A guiding light for current and aspiring professional wrestlers.
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When a pro wrestler walked down the street thirty years ago, people said, "Either he's a wrestler or the circus is in town." It was a tough man's business protected by a code of secrecy, even the most mild-mannered wrestler willing to pummel anybody foolish enough to question the credibility of the business.
Present-day, when even casual fans know the inner workings of the business and many pro wrestlers look like the kid who delivers your morning newspaper. The evolution of the business has allowed most wannabe wrestlers easy access into the business and little hope for success, until now.
The Professional Wrestler in the World of Sports-Entertainment by Matt Murphy provides the aspiring or current wrestler a guiding light as he pursues wrestling stardom.
Excerpt
Many great bookers like to work backwards. I’m going to use Wrestlemania for my example. I want a heel C.M. Punk to defeat Triple-H for the WWE Title in the main event. It’s a tough sell, because Punk doesn’t have that kind of star power yet, but I need to find a way to get him over as a Wrestlemania headliner between now and then.
I see the finished product: confetti showers C.M. Punk as he hoists the WWE Championship above his head while fans boo like crazy. Now I need to book backwards. The pay-per-view (which is a pain in the ass to type, so it is now PPV) before ‘Mania is No Way Out. I definitely need Punk to overcome his greatest obstacle here. Before that, in reverse order, is Royal Rumble, Armageddon, Survivor Series, Cyber Sunday, No Mercy, Unforgiven, Summerslam, The Great American Bash, and Night of Champions.
As I write this, I have ten PPVs to make C.M. Punk a heel who will draw as a Wrestlemania headliner. I know that I need to give him the Mania push, but before I do that I have to set his sights on the WWE Title. Before that, I need to give him a win over a babyface who is a former WWE Champion. Before I even do that, I will need to turn him heel. Before he turns, I will need to plant the seeds for his heel turn. Before I plant those seeds, I need to give him plenty of babyface momentum so his heel turn will mean the most. I have just set the world record for most times using “before” in a paragraph. Now that I’ve gone in reverse, I lay things out in chronological order.
First, he will win the U.S. Title in a three-way match against MVP and Matt Hardy at Night of Champions. I need MVP in the match to protect Punk from being booed against Hardy, whose popularity may be greater than Punk’s.
Next, I need him to be a good guy and gladly give Hardy a one-on-one rematch at The Great American Bash, since Punk is a fighting champion and can sympathize with the babyface ex-champ who lost a title even though he wasn’t pinned. They work a respectable match until Hardy takes a nasty spill to the floor. Punk could just take the count-out and keep his title, but he’s a babyface, so he’ll roll out and help Hardy back into the ring. Out of nowhere, Hardy hits the Twist of Fate to regain the title and goes back to selling his floor bump. Punk is visibly upset, but he lets the crowd talk him into begrudgingly helps Hardy to his feet after the match. This foreshadowing plants a seed for the heel turn because taking the high road bit him in the ass.
I will move Punk to Raw and put him in a feud with Chris Jericho (who should be a heel by that time) that spans two PPVs, Summerslam and Unforgiven, with Jericho winning the first bout and Punk winning the last.
I need to push him as an upper-card babyface, so he will become involved in a feud with Randy Orton. This feud will bring us to No Mercy, where he will show he’s almost in Orton’s league in a losing effort.
Punk won’t be satisfied with the loss. He’ll want one more match with Orton on Raw, which will end with JBL running in just as Punk is about to hit the Go To Sleep on Orton and surely get the win. Orton and JBL will double-team Punk until Triple-H makes the save, setting the table for my Cyber Sunday main event, Punk and Triple-H against Orton and JBL. Main-eventing him on a secondary PPV is the safe route and, regardless of its effect on the buyrate, is elevates him to main-event status.
Triple-H can barely stand after winning a brutal main-event match against John Cena in the main event of Survivor Series. Punk appears on the stage, eyeing Triple-H and the Money in the Bank briefcase. He slowly descends the ramp, but decides against cashing in and stealing an easy WWE Championship victory because he’s a babyface who is going to take the high road; he doesn’t want to become WWE Champion like this. I would also subtly create a little bit of a buzz for the possibility of Shawn Michaels vs. Triple-H at Wrestlemania at around this time.
The night after Survivor Series, Punk loses his Money in the Bank briefcase in a match. Now he’s really screwed himself. He could have just gone out to the ring the night before, laid across Triple-H, and became WWE Champ, but now he doesn’t even have the voucher to earn a title shot.
After a great pep talk from Shawn Michaels, Punk grins and bear it for now. When Michaels gets involved in a spat with Carlito and Santino Marella, he enlists the help of a happy-to-oblige Punk—or so it seems. During their tag match, Punk turns against Michaels, leading to their showdown at Armageddon. I do a 30-minute time-limit draw to show that Punk is a big-leaguer.
In the next few weeks, I would create a huge buzz for Michaels vs. Triple-H at ‘Mania, maybe with both of them stating that they would love to do it.
Punk earns the WWE Title shot by surprisingly winning the Royal Rumble, last eliminating Michaels. Punk gets to challenge for either the WWE or World Title at Mania.
Both Michaels and Triple-H want to square off at Wrestlemania. Triple-H says he dreams of stealing the show at Wrestlemania with Shawn Michaels and pleads with Punk to step aside, but Punk has a better idea. He will take on Michaels in a 60-minute Iron Man match at No Way Out. If Punk wins, then he wrestles Triple-H at ‘Mania. If Punk loses, then Michaels gets his ‘Mania match with Triple-H, but Punk can challenge for the WWE Championship at any time afterwards. I usually don’t like following through on previous stipulations, but given the WWE history of the Royal Rumble winner not challenging for a title in a one-on-one match at Mania, we’ll go with it. With no falls for either man, and five minutes remaining in the match, Triple-H comes to ringside and cheers Michaels. Inside 15 seconds left in the match, Punk ducks Sweet Chin Music and hits the Go To Sleep to get the first and deciding fall just before time expires. Punk retains his claim to the title shot.
During the next several weeks before Wrestlemania, Punk gets wins over former WWE Champions to give him a big push leading into Wrestlemania.
Now that Wrestlemania is here, we’ve built C.M. Punk as a main-event heel. His win over Michaels in the Iron Man match is what really makes him a star, but he also has wins over several other WWE Champions to make the fans buy him as a legitimate contender worth paying to see.
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