Earlier this week, the HBO Sports documentary, “Slash and Burn,” the 40-minute chronicle of former Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback, Kordell Stewart, premiered on the HBO Max streaming service. In truth, when I saw that the runtime was relatively short, I tapered any expectations that there would be much substance to the production. Given that the basis for the documentary itself was the rumor of a fictitious arrest for public sexual activity that was said to have happened during his time in the iron city, more time would’ve been needed to truly examine the domino effect that it had on his career, as well as the perception the rumors created during his tenure in the league. Maybe HBO is going with the shorter format (more on that in a second) to separate itself from other platforms? Usually, the streaming market will unnecessarily give topics a six-episode docuseries to pad the amount of hours watched on the service to look better for advertisers when a tight 90-minute presentation would’ve made for an exponentially better viewing experience.
In this case, Slash and Burn, a title taken from the fact that Stewart played both QR and wide receiver at different points during his seven-year stint in Pittsburgh, only vaguely scratched the surface of what was there, which was more puzzling when you take into account that, as mentioned, the production was intended to clear up assumptions about his career or personal life. All things considered, you really don’t know more about the former NFL player after the documentary than you did before. Stewart has kept the vast majority of his personal life private and did so here too. He denied the rumors in 1998 and did so again almost three decades later. As far as new ground, stellar Pittsburgh sports reporter, Bob Pompeani had a cameo, confirming that inquires were made at the time, but there was no arrest record for Stewart. While there was, and still is today, some prejudice around the notion of an African American QB in the NFL, I sincerely don’t think that was the case for Kordell Stewart during his time playing for the Steelers. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that prejudice still exists in society is nauseating, but the reality is, Pittsburgh is a city that revers its sports icons. Many of those icons, including numerous Steelers Hall of Famers, are black. “Mean” Joe, Franco, Mel Blount, John Stallworth, and other prolific black athletes walk on water in the steel city. The reality is, Stewart was dynamic for the time, as far as his mobility, but he was a rather mediocre quarterback that had one good season in 2001. Winning is the only thing that matters to the Steeler nation, not race or orientation, which isn’t to say that the circumstances of the false rumors didn’t have an impact on Stewart throughout the rest of the league.
Since the runtime was short, after the conclusion of the Stewart piece, the streaming service automatically jumped to the next sports documentary, the recently released “Miller Night Football,” another 40-minute show that covered Dennis Miller’s two seasons in the broadcast booth for Monday Night Football. On this subject, 40 minutes was more than enough to cover the comedian’s time as an NFL analyst, despite no prior football experience.
It was interesting to hear about how shifts in management can impact the direction of a production and the decisions made. It was intriguing to hear the network executive’s side of when the sluggish ratings for Monday Night Football, once the premiere time slot for the league, were partially contributed to the rise in popularity of pro wrestling during that era. As we know, the Monday night war, the competition between WWF and WCW, brought in a record-setting audience. At its peak, the boom period had a combined 10 million viewers watching the pro wrestling shows each Monday.
It goes without saying, with that many viewers watching Steve Austin or Bill Goldberg, programming that was tailored to the 18-34 year-old demographic, there were simply less people watching Monday Night Football than there were in a previous generation, hence why the out-of-the-box concept to bring Miller into the fold materialized in 2000. Bringing someone from outside of sports was considered a drastic move, but there was no doubt that sports entertainment had taken a chunk of the audience. In 1998, the NFL moved the program to start at 8 PM, with the notion that it could get a head start to the wrestling programs, and a competitive game might retain the audience. While the MNF broadcasts are currently set for 8:15 PM, the time change in the 90s, nor bringing in Dennis Miller in 2000, helped the sluggish ratings. Viewers decided to watch Stone Cold stun McMahon instead of watch Stewart throw interceptions.
Ironically, the flop of the XFL and the consolidation of the entire wrestling business not long after Miller was canned gave the NFL its audience back. We’ve already discussed the advancement of technology and it goes without saying that the ability to broadcast more games in more regions has truly nationalize the sport over the past 25 years. Fans don’t just watch the home team anymore, they watch the stars as well, a benefit based on how skewed the league is towards the offense in the modern era. That wasn’t the case when lineal television was the main option for viewers more than a quarter century ago and thus it became easier for pro wrestling to get ahold of the typical football demographic.
In fact, the argument could be made that the distribution of the league has gone too far in the other direction, as every platform tries to secure itself a lucrative piece of the NFL pie. ESPN, NBC, CBS and Amazon Prime are only a few of the networks or streaming services that have the rights to some type of NFL games this season. Furthermore, there are nine games scheduled to be played outside of the United States this season.
Of course, NFL teams are worth billions of dollars and the league itself it worth billions of dollars. The NFL is more valuable today than any other time in history. That’s why it’s almost unfathomable that there was a time when pro wrestling was consistently drawing better numbers than the NFL.
Still, it prompted the question, could professional wrestling ever be truly mainstream again?
The easy and unfortunately accurate answer is, no. I don’t see a way that sports entertainment could ever catch lightning in a bottle to that degree. There are numerous reasons for why a boom period couldn’t take place again, but a few of the core explanations underscore the scope of the scenario.
First and foremost, competition is what fueled the surge in popularity throughout the Monday night war. If the NWO didn’t put Vince McMahon on the ropes, he wouldn’t have been nearly as willing to push the envelope with Steve Austin as the top guy. The fact there were two shows gave more of a variety within the genre to draw more viewers. Sure, toward the end of the war, WCW had some awful drek, but even Thunder during its dying days had a bigger number than Smackdown does now. For there to be competition, there must be someone with the funding to be a competitive player in the industry. As Tony Khan has proven, you can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t use it correctly, there will be options in the business, not necessarily competition. Timing is a huge part of the equation as well, the Rock N’ Wrestling era was the right product at the right time, as was the Attitude era. That must happen organically, you can’t plan it. There are so many moving parts in those type of situations that it’s a matter of the right pieces of the puzzle falling into place at the right time. That’s why the trajectory of All Elite Wrestling is so frustrating, because there was a brief window of a few years where the project could’ve really gotten off the ground, but it settled into a mostly niche product. And no, the Wednesday night “competition” between NXT and Dynamite for a few years wasn’t remotely the same thing as Raw/Nitro, considering that it was WWE’s developmental show.
Outside of the players of the industry, the perception of the business itself might be in a place where it won’t be in a position to truly be mainstream again. Keep in mind, the last boom period ended 25 years ago, you can’t file that under pro wrestling being cyclical, which is a misnomer anyway. Since the last boom period, more of the business has been exposed in more ways than it ever had previously. Granted, by the late-90s, the audience knew pro wrestling was entertainment, but there was enough of a shield around the performers in terms of what the audience saw that there was enough of a mystic that the fans could still believe in the characters. Fans knew that Steve Austin wasn’t causing mayhem at the grocery store, but they believed in him as the gritty Texan that clawed his way to the top of the business against the odds. That’s because it was essentially an amplified version of the man behind the persona. The fans could tell that there was some real-life animosity between Bret Hart and Shawn Micheals in 1997 so it was very easy to be emotionally invested in the result of the feud.
There have been so many documentaries, including Unreal on Netflix, that explain that most of the drama on-screen today in manufactured that it makes it difficult to truly believe in today’s performers the way that fans were emotionally invested in the previous generation. Without that emotional investment, pro wrestling becomes interchangeable with any other form of entertainment. It doesn’t help the situation that the WWE promotes the brand ahead of individual stars today. Yes, it gives the company more promotional power, but the audience believes in their favorite wrestlers, not corporations. How many times has the audience chanted the initials “WWE” during a show?
As far as being interchangeable with any other form of entertainment, the amount of endless entertainment options probably prevent sports entertainment from being able to capture enough of an audience to go mainstream again. Remember, Monday Night Football’s decline was concerning because that was dubbed the premium game on the line-up at a time when the majority of games had regional availability. There are more national games now than in the late-90s. In 2026, professional wrestling is competing with every network, streaming platform, podcast, and Youtube video for viewership. It was exponentially easier to capture an audience when the comparatively limited number of television channels were the other options besides pro wrestling.
So, TKO will continue to capitalize on the climate of the evolving media landscape through the massive rights deals, and continue to expand international since there’s more money on live events there than there usually is domestically, but the totality of the status of the industry, as well as the direction of society, will probably prevent sports entertainment from going mainstream again.
But hey, at least Kordell Stewart got his 40 minutes of fame.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
