MR. TITO: Wrestling Promotions Thrive with Great Leadership and Management Teams in Place
If you’ve been following the sporting news online lately, you’ve been witnessing the apparent corruption that has happened at the FOX Sports 1 channel involving Executive Vice President of Content Charlie Dixon and the alleged ongoing affair he had with producer and eventually host Joy Taylor. Very similar to what shook up the WWE during January 2024, a lawsuit was dropped by a former stylist who dropped a bunch of bombshells and allegations in a 42 page suit that can be read publicly. It alleges that Dixon and Joy began a romantic affair and it helped elevate her career from a lower level back-up to other talents to getting a premier spot on Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe’s Undisputed debuting show out of no where. Then, she goes from just being an on-screen producer to becoming a commentator and host on another show.
It’s highly entertaining, if you haven’t followed it… FS1 initial grew, but their viewership has since fallen off a cliff and that affected WWE Smackdown when it appeared on that network.
But this mirrors exactly what the WWE has been enduring for the past 20 years… Vince, like allegedly with FS1’s Charlie Dixon, was trading favors for sexual activities. The recent lawsuit of Janel Grant against WWE and Vince was exactly that. She was someone he befriended, hired to join WWE, and then suddenly gave massive promotions to in a brief period of time. Janel was NOT the first person that this happened to with favors being given for promotions. The WORST NDA case that Vince ever had was during the mid-2000s when a female pro wrestler was promised a push for oral sex and afterward, Vince wanted more favors before he considered that push. When she refused, Vince depushed her character and that led to her leaving the company through 2005.
What always happens when you have a TOXIC leader at the top? The wrong people get promoted, the behavior of the top executive has become impaired, and the quality of the overall company declines. Why? Because other employees are looking for the leader for LEADERSHIP and NOT immoral behavior or complete incompetence.
It’s no secret that since the early 2000s, the WWE has declined from the Attitude Era powerhouse that they once were. Then, when Vince McMahon “retired” through June 2022, the quality of the WWE programming has since significantly improved. Things wobbled a tad when Vince returned during 2023, but Endeavor quickly pushed him away from the Creative Team and WWE began to grow and thrive again during the latter half of 2023 through Wrestlemania season of 2024. Now, look at the WWE… Just KILLING IT with their new Netflix deal earned from the product that Triple H has been managing since June 2022.
Vince McMahon was impaired following the big 1998 boom… He couldn’t get enough of the fame and shoved more McMahon-oriented storylines down our throats during 1999-2002 and the product hit its peak during late 1999 and declined ever since. Then, as more and more of his great management team (Vince Russo, Jim Cornette, Jim Ross, Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco) began to leave him and were replaced with total enablers, such as John Laurinaitis in particular (named in Janel Grant’s lawsuit), WWE has been rotting for much of the 21st century. Vince, without much support to help him, became the ultimate micro-manager and his impaired sexual thinking affected who received pushes and who didn’t. That, or thinking about sexually harassing females took up more of his energy than thinking about creative or how to use a talent properly.
The 2010s, in my opinion, were the most frustrating timeframe for me as a wrestling fan and it was all led by an impaired and micro-managing Vince McMahon who had other things on his mind while EVERYONE in the office and backstage at wrestling events probably had their doubts and lack of confidence in Vince. For example, Cody Rhodes being stuck in the “Stardust” gimmick with zero ways out of it, overpushing Charlotte Flair over everyone, thinking a scripted Roman Reigns as a babyface clone of John Cena would work, or poorly evaluating any NXT call-up. Vince wanting to be in total control proved that he was paranoid about the lifestyle he was living and his ego created a falsehood of invincibility for him.
Now, look at the WWE… You’ve got Triple H and Nick Khan in charge, both highly respected guys who aren’t chasing tail around the office as Vince was. No NDAs on those two individuals and the culture in the WWE has significantly proved. The ramping up of quality that you see on-screen is because of BETTER LEADERSHIP, make no mistake about that.
And WWE has a more experienced Triple H who is no longer wrestling… Pull away the competitiveness of being a wrestler and stop taking those “vitamins” to look the part of a wrestler, and suddenly, he’s a competent and trustworthy guy focused on giving us a great WWE product. Not only that, but Triple H is a nurturing and empowering leader of others. He’s not micro-managing everything that his reporting SVPs and VPs are doing along with the Creative Team. HHH is approving their ideas and decisions, while encouraging them to take charge on certain things without his permission. Look at Shawn Michaels who is thriving now that he’s empowered to operate NXT as he sees fit and the supporting management there are thriving too because of the cultural shift. WWE employees have more freedom than ever and they are happier than ever, too.
This is what baffles me about All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Tony Khan should be the owner and not the manager of everything. He shouldn’t be the micro-manager of everything, too. Tony is incompetent as a leader and lacks the strength to appear like a real boss. No, he reportedly parties with the talent and thus has lowered himself to their level instead of being above them. Then, his culture lets things get leaked to dirtsheets, allows wrestlers to go unscripted on shows or at media scrums, and then allows for 3 Executive Vice Presidents to storm into a talent’s locker room for a physical confrontation.
There’s a reason why Cody Rhodes and CM Punk struggled in Tony Khan & the Young Bucks’s system, while both are THRIVING in Triple H’s revamped system.
Look how messy the Jacksonville Jaguars climate is right now. The Khans have empowered Trent Baalke, who had issues messing up the 49ers organization before the Khans brought him on during 2020. Utter disaster and the Khans are fully backing Baalke as if he’s not the problem with the culture he’s put in or the coaches he’s hired. Surely, if the Khans can’t operate a NFL team or a soccer club well enough, how can they be trusted to manage a wrestling company?
Let me give you some other examples of top-down leadership going wrong…
I’ve said this repeatedly about Eric Bischoff… The manager we saw from early 1993 through November 1996 was amazing and set up WCW for success to occur from mid-1996 through mid-1998. Bischoff cut costs, focused on improving the brand, changed creative to more reality-based storylines, created the NWO, made great signings… Then, during November 1996, Eric Bischoff traded his executive managerial role to become “one of the boys” when his on-screen character did a heel turn and joined the New World Order. Then, all of his focus went from managing talent, overseeing creative, and other quality control measures to keeping NWO/Hulk Hogan strong no matter what, even when both were becoming obsolete.
A REAL leader would have stared down Hulk Hogan and said “you are losing 100% clean to Sting tonight at StarrCade 1997, whether you like it or not. You creatively agreed to that before the show and that was your creative control’s assessment of the match, NOT how you’ve changed your mind tonight! You’re probably making $1 million tonight, get over it!”. But no, Bischoff acquiesced to Hulk Hogan and agreed to have the finish of Sting vs. Hogan changed. By the Spring of 1998, Hulk Hogan was WCW Champion again and NWO wasn’t going away. When we thought NWO’s days were numbered, he reunited the group at the embarrassing first Nitro of 1999.
By 1998, much of the younger WCW talent wanted out. The Giant (Paul Wight) took a deal with WWE during early 1999 while Chris Jericho bolted later that year. Meanwhile, all of the veterans of the NWO stable, which Eric Bischoff represented and many other veteran wrestlers feuding with them, all received massive contract extensions. As revenues dropped, those higher talent expenses really began to eat into WCW’s bottom line and by March 2001, the company closed its doors and sold to the WWE for less than $5 million while all of those high expense contracts were swallowed by AOL/Time Warner.
Paul Heyman is a Creative guy, NOT a money guy. That was Tod Gordon who left through the Spring of 1997. And wouldn’t you know, ECW began falling apart when Heyman became in charge of finances and many checks bounced. While many ECW performers loved their experiences inside the ring, many of them have legitimate hatred for how much money several are still owed from their ECW tenure. Not easy taking big bumps and then starving afterward because you’re not getting paid.
I’m a big fan of Jim Cornette as a contributor to pro wrestling and feel that he easily has the BEST podcast around. But sorry, you cannot slap another human being as a promoter. This happened with Santino Marella at WWE’s Ohio Valley Wrestling developmental system as Santino was seen laughing hysterically at the Boogeyman gimmick. Marella was slapped repeatedly backstage and this incident was witnessed by many younger WWE developmental wrestlers. Sorry, mistakes at a workplace should NEVER merit physical violence towards another human being. Marella had opportunity to retaliate in self-defense, but opted to file a workplace complaint instead that led to Corny leaving the OVW promotion.
From Cornette’s side, WWE’s executive corruption with John Laurinaitis now in charge of Talent Relations were causing issues with his OVW promotion. I’ve heard this backed up from a few OVW talents from that timeframe and they agreed it was a tense timeframe to work there. Many were not looking forward to working on the main roster based on how other OVW wrestlers were poorly used.
See, the toxicity can spread and make everyone miserable… But you still shouldn’t slap someone. Any other larger wrestler probably would have retaliated and we wouldn’t have 2 great podcasts per week to enjoy.
Dixie Carter was completely incompetent as a leader and easily swayed or influenced by others to further place TNA on the wrong path. Many key managers left TNA and she thought that bringing on Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff during the early 2010s would fix things. Nope… I guess she didn’t watch what happened to WCW just 10 years before that.
Since Dixie’s exit, TNA/Impact have had other leadership issues, even formal complaints and maybe lawsuits filed. What was the end result for most of the 2010s and early 2020s with TNA/Impact Wrestling? Low quality wrestling and they had terrible television deals since. Lately, with a change in leadership, they are getting more focused and are working with WWE’s great NXT leadership team. TNA seems to be on the right path.
Never liked NWA operated by Billy Corgan, as again, leadership skills are needed for a successful wrestling promotion. Look at all of the drama with the Smashing Pumpkins band and if you cannot manage bandmates, how can you manage pro wrestlers?
You can keep going back further… Fritz Von Erich pushed his boys hard and probably a little too hard, while looking the other way on many growing problems.
Many, many other tales of wrestling promoters getting corrupted and failing their territories that are out there or that Dark Side of the Ring has already covered.
Pro wrestling works when the leadership at the top is respected, period, whether that is based on character, competence, or empathy with their talents.
Since 2022, WWE has grown with their leader Triple H while AEW has been in chaos with Tony Khan.
CM Punk and Triple H had NUCLEAR HEAT through late 2014 when Punk went on Colt Cabana’s podcast and trashed HHH hard. Yet, CM Punk is thriving in Triple H’s culture right now after being greatly harmed and pushed to the edge by Tony’s AEW culture.
Tony Khan could INSTANTLY improve AEW today by converting the Bucks into just in-ring talents, and then turning around and hiring a competent management team to complement him. Then, Tony could just be the company owner and let competent leaders help his company grow. UNLIKE Vince McMahon, Tony Khan appears to be a nice guy and well liked by most talents. However, he’s in the FRIEND ZONE instead of being perceived as the BOSS.
Oh, and Tony should never take another phone call from Dave Meltzer. If you want to talk about “toxic”, that guy has more than proven his character on Twitter/X. He’s aggressively confrontational with anyone whose tastes & preferences do not match his love of New Japan and California indy workers who name moves after him.
Seriously, do you think that any wrestler has faith in Tony Khan with him being influenced by Dave’s ideas or suggestions?
WWE is winning because they have better leadership in place. Triple H and Nick Khan have saved their company from the mediocrity that a compromised Vince McMahon caused them.
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