World Domination?

Globalization and the global economic shift are major issues that affect a growing number of facets in our lives. Power and wealth is being centralized by a small percentage of the worlds elite as corporate mergers, buy-outs, and even uniform currency will be more common as we progress in the twenty-first century. How this changing world will affect professional wrestling has become much clearer over the last few weeks.

Several wrestling newsletters have reported this week that World Wrestling Entertainment is on the verge of putting together a business model that will undoubtedly change professional wrestling forever. WWE is looking to expand their business aggressively in major international markets that could potentially see the introduction of several more brands that would exclusively exist in certain geographical regions. Thus, there could potentially be several individual brands all running under the guise of WWE.

The details are sketchy at the moment as those close to the situation including the entire McMahon family have yet to really figure out the logistics of such an undertaking. What we know is WWE is looking to have individual brands separate from the current three in major wrestling centres such as Mexico, Japan, Europe, Russia, and Korea. Weekly television and live events would be produced exclusively for that region as would potentially pay-per-view.

Current WWE stars would need to be divided in order to create initial drawing cards in each area. The long-term plan however would be to have regional stars with WWE experience as the major draws. For instance, one could assume William Regal and Harry Smith would be candidates for the European brand, Rey Misterio and Carlito would theoretically be stars of the Mexico/South America brand.

Because such an undertaking would require the hiring of several hundred wrestlers who are experienced with working in certain regions, companies such as AAA and CMLL in Mexico, AJPW and NJPW of Japan, and other European promotions would be raided and even bought-out. Having to hire so many new wrestlers would mean many current independent wrestlers could find themselves courted by WWE. But if you're an Ontario indy worker, are you ready to move to France full-time?

Add to this situation remarks that Dana White, president of UFC, has made recently. UFC has already purchased WEC and is running that promotion as a separate entity. White has said he wants to do the same with Pride if UFC could purchase the fledgling promotion. Pride would become in many ways "UFC Asia" and with the popularity of mixed martial arts expanding to areas such as Russia and India, it would not be out of the realm of possibility for UFC to follow the WWE plan of international expansion.

Are we on the verge of seeing the complete world domination of top-tier professional wrestling and mixed martial arts? Is this plan of attack even remotely feasible?

My recommendation to both UFC and WWE is to be very careful with how they go about this plan of world domination should they both be interested in such. In the case of WWE, I can absolutely see the idea of running up to 8 different brands in different areas of the world. However, what they need to do more than anything is keep the talent fresh in every region. For instance, if John Cena wrestles in Europe for 6 months he could then for a period of time be moved to Asia and then back to North America. His drawing power would increase because of the scarcity of his appearances in one area. Characters would stay much fresher and many careers would have much more longevity.

Many fans who have witnessed the decline in the popularity of boxing would see this international unification as a positive as well. What killed the popularity of boxing was in part having too many companies and too many titles. The big stars never faced each other and thus fans were left not knowing who the legitimate world champion was. Titles and boxers began to lose credibility and the sport is now on life-support as a distant second to UFC.

The international expansion of UFC or WWE is by no means a done deal nor is it something that will happen in the imminent future. However the international domination of these two companies will be a huge story over the next five years. How their plans of attack will evolve and succeed will shape their respective industries for decades to come. In many ways, the legacies Vince McMahon and Dana White will be heavily influenced by their success in world domination.

Share |