Let Players Play.
- The Commish
- Feb 20, 2017
- 5 min read
"Time off is a wrestler's worst enemy" -Ric Flair
Across the landscape of professional sports, the notion of resting your prime time players is becoming an oft-discussed issue. And why shouldn't it be? The amount of money usually invested into a high caliber athlete pretty much dictates it. Any opportunity to keep your athlete rested, ready and in his prime for as long as possible should be jumped upon and broken down.
Now, also throw in the idea of holding back said talent simply due to "not seeing a spot for them", or "wanting them to learn the proper system". You see it throughout baseball with their minor league systems, or even in the NFL where quarterbacks and other top-end talent are asked to wait and watch. It's an understandable thought process that helps chisel the multitude of bodies and minds into a team mentality. A lot of rookies are usually in their early 20's (if not in their teens) and have a distinct benefit of watching other players who have been honing their skills for years at the top level. In most pro sports it makes sense.
Not in pro wrestling's case, however. For a handful of reasons, wrestling is the perfect circumstance to let young talent fend for themselves. In a sport where the only way to truly succeed is to care about the business, most veterans would be happy to work with a promising young talent. To show a new generation both the "proverbial ropes" and how to operate inside the literal ones, is the "circle of life" that makes wrestling's cyclical nature seemingly never ending and fun.
And at the risk of sounding uncaring or cold, the amount of money that pro wrestling "owners" invest into talent is nowhere near the amount of money that talent receives in the top four American professional sports. Top-tier talent from the major sports receive contracts that are in the tens of millions of dollars a year, for what is essentially a five month season. "The standard" for pro-wrestlers is consistently working 3-4 nights a week and doing (and paying for) their own traveling for the entire calendar year. All while rarely (and I mean rarely) pulling in a base salary that approaches ONE million dollars. It's an undoubtedly a B-R-OODLE schedule, but one that is seemingly the oil that keeps a wrestler's engine purring.
The times you are concerned for a wrestler is when they encounter that first major injury (i.e. Finn Balor). Especially when that wrestler has not been considered injury prone his entire career. Operations on your knees, shoulders, or neck/back take time both physically and mentally to return from. And if you are a main event talent coming back to the ring after an injury, believe that the top brass are going to want to take baby steps when it comes to getting you back in the squared circle. Finn Balor fits this current situation perfectly. My hope is that they don't hold back this talent who is literally in the prime of his career, and has a chance to get over on a Daniel Bryan-like level. It's easy to pretend to know the whole situation regarding his current health, but judging by The Demon's Instagram account, this dude looks ready to go.
I feel Seth Rollins ran into this same situation this past year. After a bitchin' heist of the WWE Title at WrestleMania 31, Rollins' ensuing title reign was going great. However after blowing out his knee in a WWE live event in Dublin, Ireland against Kane, Rollins was forced to miss out on WM32 in order to "rebuild", "redesign", and "reclaim". Upon his return, a fresh looking Seth was looking to be well on his way to regaining that which he never truly lost. But after a HHH screwjob which lead to a Kevin Owens title reign (no real complaint here), and the die being cast for a Cerebral Assassin vs. Architect mega match at this year's WM, the WWE decided to take all of Seth's momentum and do the obvious thing with it:
Nothing. Well, nothing really. Lackluster feuds such as the one with Jericho, led to a handful of forgettable matches. Understandably, the WWE was keeping Seth ready to go for WrestleMania, but the cost for keeping him fresh ended up being too high. After a falling Coquina Clutch from a debuting Samoa Joe, Rollins did enough damage to the meniscus of his previously damaged knee to possibly keep him from wrestling in his second consecutive WrestleMania. (though an inevitable run-in against HHH still seems destined on the grandest stage of them all). Because of the WWE's mindset of keeping highly invested talent as bubble-wrapped as possible, all of that time, sweat and energy that Seth Rollins' had put forward to ensure that he was "ready to play", may all end up being for naught.
All of which leads me to NXT. For as wonderfully managed and booked that NXT is, this is one of my lone seen flaws. It's hard to see so much talent sit on the shelves while in the prime of their careers, only to wrestle two televised matches per month! World-class names such as Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Hideo Itami, and "Cien" Almas should be showcased at the very least, weekly. I honestly would not be bothered if you had to sneak them up to the main roster by having a few NXT matches on Raw or SmackDown. (NXT > CWC if we're being honest). With all of the different names building up underneath the WWE corporate umbrella, comes inherent dedicated TV time. It's really hard to find a spot where any of the previously named NXT talent would be considered stale or unwanted. Seeing these wrestlers as often as I do, they themselves seem a little stale or bored with their current situation. None of them chose the WWE to coast. They chose WWE to claim.
Look, the opening quote to this shoddy article is very well known in the wrestling community. And more than likely, Ric Flair is specifically referencing physical injury. But that doesn't mean it won't play across the board for the reasons I've discussed. The men and women in this industry have achieved their spot by being ready to go at the drop of a hat. Changing that routine effects them. Why not let them do it against (arguably) the greatest collection of wrestling talent that the world has ever seen?
So please WWE, give them a break if they want it. Sit them on the sidelines when they need it. Give them a damn vacation if they earn it. But when one of these excellent talents "demands the ball", regardless of what you have planned for them, you let them play.
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