Those of you that have known me for years or follow me on the Twitter; know that I’m not one of these people that focuses my entire life around professional wrestling.While I’ve been a fan for thirty glorious years and have been writing online about our so-called sport for just about half of that time; there are other things that garner my interest this time of year besides WrestleMania.
Sports.
I was looking forward to seeing my beloved Louisville Cardinals take on the Syracuse Orange in the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals the evening I’m writing this. Had they won that game, they would have played in the Semifinals on Friday night, and hopefully the Finals on Saturday night. Of course, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was to start next week, and that would have demanded my attention for the next few weeks.
I’ve done some writing about hockey in the past. My Nashville Predators have had a rough season, but currently sit in the Western Conference’s second wild card slot. With thirteen games left in their season and four teams within six points of them, it was anybody’s guess how things were going to turn out. It could also be pointed out that the Predators were in line to be the eight seed. The last time they were the eight seed they made it to the Stanley Cup Final.
As important as the Cards & Preds are to me, baseball was my first love. It also happens to be one of my means for income. I spend a lot of my days from April until October at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. The past few years haven’t been the highlight of Cincinnati Reds baseball history, but ownership spent a ton of money, there’s some good young talent and the fans are optimistic. Plus, Opening Day is always the best day of the year in Cincinnati, bar none.
Of course, that’s not all. I enjoy watching FC Cincinnati games even if the 2019 edition of the club may have been the worst in the history of Major League Soccer. I support Tottenham Hotspur for reasons unknown to me. Watching people turn left on the racetrack also has a level of fun to it. Heck, I’ll watch major golf tournaments with my dear old dad. Basically, if it’s a sport and you put it on TV, I’ll watch it.
Except for spring football. Sorry, Vince. Even I have my limits.
Unfortunately, life gets in the way sometimes. We’ve seen instances where sports had to go away for a little while so actual business could be taken care of. It sucks for those of us whose livelihood is predicated on providing enjoyment to other people. Of course, it sucks for all of us who live and die with a particular sports team that give us reason to get through our otherwise excitement-lacking lives. But at the end of the day, we realize that sports are the funny pages of life. While some of us do rely on sports for more than that, and it’s hard on us when they go away, we realize that as the old saying goes: it is what it is.
I’m not happy that Opening Day is delayed for two weeks and I have no idea how that impacts the number of dates I’ll be working. As a Louisville alum that’s already seen seasons erased by the NCAA, seeing another one limp to an end with no conclusion is an annoyance. I’m hoping that the NHL just ends up canceling the rest of the regular season & skips ahead to the postseason so the Predators can sneak on in. Nothing about any of this is ideal. But it is what it is. I can’t get mad at the people making these decisions to cancel/postpone these games that in the big picture aren’t more than entertainment for most.
I’m not a doctor.
A lot of people out there want to tell you about this coronavirus. They know how bad it is, they know how long it takes to recover, they’ll tell you about the death rate, and they’ll tell you how everybody is over-reacting. How they know all these things, I’m not sure, because it seems pretty evident to me that nobody knows. The experts are in the process of figuring it out because they’ve never seen it before. Governments are in the dark, and the fact that we have failed at picking competent leaders seems to be on full display.
(Mind you, it’s something new, and it’s impossible to say with 100% certainty that other people could do better. We can say it’s exposed some folks as being in way over their head, which some people should have realized back in 2016 but didn’t. That is what it is.)
I won’t pretend to understand the coronavirus. I am not a doctor. Who knows how serious it is, whether it’s being overblown by that dreaded media, or when it will go away. Hell, I don’t even know if I have it. I don’t have a fever, but most people living in the Ohio Valley always have a cough & shortness of breath because of the crappy atmosphere. Global warming is a whole issue for another time.
There’s a bottom line I keep coming to when people talk about these upcoming events and the cancellations. I won’t get mad at people being too cautious. Maybe it ends up being overblown. If people aren’t sick here in a few weeks and we can carry on with business as usual, that’s the best-case scenario. We probably helped things by holding fewer events with individuals breathing all over each other & interacting with unknown numbers of people. Hopefully the short-term losses will be cancelled out by the long-term gains. This is one of those times where you absolutely have to play the long game.
What game is pro wrestling playing?
Once cancellations came in from the NBA, NHL, MLB, NCAA and other sporting entities, people who read this website surely started wondering when pro wrestling promotions would chime in. Yes, we know it’s “sports entertainment” and not “sports”, but it’s also events with thousands of people while there’s a global pandemic. It’s absolutely fair for people to wonder whether the events they planned on going to will take place. As somebody who was planning on working similar events, I feel for the people planning on attending them. I know people plan their whole lives around getting time off from their jobs where they can attend baseball games, or wrestling shows, or whatever.
WrestleMania Weekend is the biggest thing on the pro wrestling calendar. Fans come into whatever city happened to be hosting it from around the world. WWE has many events surrounding WrestleMania. Independent promotions from all over the country run shows in the area to draw the biggest crowds they’ll get all year. Indy grapplers from across the globe work those shows to get noticed & get signed. The money made off this weekend pays for the rest of the independent wrestling year, not to mention WWE’s prior to that sweet Saudi blood money.
Once everybody else started cancelling & delaying things, people wondered when WWE would do the same. People wondering that really aren’t familiar with how Vince McMahon conducts business. Those of us that are have seen it for decades. Vince isn’t cancelling anything unless his hand is forced. He doesn’t take the lead on these things. He figures that if these other people cancel things, he’ll get that money.
Money Money, Yeah Yeah
One could say that money means more to him than the health of his employees & fans, but I think it’s a little more complicated than that. We’re talking about a guy that sees coughing & sneezing & taking days off as signs of weakness. He doesn’t believe in illnesses, so this coronavirus thing is something he can’t understand. People will work & attend his WrestleMania show no matter what, as far as he can tell. The idea of somebody telling him to postpone his show is incomprehensible. Sure, all these other goofs can cancel their shows, but not WWE!
I’m sure there are people talking to him about the coronavirus thing. I’m also sure he shrugs it off like no big deal. There’s still a number of weeks before the show anyway. If things don’t clear up before then, maybe Vince will move the show to the Performance Center, or let Tampa talk him into moving it to May. It’s possible.
Let’s be honest, people like other people to take the lead. Sports leagues started delaying things once the NBA did it. Nobody wanted to be the first. Once the NBA did it, they fell in line. I feel like a lot of these wrestling promoters know that cancelling shows is the right way to go…but they don’t want to be first. Ideally, Vince McMahon & WWE would take the lead. They are the leaders of the genre, after all.
That won’t happen.
WWE isn’t tapping out. Not unless Donald Trump texts Vince McMahon. Otherwise, Vince will press on. They’ll move some shows to the Performance Center. But WrestleMania? That’s a big event that drives the economy. You gotta breathe a minute before cancelling or postponing something like that. I get it. The show’s scheduled for April 5. WWE will release some messages saying they care about the health of their wrestlers & fans. Let’s be honest: Vince cares more about the money WrestleMania generates than the health of his wrestlers or fans. We all know that. This is how he & his generation were raised. Money means all. People are secondary. The sooner we understand this, the better we’ll understand WWE, and the better we’ll understand the current generation in power.
Unfortunately, the rest of the wrestling business takes their cues from Vince. You saw this on Thursday via the silence from most other people in the business throughout the day. Once these folks figured out Vince wasn’t going to do anything, they made their moves. ROH & PWG postponed shows. AEW moved two shows to their place in Jacksonville. They all made these moves towards the end of the day, hours after sports made their moves. It was obvious what they were doing: waiting for Vince to take the lead.
Vince doesn’t want the lead.
Vince doesn’t want these other people in business. Why the hell would he care about making the right move for the wrestling business? As far as he’s concerned, it’s his business anyway. If the rest of these promoters had any real blood & guts, they would have made their moves right away.
Instead, they stayed quiet most of the day. Proving who really runs things. No matter which product one might prefer, it’s still Vince’s world and the rest of these people are living in it. I could get outraged and demand Vince do what everyone else is doing, but it seems like a waste of time. Hopefully, by the time WrestleMania rolls around, this stuff has died down. If not, Vince will cancel it then.
You promoters out there better not wait on Vince McMahon. You’ll be waiting your whole life.
