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WHAT IF MONDAY NITRO NEVER DEBUTED, SHOULD FANS FEEL GUILTY FOR ENJOYING THE BRUTALITY OF PREVIOUS GENERATIONS OF WRESTLING, BIG SHOW AND MORE

By Mike Johnson on 2013-10-25 10:00:00
What if the Monday Night Wars never happened? What if WCW never came about and their was no war? Do you think WWE would be as big as they are today? Would they have ever had the record breaking ratings, would there have been an Austin/McMahon rivalry? And how different do you think WWE would be?

I don't believe we would have had any of the stuff that came from the War - no screwjob, no Austin vs. McMahon, nothing. What would have likely happened is that the product for WWF would have remained very campy. WCW would have still spent itself into oblivion once the AOL-Time Warner deal went down. WWF would have used ECW as its unofficial feeder system, but ECW would have been much stronger and gained a better foothold as without the war, WCW wouldn't have raised Benoit, Malenko, Public Enemy, etc. and ECW may have been around longer and stronger until that ran its course. So, the business would pretty much have kept going in the direction it was heading in 1994-1995, without the huge spike and ripple effect Monday Nitro provided for it.

With someone like KoKo B. Ware, someone who was mainly enhancement talent in the WWE, in the WWE Hall of Fame do you see WWE ever inducting wrestlers like Barry Horowitz, the Brooklyn Brawler, and Iron Mike Sharpe? These three men in particular were on WWE television almost weekly in WWE's early days through mid-90s. Obviously, they were enhancement talents, but these were company men, who appeared a lot for the WWE. I know KoKo had success outside of the WWE, but I am sure at least Steve Lombardi, also had some level of success outside of WWE. I am not advocating for them, just curious on your thoughts.

I don't see Ware as being an enhancement talent at all. He worked all over the United States and was a pushed commodity in WWE with a unique personality and character. I think you are very unfair in your assessment of Ware. As far as the names you mentioned, I believe Brawler will go in one day. He's been with WWE for decades and can see him going in as a well-deserved lifetime achievement award sort of deal.

While I don't doubt that the Bully Ray vs AJ Styles match was great, why is it the TNA has to blatantly copy what WWE did two years ago when CM Punk won the title from John Cena? TNA is suppose to be the alternative for those tired of WWE's story lines, but if they keep copying WWE they aren't ever going to get out of the hole they dug into.

I agree with you 100%. Let's hope they are just finishing old storylines out and move forward ASAP.

Long time reader of your basic content, first time emailer. I grew up watching wrestling in the late 80s/early 90s when it was a lot like today - a heavy PG market with pretty much no blood, profanity blah blah blah. Then the 18-30 demo demanded a more adult product - so this is where hardcore wrestling, crazy bumps, ECW started to become so popular that even WWE changed its policy and gut instinct and barely a week went by without hardcore elements on the show. My question is this - after the years of study and research into CTE and head trauma, and what we know now compared to then, should I now feel a bit, well, ashamed to have wanted that kind of content presented to me at the time? It has crossed my mind that I never thought about this being an actual person suffering damage, and that all of our appetite for frying pans, and ladder and chair shots, and swantons from 30ft have caused more problems that was worth it. While I still enjoy watching mid-90s wrestling/ECW and wouldn't ever part with my collection, I always have a bit of a sour taste when watching people like Mick Foley and Chris Benoit for example, and just what we were asking them to do for us back then. Mick Foley's Anti-Hardcore promos seem to have been a bit too prophetic. Am I just being a bit too sensitive about things, or should we all feel a little terrible about it?

I don't think you should feel terrible about something you didn't know at the time. It was a different era and as someone once said to me, "You can't go to the funeral unless you know someone died." While everyone knew that people hitting each other in the head wasn't the best thing for someone, the complete understanding of the long-reaching effects was completely unknown. You can't feel guilty for something you didn't know at the time.

Listen, I loved ECW as much as anyone and it really bothers me to see the shape some of these talents are in, but in that era, if the symptoms of a concussion went away, you were back playing for a Major League Baseball or National Football League team. It just wasn't known how badly the brain was being effected long-term. It was thought that like anything else, it healed and it was fine.

All we can do is hope that today's talents safeguard themselves and that that sort of physicality is executed in a very rare, safe instances. Pro Wrestling needs to have some level of physicality in order to work but like anything else, less is more. I just hope the current generation follows that mantra, especially on the independent scene.

Here we go with the age all issues of WWE and logic again.... Big Show is being booked to wrestle and did wrestle in house shows this weekend for WWE. Why? He's fired! I know he wasn't really fired, but come on! You storyline fire someone, you keep them off shows. You don't even have them travel to shows. Right? Logic.... my theory on this is that Vince is keeping him around and eventually Vince will come back as a baby face with Big Show as his enforcer vs. the Helmsleys. But still, current logic.

I think you are onto something there.

Ok so this has been bugging me, in the signature that plays before wwe tv shows images of the biggest stars and legends flash like cena, triple h, undertaker, ect..... But then there's the image mixed in of David Otunga?!?!

Otunga is well liked in the company and there's a good chance they were about to give him a big push when that thing was edited together.

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