Will Another Wresting Company Rival WWE Anytime Soon?

Pro wrestling spans across the globe and features countless promotions from Australia to England to here in the United States. 

But every single wrestling company on the planet is looking up at the king of sports entertainment, the WWE. 

Ever since WCW fizzled out of existence and was bought by the WWE in 2001, Vince McMahon’s company has had a monopoly on the business. It’s the WWE and then everyone else. 

Yet, the question will always be there: Can and will anyone rival the WWE in the foreseeable future? 

Some claim that TNA and ROH already are. To those people, I say please check into a mental health facility. No one comes close to Vinny Mac’s company. 

McMahon is the emperor and the WWE is his empire, the biggest wrestling empire in the world. 

At this particular moment, there are no challengers. There are no No. 1 contenders that are capable of knocking the WWE off its high horse with one swift punch.

Yet there are two companies that do have a chance, however minimal it may be, of overthrowing Vince McMahon and the WWE and taking a seat in the pro wrestling throne after a gradual rebellion. 

TNA is like a small rebellious group that is on the cusp of becoming something bigger, but lacks the right leadership to do so. 

There are too many generals trying to run TNA’s army. 

Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Dixie Carter, the folks at Panda Energy (TNA’s parent company), Bruce Prichard, Dave Lagana among others are all trying to control the company. 

Do you know what happens when there are problems at the top? They trickle all the way down to the bottom. 

There is no clear sense of leadership or direction in TNA. As a result, you see a lack of fluidity in storylines, far too many start-and-stop pushes, rushed angles, pushes of wrong superstars, so on and so forth. 

A machine is only as good as its parts, and TNA’s parts can’t seem to work together. 

As a result, Impact Wrestling’s ratings haven’t hovered much above that 1.0 range. Think that’s competition for the WWE?

News flash: TNA has to bump that 1.0 up to a 2.0 and then that 2.0 up to a 3.0 before it can even be mentioned in the same category as the WWE. 

The likelihood of that happening isn’t very good, either. Although TNA has the resources, including a huge financial backer in Panda Energy, the company has made huge moves—such as bringing in some of the biggest names in wrestling history like Hogan and Ric Flair—that have had little to no impact, or have even set the company further back. 

If ratings have spiked, it’s only been periodically. The company also reportedly has financial problems and is still not turning a profit. 

That’s a far cry from what the WWE has been able to accomplish over the last 10-plus years. 

McMahon’s company is raking in millions, and it continues to do so year after year, even when its major superstars retire or move on to other ventures. 

The WWE has been able to replenish its talent in large part because it pries talent away from an up-and-coming wrestling company known as Ring of Honor. 

Names like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Evan Bourne honed their skills in ROH prior to joining the WWE. WWE’s developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, is chock full of former ROH names. 

The WWE’s talent purge of ROH, in turn, has led to speculation that ROH, not TNA, is the company that could rival the WWE in the near future. 

Yet, like TNA, ROH has its fair share of problems. 

Though ROH is now under the ownership of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the company does not have the national reach that TNA and WWE have. 

TV viewership for ROH is much more limited than TNA is on Spike or the WWE is on USA and SyFy. ROH’s pay-per-views are also relegated to the Internet. 

Although ROH has made strides to increase its national profile, it appeals more to specific types of wrestling fans, such as those who prefer more high-risk styles, who want more wrestling than storylines and who are simply looking for a change from the WWE style of wrestling. 

The problem is that ROH lacks the entertainment value that appeals to a wide array of demographics, and thus, ROH has become limited in its scope. It’s developed a cult following because of its entertaining matches that often see wrestlers kick out of multiple finishers. Beyond that, it lags behind the WWE in most other categories. 

Perhaps most importantly, though, ROH and TNA continue to lag behind the WWE because of one thing: marketability. 

When’s the last time you saw a Davey Richards shirt for sale at Wal Mart? How about the last time you saw Matt Morgan on a 7/11 cup? 

Never, right? 

The WWE is everywhere, and that’s largely because it is a globally recognized brad. Neither TNA nor ROH fits that bill. 

No matter how talented the TNA and ROH rosters are, it’s all about rivaling the WWE in terms of marketability. I just don’t see that happening in the near future. 

When TNA or ROH can appeal to such a wide enough demographic that it pops up in video games, national TV shows, stores, etc., then its recognition and popularity will grow and it may be able to increase its national profile. 

Until then, the WWE will be king and will sit comfortably in its throne.

Note: As part of the new WWE blog, I'll be asking all of the B/R wrestling readers for questions for a new mailbag that I will post on Fridays. It will be a slideshow featuring 10-to-20 questions and answers on a wide range of topics. You can submit questions either through Formspring or Twitter, and the best ones will be answered in the B/R mailbag.