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| Scenes from an e-fed Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Now, obviously, the winner at WrestleMania isn't going to be determined by who does better on promos (although if I were booking this as an e-fed, there's no doubt in my mind that Cena is the leader in the clubhouse right now), but it's fascinating to see matches being built on promo wars between wrestlers. Nominally, in the past, it has happened like this, but the rate limiting factor has always been television time. There was no way that, say, Dino Bravo and Kerry Von Erich would have gotten the time to go back and forth dynamically for their WrestleMania VII match, but today, that's more than possible thanks to online content.
Every week on WWE.com, there is exclusive content of people cutting promos that give more insight into things they did, things they're going to do and matches that are upcoming. Granted, the promo battle ethos is only starting to take hold there, but the important thing to note here is that the capacity is being explored now. K. Sawyer Paul has argued for at least half-a-year now that the website was now becoming the hub for everything storyline in WWE. While this isn't completely the case, the direction is going more and more towards the online driving the narrative. With that being the case, there's more and more of an impetus for wrestlers to come out with promo material on each other, replying almost in rap battle style.
Even pushing the boundaries more, we could see some pretty inventive and creative segments taking place here that might be too esoteric for live TV. WWE has great production values, and their recent Youtube initiative means they're not afraid to spend money on straight-to-the-Web content. Could this mean that someday, an entrepreneurial wrestler or writer will come up with a skit where a tag team heads to Dudleyville to shop for tables for a TLC match like I did back in the early days of A1E? Well, I'm not sure they'd go that far, but I wouldn't be surprised to see something analogous come into play sooner rather than later.
Obviously, Cena and Rock got to play their promo battle on the big screen because they're the WrestleMania main event. Other big matches will get that treatment as well, both this year and in the future. But for the undercard? We've been clamoring for a way to build up other guys outside of the main event, and what better place would there be for them to connect with the audience than through the Internet? It worked before for Zack Ryder, so why wouldn't it work for other talented guys? The tired phrase "Internet fan" is tired because EVERYONE's online now, and word of bandwidth is like word of mouth on steroids. I see no reason why it couldn't at least be explored. Granted, for every Zack Ryder, there'll probably be a shitty, Midcard Mafia type that is so dumb, but the best thing about the Internet is that popularity and metrics are so easily measured through play counters, likes and comments.
As the future of how wrestling is promoted unfolds, it's uncanny how much it resembles the e-fed culture. Since a lot of the better e-promotions out there have great depth of story and nuanced character BECAUSE of the unlimited potential, I can only see this as a positive. Just as television changed wrestling for the better in the '60s and beyond, the Internet now stands as the new arena for wrestling to grow creatively and become the next thing it needs to become in order to do more than just survive, but thrive. Mimicking the dorks who started doing it first in print and written word is the start, but usually, great ideas often are executed from words written down somewhere, whether on paper or in cyberspace.
