It was almost an 'urge to kill rising' moment

A true test of one’s patience is to be in a busy grocery store, standing in the self-checkout lane and watching people try to interface with the technology in front of them. They keep these things very simple so you’d think that someone that was apparently able to successfully dress themselves and drive to the store could figure it out without a great deal of coaching. That is not always the case.

Part of the problem is that some of the people who try to do this don’t appear to be comfortable with technology in general. If you can’t program your VCR yourself, don’t bother trying the self check-out line. I refer to the older woman that was in front of me yesterday. She looked very confused the whole time and had no real idea what she was looking at on the machine. I felt bad and tried to help her out a little. It’s entirely likely that she couldn’t read the screen clearly or had issues following the voice prompts but, if that’s the case, why get in that line? That’s the decision that confused me. It really wasn’t that much shorter than the other lines.

That was the unfortunate part of the process. I gravitate to the self check-out lines because they are shorter. I took a chance on them once when the store wasn’t busy and learned what I had to learn then. A crowded store is not the time to line up to take a chance like that. Especially when then slows down the rest of the line. That’s just not nice to the rest of the group.

I mean, I got English Muffins to buy…

Loved to Hate that Phone

The mobile phone that I’ve had for the past couple years has never worked very well. The research I’d done, both online and with people I knew that owned said phone, indicated that it was a solid model phone. I always had issues with mine. The original phone I received got stuck in a loop rebooting about nine months after I bought it. The warranty replaced it and the replacement worked okay for a month or two until it started to flake out in the same way the first phone had done. As it continued to function well enough to use, I decided to put off replacing it until my service contract ran out. I’m also willing to be nice and argue that the model phone may have been good at one point and I lucked into getting a few crummy items from near the end of the production run. It could happen.

Sunday night the screen went dead on the phone. This was nice as it prevented me from seeing text messages or my phone book or seeing what buttons I’d hit on the phone, you know, all those things that make a phone really functional. Had I received a call, I could still answer it but I didn’t receive any. Monday night I stopped in the AT&T store nearest the house and picked out a new phone. As part of the swap-over, they were able to transfer my contacts from the old phone to the new phone. This pleased me.

When I got home I realized that they had only been able to swap my numbers from the SIM of my old phone. All the numbers I called the most were saved on my actual phone, you know, the one with the broken display. This was a problem.

A-ha! In the months soon after getting the now-broken phone, I’d gotten a copy of the mobile tools application from an intern friend of mine. While cleaning up the night before, I’d seen the cable I’d need to connect the phone to my computer. After a few minutes of searching, I found the cable, found the application, reinstalled it to a computer, attached the phone, downloaded the drivers for the modem in the mobile device and opened my phonebook. Bam! There everything was laid out before me. There may have been an easier way to do it but, since the phonebook in the new phone is laid out slightly differently than the old phone, I just reentered all the data by hand.

There’s a moment of panic when you lose your phonebook. Events years in the past had conspired to save me in a moment of crisis. Hooray the past!

Just something twisted in my brain I guess

Why have I been treating old bootleg tapes with the respect due a prerecorded tape? Is it the bulky plastic case that makes them feel special? They're not. They're just a dub of an old tv broadcast or converted PAL tape. Mostly worthless.

Now that it looks like I've fixed my DVD recorder, they're not even that.

It's not every man that can pull off a Decorative Vegetable

Busy, busy, busy.

Helping my buddy move his family out to Brookfield. Trying to get my back in shape again. Working to clean up the homestead (aka, reducing the piles that grow). And writing, let's not forget the writing.

I got to the end of yesterday and was unclear as to why I was in such a good mood (who said whiskey! I heard you, whoever you were, you'll get nothing past me). I was sore, not so much from helping the Gentekis' move but more from wrestling with the three children for a couple hours. I forget sometimes how children don't run out of energy. I do. Best workout you can get. While sore, my back didn't hurt as it has for the past month or so. That brightened my day. The Children in Need Doctor Who special helped as well.

I guess it's all in the attitude. I was starting to feel very down late last week but a day or so without hurting (in that way) and I can feel more like myself. Good times...

TV is dead and Movies are on life support

A possibility due to the writer's strike:

The writers win the advances they are seeking. (Considering there are reports indicating that the union is the most united they've ever been, it's quite possible that they'll get what they want.) However, the delay in the television season due to the length of the strike negatively impacts ratings. Popular shows return with weak ratings. New shows that networks had reasons to hope would become franchises wither and die upon their return. The younger demographics are the hardest hit as 'the kids' have found other things to do. Network television as we've know it dies quickly rather than slowly (as expected) as the former powerhouses become havens of 'reality' programming, repeats and rebroadcasting programmes originally found on the internet.

Movie producers, now having less money to gamble with, gravitate further towards remakes of older movies and televisions shows, pumping out less creative product by the moment. The bubbling independent movie scene (aka non-union workers) becomes more visible again. The more commercially creative of these are soon courted by the surviving studios to become union and join them. Some do but many chose to remain independent, releasing their new works on-line for donations from their viewers.

It's not impossible. It's largely what I believe is coming with or without the strike. The strike may just speed up the process. Not unlike Radiohead's influence on the breakdown of the influence of the music labels.

It may not be that bad a thing.

Bad driving

You'd think with me being on vacation this week I'd have more time to blog. But I don't.

I think every driver on the road occasionally does something stupid on occasion. It stands to reason that at some point you'll be in an unfamiliar area, misread a sign and make a left turn where you shouldn't. That's my excuse for what happened Monday morning and I'm sticking to it. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic and I was able to fix the situation promptly. I'd feel worse about it except when I was leaving a half-hour later I saw someone else making the same mistake.

Some people can get away with a sight amount of interference when they drive. I'm not an expert driver (not like George or my buddy Nate that I haven't seen in forever; those fellows can drive!) but occasionally I'll take a phone call or eat while I'm driving. It's not a good choice but I've done it. The other day I saw a woman driving on the freeway while on the phone. She was also apparently in a hurry cause she was going far too fast and having issues staying in her lane. These are bad choices.

I don't really have a moral to this story or anything. I just think Americans take driving as a right and not a privilege sometimes. That's a problem.

I'd think about this harder but 'Kenan and Kel' is on Noggin right now. I've never seen the show before but it's very good and is distracting me. It has remnants of the 50's comedies I love so. Later.

Smasher grabs the stick

The other day I went to the public museum for this thing. I knew that I could walk around in the hood without having to show my wrestling license every few minutes and there aren't many times I can do that so I take advantage of them when I can. I grabbed a bag from the stash of pretzel rods and headed off.

I got addicted to pretzel rods when I went to work for Junior in the 80s. He told me that the cigars I usedta smoke weren't kid friendly enough and suggested I switch to pretzel rods in public since I had a habit of gesturing with the cigar during a promo and I needed something for that. It worked out well. I stopped smoking altogether which was good. No matter what else he and I may have had happen between us, I haveta thank him for that.

I wore my 'LWO' shirt instead of my normal one. I worked for WCW for a year, appeared on television a whole, what, five times maybe, and have this shirt to show for it. They hired me for the nostalgia effect and wanted me to not have the pretzel rod in my mouth when I talked. Idiots. I did get a year to do little else but recuperate so that was nice.

Anyway, I went to the museum to walk around, have some fun, entertain the kids a little, nothing fancy. Occasionally a kid would see me and his eyes would light up with excitement. It made me happy to know that I was brightening someone's day; that someone saw the faded star that I am and was still happy to see me.

Every single onea them kids called me Rey Mysterio.

Now, I know we both wear hoods but they look totally different. Besides, he's a little guy and I'm a big outta shape bruiser from the old days. We aint twins.

I suppose I should be happy they thought I was someone who's a big name. It could be worse. Still, it stung a little to be forgotten. I aint wrestled in a long time and I'm aint in any shape to start again but, for a moment last night, I wanted to get back in the ring and show them who the Smasher is and what I can do.

But I shouldn't.

Chivalry is dead

The following story is true. Some of the names have been changed to protect the ignorant.

As I stumbled free from the embrace of the weird inflated trap, I realized that I was also free of the house, the house of fear and horror. Despite the fact that I was heading down a dirt ramp, I did nothing to slow my pace. It seemed logical to me that, while I had escaped the house, I may not have yet escaped the inhabitants of that house. I didn’t slacken my speed until I’d caught up with George and Amy. There, some distance away from the house, we could safely giggle and discuss the creepy joy we’d experienced while waiting for the rest of our group.

I watched as the next group emerged from the house and was confused slightly when that group was not the remainder of our friends. I was also confused by the lack of attack upon exit. It was such a perfect location for a surprise that I could not understand using it.

A few moments later, another group emerged and this was our friends. They loudly laughed and giggled the remainder of their fear away. Then, suddenly, my theories were proved correct. From the shadows of the exit sprang a masked individual with a loud running chainsaw. Relaxation was replaced by one last blast of fright. With a burst of ‘feet don’t fail me now’, young Larry ran, instinctively abandoning the young lady that he had accompanied through the house in order to protect her. In the moment of truth, he had failed in his task, leaving her to the madman’s whims.

Chivalry is dead.

What If?

We all play the 'What If?' game at some point. 'What If I'd lived in this city instead of that one?' 'What If I'd gone to this school?''What If I'd moved out sooner/later/not broken up with/etc?' It can be a useful tool to see where you want to move forward with your life.

The weird part about it is that we're not very good at the game. Certain changes aren't accounted for and other variables cannot be calculated. For instance, I've been typing up a story I wrote in middle school. It was set in the future which is now the past. It's interesting to see what I predicted, how little understanding I had of certain things (like technology) and that all my friends in the story are people I knew at the time in middle school. It was as if I expected to know those people the rest of my life. That said, I do still have contact with people I knew in middle school. In the past couple weeks I realized that I'd bumped into someone I was pals with in middle school. Neither of us realized we knew each other at the time. Weird how that works sometimes.

I guess my point is that we (or at least I guess I do) generally expect certain things to remain constant. Certain good things in our lives shouldn't go away so we don't, or can't, picture those changes. Friends moving away, buildings burning down, businesses closing; these things shouldn't happen to the good things in our lives but sometimes they do. It's not the change we want but sometimes it's the change that happens.

Last night we played 'What If?' a few times. 'What If we all move to Colorado?' 'What If George had played high school football?' 'What If Katy and Eric's son marries George and Amy's daughter?' Looking forward and looking back. What would change? What would be the same?

I have the feeling of great change yet ahead of me. Change in and of itself doesn't bother me like it once did. I hate change for the sake of change, changes made in an effort to 'look busy'. At least one big something is going to change for me soon, perhaps a couple somethings. There's rumblings afoot and I've no clue to what level it will alter things. That's the problem with rumblings. They are indistinct by nature.

One thing I have no interest in letting change is my writing and by that I mean that I have no interest in stopping. It would be too fundamental a change and I don't like what I 'see' of that me. If that means this blogging thing stays weekly for the time being while I work on everything else, that's not a problem for me.

I wonder what's going to happen. What Then?

Change and not a Moment Too Soon

Within the past couple weeks, Radiohead announced plans to release their new album under a 'pay what you want' plan, Nine Inch Nails announced freedom from their music label and Madonna signed with a concert promoter rather than a traditional music label. The music industry is seeing some big changes and the traditional music labels are on the outside of the process for a change.

The interesting thing to see out of this 'pay what you want' concept is how much money will these bands state they've made off this model. How will it compare to what they made under the music companies? In a store like Best Buy, a big new release might be $11 -$12 bucks but the average CD is $13-15. In the mall (why would you go to the mall to shop for music?) they tended to be $17-18.

How much of that went to the artist? I remember reading the breakdown at one point but can't recall what it was anymore. I know it's not much. Maybe $2 a CD? If I download an album from the artist and kick them $5 via Paypal, it's still cheaper than iTunes to me. I feel happy, the artist feels happy (technically they just made a $3 profit). Win-win. Most of that money went back to the label to pay for the recording studio time, video shoots and any other money the label advanced them so it's likely that, in most cases, the band never saw any money from CD sales. It sounds like a modern day form of indentured servitude.

Every year I go to Irish Fest with the goal of buying at least one CD while I'm there as the artists come with disks. I know they'll be $15-18 but I do it anyway. Why? These bands tend to be on smaller labels. I always feel I'm helping that band directly as opposed to feeding some big corporate machine that will use my cash to promote the winner of some reality show as a performer. Given the chance to easily download the tracks directly from the artist and know that my money is going right to them... how could I not want that?

I have the feeling this is going to turn around faster than people think. There will still be CDs in stores for awhile now (most people aren't that technologically comfortable yet) but the power of the recording industry will disappear quicker than they expect. Look at the Catholic Church one hundred years ago and compare it to today. They're still around but it's not the respected powerhouse it once was.

I also think it will create more jobs than it displaces. A big corporation has to keep things streamlined for their stockholders. A band will need a tech guy or two to run their website and make sure the downloads happen cleanly and the money comes in safety. Some bands might team up to do this but they'll have the option of doing it on their own terms. Whatever they pay that tech guy or team won't even come close to the amount of money one CEO that hasn't liked music since 1957 makes in a year.

On the whole, I think that's a good thing. Viva la revolucion!

Something to do tonight

Took a day of vacation Friday. Got busy as right away as possible (object in motion tends to stay in motion) and managed to look through a good chunk of the video tape portion of the archive, looking for tapes that could be removed as they had been upgraded to DVD versions. Didn't pull out too many but found a few that were close. There's a lot of interesting stuff in there that I tend to forget about. Converting the stuff that will 'never' see a DVD release (or stuff I don't mind having but won't pay for) is a project I'm already testing. I'm curious to see if I can encode them as files for storage rather than burn them as video DVDs. Well, most of the stuff anyway. Most of it was recorded in SLP anyway so it's not great quality items.

Took a walk and Friday night activities were called off. Watched a movie that's been waiting to be seen for a few years. It ('She-Devils on Wheels') was okay.

Ended up sitting around most of Saturday. Friday's walk had tightened up my back. Not enough stretching. Managed to loosen it up enough to be comfortable again. Saturday night's plans were also called off. Finally left the homestead to get some snacks that I still haven't touched, got some Wendy's and then curled up at home with another movie ('The Astro-Zombies') which was less than okay. Very padded. I got some typing done during it so that was okay. I've got 25 pages on the long version of the 'Fresh Fiction for Friday' tale and it's nowhere near done.

Now it's Sunday. Did some outlining for the long 'FFfF'. Batman's on the TV and the Packers play the Bears tonight. Just waiting for the fun to start. 'Quiet' weekends aren't always a bad thing. I've got next Friday off as well. I'm looking forward to that weekend and hoping it's not overbooked...

Too many comics?

The past few weeks have been a combination of being sick and busy. Once my time and energy started to come together again, I returned to some of my less taxing projects in an effort to keep things moving. I started sorting and bagging my comics to put them away into storage. I soon realized that this was a stupid project to pick up for being ‘non-taxing’ as comic book long boxes are heavy when they’re near full. Geeks don’t need dumbbells when they have long boxes to move back and forth.

Negotiating around the stuff in the archive to get to my comics, a thought occurred to me that I never thought I would have: I may have too many comics.

To a comics fan the reason why I never expected to think that thought is obvious: there is no such thing as too many comics. From simply a space perspective, I seem to have hit a limit. Realistically, I probably hit that limit and passed it a couple years ago. There are two basic solutions to this situation: get more room to store my books or get rid of some of my books.

Indeed, the situation is more complicated than those simple options. There are specific issues or stories that I possess in multiple editions. I made a comment along those lines to my buddy Al the other day. Discussing the storyline ‘Doctor Who – The Iron Legion’, I know I have at least three copies of it: the original ‘Doctor Who Weekly’ issues, the colorized American reprints of the eighties as well as a high quality reprint from just a couple years ago. It’s being recolorized and reprinted again. Since its Doctor Who, I’ll probably buy it again.

Do I ‘need’ multiple editions of a story, as good as it may be? No, probably not. This is the sort of thing that seems to hit more often with DVDs; having multiple special editions that contain sufficient different content so the temptation is to possess both versions.

To the non-collector mentality, all this sounds foolish I’m sure. Why own a DVD that you can rent and return? Why worry about multiple editions when it the story that’s important? Have it once, if at all. Just understand that I am a collector, it’s a sickness and I know it. It’s all stuff that generates happy chemical reactions in my brain.

Lumped into all this is the rise of digital comics, scanned copies of books that are available in legal and illegal versions. I could replace most of my collection with digital copies. Would I rid myself of the physical copies of my books if I did? Honestly, in most cases I’m sure I wouldn’t. There’s a special feeling to having some of these originals that doesn’t come with having a nice reprint or a digital copy. I have legal digital copies of the first 500 issues of the Amazing Spider-Man. Does that compare to having issue #60 from the sixties in my hand to read? No. There’s a feeling, a history, a scent even that comes from that physical item.

At the same time, there are a number of books that I could comfortably replace with digital scans, a nice reprint or only having one copy. The big question is: Does that situation already exist with some books? Is there anything I could clear out for space? Hopefully.

A brief note to the city of Boston

Twice now people have gotten arrested in Boston for having bomb related equipment but no bomb. Essentially anyone walking around with wires has been arrested for having a bomb.

What do I know about Boston? Tea party, interesting accent, crummy beer, setting of an overrated 80's sitcom that spun off an even more overrated 90's sitcom.

Boston, just because you're on the East Coast it doesn't mean you're a target. You come across like a little brother trying to please an older sibling, hoping to 'do good'.

There's a difference between vigilance and paranoia. This comes across like paranoia.

There's nothing wrong with not being tier one. Milwaukee's not tier one. We're tier two at best, maybe three. At least our beer is better than Boston's. Any day. Dunno about our tv shows. 'Cheers' may be overrated but I don't know that it was 'worse' than 'Happy Days'.

Whatever.

Another flashback DVD review written...2002 again?

'Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde' – 1971

Story in Brief: Our story is told primarily in flashback, reviewing the situation so that we may learn from Doctor Jekyll's experiments into prolonging life. The potion he develops to extend his existence uses female hormones and has the unfortunate side effect of turning the individual who takes the potion into a female because of it. His 'sister' Hyde is significantly less restrained than he is, which leads into all sorts of trouble and confusion, especially when Jekyll starts to fall in love with a young lady and Hyde begins to pursue her brother.

Thoughts:

I really had low expectations going into this movie. The title, while grandly clever, does conjure up thoughts of a rather cheap exploitation flick. What I watched was a surprisingly clever construction of a film. While the title points you rather accurately towards 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' the movie also weaves in the tales of Burke and Hare as well as Jack the Ripper. The resulting mix was probably years ahead of it's time. The movie also progresses surprisingly logically, the tension and action building as the film moves along. In all fairness, if I woke up tomorrow morning to find I was suddenly a female one of my first acts would likely be to give my new naked form a look-see.

Ralph Bates is a great Jekyll and I've getting the feeling he's been a very underrated actor for years. Offhand I only recollect him in this, 'Horror of Frankenstein' and 'Lust for a Vampire' and he was excellent in all of them. Martine Bestwick is equally excellent as Hyde. Creepily enough the two leads do look like they could be related, perhaps brother and sister so the casting is excellent, inspired even.

The film looks excellent with minimal flaws to distract the eye. The sound wasn't anything special, but didn't sound tinny or faded either.

This film is part of Anchor Bay's Hammer Collection. They snuck three films into the collection in late 2001 and these films were at a lower price point than the majority of the films in the Hammer Collection. I'm not sure if this was due to these films having fewer extras that the earlier films or if Anchor Bay simply revised their pricing structure. Eitherway the decreased price of this film led me to scoop it up more quickly than most of its fellow collection mates. I was not disappointed.

Highly recommended.

Letter - p.s.

I don't normally do this sort of thing, but I thought it was interesting that this sort of thing should explode during the release of my letter last week:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/30/AR2007083001834.html

Updated information points to at least 13 wrestlers getting suspended due to violations of the WWE Wellness Policy and one former performer, now a member of the backstage management, has already been fired.

Mr. McMahon, I think this only proves the point further that something radical might be called for to adjust things.

-Steve

Letter completion

Of course, I’m no business major. I admit I’m just a fan and this is just a thought. It’s a way to help new performers before putting them on live TV. It’s a way to reduce travel time for the performers so that they can spend more time at home. It’s a way for performers to rest themselves and heal up. At the same time, I believe there is an opportunity to make money while doing this.

This is an opportunity to really have a division between the brands. This is an opportunity to tell some different stories. This is an opportunity to do something visible for the wellness of the performers. This is an opportunity to get some attention, a buzz, around the business by doing something radical, something different. Obviously it doesn’t need to permanent and in five, ten or twenty years, maybe it’ll be time to be different again and reform the big touring groups again.

Eitherway, it’s just a thought.

Thank you for your time sir,

-Stephen M. Wolterstorff

Letter continued

I’ve watched a number of ‘shoot’ interviews with older wrestlers, many of which worked in the territory system. Many of them expressed the same thought; that they learned more about the business during the car ride to the next town than they did in the ring. In these days of iPods and Gameboys and such, I wouldn’t expect that a car ride with a mix of veterans and new guys would necessarily lead to an educational conversation. My hope would be that each territory would act as a smaller classroom. I am sure that this sort of guidance is occurring in the current set up. In the relatively smaller ‘classroom’ of the territory, a new performer could receive more one on one training, receive less conflicting advice and work on that council. Once a newer performer has had a chance to learn in one area, he or she can be moved to another region, gain guidance from another set of veterans and add the one set of advice to the next, rather than get all the differing views at once, building up their own style based on all their training.

This may work towards repairing one of the primary problems I’ve personally had with your current product. I’ve seen a number of young men in recent years receive pushes that their skill level cannot match; young men that often have talent but aren’t clear how to use it. On the other side of the equation are a number of battered veterans, men who have had exceptional careers, men who no doubt have a love for the business, men who can still entertain a crowd, men who can get a pop just from their entrance music but are also men that probably shouldn’t be working the schedules they are working. How much longer until the majority of the upper card retires? One year? Two? How many will survive another five? How many of the new guys will be ready to fill those gaps when the time comes? I’m not saying that things can’t work out in their current configuration but I think they’d work better in this suggested configuration.

Restoring the territories should also reduce the amount of travel. I don’t know if the ‘E’ pays for all the plane tickets or if the wrestlers pay for their own transport. From a purely monetary standpoint, the territories should reduce costs. Increased car travel and gas expenses, yes but less plane travel and fewer hotel stays due to more time spent at home should more than balance that. With teleconferencing being so easy and relatively inexpensive, you could check in with every territory on a daily basis and never leave your office.

Letter continued

This would require some changes to the presentation of the shows. My thought was to have RAW live from one region in its league each week, rotating between the three regions in the RAW league. Footage would be presented from the other two regions during the show to keep viewers up-to-date on their storylines. As Smackdown is currently a taped show, it could just become a digest of its three regions, perhaps giving it an ESPN Sportscenter type feel.

This may result in an overflow of recorded matches in each region. This could be utilized in syndicated programming available only in that region. In an effort to defray the cost of syndication, these shows could be made available for sale on DVD or, better yet, available for download for a fee. Hardcore wrestling fans will be keen to check out detailed events from other regions or to follow their favourite wrestler. This would be a good way to get into iTunes or something similar.

This process would also allow for more dark matches, more opportunities for newer wrestlers to solidify their abilities in front of a crowd without having to worry about television or ratings. It would further mingle the house show and the televised programming. Since the regions wouldn’t generally be in direct competition with each other, it could mean recording Smackdown’s programming over a weekend and airing them during the week. Currently, news of what will be aired on Smackdown is available on the Internet as soon as the show is recorded on Tuesday. With this new plan, the results of those shows would no doubt still appear on-line but no one would know what matches would make air.

The question pf Pay Per Views is an important one as I know this is a great source of cash. Two paths show promise in my eyes. One gamble is to cut the PPVs to the big four: Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble. These are the PPVs with history and are the ones that the more casual fans will gravitate towards, feeling these are the important ones. If these are the only opportunity to see the entire roster together, they’ll attract further attention and, hopefully, an increased buyrate just from that. Also, with only four shows to purchase in a year, the average fan may be more inclined to purchase them all.

On the other hand, that is putting all the eggs in one basket. As there are six regions, each could have their own PPV in between the big four. If the big four are evenly spaced three months apart there could be a single region based PPV every other week. If this option is preferable, I would recommend making them two hours long and $20-$25. This differentiates them from the big four and may encourage more buys.

It also seems clear to me that each individual region will have a smaller crowd than the average RAW or Smackdown taping attracts. Yet, each region could certainly draw part of that expectation. In this way, if one region becomes weak or burned out, it can be balanced by the others. Performers that may have worn out their welcome in one region can be ‘fired’ or ‘traded’ to another region, building storylines from the movement, similar to what occurs now.

In specific area, this will result in ‘smaller’ numbers, but, due to the increased number of possibilities, to the increased number of shows every night, it could increase business overall.

Letter continued

I said it was a big idea but let’s think about it before dismissing it as too big.

By ‘break up’ I don’t mean ‘shut down’ or ‘dismantle’ but I do mean breaking up the massive touring groups that RAW and Smackdown have become and turning them into smaller groups covering specific area of the country; in other words: territories. I recommend breaking both RAW and Smackdown into 3 groups each, making six regions in all. Speaking very generally, this would probably break down into the NorthEast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest for RAW and the Pacific Northwest, Texas (Southwest) and Mid South for Smackdown. What about ECW? I would suggest moving it to Canada. Since you now own many of the old territory names, perhaps some of those could be reused. Texas could be WCCW, perhaps the Midwest referred to as the AWA, maybe Canada as Stampede and so on. While this would not be necessary, it would be a nice nod to the past and could stimulate DVD sales for footage of the original territories.

I would recommend a separate booking committee for each territory that would be based in that area. You have many individuals on your payroll that used to work these territories when they last existed and have some understanding of the variations of interest in each area. Place Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair in charge of the Mid-Atlantic region, Roddy Piper in the Pacific Northwest and so on. All these groups would report back to the main offices in Connecticut and would get their general guidance from there. Picture the challenge: trying to keep six (or seven) territories running separate storylines while still building them all to a common storyline.

Common storyline? Of course we can’t dismiss the big four Pay Per Views as they are there for a reason and they rake in the biggest buy rates. The storylines begin to build themselves for some of these shows: tournaments challenging to qualify for the few spots each region gets to send to the Royal Rumble, qualifying to send a team to the Survivor Series and so on.

Let’s follow this concept through a year. Let’s say Mr. X is a mid carder in the Midwest region. He wins a tournament to qualify for the King of the Ring tournament to be held at Summerslam. He doesn’t win but does make it to the finals. He returns to his region elevated enough to challenge for belts and is encouraged to assemble a team for the Survivor Series. He is seen observing many matches he doesn’t participate in before selecting a five man team which includes Gran Kuma, a man that defeated him the week before. One of Mr. X’s friends, Rappin’ Red Smith, is offended that he wasn’t selected for Mr. X’s team so he assembles a team of his own, jockeying to take the Survivor Series position. Battles between the teams culminate in a Survivor Series preview match, which Mr. X’s team wins. At the Survivor Series, Mr. X survives to the Final Survival Match. He doesn’t win but Gran Kuma does. This provides the region with an advantage in the Royal Rumble, guaranteeing that one of the Rumble qualifiers from that region will receive a low number entry (somewhere between 25-30, if we specify 30 it would shutdown storytelling in the other regions). Struggling to qualify for the Rumble begins almost immediately, highlighted by Mr. X and Gran Kuma battling. Both qualify for the Rumble. In a ceremony at the PPV, Mr. X pulls number four whereas Gran Kuma receives twenty-eight. As normal, the Rumble is a long battle. Mr. X and Gran Kuma are in the final four. Mr. X eliminated Gran Kuma and goes on to win, earning a shot at the WWE World Title at Wrestlemania. Gran Kuma accuses Mr. X of cheating to win and manipulates events so that Mr. X is willing to put his title shot on the line in a match. Mr. X wins, finally decisively defeating Gran Kuma and earning his respect. Mr. X goes onto Wrestlemania knowing that winning the title will mean touring the world, defending the belt in region after region until he is defeated.

Obviously every region would have different main storylines and each region would probably have a number of smaller storylines running through them. This is just A general storyline path idea.

Continuing the Letter

Mr. Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jr.

Sir,

Allow me a few moments of introduction so that you can grasp my perspective on this matter. I’m in my thirties and have been interested in wrestling for about twenty years. My first real exposure to the sport was your syndicated ‘Superstars of Wrestling’ programme. For a few years I fed my interest with that, ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event’ and the reading of your magazine. I grew weary of the formula of the program and jumped to WCW where I found the wrestling to be more technically inclined. Over the years I bounced back and forth, often returning to your product. I own over 250 wrestling related DVDs, many of which are your product and that doesn’t touch on the magazines, books, figures, etc that I own or the cards I’ve attended. I think it’s safe to refer to me as a fan that makes a modest but regular ‘donation’ to your coffers.

With that said, the last couple months have been especially rough, haven’t they sir? The bad publicity, the increased scrutiny, the whole circus around the Benoit situation has been a problem. Public opinion is including the industry as part of the problem leading to the tragedy, blaming all sorts of things whether or not they were an influence.

Before we continue, let me make one thing perfectly clear: this letter is not meant to try to understand or blame anyone for the situation or any other wrestler that has gotten ill or died. I am NOT here to blame you for everything or anything that has ever gone wrong in wrestling. There’s no point in that blame game.

However, we must face facts. Ratings have been down. This may well be the summer lull or it could be a sign that even the hardcore fans are starting to abandon the product. The government has already been pestering you regarding the wellness policy. Business is weak at the moment and, it could be argued, has been weak for some time.

You need something to stir things up, to challenge your creativity. Historically you’ve done your best work when you’ve been challenged. Additionally you need to do something for the benefit for the workers’ health or, at the very least, something that looks good. For it to work, it needs to be something big, as anything less will be treated as ‘nothing’, a token effort. Isn’t that what some critics have called the current wellness program?

With all that in mind, I do have a suggestion.

I think you should break up the WWE.