Wrestling, the Sport of Broken Kings: Why WWE Needs an Offseason

A wrestler makes his/her living from being slammed onto an unforgiving mat night after night.  They get little to no time off during the year. 

A baseball player gets about four months to rest his weary body receiving about 100 percent less chair shots. 

Creating an offseason in WWE is a hard sell. There would be fewer pay-per-views, fewer house shows, less money. 

Vince McMahon would lose the color in his face just thinking about it.

In the long run, though, I believe it will be better for the sport. Wrestling is hell on the body. I wonder how many careers could have gone on longer had the superstars been given a few months every year to recover.

Would Edge have been forced to retire so young? How much longer would Steve Austin's career been?

Wrestling success has always depended on the popularity of its superstars. We've seen some of our best leave early in no small part to the beating these folks take. Imagine the landscape of the WWE with Edge, the Rock and Brock Lesnar still around.

I know the Rock may have chosen Hollywood regardless of some rest every summer, but it would have made his choice much more difficult. He obviously loves the sport, coming back now even after all his success.

Currently WWE uses storylines to write in time for surgeries and injury recovery. Rey Mysterio is probably playing Xbox with his kids right now, letting his knees rest.

But aren't there plenty of people on the roster who could use some time off?

In addition, perhaps the lessening of our yearly dose of wrestling will heighten our enjoyment of it.  Fans get giddy in anticipation of the NFL season returning. 

Having less Raw and SmackDown shows annually may serve to crank up our appreciation.

I propose (if you are listening Mr. McMahon) that we begin the wrestling season in August and end it in April.  SummerSlam could kick things off after a few weeks worth of build up on the weekly shows.  The Road to WrestleMania would take on another meaning altogether.

The four big boys, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, SummerSlam and WrestleMania could still occur at basically the same time that they have traditionally.

It's not like most of us can afford to order 13 pay-per-views a year anyway.

During the offseason, WWE could mimic how other sports operate during downtime by giving us offseason storylines, interviews and analysis.

In no other sport do we expect the athletes to take such a beating for so long.  WWE would surely be afraid that during an offseason Ring of Honor and TNA would pilfer their audience.  Maybe they would at first.

But if McMahon were to blaze that trail, other wrestlers in other promotions may start to demand the same luxury.

Rejuvenated wrestlers may perform at a higher level more consistently.  More sustainable careers means us having to say goodbye less quickly and less often.  Young stud athletes choosing between sports may be more inclined to take up wrestling.    

What does WWE have to lose?  Money, lots of it.

But what they (and we) could gain is a far superior product.