Why WWE Didn't Get a Promotion of the Year Nomination

Part of the reason why WWE didn't get a nomination
Photo Credit: WWE.com

When I announced the Bloggie Award nominations, one of the main criticisms I faced was in the category of "Promotion/Brand of the Year". Even though most of the nominees for the individual awards were from WWE, the promotion itself nor any one of its individual brands were not nominated for that award. Commenter Blackhart23 had the biggest issue, putting this reason out there:

WWE has a higher volume of programing than any of these indy shows, and your arguable opinion of them getting more wrong then right is a consequence of this. They have two shows that air for two hours each every week, in which they fill it up with story advancing segments and good matches. I guarantee if any of these other shows had the same platform you would see a lot more “wrong than right” as well.

That's fair. WWE does have a lot more programming than the average indie promotion. Let's take a look at a comparison between WWE and Chikara. WWE, including NXT, Superstars and PPVs, produces over 350 hours of programming a year. Chikara clocked in at 80 hours, give or take a couple. PWG clocked in with even less. Of course they don't have to fill as much time as WWE does. Is that a handicap? All things equal, yes it is.

That's the key phrase though, all things equal. That's assuming that Chikara and PWG have access to the same caliber of roster, the same booking team, the same resources etc. While these indies have an "advantage" in the economy of time, it's a laughable one compared to the advantages WWE has. WWE's revenue for a single house show dwarfs the amount of money that Chikara brings in for an average weekend doubleshot. Their advertising reach is global, while Chikara struggles to gain a foothold in even its strongest markets. WWE is seen as THE goal for most wrestlers, while Chikara is a means to an end. Maybe the most significant example, in WWE, booking/writing is a full-time job done by people whose sole duty it is to create content. Furthermore, there's a team of writers so that responsibilities can be delegated. In Chikara or in most other indie feds, that responsibility falls to a guy who often wears several hats. Mike Quackenbush is not only the booker, but he's the trainer, the promoter and oh yeah, one of the most visible wrestlers they have. All of those things more than make up for any "disadvantage" that WWE has in terms of having more time, which again, is a laughable thing to call a disadvantage. One might think that if they had more time, they'd have more opportunities to write different stories, or at least farm blocks of time out to different writers or bookers so that everyone had a clear narrative. That isn't the case.

If it were only a case where the highs were as high as what we saw in July and August and the lows were just lull shows where nothing happened by design, then yeah, maybe the detractors of this decision would have a point. However, some of WWE's programming this year has been actively awful. Let's go back to August at SummerSlam and what followed a torrid summer that should have carried WWE back into a relevance they haven't enjoyed culturally since their heyday in the late '90s. How did they follow up the Summer of Punk 2: PUNK HARDER!? With Kevin Nash and Triple H shitting up the main event scene. Couple that with how overtly misogynistic their booking of women has been, and no one can tell me that their shortcomings only came from being harangued by the sheer amount of show they've had to produce. If Chikara had the quota WWE had, it'd be reasonable to say from their sample size that they'd still produce something memorable, even if it wasn't concentrated into the awesome packet it was with their shortened slate. If WWE had condensed their programming, it's arguable that Kevin Nash and Triple H still would have shat up the place, and that Kelly Kelly would be promoted as the best women's wrestler they had despite the fact that she's awful in every aspect of her game except looking pretty.

And another thing, is the content load that these writers are tasked with producing in WWE overrated? How many times is RAW laden with recaps, video packages, movie trailers and glorified commercials? Add that to the fact that most indie promotions run their shows with only 15 minutes of intermission in the middle, while WWE has commercials galore on its television programming, and the numbers get closer than what is advertised.

In closing, I don't think the argument that "WWE has more programming!" is a valid one. They have what they have with their resources and indie promotions have the same. Their lots are cast, and really, it's not unfair to compare quality against quality because there are so many other factors that equalize the situations. The fact is that WWE didn't do the best at maximizing the artistic and entertainment value in their promotion or individual brands that NWA Hollywood, Dragon Gate USA, Anarchy Championship Wrestling and especially Chikara Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla did. They could have had all the time in the world or not nearly as much as they did have, and I'm fairly confident the situations would have remained fairly similar.