The Wilpon Family: A New Wrestling Promotion in the Works?

The Wilpon family, who own the New York Mets, are reportedly interested in getting into the wrestling business.

Wrestlezone is reporting that the family has made some pretty big strides in their attempt at getting in, at this point collecting such names as Sean Waltman, Scott Steiner, Shane Douglas, Larry Zbyszko, and even Vader.

This so-called start-up group of the Wilpon family has supposedly already signed these names to contracts, and has approached some unnamed Ring of Honor wrestlers. It’s also being said that the group has interest in some “disgruntled” TNA workers.

Chris Jericho has also supposedly been contacted through “mutual friends.”

The contracts already signed reportedly do not go into effect, and no one will begin getting paid until around October or November. The group will shop its product first as a reality show, then flesh it out into a real wrestling promotion.

To be honest, I’m really not sure how to take all of this sudden interest in the formation of a possible fourth big-time U.S. promotion.

The fact is, if we’ve learned anything as fans, we know that throwing money at the business does not necessarily equal long term success.

Just look at WCW.

Ted Turner’s deep pockets funded a company who pushed the WWE back on its heels, causing the eruption of the Monday Night War. This was undoubtedly one of the most exciting times to ever be a fan in the history of the business, as both companies vied for fan support and ratings.

No one can argue the success of WCW in the beginning.

But, just because the company was backed by Turner’s millions did not mean that it was going to work at all.

Instead of recruiting wrestling people to be in charge of the talent, Ted brought in his friends, namely Jim Herd, a restaurant executive who knew nothing about the business, to run the locker room.

Having money does not always denote having intelligence.

It’s very early to being jumping to any conclusions about where this story may or may not go, but seeing as how all we have are a few details to go on, all we can do is speculate.

If the time is right, if this group brings in the right people to be in control of this promotion, and if they sign some big names, who knows? The landscape of the business may indeed change.

And that’s great news, as competition is good for the business and for the fans.

My only real concern is, as with anyone who dares to challenge Vince McMahon, will this new company be truly competing for a real shot at the top, or only to come in a distant second?