Should there be a transfer system in wrestling?

[HollywoodDude]

All the soccer/football teams in the world honor a transfer system to acquire new players and for the most part it's done in peace although the fans may be upset with the loss of a star or talented player. Why couldn't the WWE/TNA/ROH/NWA/NJPW use w transfer program kinda like what the WWE and TNA have done with Flair at the HOF and

Spoiler

christan at slammaversery

. Imagine sting coming over just for a taker feud at a Wrestlemamia or Hardy getting a shot at Bryan while Ziggler gets a shot with Styles. WWE can borrow guys from ROH or NJPW like Tensai for a bit and when done or out of ideas just send them back for someone else. After a window of two or three years then they could have the option of buying the rights to the star like MLB teams do when purchasing pitchers from Japan.

[spear]

That would be awesome.

[The Industry]

The Territories died 30 years ago

[Stefan]

Because unlike football in which teams/companies are in a league, in wrestling they're all individual companies looking to make a profit for themselves. A football team can't play itself, but a wrestling company can have its own wrestlers fight each other. Back in the territory days they used to do that with guys travelling the territories, but that can't work anymore.

[Djm]

Why would Vince McMahon want to help another company?

[Jack Nichols]

Why would Vince McMahon want to help another company?

Because it could help the wrestling business, which could help his business.

But to answer the thread question, No.

[The Industry]

His business grosses like 500 million dollars a year. What is helping some Indies going to do for him? When he can just snatch up anybody he wants from them companies, because they work off suchy a low budget and usually can't doi contracts for over 6 months.

This idea wouldn't work unless companies get together and build like a 10 year planl, and even then they will still be trying to get out of the gates on a National level. But this is the wrestling business everybody would want to be Chiefs and nobody would want to be Indians.

As Vince said before "Promoters get together and the only thing they can agree about is they hate me. After that they can't agree on where to eat Lunch".

[Jack Nichols]

10 year plan huh?

I would stay away from TNA and ROH and other independents, but lets do business with Japan, Mexico.

[Engel]

Vince is not in the wrestling business. He is in the entertainment business. Hell, best thing that could happen to him would be for wrestling to die out so he can "redefine" it and control it.

[The Industry]

Now, that plan would be worst then the original post. Atleast Hollywood, is trying to build a territory, you're trying to build a company off of guys in Japan and Mexico, who probably make more money and would rather work with established companies like ROH and TNA, that have some kind of history of working with both.

Neither idea will work but Hollywood has you beat by a mile. Because his plan does go somewhere and does have a decent endgame, unrealistic, but decent all the same.

[Jack Nichols]

Why would it be so bad to build a bigger fan base in Japan and Mexico?

Hollywood has me beat by a mile??? Is this a competition? I think that you think it is and youre the referee.

[Engel]

Industry was appointed official forum referee in 2003. He is the only one with the true rules of PW.

Building a fan base in Mexico or Japan would be bad simply because of the translation issues. I am not sure about you, but most people do not get excited watching wrestling in a different language. Besides Vince is attempting to replace these markets.

[The Industry]

Nobody said it was bad. However the thread is about a plethora of companies working together. You have a better chance of expanding and making more money, if you use all the companies involved in a territory type system built around one Champion making the rounds to all the companies including Japan and Mexico.

However for this to catch on to the masses, you would have to have at least 50 million dollars to lose and don't expect to make a profit for atleast ten years, because exposure is going to be very hard, being that it's Pro Wrestling and not ran by Vince Mcmahon.

I'm aware that Hollywood's original plan involves WWE, but that is just unrealistic, it will never happen. Hell, their plan now is to buy up all the little companies now and use them as fillers for the WWE Network between WWE original shows.

It's kind of like what Engel said, in a few years all these companies will be nothing more then shows on WWE Network. Vince should have started this 10 years ago opposed to XFL, if he had Wrestling would still be hot and he would pretty much control the whole genre [ I know he pretty much does now] and able to build stars in an instant.

He had all the resources to start a second tier Cable Network when he went public in 2000, but he had this huge fetish with competing with The NFL and it fucked him up a while.

[UltimateSavior]

Transfer system?

Really marky, don't you think?

[System]

Why would WWE bother, anyone they want from the Indy's/TNA they just end up singing eventually.

[Classic Legend]

Even if something like this happened, Vince McMahon's strategy would be to eliminate the smaller wrestling associations by asserting creative control and determining booking to favour his performers. The backstage politics of this would run this concept into the ground quickly. And as some posters observed, McMahon's overarching goal is entertainment. Such a move would reduce the existing independent wrestling field to a farce and result in the WWE cannibalizing the other organizations.

[rzombie1988]

WWE can get anyone they want, so no need to do it. Mid South and Memphis traded talent before in the 80's and both ended up better off from it.

[Doc Wallaby]

Y'know what? Let's start with something small, really small. Like "Ric Flair appearing at the Hall of Fame in exchange for blah blah blah" small. I actually wouldn't mind at all if WWE and TNA, or ROH, or any other company made once-in-a-while one-shot deals where they would allow their guys to appear with another promotion for a night or a storyline. In fact, depending on how the deal is worked out (i.e. the guys who are brought in have to look strong, or the company has a controlling creative interest in how they are handled, etc.), it could actually do a lot for WWE's mid-card and lower-card guys who can't get a break in WWE, while gaining exposure for non-WWE talent (and allowing WWE to try them out before snatching them up).

Will it happen? Not likely. But it would help all involved and lead to a more interesting product overall.

[Lionheart]

A system like the one proposed here would of course be awesome for us and be something I would definitely want to see. There is a lot of good talent in TNA that would be great to see in WWE matches.

From a business perspective though, I don't think it adds up. Yes, having the extra talent could definitely potentially help the midcard in the WWE out. So could simply caring about the midcard more though. If they gave them actual booking and promo time and more feuds. Hopefully we'll see more of this once Raw goes three hours.

Anyway, despite the potential it has to improve the midcard, I think this is more than counterbalanced by the extra exposure this would give to TNA. It would get people more interested in them and get them more viewers. Eventually this extra exposure may even make them an actual competitor to the WWE, and that is the last thing they want.

As for a talent exchange with Mexico and Japan, this I see no reason not to do. They aren't direct competitors so there is no potential for a negative impact. WWE and NJPW have worked together awesomely in the past and I'm sure it could work again now. They brought in guys from Japan and sent their wrestlers over there and it was beneficial to everyone.

Translation issues are not a problem. Many American indy wrestlers go over to Japan and work with NJPW temporarily even now and the crowd loves it. As for people not getting excited to watch wrestling in a different language, well...nothing would be forcing them to watch NJPW just because, say, Randy Orton has a match there. It would just be something extra for people to see if they wanted to go out of their way to as a bonus. Many people, myself included, would be more than happy to see such matches and already watch a ton of puroresu anyway.

I can also only imagine how awesome it would be to see guys like Tanahashi or Thunder Liger appearing on WWE to challenge CM Punk or Daniel Bryan or even to help out the midcard, as Caedus said could be done with local talent exchanges.

[Todd]

In essence there is. The transfer system isn't really a system. Let me give you an example:

- Real Madrid enquire to Manchester United about the availability of their player, Cristiano Ronaldo, as they wish to sign him. Manchester United reply that they would be willing to let Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo negotiate a contract for his services, providing they are compensated with the sum of £80m. Real Madrid agree to these terms, come to a contractual agreement with Cristiano Ronaldo, and bingo. Cristiano Ronaldo moves from Manchester United to Real Madrid for a fee of £80m.

This isn't special to football, this is how contracts and compensation is negotiated in real-life. A hypothetical wrestling scenario, copied and pasted from the above exampled, and edited.

- WWE enquire to TNA about the availability of their wrestler, AJ Styles, as they wish to sign him. TNA reply that they would be willing to let WWE and AJ Styles negotiate a contract for his services, providing they are compensated with x amount of money. WWE agree to these terms, come to a contractual agreement with AJ Styles, and bingo. AJ Styles moves from TNA to WWE for x amount of money.