{"id":170,"date":"2012-12-09T20:22:08","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T02:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/?p=170"},"modified":"2012-12-18T16:53:10","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T22:53:10","slug":"tales-told-in-the-mid-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/?p=170","title":{"rendered":"Tales Told in the Mid-card"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The mid-card can make or break a wrestling promotion.\u00a0 When done well, it resembles a vibrant, diverse coral reef; the young can be nourished and protected by it, the old can seek refuge within when the light shines too brightly at the top.\u00a0 A healthy mid-card has a multitude of unique species; the undersized high-flyer, the oft-injured veteran, the promising rookie, and the charisma-less mat technician.\u00a0 A good mid-card makes use of the imperfect pieces within it.<\/p>\n

When a mid-card is booked poorly, it resembles a wasteland.\u00a0 \u201cHas-beens\u201d roll along like tumbleweed, catching on the prickly spines of \u201cNever-wills\u201d.\u00a0 If the mid-card is weak, no matter how flashy the main event is, the promotion is incapable of longevity.<\/p>\n

I have noticed there are several story arcs that work well in the mid-card.\u00a0 Good booking is reciprocal; it builds the prestige of the wrestlers involved while simultaneously establishing credibility for the mid-card itself.<\/p>\n

The most common (and arguably most important) of these mid-card plot conventions is Up-and-comer gets his first taste of (singles) gold.\u00a0 <\/em>This plays out just like it sounds; a talented young wrestler that the promotion feels they could build into a main-eventer begins his championship resume with a solid mid-card title reign. The careers that have been launched this way are too numerous to count.\u00a0 I am particularly fond of how this was done with \u201cMacho Man\u201d Randy Savage in \u201987-\u201988 (Intercontinental Title), Rob Van Dam in \u201998-\u201900 (ECW Television Title)*, and more recently Austin Aries in \u201911-\u201912 (TNA X-Division Title).\u00a0 The mid-card title is a perfect way expose an up-and-comer to the audience consistently, build his legitimacy, and test his ability to handle the spot light without putting him in the main event too early.<\/p>\n

Another story arc well suited to the mid-card is Established Main-eventer takes time away from chasing the title to settle a grudge.\u00a0 <\/em>In this formula, a legit headliner that is not directly involved in the main-event title picture can move down to the mid-card temporarily to play out a \u201cscore to settle\u201d storyline.\u00a0 This is useful because A) It allows the headliner to stay on the audience\u2019s radar even while he is not involved in the main event, so when he is reintroduced in the title scene it doesn\u2019t seem random, B) it can allow a less established wrestler to get credibility from feuding with a big name star.\u00a0 There is no better example of this than the \u201996-\u201997 Bret Hart\/Steve Austin feud.\u00a0 At the time Hart was an established main-eventer who stepped away from the title picture to go to war against Steve Austin, who at that time was just an undecorated anti-hero with a cult following.\u00a0 Needless to say, this feud catapulted Austin\u2019s career into highest rung of the wrestling hierarchy.\u00a0 I also have to mention that Ring of Honor has historically done an excellent job with this plot convention as well.\u00a0 One of my personal favorites is the Bryan Danielson\/Tyler Black feud from \u201908-\u201909.<\/p>\n

Finally, there is the Sentimental favorite or comic relief gets a moment of glory<\/em>.\u00a0 Sometimes, it\u2019s difficult for promotions to know how to use their oddballs.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, redheaded fake luchadors (El Generico), Elvis Impersonators (Honky Tonk Man) and pimps (The Godfather) are not exactly your prototypical main-eventers.\u00a0 Fans tend to love these characters, but bookers are often hesitant to put comedic wrestlers over their more \u201cserious\u201d talent at the top of the card.\u00a0 So another way a promotion can push its less traditional talent is to let them carry the mid-card title.\u00a0 Any of Santino Marella\u2019s title reigns would qualify as an example of how to affectively run this story arc.<\/p>\n

These are just a few of the possible narrative formulas that can be used to give a promotion\u2019s mid-card a wealth of story telling.\u00a0 The best promotions, like the best sports teams, are built from within.\u00a0 Good mid-card management is essential to any wrestling company\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Rob\u00a0<\/em>Dam never won the ECW\u00a0<\/em>World Championship (except when WWE resurrected it several years after the promotion went under) but his Television Title reign, solidified his status as an ECW stalwart.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mid-card can make or break a wrestling promotion.\u00a0 When done well, it resembles a vibrant, diverse coral reef; the young can be nourished and protected by it, the old can seek refuge within when the light shines too brightly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plato-in-an-armbar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-belt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}