On January 30th, the professional wrestling landscape changes once again with the debut of Wrestling Society X on MTV and MTV Canada. Not since 2001 has there been the potential to have three major wrestling companies in North America, all of which have a national television outlet. Wrestling Society X is promising to be an alternative product to a brand of entertainment that has been lacking in modernity and creativity the last several years.The co-production of MTV and Big Vision Entertainment is not only out to change how a wrestling match is performed. Wrestling Society X is reinventing the business model of wrestling promotions. How stars are made, how revenue is generated, and how wrestling television is produced could go under some serious reconstruction under the guise of MTV.
Wrestling Society X was originally conceived to be programming that would attract young males to the predominately female viewing audience of MTV. Big Vision Entertainment, producers and distributors of many wrestling DVDs, joined with MTV to create this new form of wrestling programming. Wrestling Society X is first and foremost a television property like any other show on MTV. Proof of this can be seen when going to the Wrestling Society X page on the MTV web site, the roster of wrestlers can be seen under the "cast" heading.
Being an MTV program has its advantages. The production of the show will be put at a much higher priority than many other wrestling promotions. The biggest advantage it presents is much like other MTV programs, Wrestling Society X will be repeated many times per week. This means fans and casual viewers of wrestling have several opportunities to see the show. However, there are drawbacks to being a MTV production. Each episode will feature a band and will play music between matches. Being that MTV does stand for "Music Television", music related content does need to be included.
The "cast" of wrestlers slated to compete in Wrestling Society X is made up of North America's top high-flying talents. However, stars such as Matt Sydal, Jack Evans, Teddy Hart, and Human Tornado might do more than just perform high-spots. These young, fresh-faced stars look like they could have walked off the set of "Laguna Beach" and may become the new heartthrobs of MTV. When combining the fresh-young faces and the exciting style of wrestling, Wrestling Society X might succeed at attracting a more diverse fan-base than any other wrestling entity that exists today.
With their focus being so heavily based in creating a new "style" of wrestling, WSX is not relying on star power so much as they are trying to build a truly alternative brand. With the exception of Vampiro and Sean Waltman, no other wrestlers on the roster have ever had national exposure to this degree. MTV is then counting on this new crop of performers to emerge as the new stars of professional wrestling.
As of right now, Wrestling Society X has absolutely no plans on producing pay-per-views. The business model of all major wrestling companies over the last twenty years has been to produce television to attract people to purchase pay-per-view. However, the over-crowded pay-per-view market is not the place to garner revenue in 2007 with WWE,UFC,and TNA producing a combined 40 pay-per-view shows over the next year.
With TNA not concentrating on live events and UFC being limited to a handful of states, Wrestling Society X could potentially tap into a strong revenue stream once they begin to do house shows. Kevin Kleinrock, producer of Wrestling Society X, has stated that there are strong plans to move forward with live events once the television audience is established.
How much potential can a 30-minute wrestling show have? Only time will tell. I do think that since Wrestling Society X was originally an idea formed by the executives of MTV, they will be given every chance possible to succeed. Whether a brand of wrestling based primarily on young, acrobatic athletes can succeed in attracting a new audience is unknown. But remember this, MTV is the same network that made watching "Jackass" cool.
7 comments: on "The New Face Of Professional Wrestling?"
ya a wrestling show that will have fuckin good charlet performing and wrestlers who really have no grasp of psycology or how to tell a story just what we need a new show of spot monkeys. call me cinical( and ive been drinking so im feeling surley) but i dont see this really taking off. wrestling isnt "cool" so most kids wont give a chance and since the talent thats being used is made up of green guys who like i said are just spot monkeys real wrestling fans will get bord fast. but thats my opinion, i hope to gawd im wrong and this thing explodes because i love this sport ( yes i think it is a sport)but i really dont see it.
Is MTV Canada showing it?
MTV Canada will be showing it, but I think it's in a different time slot. But I do know both stations will replay the show several times per week.
Ah hell, it's worth a shot.
Just to update our Canadian readers, MTV Canada has now stated as of this morning Wrestling Society X has been pulled from their network "until further notice."
Wrestling Society X is still set to debut on MTV January 30th at 10:30pm.
I saw a commercial for this last night, and the production values are incredible. From a TV aspect, it's much better than TNA, and it is what the ECW brand should strive to be.
The wrestling is all garbage flippy moves onto tacks and through tables, which totally exposes the business and doesn't tell any story whatsoever. It won't be long presumably before these guys are unable to top themselves and someone gets seriously hurt. In the commercial I saw like 5 450 splashes and one dude get thrown off the entrance into a dumpster.
I assume that in 3 weeks someone will have to be thrown off the roof outside.
Still, when ECW gained ground, a lot of purists thought similar stuff, and ECW certainly has a legacy in professional wrestling.
I expect a lot of holy shit chants and a different style of wrestling fan to be born. If MTV really taps into the Viacom budget, we might see this project really take off. The question is, what established names can wrestle a style that satiates the appetites of what these viewers will come to expect? It would seem that this promotion was made for New Jack and Vic Grimes.
So MTV has to put out music programming...
You don't watch much MTV these days, do you?
Post a Comment