PINFALLS
BY
BRANDON FINCH

Well, the WWA may have fans, but who knows how long the fans will have the WWA? As I write this I feel like a sports fan that is going to games right before their team moves to another city...or a guy that buys a ticket to what very well mighy be the last performance of his favorite band. Poor attendance and low buy rates has recently branded the WWA as a cautionary tale to all other startup promotions. Did we set our expectations too high? I mean was it a little unrealistic to view WWA as the next big thing?

For many of us we weren't old enough to see the first Wrestlemania. We didn't appreciate what ECW was doing until it was gone. Many of us were very aware that when Inception was broadcast on ppv it was the first of what we hoped was going to be many more shows to come. I admit I got caught up in it all. I reminded myself that this was merely an international wrestling touring company. This wasn't another full fledged wrestling promotion like WCW. There wasn't going to be a Nitro or Raw-type show every week.

The wrestlers came and went with equal fanfare. No one really seemed to be loyal to the promotion. They all seemed like hired guns. With no specific style or brand recognition there was no reason to form any sort of loyalty to the promotion. The only fans that generated any kind of frenzy for the WWA was the wrestling fans of Australia. To them it was THEIR promotion. Bret Hart was addressing them. Jeff Jarrett was the WWA World Champion in THEIR city...in THEIR country. In my opinion the WWA did not find it's true wrestling niche until it was too late. The likes of Andrew McManus and Jeremy Borash didn't realize that the poor work rates that many of these ex-WCW/WWF wrestlers exhibited was not cutting it. Sure, it looked good on paper, but when the next day reviews came in it was always the hardcore and cruiserweights that garnered most of the praise. By the time the third ppv came around it was too late. Devon Storm, Sabu, Jerry Lynn, Nova, and A.J. Styles all were the talk of the wrestling sites, but because the original focus of the promotion was on the so-called names, WWA seemed to have drawn a lot of negative heat from people that were expecting the likes of Bret Hart, Jeff Jarrett, Randy Savage, and the Road Dogg.

The official word from WWA after the UK and Germany tour is that there will be no pay per views at this time. With time being wrestling's most feared foe it doesn't look good. I'm not saying that the WWA will fold. I fear it will have to adapt. It may very well downsize into nothing more than a shadow of what it once could have been. Gone will be the A - list talent. Finances simply will not be able to cover the cost of hiring them. Local indy talent will probably be called in to wrestle against the likes of Doink the Clown II and King Kong Bundy. Civic and large sports arenas will be replaced by Boys Clubs and Shriner Halls. I fear the WWA will be the Australian equivalent of about 50 similar independent promotions in the United States.

Now, I'm not riding on my horse on the beach staring up at the remains of the Statue of Liberty just yet ... it's not the end of the world. This could be just a set back. Instead of spending more money, the WWA appears to be taking a time out. Maybe, it is indeed time to think about the mistakes instead of drudging through and sinking further. Let's take a look at the assets. Let's see what they have to work with.

1. Talented workers that up to this point have been loyal to the promotion - Devon Storm, Disco Inferno, Nathan Jones, Lenny Lane, Lodi, Sabu, Allen Funk, Juventud Guerrera, Psicosis, A.J. Styles, Jerry Lynn, and Teo, Puppett. Okay, not too bad. More has been made out of less.

2. You have a guy that is creative and inventive - Jeremy Borash literally had the whole tour dumped in his lap after Vince Russo left. He's been swimming up stream ever since. A break from the chaos might be a good thing. If he's physically and mentally rested after a brief hiatus I think he could very well whip things back into shape. In a short period of time we saw some pretty inovative stuff...bloody hardcore midgets...the crusierweights properly showcased...Nathan Jones and Chucky Chaos...and finally the meeting of Devon Storm and Sabu!

3. The money - I'm sure Andrew McManus has made some bad investments before and rebounded. I'm also pretty sure that he's turned a profit with less to work with. If he can understand that if the wrestling business was easy than there would be ten WWFs. WWA has the luxury of having a backer like him. It's not the case of being in debt from the start like ECW.

I would hate to see this startup promotion come to an end. I think they did more good things than bad. I would also hate to see ANY wrestling alternative come to such a quick death. Hopefully, the people behind the WWA will take this time to regroup and think things through. There will always be wrestling fans...let's hope there will still be a WWA.

Brandon Finch aka BFinch8628