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CALDWELL: Ric Flair returns to WWE - ROH's durability depends on finding new spokesman Jun 4, 2009 - 1:30:30 AM
Ric Flair walked into The Arena in Philadelphia last Friday night unable to contribute to the ROH TV product. He made up his mind to return to WWE full-time and he couldn't appear on another promotion's national TV product.
ROH and HDNet production team members spent two hours before going live-to-tape re-writing segments involving Flair, but they still had a show to do.
The in-ring product delivered, based on what I've seen on paper and based on what people internally told me after the taping.
The product will always be there with a talent roster of young, athletic, hungry wrestlers like Austin Aries, Bryan Danielson, and Tyler Black.
The issue at hand is trying to market a product without a major star to be the "spokesman" who can lend credibility to what most knowledgeable wrestling fans already recognize as a superior wrestling product.
In 2009, though, simply having a "superior wrestling product" doesn't translate into making major money. Casual wrestling fans that make up the majority of today's audience have been introduced to pro wrestling through WWE's version of storylines and stars. Wrestling is part of the mix, but not the point of emphasis.
Take, for instance, last week's TNA Impact. A.J. Styles vs. Daniels was given the main event slot in the final quarter-hour, but the match was in the least-watched segment of the show. Styles and Daniels are stars to knowledgeable fans, but TNA hasn't positioned them as stars to casual, mainstream wrestling fans.
Ric Flair's departure from ROH didn't affect the promotion last Friday night. It simply meant ROH and HDNet folks had to re-organize the show instead of spending more time prepping for what they already had planned.
"The matches really weren’t affected by Flair’s departure," said one ROH insider. "We were pre-shot on a lot of stuff that didn’t affect Ric. The matches really delivered."
On a small-scale, ROH didn't need Ric Flair at last week's TV tapings. The wrestlers still performed. The action still took place. HDNet can clean up the storylines in post-production.
The bigger issue is trying to sell a wrestling product to an entire new fanbase without a spokesman.
How do ROH and HDNet sell the TV product in international syndication with stars recognizable to a few thousand, but not a few hundred thousand?
How does HDNet reach out to newer wrestling fans when the product looks like a small-time WWE or TNA to casual viewers, especially without a major name to lend credibility to the "superior wrestling product?"
ROH took a risk banking on Ric Flair to be the company's spokesman. The lure of WWE would always be there, but ROH was willing to pay big bucks to keep Flair onboard at least until they could make some progress in the marketplace.
"We need to attract the rest of the world. I think Ric is the perfect person to put into that spot," ROH president Cary Silkin said in an April interview with Alex Marvez following the Flair signing. "We need to expand. We can't just cater to the Internet fan." (Silkin interview)
Silkin acknowledged that most wrestling fans haven't heard of Danielson, Nigel, or the Briscoes. If millions of people watch WWE Raw on a weekly basis and only thousands have been exposed to ROH's product through DVDs, PPVs, TV, or word-of-mouth, there's an entire new fanbase to draw from.
Without Flair, though, the company returns to square one. Great wrestling product. Great HDNet support. Great small-scale stars. No big name to put a "stamp of approval" on the product.
It's the same reason Spike TV executives pushed TNA to sign more big names like Kevin Nash, Kurt Angle, Sting, Mick Foley, and Booker T over the past three-to-four years. Stars mean attention. Stars mean marketing. Stars mean credibility. Stars mean more exposure.
ROH paid Flair a lot of money to be a company spokesman. ROH needs that investment to pay off with or without Flair. Their survival depends on it after business peaked reaching only the Internet-based wrestling crowd.
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