well.
Russo with his pole matches, miscarriage angles, random heel turns, worked shoots, incest storylines, Brawl For All, mocking Jim Ross’ health problems, and even more nonsense that is too lengthy to name, was one of the main reasons that WCW went off a cliff, and he wrote TNA into bankruptcy to the point that Anthem Entertainment had to rescue the organization by purchasing it in 2016. Vince Russo wrote for WCW for roughly a year before the company was so damaged that mere months later, it was sold to Vince McMahon for pennies on that dollar. He was one of many people that worked Dixie Carter out of major money, and his reputation was so toxic that when Spike TV found out he was secretly still writing Impact, they opted to cancel the show in 2014.
However, in true Russo fashion, there was a swerve, as it was officially revealed that he wasn’t going to work for the NWA, but rather inked a deal with Juggalo Championship Wrestling, the Insane Clown Posse’s group with a cult following. The former head writer gleefully bragged on social media about swerving The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, and the fact that he thinks swerving Meltzer is so type of accomplishment, it shows you just how unaccomplished Russo truly is. At the very least, thankfully, the NWA was spared from his drek.
The reason that I wanted to write about the logistics of the NWA status in the industry despite the “swerve” from Russo is simple, JCW, which has a dedicated niche following because of its association with the music group, has many of the same hurdles as the NWA in terms of distribution and main stream exposure. The huge difference is that the Juggalo group knows its place in the market and isn’t trying to spare with either of the major leagues. JCW tours, assuming profitably, to different cities around the country to produce a Youtube series, the same platform that the NWA originally had.
Obviously, the JCW audience are going to be ICP fans, and given the off-the-wall and generally wacky stuff that the Juggalo organization is known for, it’s not meant or targeted for anything main stream anyway. There’s nothing wrong with that either, revenue and profitability are the barometer for success in any business venture. If Juggalo Championship Wrestling is a profitable side gig as a spinoff of the success of ICP then good for them for being able to parlay their music career into a wrestling project.
That being said, taking into account the unconventional approach that JCW takes to pro wrestling, Russo’s writing wouldn’t be too out of place there, but it’s also not going to propel the league any further up the ladder than the spot that it is right now because again, by nature, JCW is tailored to ICP fans, not any type of major platform. Since his involvement won’t help and probably won’t hurt JCW’s status as a brand, Russo’s involvement is probably moot. But, it’s ironic that his triumph about “swerving” the dirt sheets might actually prove his critics right. If Vince Russo is successful writing for JCW, a show that is the complete opposite of a main stream product, it proves why he never maintained any success attempting to writing for any mainstream organization throughout his career.
How’s that for a swerve, bro?
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
