WWE: What Would Happen To Wrestling If Shut Down Tomorrow?

WWE has been the world's leading provider of pro-wrestling/Sports Entertainment for decades.  Their closest thing to a rival, WCW, was bought up by Vince McMahon, officially making him the most powerful man in wrestling history.

Vince and the WWE have been on top of the wrestling world for longer than I can remember.

Some say their stranglehold on the world market is good, while others say it is the worst thing to happen to wrestling.

Currently in the US, the WWE has no mainstream competition. 

TNA, WWE's closets competitor only does a fraction of the rating WWE pulls in, and Ring of Honor is still considered an indy promotion despite their stars moving on to WWE and TNA careers.

So I pose this question to you, what if WWE were forced to shut down tomorrow? 

What would happen to the wrestlers? What would happen to the fans? And what would happen to wrestling?

Let's say that WWE failed to pay their taxes and got shut down by the government, what would happen?

If WWE shut down their would be only one program each week devoted to wrestling, TNA iMPACT.

TNA originally garnered acclaim for promoting a faster paced style, while pushing younger wrestlers over the WWE and WCW veterans, who were no longer employed by Vince McMahon.

TNA has recently begun to develop the reputation of being the new WCW. 

They brought in Hogan and Bischoff, they hired a bunch of Hogan's friends and former WWE employees, and they changed the ring to a traditional four sided ring.

Some of TNA's original fans are upset to see guys like Daniels and Petey Williams get fired while RVD, Orlando Jordan and Jeff Hardy come into the company with immediate pushes.

So if WWE shut down, would TNA jump to grab their top talent, or would they try to build up their own once they had the spotlight soley on them?

Obviously, TNA would foam at the mouth at the chance to sign WWE's top stars like HHH, John Cena, Undertaker, Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio.

But would they be able to get them?

These guys have huge WWE paychecks, and I have the feeling that none of them would take a pay-cut, even if it meant not wrestling anymore. 

HHH would never work for another company based on family ties, but what if that family no longer ran a wrestling company?

What would happen to the fans? 

It is clear by the ratings that many of WWE's fans do not watch the TNA product.

TNA is filmed in a studio and only travels occasionally, which prevents fans from connecting to their favorite wrestlers at live shows.

However, if WWE shut down, I get the feeling that most of WWE's fans would give TNA a shot.  If TNA were the only game in town, fans would have to either watch TNA or nothing at all.

What would happen to wrestling? 

If WWE shut down it would be the end of the world's largest wrestling company, which means other smaller companies would have a chance to shine.

Despite Vince McMahon killing the territory system, there are still small independent promotions in existence all over the country. 

Booker T owns and runs his own small promotion, FCW is WWE's training ground, but also houses their own talent, and ROH is considered the best wrestling not on TV (I don't count their show on HDNET because it is not available to everyone.)

So what could these companies do to gain more attention? 

First, they would have to start by getting TV deals.

Without TV exposure these companies would only get fans from their shows, and most of these smaller companies do less than a thousand fans per event.

The second step would be to recruit WWE's castoffs.

If ROH scored Rey Mysterio or CM Punk, who have both wrestled for the promotion in the past, then they could gain some more mainstream attention.

The third step would be to decide if they wanted to go national or remain territorial like they are now.  A lot of the smaller promotions operate out of either one main venue or a couple in the general area.

The last question would be how the international promotions played into this. 

DGUSA has begun getting attention for their PPV events that are being broadcast in the US. 

Could this foreign promotion step up and take the spotlight if given the opportunity?

All these questions are of course hypothetical.

WWE is in no danger of shutting down, and most likely will never be in danger of shutting down.

But because they are so big, if it were to happen, it would have a detrimental effect on all of wrestling.

So what do you guys think, what would the world of wrestling be like without Vinnie Mac and his WWE empire?