On occasion, what Senor Manor initially wrote and what eventually ends up on the printed page are two very different animals.  This is one such occasion.  Directly below, you will find the ORIGINAL manuscript for Flips 177.  The highly revised one appears by clicking here.

 Flips 177

Behind the scenes, wrestling is a world steeped deeeep in machismo.  This is a testosterone-fueled manly-man environment, and if you can’t deal with it, tough.  Got that, punk?  Which leaves me with one burning question:  How come, at times, those on the top of the chain act like twelve-year-old girls?

Take, for example, the trend in public humiliations.  As previously noted in PS, we’ve seen it with the Motor City Machine Guns, MVP and Jeff Hardy (among others) in recent times, each humiliated on promos and/or losing streaks to supposedly “teach them a lesson.”  But by booking those in the doghouse in dogs of matches, the true losers here are (a) fans, getting less enjoyment out of the product, and (b) the promoters themselves, when the disenchanted opt out of house show and PPV buys.

If you want to discipline the Guns or MVP, take them off the road and hit them in the wallet.  Jeff Hardy?  Hide his nail polish collection and make him wash his hair.  But attempting to humble an employee on television is as boneheaded as packing a rabbit trap for a trip on the space shuttle.  (Unless the target is an Oklahoman who uses nonexistent words like “de-abilitating” in a feeble attempt to sound slick.  It’s fun to see him suffer!)

Another variation on the theme is evidenced in the “bravura” treatment of arriving TNA defectors, most notably Chris Harris, Gail Kim and Christian, all former champs in the rival promotion.  The prevalent theory is, the trio was being punished for working for the opposition.  While that may have been the intended message of the booking, the b-i-g message was, “Pssst, Joe, Abyss, A.J. and the rest the WWE may someday woo, just imagine how screwed YOU are going to be if you jump, especially since your stardom was not created in Connecticut.4

Pure genius.  If Einstein was this brilliant, Hiroshima would have been bombed with water balloons while 3000 paratroopers with megaphones shouted “boom” as each rubber inflatable landed!

But all of the above pales compared to the most infuriating example of office brass acting like prepubescent Jonas Brothers followers tugging on their plaid skirts.

Quick history lesson.  I can’t stand basketballer Kobe Bryant.  The greatest of his many offenses?  He plays for the despised L.A. Lakers.  No doubt in your misnamed “football,” there are some who worship that AC/DC United team (oooh, I bet they’re a “flamboyant” bunch!) and others who’d take a lap dance from Awesome Kong to see the squad get shut out.

These are bitter bitter rivalries; nonetheless, I’d be over the moon over Kobe had he instead signed with my beloved Philadelphia 76ers; and only an insane franchise owner would refuse to consider personnel exchanges with the staunch opposition, if he believed the move would benefit his team.  I can absolutely PROMISE you certain parties will have some very derogatory comments about your Mat Messiah for making the following statement, but I believe wrestling brass needs to behave less like children and more like management in professional sports, and become seriously active in negotiations to trade talent.  

ROH, TNA and the WWE sign their performers to binding contracts, and I fully agree with the thought process.  But in that same order, each league has become increasingly more stale due to the same bonebenders comprising the outfit’s core for years.  This in turn has bred dissatisfied wrestlers, and towel-tossing promoters dismissing athletes with the hollow “Sorry, the creative team has no ideas for you.4

But why keep the overexposed, moping, cost-inefficient, personally disliked, dumped paramours, etc, when they can be exchanged for far fresher faces?  There’s common sense and business sense; and the continued practice of refusing to even CONSIDER talent swaps is nonsense.

Vince isn’t fond of “smaller” guys; TNA has the X Division; thus imagine this time next year, Kendrick and Punk revitalizing the Ultimate-X match and the whole division while Beer Money prepare for their first Wrestlemania.  Or, in a creative bid to match star power and income, why not trade Misterio for both Roode and Storm?  Or the inverse, Sting for Miz & Morrison?

Trades don’t necessarily need to involve top guns, as the prime idea is to refresh rosters.  Claudio Castagnoli for Christopher Daniels, for example, has a good upside for both sides.  And it makes less sense to cut a Paul London or a Petey Williams when you can get a prospect in return, even if it’s only someone to give a try-out.

I’m not talking about indentured servitude; and the above are only hypothetical exchanges.  Naturally, agreeable terms would have to be worked out to the satisfaction of all.  But wrestlers’ “problems” tend to disappear when the price and push are right.  And, um, luckily, there’s no union to step in and muddy the waters.

Still, none of this is going to happen until the Powers That Be put aside the preening, pettiness, posturing and pretenses, and do what is best for business.  How “bad” can trading be if:  ROH gets more entertainers, as is their stated goal; TNA loses the stigma of “full of WWE cast-offs”; and WWE breaks the cycle of rerun feuds?  Furthermore, everyone from Undertaker to Mark Jindrak (now a megastar in Mexico) has illustrated that one side’s dud can be another’s diamond.  

Who would you rather see—and, more important, spend money to witness—Randy Orton face at WM26, a former Evolution colleague for the 372nd time or, say, Kurt Angle or Nigel McGuiness?

A century of activity in Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA and so on has proved it is perfectly legal under American law to move persons under contract.  For decades, the major movie studios “lent out” their contracted players.  Record labels, too.  In other words, such transactions are NOT impossible; they have yet to occur in wrestling because a few key higher-ups evidently would prefer to see thousands of empty arena seats and stagnant ratings than to act like grown men.  And that’s what has me all fired up….this month….at the moment.