Ring Ka King vs WWE Network

[Jordan]

This thread is about two concepts that the two successful wrestling promotions in the U.S have conceived to rise to the next level of awareness with wrestling fans. For the WWE they have already announced and retracted an opening date for WWE Network, an attempt to run historical and new WWE programming 2/47 to a membership audience. Ever dreamed of watching WWE 24/7? What wrestling fan hasn't, well now it's your chance. WWE has the largest library in wrestling history claiming ownership over every major promotion since the invention of TV, except Mid-South/UWF. As well as the history of the business we all spend so much time studying and enjoying, WWE will offer new programming that will bring current stories to a new level with Sports Center style recap shows, individual Superstar specialty show's that could bring a specific person to a new level of fame, as well as reality shows that could be the best Trash TV in the world for a wrestling fan. Now this is all supposed to start by the end of the year, and thank God. Thank God WWE didn't pull the trigger on this monster too early, as nobody who supports WWE wants to see the Network fail, as it would surely (don't call me...) be a big step back for the company in a number of ways, financial being one of them.


That brings us to Ring Ka King, a creation of TNA and masterminded by Jeff Jarrett who is working with Dutch Mantell, Dave Lagana, Sonjay Dutt, and Jeremy Borash on the creative side. The company is funded by Endemol a gigantic international television distribution company. For assured success Ring Ka King has it's own Indian wrestlers who have been trained by Savio Vega at Ohio Valley Wrestling. The promotion has two hours a week of original programming in a 13 or 14 week season. One hour long episode airs on Saturday, and another on Sunday. Over half of the stars of the promotion are recognizable as former/current WWE/TNA Superstars. The interesting thing about the promotion is that India seems to have little to no exposure to the wrestling business therefore guys like Harry Smith and Chavo Guerrero, or Scott Stiener and Sonjay Dutt have no ground to be compared too. The Indian people are for the most part not familiar with their prior work. So they are not bringing in talent on name value, just talent and character, many of which are much different than what you know from WWE. For instance Bulldog Hart (DH Smith) and Chavo Guerrero have formed a tag team based on the thought that they belong to the two greatest wrestling families in history, and will team up to take the Ring Ka King Tag Team Tournament, become the first Tag Champs.

The most interesting thing that stands out to me about Ring Ka King is the ratings they have drawn... the first episode did a 2.2, that's more than TNA draws in the U.S and just a bit less than WWE for Smackdown or Raw. What's even more impressive is that a 2.2 in India is an estimated 14 million viewers. In comparison WWE did 4.62 million viewers in the U.S last week for Raw. Due to the huge ratings Colors TV have put Ring Ka King on an after school time slot in 30 minute episodes Monday - Thursday. It is worth note that the second week of episode's drew a smaller 1.71 rating.

WWE plans to use a Cruiserweight style show on their WWE Network, as well as promises of more live wrestling each week. Perhaps they could air FCW tapings, or new tapings with WWE superstars. They will also build superstars to another level with entertainment based tv shows that go beyond the ring. They will have a forum to air WWE Film's projects that no longer make significant money in rentals or DVD sales, as well as 24/7 promotion of Raw/Smackdown and PPV's.

Ring Ka King is building a business in a gigantic market that seems to be hungry for wrestling. The style is basic, the characters are stereotypical and simple, but with their ad's and huge ratings are surely (...hey what did I say) making some big money. In addition to creating a new market for wrestling, they are giving opportunities for deserving and unused talent to make money, evolve, and entertain. TNA can send younger more inexperienced talent to Ring Ka King to develop their character or skills in less demanding environment as far as work rate and complex characters go. They can work on the basics.

I hope you watch Ring Ka King a few times, it's not going to blow you away with amazing Artistic Combat, but it's easy to follow and different. Kind of like stepping back in time. And I await as do the rest of you to day where we can watch WWE network to see Roddy Piper juggling coconuts and Mean Gene smoking cigar's, followed by some Cruiserweight action, with an evening of AWA to follow.