The Ringsider – Jim LeMond
Inside the WWE-OVW Split!
Our ring-wise analyst ponders the significance and consequences of the divorce between WWE and Ohio Valley Wrestling.
WWE officially severed ties with Ohio Valley Wrestling this week, ending the Louisville-based company’s nearly decade-long run as main developmental territory.
Rumors of this have been flying around literally for years, and last year’s launch of the Florida Championship Wrestling territory in Tampa was unofficially the final nail in the coffin. The 10,000 square foot FCW training facility is said to be first-class all the way, with four rings and state-of-the-art workout equipment. The company already is running spot shows, with a goal of building a loop where guys can work four or five days per week. All contracted talent at OVW will be relocating to Tampa by the end of the month.
Last year’s split from Jody Hamilton’s Deep South Wrestling was a cold termination. Long story short, Bruce Pritchard made a surprise visit and came back reporting it was the worst thing he’d ever seen and way beyond repair. Vince McMahon flipped out and decided to shut down all of developmental, but quickly cooled down and simply axed DSW. John Laurinaitis showed up, snuck in through a back door, and had “the meeting” with Hamilton while a crew tore down the ring. Hamilton had invested a ton of money on a building, TV, and so forth, so it was a huge blow financially to him.
This split was much more amicable. WWE publicly and privately thanked owner Danny Davis and head trainer Rip Rogers for all their hard work over the years. I’ve heard they let OVW keep the official WWE ring that had been used for many years. While WWE talent will not be sent there, some believe that the company will continue to send major and minor talent to the Six Flags shows every summer, a show in which OVW makes the bulk of its revenue.
Al Snow, one of the main trainers, and several developmental guys have been terminated in the last few weeks. It’s clear WWE wants FCW to be its exclusive training territory. Many of the main players in the WWE office, as well as several wrestlers and most of the road agents, live in Tampa. It really will be no big deal for, say, a Dean Malenko to swing by once or twice a week to work with guys.
Unfortunately, this is a terribly short-sighted move by WWE and really is a microcosm of what is wrong with the company as a whole. Days after WWE announced that fiscal 2007 was its highest-revenue year ever (higher than the Austin/Rock years, although mainly due to international), and at a time when McMahon rakes in roughly $10 million per quarter in dividends alone, it’s time to make development a priority.
Currently, WWE allots $250,000 per year per developmental territory. WWE would be wise to set up ten territories and double each one’s budget. That’s $5 million annually, a drop in the bucket for a company that did $483 million in revenue last year. Various territories could include the existing FCW, former group OVW, and spread out new territories in places such as Calgary (Lance Storm), Seattle (Buddy Wayne), Los Angeles (Rick Bassman), Houston (Booker T), a couple places on the east coast, and maybe another one or two in the midwest. Sign up anyone with potential, have them spend four months in each territory, and in three years you have guys who have worked ten territories learning ten different styles. It’s not as good as the old territorial days, but it’s as close as you can get in what is more or less a monopolized industry.
Five years ago, the main players on WWE television were guys like HHH, Michaels, Undertaker, Lesnar, Angle, Guerrero, Benoit, Cena, Edge, Mysterio, and Jericho. Of those, all are either still on top, out of the company, or dead. Is there really anyone in the last five years who has broken through to that level?
Pro wrestling is a business that revolves around creating new stars. In the current developmental regime, finding the next superstar may be as difficult as finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.
– Jim LeMond.com
(2/16/08)
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