A GREAT WEEKEND FOR PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING, IS A NEW HOPE UPON US?

"Today is a great f***ing day for rock and roll." - Bon Jovi, 1989



Although my interest in Bon Jovi the band has waned in recent years as Jon Bon Jovi has become obsessed with buying an NFL team and guitar great Richie Sambora exited the band, there was a time where they were my favorite band in the world and from 1986-2001, I saw pretty much every tour they had in the NYC area.

In the late 1980s, the band released a VHS documentary of their "New Jersey" tour titled "Access All Area" and it showcased a lot of promotional propaganda that fans of that era, myself included, loved. For whatever reason, one scene has always remained in the forefront of my brain and that's the band, ready to go out and perform somewhere, at the height of their popularity (1989 was the year of Bon Jovi in the music industry, period) and the quintet, together, all yelling, "It's a great f***ing day for rock and roll!" as they prepared to go blow away another sold out Arena.

Well, professional wrestlers and rock stars are pretty much cousins when it comes to that wayward journeyman lifestyle, the last of the gypsies and my friends, this past weekend, to paraphrase the old school Jersey Syndicate, was a great f***ing weekend for pro wrestling.

I don't think it's speaking out of turn to say for a good part of the year, professional wrestling has been in something of a haze. WWE creative wasn't really sparking the engine. Lots of names that fans were invested in either walked out or suffered injuries. TNA talents were out the door and the company was obviously retracting inward with fewer live shows, fewer tapings and a very questionable future. ROH continued to move forward with new TV markets and even debuted on PPV, but those were small, measured steps. The independents, usually the home of the most zany, hardworking niche promotions, even seemed to be on a treadmill with the same core group of guys working the same combination of guys in different areas.

I'll be honest. I love professional wrestling and have since I first stumbled upon Roddy Piper confronting Mr. T on a "Hollywood set" in 1986 when I was trying to sneak a peek at Saturday Night Live and it's been a huge part of my life since that moment.

In 1992, I discovered the independent scene. In 1993, I started attending Raw at the Manhattan Center. In 1994, I went to the ECW Arena for the first time. In 1996, I began writing about it. In 2004, it became my full-time profession. I've been all over the country covering countless shows and interviewing countless personalities and recording endless hours of audio.

Wrestling has been a constant companion over pretty much my entire life since I was 12 years old and I have to admit, this year there were some weeks where even sitting through a three hour Raw in 2014 felt like I was waiting to walk The Green Mile. Chances are, I was not alone.

It's not a WWE problem per say, but a problem the entire wrestling industry has had in recent years. There's lot of reasons for it. Poor creative, thin talent pools, a lack of different styles out there for the masses to consume, fragmented attention spans thanks to the digital and social media ages, etc. There's lot of excuses and lots of people who try to logically break down why things are the way they are and how to turn back the clock. The reality is, the clock isn't turning back, no matter how much people miss the days of ECW/NWA/WCW/UWF/whatever you want to insert here.

But over the last few weekends, we've seen some signs of life, some small plants breaking through the surface and some some signs of hope that professional wrestling was going to freshen up a bit. Just look at some of the things that we've seen of late:

*The New Japan Tokyo Dome will air LIVE (!) on PPV and with Jim Ross (!) calling the action. Whether you want to believe Jeff Jarrett's GFW is going to be nothing but a vanity project or if you believe it's going to launch a new brand, the bottom line is that you can now watch one of the biggest shows of the year live, in your living room, for the first time ever.

*Gabe Sapolsky and Sal Hamoui's WWNLive runs it's first tour of China and in one night, brings in more fans to a Beijing Arena than TNA ever has in the United States and more than ECW ever did in any incarnation....and outdrew some recent WWE live event crowds. The tour looks to be the first of several in the next few years, opening up a huge market and revenue stream for WWNLive, which was fighting hard to bring fan interest to their product, despite a great crew of workers - and in the middle of the tour, their Roku channel finally launched after two years and thousands of dollars were sunk into the project.

*Tommy Dreamer's House of Hardcore runs the former ECW Arena and sells the place out to the point that they open up 200 standing room spots at the door for a show that sees a ton of surprises and real emotion alongside some great, FUN wrestling. It's the most energized that venue has been in many, many years. To make the honey pot even sweeter, iPPV numbers are so high, Dreamer is legitimately stunned, to the point he says on the house mic that it might be time to go worker harder and look for TV in 2015.

*Lucha Underground on the El Rey Network becomes the first promotion since ROH in 2002 to launch it's own unique product and self-contained universe (and on TV no less) that feels like a true alternative product with some kickass Lucha Libre, a telenovela feel and a forum for talents who have never had the chance to truly show anything (Ezekiel Jackson anyone?) to really shine.

*The same night as HOH, Jersey All Pro Wrestling returns to Rahway, NJ and draws 1,300-1,600 fans, selling the venue out for their first show in years. Promoter Frank Iadevia promises a March return to the venue. which now means the Rahway Rec Center will be the center of a promotional war between JAPW and Pro Wrestling Syndicate, which had been drawing in the 1,000-plus range for shows there. Like clockwork, little snide remarks are made between each side and an old school wrestling promotional rivalry commences. While there are negatives to such things for sure, it's also a way to get fans even more emotionally involved to each promotion.

*Ring of Honor's crowds are up, they continue to have great shows, they are adding new TV markets and they are bringing their biggest show of the year to a live PPV broadcast for the first time ever on 12/7.

*Pro Wrestling Guerrilla continues to put on blow-away, kickass shows on DVD from Reseda, CA, which is as close to a professional wrestling dream match party as we've seen in years.

*NWA Smoky Mountain brings in close to 2,000 fans for a show headlined by Rob Conway in Tennessee.

*Maryland Championship Wrestling draws three nice houses, including 1,000 in their home building this past weekend utilizing their local names like Black Wall Street and appearances from RVD, Lita, The Hardy Boyz, Ron Simmons and more.

*WWE debuts Finn Balor, who walks out looking every bit of the star for NXT that he appeared to be in New Japan Pro Wrestling. WWE then presents one of their best matches all year on Smackdown as Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and Dolph Ziggler tear it up in a match that was so good, it should have been on Wrestlemania. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are in main events and WWE even appears to be trying to regain the ground their own creative lost for Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper. Dolph Ziggler is even getting pushed! Plus, Kevin Steen is poised to debut.

*TNA, for all it's faults, continues to present some really good wrestling on Impact every week and certainly appears it's coming towards the light at the end of the tunnel. They certainly won't be as prominent as they were on SpikeTV, let's be frank. Given how they were drawing and how the product was doing, there's no the company needed to retool itself from the inside out. It appears that's the plan and let's hope it is, but until we know, the promise of a future is far better than the worrying that some of their talents have been going through,

*Promotions all over the United States have been pumping out good crowds and good matches. Wildcat Wrestling in Louisiana sells out their anniversary show. Northeast Wrestling does big numbers for their events in CT and upstate New York. House of Glory in Queens debuts in a big Jamaica, Queens venue and toplines the show with Low Ki vs. Ricochet in a tremendous match. CHIKARA is about to run their next iPPV and return to the former ECW Arena. Wrestling Cares is looking to do something again in California. There is A LOT of good stuff going on, as long as you want to pay attention and spend some time watching it.

*Hell, it was even Jim Cornette Day in Knoxville, TN yesterday!!

Jeff Jarrett said a few weeks ago that professional wrestling's next big boom period was close. I have no idea whether he truly meant it or if he was just trying to play promoter and hype, hype, hype (which, truth be told, is what his job should be in that role), but whether the last few weeks are simply an aberration or the constellations finally aligning for professional wrestling, there's certainly an uptick in interest and dare I say it, some hope?

For the sake of everyone who works in the professional wrestling bubble and for everyone who loves pro wrestling as much as I do...and even those lapsed fans who wish they could return but can't find something they like - I certainly hope we're looking at a new dawn. It could be. It could not be.

But either way, what a great f***ing weekend for professional wrestling.

Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com.

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