Is TKO complacent?

Is pro wrestling missing the risks?

That sounds like a contradictory question, especially when you consider the reckless stunts and the injury rate of the modern era, but there's a big difference between silly risks in the ring that have an unbalanced risk/reward ratio, and the risks a promoter can take to evolve the presentation of their product. The evolution of the business will be debated as long as the industry exists, there will always be those that proclaim that pro wrestling was better back in their day, and sometimes they might have a point, but the other side of the coin is that some pundits will automatically yield to the past because of a previous successful track record.

Unfortunately, that's one of the booking pitfalls that can lend itself to complacency and a stagnant product. One of the reasons that sports entertainment as a money-drawing commodity has survived the peaks and valleys of the business is that it often evolves with society.

To be clear, this has nothing to do with wrestlers literally setting themselves on fire to try to pop the crowd, but rather the risk of a promoter to bet on a new star to be the next legitimate money-drawing performer on the roster. I pondered this question because I stumbled across a clip on Youtube of The Wrestling Observer's Bryan Alvarez questioning the decision for Penta to do the job in Mexico City instead of winning the title in his native country. While Alvarez slates more toward the modern approach with sports entertainment, he has a much more balanced analysis than Dave Meltzer. who will defend anything All Elite Wrestling does at more or less any cost, presumably because it's well-known that Tony Khan is a longtime subscriber to the newsletter. In short, I'd put more stock in Alvarez's viewpoint since it appears to be less biased. As I wrote in a previous article, while I didn't think that Roman Reigns was going to lose the championship, which is probably why they did the Sami Zayn switch on Smackdown, as a way to give the Hispanic audience something noteworthy from the tour, I thought that it would've been the right move to have Penta win the championship, not so much for the totality of the title run, but for the memorable moment it would've provided. Alvarez had similar comments in a video posted this week, debating if pro wrestling bookers were willing to take calculated risks to add fresh wrinkles to the fabric of the organizations or if they had to stick strictly to the initial plans.

It's a question that stretches far beyond Penta vs. Roman, or any other individual scenario. Alvarez examined the current tends of what took place over the past year, but for this article, I'd like to look toward the future, particularly with how the lack of flexibility could impact the perception of the industry.

It goes without saying that an effective storyline needs a solid conclusion, but it's just as important to factor in the reaction to the angle as it progresses. These are drastic examples, but when Steve Austin propelled himself in popularity, it was critical to push him into the main event spot of Wrestlemania in 1998 to be able to maximize his potential as a money-drawing star for the WWF. There was a specific time and place that the office had to capitalize on his momentum to make the most of it, and clearly, they did since he went on to become the biggest star in the history of the business. Management tried to catch lightning in a bottle again when they brought back The Ultimate Warrior in 1996, but it fell apart within three months so they had to pivot away from the nostalgia act, and more or less the same thing happened in WCW in 1998.

Speaking of which, since WCW folded, the business, primarily an industry with one key organization for the vast majority of that time, has struggled with a stagnant status more than once. Basically, without competition to push them forward, the WWE became too comfortable in the top spot, allowing personal agendas, not business, to dictate the direction of the product. If Nitro was an option in 2011, there's no way Vince McMahon would've allowed the CM Punk negotiations to go down to the eleventh hour before he re-signed prior to winning the title in Chicago. If WCW was still in business in 2014, it wouldn't have been such a struggle to get Bryan Danielson his rightful place in the main event of Wrestlemania after he was undoubtedly the most over wrestler on the roster.

Don't get me wrong, the hotshot approach, which is basically what the Attitude era was for roughly five years, can lead to an even longer down period because it burns through so much material at such a fast pace, but there's definitely a middle ground between crash TV and some of the drek we were subjected to in the late-2010s. The Roman Reigns forced baby face super push was an utter failure for years, generating so much discontent with the audience that it ultimately created the demand for what eventually became All Elite Wrestling. Vince knew that if fans wanted to watch pro wrestling in the United States then they were going to watch WWE. For context, Impact literally had ice fishing as its lead-in programming if anyone could find the channel that aired the show.

Obviously, All Elite Wrestling fell woefully short of expectations of another major competitor for WWE, which is why its first-ever television show seven years ago is still the highest-rated episode of Dynamite of all time. A portion of wrestling fans samples the product and decided it wasn't something for them. That's not to mention the steep decline in viewership after CM Punk left a few years ago. Still, with the billionaire Khan family funding the project, there are at least options for talent and the fans, which is why, despite some of its glaring flaws, the existence of All Elite Wrestling is very important to the overall health of the industry.

The flip side of that, and the contrast is apparent when you take into account the differences of previous eras of the industry, when the WWE was the only major league option, particularly after TNA was canceled from Spike TV, there were several years when the product was essentially exactly the same for years without any movement toward the future. Throughout most of the 2010s and even all the way through to more recent years, the WWE took the paint-by-numbers approach to bring in part-timers from the past that were expotentially more popular in their heyday than any of the full-time roster at that point. The Rock, Batista, and Brock Lesnar were given the top spots, which made the full-time roster look secondary. Vince wasn't going to gamble of putting his chips of a new star because he didn't have to, he could use a part-timer for a "quick fix" so to speak around Wrestlemania each year. The WWF in 1992 looked completely different in 1997, and that looked completely different by 2003. The modern WWE often looks exactly the same in terms of structure and presentation for several years at a time.

With the slew of retirements in recent years, there's more pressure for the office to find the next generation of guys that are going to move the needle, and that's not an easy task for a global, publicly traded corporation. That's not just the main event scene, but rather the overall format of the product that is going to draw money in the future.

Of course, we saw Roman Reigns organically evolve into a major superstar after he was allowed to naturally do so, but as I've written in recent articles, the Bloodline angle is being recycled so there's no doubt that the writing team has to find something fresh for everyone involved. Cody Rhodes is a top guy and does well in the role, but within the past year or so, even Cody hasn't had a firm direction, especially after the lackluster build to Wrestlemania.

That being said, I'm not sure management is going to be too eager to shuffle the deck, mostly because it goes against some of the interests of TKO, which isn't nearly as ominous as it sounds. This is where WWE is in a tough spot because it's a machine that produces live content every week throughout the year with no off season, and signature events that require a card that will sell tickets. That alone is difficult enough, but it becomes even more difficult when you take into account that TKO quite literally has a legal obligation to serve its investors. That's the biggest issue in terms of evolving the product, the WWE has a lot of masters to serve, and the stock price is a major reason why the company is worth billions of dollars. The bottom line is, TKO must serve its investors before it serves its fan base, and when it comes to investment, stability is the key. The status quo and guaranteed money through the media rights deals are what shareholders look for because its a relatively safe investment to yield a solid return on their money. The nature of what works for stock investment for TKO can conflict with the nature of what makes new stars for the WWE. That's why I find it doubtful that the WWE will take any major risks to make new stars until they absolutely have to, but if that will be at the right time and place to make the most of it is a completely different situation.

Ki MMA

Scott Coker, former MMA boss of a few different leagues over past few decades, is back in the MMA business, or at least that's what he claims.

At a media event in New York earlier this week, the 63-year-old executive announced that not only had he secured $60 million in funding for a new MMA project, but that he had aspirations of putting together a truly global organization.

Coker, the former head of Strikeforce and Bellator, currently runs a regional group, Fight Night at The Tech, alongside Gilbert Melendez, but has much grander aspirations with the brand new "Ki MMA," inspired by the Japanese word for energy, promotion. The initial plans call for a 32-man featherweight tournament with events in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia to eventually lead to a world champion to be decided in the finals. There are also plans for "super fights" with major names in the sport to serve as a compliment to the tournament bouts. Outside of a planned launch of early-2027, no roster or dates have been announced for the Ki MMA concept.

I have to be honest, upon hearing of this story, the first thing that I thought was, "how in the wide world of sports did someone put up $60 million for another MMA project?" and then my second thought was that I will wait to see if any of this actually happens before I put too much stock into Coker's vision of a new MMA format.

In truth, this is one of those concept that looks great on paper, but will falter in application. Ideally, from a purist perspective, the best 145 LBS fighters from different continents competing in tournament to crown a literal world champion sounds spectacular, almost as if it was something from a  Jean Claude Van Damme script. 

But, the logistics and reality of the fight game will rain on that MMA parade.

The reality is that the Ultimate Fighting Championship is the undisputed king of mixed martial arts for a reason, a position that was only strengthened through the merger with the WWE to form the TKO corporation, and the massive $7.7 billion Paramount deal that puts the UFC pay-per-views on the streaming service for the next seven years. The once pricey pay-per-views are included in the $7.99 subscription to Paramount+ so more fans will have more access to UFC PPVs than any other time in the history of the organization.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the investors of Coker's new project probably view a media rights payoff as the carrot on the stick so to speak, as far as the long-term goal with the promotion. Assuming that the $60 million of funding is legitimate, and there's no reason to believe that it isn't, at least at this point, it sends the message that this isn't a novelty venture. If these guys are willing to put up serious money like that then this appears that it will a legitimate attempt at the ambitious global strategy.

As mentioned, details were sparse, with no fighters, dates, or locations announced. It was noted that the bouts will take place in a ring rather than the standard cage usually seen in America. With the ring, as well as the Japanese name in the title of the company, it's obvious that Coker wants to re-create a slice of Pride Fighting Championship from its heyday in Japan in the early-2000s. The meteoric rise and fall of Pride is a different discussion for a different time, but Coker borrowed from the Pride playbook in the past, with bouts like Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice or Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie under the Bellator banner.

There's no doubt that the sideshow fights can garner attention, a 60-year-old Mike Tyson getting back in the ring to fight Jake Paul drew more than 65,000 fans at AT&T Stadium in Texas, and brought in such a mega audience for Netflix that the streaming giant almost crashed because of the sheer amount of viewers that tuned in around the world. In some ways, Coker proved that he can get the general public to pay attention to his MMA ventures when he used a similar business model.

The problem is, the novelty wears off and eventually the actual substance of the product will succeed or fail based on its own merit. It's easy to capture the public's attention for one night, and if you're promoting a one-off, you can "steal a house" so to speak in terms of a draw based on superficial content, but there's a reason that none of the sideshow concepts, including some of the groups that Coker was involved with, truly found their audience in the grand scheme of things. Bellator or Strikeforce had cards that the general public paid attention to for the evening, but the UFC was still regarded as the representation of the sport in the United States.

As I said, the concept is fantastic, but assuming that the timeline that was announced is accurate, how are Coker and his investors going to realistically put this together within six months or so?

I'd say that the main reason that I don't put any faith in this company getting off the ground is that it's simply too ambitious. Rome wasn't built in one day, and if you're religious, even God had to rest after he created the earth. It took the UFC a few decades in business, and several years under the ownership of the media powerhouse of  Endeavor to truly expand itself to a global entity. It's a process, not just with building a brand name that can draw in different countries, but also with the ability to properly promote and effectively advertise within foreign markets. For example, Ki MMA might be able to generate ticket sales in Brazil for their South American plans, but how will that concept translate to Europe? If ticket sales are sluggish in London, that could be a net negative to the bottom line. It sounds trivial, but something as elementary as finding the right venues in the right cities could be a hurdle to success with something on a global scale.

Furthermore, and this might be the biggest piece of the puzzle, where is Ki MMA going to find 32 featherweights to stock this tournament? More importantly, how is the organization going to properly promote 32 different fighters around the world? Where's the star power? Again, the bottom line is, while the featherweight division has some very talented fighters, the top talent are under contract to the UFC, There are simply not enough known featherweights for Ki MMA to be able to realistically generate an audience for its product.

Granted, Coker could bring in some legends from the past to be the selling point of these shows, allowing the younger guys in the tournament to theoretically have a platform to make a name for themselves, but how many of those aging legends would be able to safely get back in the ring to compete? Are there really enough of those match-ups to serve as the drawing card for the tournament contests to be held on the same events?

As we've covered, the rights fees are where the big money is right now, as the media landscape continues to evolve, continuing to find its balance between how many streaming options will the market support compared to what will remain staples of traditional television. What distribution will Ki MMA secure? If the group is going to try to run cards in different locations around the world, you'd assume that they would need a streaming deal so that anywhere with an internet connection could potential watch the events. It goes without saying that landing on a mainstream streaming platform instead of just a random place online is going to be key for the success of the project as well.

The bottom line is, while I can appreciate the ambition, there are too many hurdles for Ki MMA to make a dent on a global scale, and with the UFC low on star power currently for a myriad of reasons, it's not as though there's a demand for more MMA among casual sports fans the way there was two decades ago when Coker worked with Strikeforce. The ESPN deal arguably put too much content behind a paywall and the overall UFC eroded as a result. The Paramount contract is part of a rebuilding process to make the sport more accessible to more viewers at a cheaper price. The demand just isn't there for another MMA option. If Coker wants to re-create Pride in some form or fashion, he's somewhat misguided. Pride Fighting Championship was legendary for the impact that it had on mixed martial arts, but it was very much a commodity of its time and place. More specifically, Rizin has more or less been a decent, but lesser version of Pride in Japan for more than a decade. Yes, there are more platforms now Ki MMA to find distribution, but the other side of the coin is that there's also expotentially more competition for viewers across the sports and entertainment industry today. All things considered, there are too many obstacles, particularly on a global scale for Ki MMA to find a profitable portion of the market. 

Sami Zayn wins WWE title

It's been well-documented that WWE has lost some steam over the past year, an almost unavoidable scenario since every peak needs a valley, and the peak of the current era was when Cody Rhodes finally dethroned Roman Reigns for the championship a few years ago. In many ways, TKO bought themselves a safety net of an extra year to keep the drawing power strong through the John Cena retirement tour. It was the smart business move, as the corporation maximized the exit of the last mainstream star that the WWE made for the general public. Make no mistake about it, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Cody Rhodes have all done a solid job in the position as the top guy in the company, but Cena is still the most recent pro wrestler that the average American will recognize. If individual performers can reach that status today with the structure of how the WWE promotes the brand ahead of specific stars is a different discussion for a different time.

So, TKO had a selling point throughout 2025, but there was no doubt that this year saw the momentum slow to some extent, and the product cooled off. The sluggish ticket sales for Wrestlemania, and TKO's insistence of Pat McAfee's random involvement to almost point out the flaws didn't help the situation. McAfee was put in a no-win situation to the point that he stepped away from the business completely after the conclusion of the storyline. At the same time, TKO CEO, Mark Shapiro more or less thumbed his nose at the criticism toward the conglomerate that ticket prices soared while pay-per-view broadcasts were littered with more commercial time than anything else. When audio of Shapiro giving a lecture at a college surfaced online, he acknowledged that TKO's business model would sour some fans, but the goal was to make new fans in the process. If that strategy or lack thereof erodes the overall fan base in the process is definitely a debatable topic.

In many ways, it appeared that TKO tried to convince the audience that they were watching some grand spectacle simply because of the WWE logo, but more often than not, at least within the past year, the content didn't live up to the hype. There was a lot more sizzle than there was substance, leading to some underwhelming viewing experiences. The 30-minute main event between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins at Summer Slam wasn't this epic drama that saw The Shield have a full-circle moment. Instead, it was a slow, boring segment that dragged on way too long, making both athletes look less impressive than they usually are in marquee matches.

The Bloodline angle being recycled doesn't do anyone any favors either. In short, the WWE needed to shuffle the deck, as very few on the roster seem to have purposeful roles on the shows, while most competitors get thrown into a random storyline to keep them busy rather than to progress the overall narrative. The LA Knight title chase literally is a carbon copy from the original Bloodline angle when they had a match at Crown Jewel three years ago.

When Sami Zayn won the WWE championship in a triple threat match against Cody and Gunther this past June, it was somewhat of a surprise, not because Sami isn't championship material, as we've seen he's one of the best in-ring workers in the entire business. but rather the notion that TKO isn't going to venture too far outside of the typical look of a pro wrestler at a time when the WWE continues to look for more mainstream exposure through the ESPN deal. When someone is channel surfacing through the ESPN line-up and finds The Golics simulcast of their ESPN radio show, it's much easier for the casual fan that might remember the Attitude era to identify Roman Reigns as a WWE wrestler from pure aesthetics than to understand the value of a performer the caliber of Sami in the ring if he's sitting at a desk.

When Sami dropped the title to CM Punk on Raw less than two weeks later, it was assumed that he was used as a transitional champion to set up the Punk/Cody bout that was one of the main events at the previously mentioned Summer Slam weekend. In truth, Sami doesn't necessarily need the belt since he makes the best of anything he's involved with, but him unseating Punk on Smackdown in Mexico City adds some variety to the product, if for no other reason than it sends the message to the audience that anything can happen on any given week, even the WWE title changing hands on television. That spontaneity is key to avoiding complacency, especially outside of Royal Rumble season when the pieces of the puzzle start to get put into place for Wrestlemania.

Granted, this might be another short-term run with the belt for Zayn, and maybe it was something booked specifically for Mexico City since it had been several years since the WWE ran TV tapings there, but the intrinsic value is the same, it brings a more organic presentation to the table, which is something TKO has needed for the majority of the year. Furthermore, it gave the Hispanic audience a title change, which might be used as somewhat of a substitute for a noteworthy result in the country if Penta is going to do the job in his match against Roman on Raw tonight.

Obviously, it remains to be seen where things go from here, particularly with Sami as champion, but that's the point of the surprise switch, it avoids the stale or predictable direction. From what we've seen so far, it looks like CM Punk/Kevin Owens is going to be a money feud, and I'm not sure it would need the championship to be a featured match based on the quality of the promos already. Still, the booking of the actual title contest kept CM Punk strong with him getting the visual victory with the submission on Zayn with the interference from Candice LeRae and Johnny Gargano before Owens' involvement.

One thing is for sure, regardless if Sami keeps the title for an extended period or not, it's a good thing that the office has added some variety to the product. As much as Johnny Gargano was made to look like a dork for months, maybe this will lead to something more meaningful for him to do in the grand scheme of things. If I had to pinpoint one specific reason that this year was so flat, it was probably because that the current crop of main event guys have more or less already done everything there is to do, which happens much faster now than it did in the past with the two-night format for signature pay-per-views, along with the rest of the expanded calendar. For example, the Bron Breakker/Oba Femi bout could've theoretically been booked for a major pay-per-view, but Sunday Night's Main Event needed some big matches to justify its place on the line-up. I'm not saying that Sami Zayn has to main event Wrestlemania next year, but hopefully, his tenure in the main event scene will be longer than the two weeks he had with the belt prior to this, simply for the chance to booked fresh matches in the next few months.

Zuffa boxing

Could professional boxing have an opportunity to re-establish itself in the United States?

Stretching as far back as the closed-circuit, the predecessor to pay-per-view that was instrumental in the national expansion of pro wrestling years later, era of the sweet science, boxing had a way to monetize itself on a major scale. Basically, the sport was on the forefront of mass distribution, regardless of what the form of media was at the time. The Rumble in The Jungle saw fans flock to those previously mentioned closed-circuit location. When HBO launched as a form of premium television when basic cable was still in its formative stages, the ability to watch live boxing cards, along with movies that had recent theatrical runs, was one of the main selling points for consumers to pay a little extra. As time went on, Mike Tyson became a pay-per-view exclusive, but there was still a portion of his prime that aired on the subscription networks. The same can be said for some of the biggest names in the sport. Furthermore, when technology advanced to the point that customers could order the events directly at home, boxing often generated a few million buys a year between the handful of major bouts that were broadcasted. Oscar De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield, and Lennox Lewis generated four million buys between four pay-per-views that were held in 1999.

As we know, the political red tape, especially as networks expanded and there was more money on the table, almost completely destroyed the sport. For decades, the top fighters clashed in classic battles that made the sport not only as popular as it was, but a part of pop culture in America at different points in time. In the late-90s, there were almost weekly cards on HBO, and ESPN had the Friday Nights series to showcase the up-and-coming fighters as well. The cards every few weeks on the linear HBO channel were used to promote signature pay-per-view events, and it kept the business model strong. At the same time, legendary slug fests such as the Gatti-Ward trilogy maintained the selling point for the subscription channel itself, along with newer dramas like The Sopranos and The Wire.

The bottom line is, when the top fighters competed against each other, the industry of boxing was much healthier. By the mid-2000s, that changed and it became more about promoters that wanted to protect their golden goose rather than draw the biggest money possible. Floyd Mayweather, a masterful defensive technician, was in position to be the top name in the sport, specially after the peak heavyweights of the late-90s had retired, and he secured a career-defining win against the previously mentioned De La Hoya in 2007.

Unfortunately, Floyd became more about protecting his brand than fighting the best competition possible. He fought a 23-year-old Canelo Alvarez before the Mexican superstar had the experience to truly be a threat to his unblemished record. Neither Victor Ortiz nor Robert Guerrero had any business being in the ring with Mayweather, and the same could be said for Andre Berto later in Floyd's career. Marcos Maidana was competitive against him, which was proven by the debatable split decision that Floyd won on the score cards before he won a unanimous decision in the rematch. Essentially, Mayweather's career devolved into glorified exhibitions, Showtime actually lost money on the contract that he had with the network when buy rates didn't cover his hefty guarantee. He strategically fought a diminished Manny Pacquiao five years too late, and the super fight that the public waited years to see was woefully underwhelming. HBO and Showtime, networks that were major distribution channels for the sport, got out of the boxing business almost decade ago when the economics were no longer profitable for their platforms. 

Floyd vs. Conor McGregor was the last money grab of Mayweather's pro boxing career, setting a pay-per-view record for the novelty alone, but the one-sided bout wasn't sold on the competition.

In the past decade, the previously mentioned Canelo Alvarez, Terrence Crawford,  Gennady Golovkin, Tyson Fury, Vasiliy Lomachenko, and a few others provided boxing fans with quality performances, particularly when Alvarez made Cinco De Mayo and Mexican independent day weekends staples of the calendar. However, the majority of those contest didn't capture the attention of the general public, as casual sports fans didn't have boxing on the radar. It didn't help the situation when Saudi Arabia offered expotentially more money, including $100 million per fight to get Alvarez to compete in the country, than other promoters could realistically offer so marquee bouts were held in the middle of the afternoon in the United States without major fanfare.

Without those fights in a primetime spot or the mainstream distribution to make it easily accessible to the general public, the results of major fights become a note online or blurb on Sports Center rather than something sports fans tuned in for. The attention turned to sideshow fights like when the 60-year-old Mike Tyson fought Jake Paul that drew such a massive number that it crashed Netflix. Jake Paul's lack of credibility as a pro boxer was exposed when he lost to the mediocre Tommy Fury in 2023, and when Anthony Joshua broke his jaw when he knocked him out in the sixth round last December. 

I have my doubts, mostly because of the track record that boxing has of self-sabotage for the vast majority of the past 15 years, but a few of the recent cards, and more specifically the potentially of the deals put in place, might be a way for the sport to rebuild itself, at least to some degree among the American market. In July, TNT and DAZN formed a partnership to bring "The Fight" series to both the streaming platform and the linear cable channel, with the concept of monthly fight cards. The debut card, Abdullah Mason vs. Albert Bell, which isn't exactly a match-up with major star power, still drew a reported average of 750,000 viewers. Last week, Andy Ruiz, the heavyweight that gained brief fame for his surprising knockout victory against the previously mentioned Anthony Joshua in 2019, lost a unanimous decision to Damian Knyba for a contest that garnered 678,000 viewers.

Clearly, there's an audience for boxing when fights are accessible and affordable.

UFC boss, Dana White was a longtime critic of the boxing industry, mostly because of the political nature of the sport.He formed Zuffa boxing with the Saudi government, with the most important piece of that puzzle being the cash that the Saudis can afford fighters. The organization started running monthly cards last year, with Canelo vs. Crawford under the Zuffa banner. Last night, Ryan Garcia pummeled Conor Benn, prompting the referee to stop the bout in the second round. It remains to be seen how impactful the Zuffa project will be on a long-term basis, but the fact that the cards are included in the $7.99 Paramount+ subscription.

Again, the fights are easy to find and don't have the outrageous price of traditional pay-per-view.

With the pending merger between Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery, it's possible that all of this could end up under the Zuffa banner, but the point is. there are two entities are currently running live monthly cards, which gives fighters a chance to make a name for themselves and thus become stars in the process. As I said, I really doubt that boxing will avoid the pitfalls that originally diminished the sport, but between the TNT and Zuffa deals, this is the best chance that boxing had to rejuvenate itself in years.

Bill Dundee passed away

In light of Andy "The Butcher" Williams' sudden and tragic passing after a tag team bout at Enjoy Wrestling's fifth anniversary event in Pittsburgh at the age of just 48, I wanted to wait to pen this column in an attempt to give the pro wrestling world a chance to properly mourn, as many are still reeling from the shock of the gravity of that situation.

Andy Williams was still in the prime of his life, a brute of a professional athlete inside the ring and a talented musician that toured extensive outside of it. It just doesn't make sense that he could be slamming in the ring and jamming on stage then abruptly his life is cut short.

Unfortunately, the pro wrestling industry lost another grappler that same day, "Superstar" Bill Dundee, an institution of the legendary Memphis territory, especially at its peak throughout the 1970s and into the early-80s when the local matches drew thousands of fans to arenas throughout the circuit on a weekly basis.

In stark contrast, Dundee, who was 82 and had battled dementia for many of his final years, had lived a long and accomplished live, whereas given the nature of Andy Williams' accomplishments, his story feels unfinished, as if he had more left to do.

In situations like this, the difference is that the wrestling world can celebrate the life of Bill Dundee, but must mourn the loss of Andy "The Butcher" Williams.

As mentioned, the grappler dubbed, "Superstar" had the chance to live a long and accomplished life. He broke into the business in the early-1960s in his native country of Australia, working for Jim Barnett's original World Championship Wrestling group before he arrived in the United States by the mid-1970s.

This is where the view on Dundee's career depends vastly on perspective. Outside of a brief cup of coffee in the Ted Turner version of WCW in1993 as a manager alongside Lord Steven Regal, Dundee never had the national platform or the exposure that goes along with it. Some might consider that only regional success, putting Dundee in a different category that some of the other major names from his era, but at the same time, it wasn't as though Dundee wasn't over enough to go elsewhere, but rather that he was so over in the Memphis territory that he didn't have to go anywhere else to make a full-time living in the industry.

Keep in mind, Jerry "The King" Lawler is rightfully known as one of the best in-ring workers of all time for his ability to truly connect with an audience, regardless of it was as a heel or a baby face. The King knew how to get the paying audience emotional invested in what he was booked for over the course of decades. The difference was that Lawler got the national and international exposure as an announcer later in his career through his work during the Attitude era, a time when the business had its biggest audiences.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking anything away from Lawler, but rather to point out that while "The King" ruled Memphis as a pillar of the territory, "Superstar" was right behind him in terms of the foundation of what kept the territory operating, even as the other regional organizations evaporated during Vince McMahon's national expansion of the 1980s. I'm not sure if Dundee's in-ring accomplishments are held within the same regard as Lawler since "The King" is more well-known to the causal fan, but make no mistake about it, there was a reason that Dundee was the one that could feud with Lawler for years, switching between the heel or baby face roles to still draw money. Of course, it was no coincidence that Dundee often wore a jumpsuit, and Lawler called himself "The King" when they wanted to gain fame in Memphis.

Besides their status as the top drawing cards in the area for literally decades, Lawler and Dundee had other similarities and their work that contributed to the reasons why they were so over with the audience for so long. While they could both work holds and maneuvers, neither Lawler nor Dundee were going to get comparisons to Lou Thez or Dory Funk Jr. in the squared circle. That's not to mention that Memphis wasn't based on the scientific aspect of the sport, more than anything, Memphis drew money based on the heat of an angle, which is why the emotional investment from the fans mentioned prior was key to the consistent business the territory had. Both guys were smaller in statue, but through their charisma and believability, they had audiences rallying behind them as baby faces or generating jeers as heels. Bill Dundee didn't need to be a giant to convince the audience that he was a dangerous and manacling villain.

As I said, some might consider Memphis a smaller pond, and they aren't necessarily wrong, but there's something to be said for the ability to draw money to the point when someone reaches the level of a cornerstone of the region the way that Dundee did. However, he did venture outside of Tennessee for periods of time, mostly notably when he took over as the booker for Bill Watts' Mid-South promotion.

Bill Watts' ran the territory after Leroy McGuirk's NWA Tri-State had folded, and despite a solid roster of talent, by 1983, Watts' knew that he needed to add some variety to the events, opening the door for Dundee to bring in a slew of talent that had flourished previously in Memphis. In 1984, The Rock N' Roll Express vs. The Midnight Express feud was one of the highlights that made it a notable year in the history of the promotion under Dundee's direction. After a two-year stint working for Watts, Bill Dundee returned primarily to his stomping grounds of Memphis.

In an example of his sustained popularity, Dundee was able to find work in the area through more or less every permutation of Memphis, as the scale of the operations fluxed over the course of time as the industry on a national scene evolved. When World Class Championship Wrestling crumbled by the end of the decade of the 80s and the Memphis territory was struggling in the aftermath of closure of the rest of the territory system, Dundee worked for the USWA on a regular basis until it official shutdown in 1997. Still, as different groups took over the wrestling market on the regional level, Dundee wrestled for the majority of them during the latter portion of his career. He consistently found work in Memphis, regardless of the initials that promoted the shows. Bill's son, Jamie Dundee also had stints of success in the business, primarily throughout the mid-1990s and into the late.1990s. As JC Ice in the tag tam PG-!#, alongside Wolfie D, Dundee and his tag partner worked for the USWA, the WWF, ECW, and even WCW for a handful of matches by 2000. Aside from appearing with the Nation of Domination at Wrestlemania in 1997, the biggest national exposure that PG-13 had was probably when they had a match against The Dudley Boys at ECW's second pay-per-view, Hardcore Heaven that same year.

Amazingly, Bill Dundee still occasionally wrestled on the independent scene as recent as the early-2010s for cameos. In more recent years, with his health deteriorating, "Superstar" Bill Dundee still made appearances at autograph signings since he still enjoyed getting the chance to meet the fans. Despite the lack of a national platform throughout most of his career, there's no doubt that Bill Dundee has an accomplished and notable spot in the history of the industry. 

What's next for Johnny Gargano?

After several months of laying on a crate backstage without saying a word, looking like a total doofus and everything that a solid baby face shouldn't be, Johnny Gargano sprang up to challenge CM Punk for the WWE championship last week on Smackdown in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Of course, if the office was going to reignite the former NXT champion as a competitor again, that was the place to do it since it would give him the best reaction possible, thus making him look like more of a star in the process.

But, was last week on Smackdown enough to reinvigorate the WWE career of Johnny Gargano? Furthermore, is there anything on the horizon for him beyond this one-week payoff after he was made to look foolish on television for months?

Obviously, it remains to be seen how or if the writing team will follow-up on the CM Punk match from last week, but considering the quality of the match itself, there's no doubt that management has something to work with in terms of Gargano's in-ring ability. In fact, since the time that he appeared on WWE programming in 2015 before he officially inked a contract with the company the following year to be a part of the developmental brand, the in-ring ability of  Johnny Gargano wasn't in question. He was brought into the fold during the main era of when Triple H was the boss of NXT, and was dubbed, "a Triple H guy," similar to his tag partner Tommaso Ciampa, who opted not to renew his WWE contract this past January before he debuted on AEW Dynamite the following week.

That would lend itself to Gargano being booked in a better position with Paul Levesque as the head of creative of the WWE after Vince McMahon was exiled in disgrace. That's not meant to imply that it would be a form of nepotism, but rather to point out that any booker has performers that they believe can accomplish their vision for a particular show or brand. Keep in mind, when Paul Heyman was put in charge of Raw, and Eric Bischoff was the executive producer of Smackdown, individually for a cup of  coffee in 2019, there was a brief, but specific shift in the spotlight that was focused on certain performers at the time, such as Aleister Black since Heyman had a belief in him. The fact that the moves were merely lip service for investors since there was a growing level of discontent with the creative direction of the company from the fan base, which is why the roles were eliminated for Heyman and Bischoff within a year, is a different discussion.

The point is, Levesque had a belief in Gargano during his time as the boss of NXT, and a lot of the success of the brand at the time was based on the specific players that Triple H picked to run with his concept of the show, but for whatever reason, it never translated to the main roster in any significant or meaningful way.

Johnny Gargano actually decided not to renew his WWE contract when it expired in late-2021 to be able to spent more time with his family when his wife, WWE wrestler, Candice LeRae was going to give birth to their son early the next year. Eventually, Gargano made a surprise return to Raw in August of 2022, which provided the artificial pop when someone is back on the show, but the vast majority of the past four years saw him more or less under the radar in the company.

Gargano had a few injuries during that time, including a shoulder injury that put him on the sidelines almost six months, and there was speculation that the routine that saw him planking on a crate since the start of the year was because he re-aggravated the previous shoulder injury. I understand that it was a way to keep him on the show, but even if that was the case, I'd argue that being off of TV completely would've been a better option than making him look like a dork for months on Smackdown.

If I had to guess, I'd say that this return to the ring was a one-off that won't amount to much in the grand scheme of things. That's not to say that Gargano couldn't do more on the show, he certainly can, or that the audience wouldn't get behind him since they probably would, but the reality is that there's no track record to imply that the WWE machine will truly get behind him on the main roster to see how far up the ladder he could go if he got a chance to work to his fullest potential.

As much as I think Gargano has the skills to have a regular, bigger role within the WWE landscape, there is an argument to be made, or a least you can see the reasoning behind why the office might be hesitant to do so.

At 39. Johnny Gargano definitely has a few more years of his theoretical prime left in his career. There are a slew of reasons for it, including talent avoiding many of the pitfalls of the previous generation, as well as the advancements in treatment for injuries and overall recovery for the body, but the reality is that outside of major injuries that can completely derail an in-ring career, the current generation can extend their careers longer than those of a prior era. More protocols, medical staffs, and access to some of the best doctors in the world are much better options than self-medicating and taping up injuries.

So, Gargano isn't at the end of his career by any means, but at the same time, when you consider the history of his career, it skews toward the latter portion of his time as a wrestler.

He started in the sport during his teenage years and had a few injuries, including a serious back injury, during his independent run. Since Gargano started so young, he simply has fewer years left now than he would've otherwise. Along with that, the series of injuries that he had during his time in WWE might get him labeled as injury prone, in terms of how much of an investment the company would or wouldn't be willing to make in him.

Besides that, he has a few other things working against him, at least from a promotional point of view. TKO, especially at this point, has a business model that looks to promote the larger-than-life aspect of the WWE more than maybe even Vince McMahon would have. Vince's troupes about sponsorships and commercials were discarded in favor of the bottom line. TKO is trying to sell so much of the sizzle that the argument can be made that they've fallen woefully short of the expectations of the substance of the product, souring some fans in the process. It goes without saying that Vince made questionable personal decisions, and not every professional decision that he made was a home run, but it can't be denied that McMahon's tireless work ethic was designed to give the audience their money's worth the vast majority of the time. There's something to be said for that, because fandom often became generational under McMahon's leadership.

Does the TKO business plan have any room for someone like Johnny Gargano?

I'm not saying there shouldn't be, and everyone can rally behind a solid underdog narrative, but taking into account the way that TKO exploits the current assets of the company, with seemingly no thought toward the future, is Mark Shapiro going to see the value in the effort to invest those promotional dollars into Gargano?

The problem is, Johnny Gargano is smaller in statue and doesn't have the look of a major star. When the bell rings, the guy can go, but who's going to better represent what the TKO brand is selling today, Roman Reigns or Johnny Gargano? Bron Breakker or Gargano? Oba Femi or Gargano? On the other end of the spectrum, Danhausen isn't as tall as Andre, but he has a very marketable gimmick. whereas Gargano looks like your friendly neighbor that would help carry your groceries into the house.

So, I don't think that there will be a major resurgence in his career, but that doesn't mean that he won't be successful. The bottom line is, Gargano has made a full-time living from the WWE for more or less the past decade. Given his pure skills in the ring, it seems like he would eventually be a good fit for either the role of a coach at the Performance Center or a producer for Raw or Smackdown so it's very possible that he will continue to work for the company for years after he retires.

NXT releases

The annual purge of talent from the WWE roster is usually around Wrestlemania each year, prompting some discussion about where performers will go next, who was underutilized, etc. But, as we've seen since the WWE merger with the Ultimate Fighting Championship to form the TKO corporation a few years ago, the conglomerate takes a much more direct approach to its talent relations.

Cutting talent is unfortunate and disheartening, it's tough to see anyone lose their job, especially their dream job in many cases, but it's a harsh reality of the business side of the genre. The name of the game is to develop and promote talent that can draw money on the biggest scale possible. There are a lot of boxes for potential WWE superstars to check, many of them that extend beyond just the in-ring skills, which is why the money-drawing stars in the largest sports entertainment company in the world are a rare breed. Some of that has to do with the modern philosophy of promoting the brand ahead of any individual star, which gives the organization more of a margin for error, so to speak, if any injury that might put a main event name on the shelf, or if there's a contract depute that would take the talent off the roster until a resolution was agreed upon. The other side of the coin is that the specific performers aren't over as much as the previous generation when the focus was on those individual stars rather than the initials. Steve Austin, The Rock, and Mick Foley were over bigger in their heyday individually than the WWE is today, in terms of pop culture popularity, partially because they were given the spotlight, not the initials. Sure, each of those guys represented the WWF brand, but a lot more Austin 3:16 t-shirts were sold than the standard WWF logo t-shirts. It's a lot easier for the audience to emotionally invest into the character than the corporation, and that's taking nothing away from the massive success that the WWE has become as far as being a global, publicly-traded organization.

Still, even taking that equation into account, the amount of talent that can excel in the top positions where the big money is made, is a select group of high-level performers. As of today, there are only a handful of names that can truly move the needle, especially since the retirement of a slew of legends in recent years. In fact, you could say that WWE was able to ride the wave of the John Cena retirement tour to still draw major crowds last year when the rest of the product probably didn't justify it. Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Rhea Ripley are on the short list of WWE stars that the general public will take notice of these days. That's not to discount any other extremely talented performers on the roster, but rather to point out how exclusive the top-tier is.

They have to be able to go in the ring, they have to be able to cut the promos to sell the pay-per-views, they have to do the media rounds to keep the sponsors satisfied, they have to be able to sell merchandise, and they have to be able to avoid the countless pitfalls of the modern age of technology when everyone has a smart phone to be able to record almost everything, particularly on social media.

There are also the countless wrestlers that get shuffled through the Performance Center, and if the program has a 10% success rate based on the number of athletes they sign to a relatively cheap developmental deal, the investment is more than worth it. When you have that many prospects coming through the doors, it's an easy decision to release a few that may or may not be progressing at a fast enough rate since those cuts make room for new prospects.

That's why even though the WWE had its extended list of releases a few months ago, it's not too surprising that ten wrestlers were cut, according to a report from Fightful Select.

Adriana Rizzo, Wendy Choo, Anya Rune, Zena Sterling, Braxton Cole, Marcus Brown, Gary Wilson, Jasper Troy, PJ Vasa, and Ellen Akesson were all given their walking papers.

The majority of this list is cannon fodder, not to say that they don't have a future, but rather that their status among the landscape in WWE, or even just the developmental system is moot. For example, Marcus Brown and Ellen Akesson were recruits from the bodybuilding world that were inked to contracts in March, but never actually had a match. In this case, they were prospects with an athletic background that probably couldn't make the transition to sports entertainment. The totality of the investment is minimal and their relatively quick exits clears space for the next group of prospects that might make a better transition to the squared circle. Gary Wilson was a referee that spent four years under contract, and it might've been a situation where there just wasn't an open spot for him further up the ladder. Braxton Cole, Anya Rune, PJ Vasa were all signed within the past year and competed on Evolve. This is where the impact of most of these cuts is more or less zero because the developmental brand within the developmental system is more about the analysis of progress for the talent rather than any type of star power or cache as a commodity. The Evolve brand is basically there to give prospects some type of in-house television exposure so to speak before they would be considered for actual television exposure on the NXT brand on the CW. The reason being that Tubi is under the radar enough that rookie mistakes won't be exposed enough to sour the audience on a wrestler that is still getting experience, but it's enough of a WWE style production that the performers can learn how to work a WWE television environment. 

Adriana Rizzo worked primarily as an interviewer on the Evolve show, and this might be a situation similar to Gary Wilson, maybe they just didn't have a spot for her further up the ladder in the system. Zena Sterling was a part of the LFG series, and despite the television exposure, the viewership was minimal so the impact of her release is as well. Jasper Troy was the winner of a season of LFG and had a stint as the WWE Speed champion, but again, the viewership was so minimal on anything that he was involved in so the vast majority of the WWE audience, including fans of the developmental brands, probably don't know who he is.

The biggest release from the list might be Wendy Choo, who originally signed a developmental deal in 2019, but had spent a few years on the sidelines after a serious ankle injury that required surgery. Choo had been enough of a part of the NXT brand in various roles that she had an action figured released by Mattel that sold very well, including a chase variant. The others on this list weren't far enough along to get merchandise, which is one of the reasons that I'd say that Choo was the biggest cut, as she had proven to be at least somewhat marketable, albeit for a smaller sample size. I think it goes without saying that Choo is going to get offers going forward, and TNA is probably where she ends up since it's a more natural transition since there's a working agreement between the two organizations, allowing the door to be open for an eventual NXT return.

As mentioned, it's tough when people lose their jobs, but in some ways, this could allow the talent cut from the roster to use the experience they gained in the developmental system to be make to  still make a better first impression than they would've other wise since the majority of fans still don't know who most of them are. Getting cutting from the WWE isn't the end of a career, Drew McIntyre is a great example of that, but this scenario shows just how much of a machine the TKO corporation is because they can cut ten performers from the list and still have a full roster since it's just another day at the office.