Former Wrestling Producer Talks WWE Network Success, Fans Liking Heels & More

The following are highlights of a new IYHWrestling interview with former World Class Championship Wrestling producer Mickey Grant:

Do you think it was in WCCW when people started liking the bad guys for the first time? “Our bad guys worked so well in World Class Championship Wrestling, and much of the reason why was we told their side of the story. It wasn’t one sided, and so when we led up to a big conclusion, usually with something at Texas Stadium, there’d be fans on both sides. I think that’s what you’ve got to do, but you’ve got to do it well…I think it started with our show. I don’t think anyone had really given enough of the storyline; they’d written enough of a textured, shades-of -gray storyline before. Part of doing this thing live is having respect for the wrestling audience, and I think some people today just don’t have enough respect for the wrestling audience. I find that wrestling audiences come in all shapes and sizes: lawyers, judges, professors, non-professors, truck drivers. Whoever they are, you’ve got to get them…they’re connoisseurs of a good storyline …I respect hard-working people, and I believe they want a good story; they want something like this.”

Do you think in the long run the WWE Network will be a success? “I don’t know about their network; I just think I know maybe a little about wrestling. I think wrestling will be a success. If you have repetitive storylines, and if you don’t have your fans sitting on the end of their seats wondering what’s going to happen next week, you’re not going to have a market. Too many people have done that…I think somebody with relatively little money can jump in there today and do very well…If you’ve got the talent, and you’ve got the broadcast, and a methodology to get it to the audience, it’s going to work…I think that a handful of people will probably come about who will turn wrestling upside down, inside out and rebirth it, where it is exciting…I think it’s there; it just takes bigger-than-life personalities…and it would take off…I think a lot of people like Vince McMahon, they just get kind of in a rut. They’ve done it so many times, and the next thing you know networks are turning them off and turning them down. But that has nothing to do with wrestling; that just has to do with bad storytelling.”

Check out the complete interview at IYHWrestling.com.

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