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WHAT TO DO WITH THE SURVIVOR SERIES, INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS, TAKER’S CEREMONY AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2020-11-18 10:00:00

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I just want to get your take on this, the whole independent contractors/employee debate. I own my own carpentry business. It’s small but provides for me and my family. Now sometimes I take jobs with larger contractors so I become a subcontractor (independent contractor). They pay me to do a certain job. Technically I’m an employee, sign contracts etc. I follow the rules/edicts they set and get on with my work. They don’t have rules to say I can’t work with someone else but the incentives to continue with them are there eg trade discounts, better security. I’m sure if you were to have an independent journalist working with you, you would expect them to act in a certain manner because although they may not be a direct employee they still carry the PWInsider badge as I would with larger companies. So why is WWE been treated differently in something that’s pretty normal? 

You really answered this one yourself.  You choose to work for the larger company and if a better offer comes along, you can choose to leave them and go to work for someone else.  Wrestlers can’t do that.  They have to work for WWE exclusively, and do it when they WWE tells them to do so.  Also, let’s say you are working for a subcontractor and you are the guy who did the moulding.  They have friends over and they love it and ask for your name.  You give them a price and then the contractor you were working for took the job for you.  That is similar to the Twitch story.  Plus, you said you are treated like an employee, wrestlers are not.

In reaction to an earlier query concerning Survivor series and motivations.. what (if any) motivations do you envision would make it more believable/entertaining? Like maybe the winning five man team get a trophy or half off WWE ice cream sandwiches for a month... or perhaps for the champ vs champ - the winning champ gets to handpick his next opponent.

Honestly, there isn’t much I can think of that would matter so I am fine with ice cream sandwiches.  

AEW certainly isn't afraid to pat themselves on the back whenever they feel praise is deserved. Last weekend Kahn and others said Full Gear was the best PPV in some time. They had that graphic out the other week self-praising themselves for ratings they've received in the UK. There are other areas of their business (website, podcast, Heels) that could use vast improvement. Wouldn't a more professional approach be improving in those areas instead of constantly congratulating themselves on their matches? Act like you've experienced success before I say! 

I am going to be consistent here.  I hated when WWE used to do the masturbatory stuff about their product’s reach and viewership years ago and I hate when AEW does it now.  I am one who has always thought it was better to let other people sing your praises.

Watching the Paul Bearer documentary reminded me of how spot on his son's impression of him was at his Hall of Fame induction.  With the Undertaker's planned farewell ceremony at Survivor Series, do you think it would be a nice touch if they brought in Paul's son to take Paul's place and accompany the Undertaker to the ring?  Or should the spotlight remain 100% focused on Taker and not Paul's son?  Would Paul's son even agree to it, considering he has never appeared on WWE programming outside of the Hall of Fame induction?

Here’s what I think.  It should be whatever Taker wants it to be, he has earned the right to write the script on the ceremony.  Whatever he wants is fine by me.

 I agree that the "battle for brand supremacy" at Survivor Series makes no sense whatsoever, for the same reasons you have repeatedly mentioned on your site.  Traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 matches with teams randomly put together have also become stale.  If WWE were to remove the whole brand supremacy concept, how would you book Survivor Series going forward while still making it stand out from any other PPV show? 

It’s a hard concept to fix, which is why WWE considered scrapping it a few years ago.  It worked back in the days where they had three months to build to PPVs and TV was about pushing people to go to house shows and buy the pay events.  Now?  TV is the primary, by far, revenue draw and they have to produce five hours of first run programming every week.  That makes it hard to tell a three month story.  How would I fix the Survivor Series?  I would get rid of it.  It’s run its course and it’s a waste of champion vs. champion matches to me.  Putting losses on champions just doesn’t make sense to me.

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