Too Much Negativity in the IWC. Let's Fix That.

Let me level with you for a moment: there's way too much negativity in the Internet wrestling community. Granted, (1) I am a member of said community, and (2) if you look around mainstream wrestling these days, a lot of that negativity is justified. That doesn't mean there aren't good things happening in wrestling these days, because there is. Sometimes you have to sift through the bad. For every Total Divas, there are two women, one of whom isn't old enough to drink alcohol legally yet, busting their ass in a championship match that doesn't go two or three minutes. For every Aces and Eights, there's a threesome whose athleticism or charisma overwhelms you so much you cannot help but watch. And for every champion with "the look", there's athletes that prove that looks aren't everything.

In other words, there's good out there in this crazy, mixed up world of professional wrestling. My job: to find the good in the bad and ugly, while still pointing out the bad and ugly. It's a compliment sandwich. What's a compliment sandwich? We turn to the great and powerful Urban Dictionary:

The use of strategically placed compliments to buffer an otherwise abrasive remark. These compliments should surround the unpleasant remark, preventing the recipient of the compliment sandwich from becoming insulted.

So that's what this blog thing will do. Say unpleasant things about wrestling while surrounding them with pleasant things about wrestling.

With that in mind, I'm going to embark on a somewhat unusual mission: I'm going to watch some of the worst PPVs in wrestling history and attempt to say nice things about them. Today: WOW Unleashed from 2001. This was David McLane's latest attempt at the time to get women's wrestling over in America. Long-time wrestling fans may know McLane as the founder of the original GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) in the 1980s. Also an owner of the original WOW: Mrs. Phil Jackson, Jeannie Buss.

Despite gaining a somewhat decent following in attendance and viewership (their shows were the top rated wrestling programs in New York and Los Angeles. Now if you're beating the WWF in America's two biggest cities, you're doing something awesome), the advertising market and the declining economy ended their ride less than six months after their debut broadcast. They taped 24 one-hour episodes and the PPV.

The PPV may have been the death knell for the company as it suffered from technical difficulties and a low buyrate. More people watched the event from the Great Western Forum than at home (approximately 8,000 PPV buys against about 9,500 in attendance). The cold reception from the PPV got many television stations to get cold feet about the show and many simply pulled the plug. Just a month after the PPV, WOW ceased production, only for it to resurface--yet again--late last year.

Watch for the next post as I try...really, really hard... to say nice things about WOW Unleashed.