Chapter 2: Heel? Face? What’s that?
As Rob entered the interview room, he saw three men sitting across a table in front of him. They were all suited up and looked like the perfect example of a corporate businessmen. If they thought that they came off as intimidating and professional, then they would vomit blood if they knew what Rob thought of them as. In Rob’s mind only one word flashed at the sight of them - boring!!!
After seeing countless videos of Good Old JR and Stone Cold conduct interviews in their casual clothes in his previous life, watching these men sit across him in their suits made him want to yawn. While there were quite a few wrestling industry personnel who wore suits, whether it was Cody Rhodes, Triple H or Vincent Kennedy McMahon, they had the charisma to pull it off.
Watching these guys in front of him, only one person came to his mind. John Lauranaites...
Rob had to stiffle his urge to laugh at them. He, unhurriedly took the interview seat in front of them in a calm manner. From the side of his vision, he saw the one on the left purse his lips in dissatisfaction. He didn’t know what he did wrong to start off in the wrong foot already, but he resolved to himself to be careful with the interview. If one of the interviewers had a bad impression of him already, it would be hard to pass the interview.
The moment he realized that he could change the world of pro-wrestling, Rob ditched all his other plans and searched for a way to get into the pro-wrestling industry. Luckily for him, he didn’t need to search very hard.
Arena Wrestling Fraternity was on the lookout for personnel to join their management team. AWF was one of the oldest pro-wrestling companies in the country Rob was living in. Consequently, Longham City that Rob lived in was also a meeting ground of pro-wrestlers. It had two pro-wrestling companies - AWF and Longham Wrestling Center, also known as LWC.
AWF was a behemoth in the world of pro-wrestling with over twenty years of operation. They had filled out arenas and out sold other promotions within the country. While AWF had a long history of pro-wrestling, LWC was relatively new. They have been operating for a mere three years and we’re considered to be upstarts.
To every pro-wrestler, AWF was their ultimate goal. AWF fielded a roster of superstars who were well-known across the country. Consequently they had a bigger share of market than all the other pro-wrestling promotions. Almost all of their special events were sold out. From the onlooker’s perspective AWF was strong and unshakeable.
However, Rob didn’t think so. While it was true that AWF held a prestigious position, they were also like every other promotion out there. Every pro-wrestling promotion out there in this world followed the same formula when it came to booking their card. They had a weekly program of 120 or 90 mins based on the size of their roster. Every two or three month they doled out a special event to round up their booking.
A weekly program usually had five or six matches. Most of them were booked in the 1 vs 1 format. Very rarely was a 2 vs 2 match booked. And if they booked it, it was hyped up as the main event as they usually put two stars together instead of an actual tag team. In short, they followed the format of a boxing match or a MMA fight. When they deviated, they hyped it as a special and almost always booked it for the special event. This routine had been beaten to death.
Even that could be tolerated if they built a proper storyline. The extent of storyline building went as far as to a challenger challenging the champion. Nothing intense or even an attack angle was created. This basically created a dearth of storyline and in turn made it look like a choreographed fight. That was the main reason pro-wrestling was in such a slump.
AWF, being the behemoth, had two weekly events and one special event every two months. The roster was rotated between that to keep the freshness. Considering the number of wrestlers present, they could easily book matches for two years without repeating the same program. It kind of played into their advantage. So, they were not facing much negative impact due to over-exposure. And with internet just being in the budding stage, everything was rosy for them. Add to that they had weekly TV spot, they were truly set.