Every once in a while I torture myself by scanning some of the hundreds of internet wrestling hate sites out there. I’ve railed against the children and/or money hungry filth that run those websites in this column in the past, so I don’t want to rehash old material. But while I was reviewing some of those sites the other day, I was struck by a realization that compelled me to write this article.
What struck me was the fact that the idiots who run these websites clearly do not understand basic marketing. And by not understanding basic marketing, these hateful dummies not only compound their irrelevance (and, unfortunately, the irrelevance of the internet wrestling scene), but they fail to understand why certain promotions do certain things.
In the recent past, we’ve talked about (and I’ve even somewhat proven) that most of the “writers” on the internet wrestling hate sites don’t have any training as journalists. Their “news stories” are packed with conjecture and assumptions which are based upon their own ignorant point of view (more on this from Eric Bischoff here). But what made me shake my head while I was browsing around the other day was how these same not-really-reporters often write opinion columns on their websites that trash iMPACT Wrestling. And they use their own false and lie-based stories to support their opinion arguments!
So all of that being said – I would like to explain to the internet wrestling world why Garett Bischoff is being featured so heavily on iMPACT Wrestling television right now. At the same time, I would like to explain how I came to know this information.
The reason why Garett Bischoff is featured on iMPACT Wrestling right now is because the people have a huge, burning interest in this guy. No, he’s not being featured because his father is Eric Bischoff (much to the chagrin of the vast majority of internet haters). And no, he’s not being featured because someone wants to rewrite the Ric Flair vs. David Flair storyline (this is probably one of the most outlandish assumptions that I read on the hate sites the other day). None of that makes any sense and none of it is based in reality.
What is based in reality – and what gives me the confidence to write this article – is what I know from owning and managing TNAStars.com. Namely, I know that since Bound for Glory ended, the term “Garett Bischoff ” has been the number one most queried search term for people coming to TNAStars.com. In other words, there are a TON of people out there looking to find out more information on Garett Bischoff ! And I know this because as the owner of this site I have access to our backend data including which terms people search for that ultimately lead them to TNAStars.com and which pages on the site are the most viewed.
Let me repeat – since Bound for Glory ended, the search term “Garett Bischoff” has been the number one term bringing people to TNAStars.com from random internet searches. Further, Garett Bischoff’s profile page has been the number one most viewed page on this website since Bound for Glory ended. The huge interest in Garett Bischoff even prompted me to get some screen captures of him and post them on his profile page.
Let me put this in some more perspective. When Crimson debuted in iMPACT Wrestling, he was the number one search term for about a week or two. When Jesse Sorensen debuted in the promotion – he was the number one search term for a week or two and continues to be one of the top search terms for the website (especially after last night’s episode of iMPACT Wrestling). Velvet Sky is typically the number one searched Knockout for people landing at TNAStars.com, though Angelina Love is always a close second. However, Garett Bischoff has managed to maintain the position as the number one searched term to bring people to TNAStars.com for about a month.
That’s phenomenal.
The point of this column is not to reject the moronic opinions that I saw on the hate sites; the opinions that took a weird pride in bashing Garett Bischoff’s presence on iMPACT Wrestling. The morons who write those ridiculous articles do a good enough job of making themselves irrelevant without me using facts to prove that they are also ignorant. Instead, the point of this article is to help you – the much better informed readers of TNAStars.com – understand why iMPACT Wrestling is rightfully promoting Garett Bischoff (and Velvet Sky and Jesse Sorensen and Robbie E. and all of the other “hot,” highly searched talents right now).
It’s basic marketing – you put the talents on television who are generating the most buzz among the fans. In other words, you strive to give the people what they want.
And that’s your marketing lesson for today, class. 🙂
– Joe
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Joe Vincent says
No sooner do I post this column than does TNAStars.com get a huge surge in hits on the Jesse Sorensen profile page. Like the column suggests – this guy is on television because the people want to see him. Period.
Radiitz says
Great read. And great proof. Also, I’d like to add a little to Joe’s comment about Jesse Sorensen. Call me crazy, because this may be too soon. But when I first saw this guy walk out into the iMPACT Zone, and he had his ball with him, I instantly thought to myself “This guy is going to be the face of TNA one day”. And I still stand by that thought now, especially after watching him in the ring.
He just has that IT factor about him. Look at how Styles started off. How Orton and Cena started off. They didn’t have much of a personality (with the acception of Cena’s ruthless aggression term) yet they had a certain look and made it big. This is what I see in Jesse. However, he has a bit more of a personality than them. He walks out there, ball in arm, confident as hell, autographs the ball and gives it to a kid, jumps in the ring, and does some damage (not to himself when he jumps in the ring of course, I mean to his opponent, haha) and he does it all very smoothly.
Something just tells me that HE is going to be THE top guy in maybe another 5/6 years time. I can just see it now.
William B. West says
Perfect assessment Radiitz. Sorenson does seem to posses the it factor perhaps the character or skill level isn’t quite there yet but once that is found I think TNA has a star on their hands.
Dylan says
Very good points here. Or maybe I should say “very good facts”. 🙂
I would also like to point out, or draw attention to the massive amount of “fans” out there who couldn’t believe a referee would screw up so badly as to simply stop counting a pin. Remember that? Matt Morgan vs. Jeff Hardy, the botched pin. I told myself then, “they’re doing a modern day Nick Patrick storyline. It’s going to be Immortal’s referee.” It couldn’t be a coincedence that all the botched jobs came from the guy who happened to be Bischoff’s son.
But at the time, the haters in the IWC just used the “incident” to mock the company and Bischoff as well, both father and son.
I think more and more it becomes apparent that “the bad booking” in TNA that the majority of the vocal IWC is so obsessed with, is actually, in fact, going right over their heads.
Bischoff is a twist on the old Nick Patrick and the New World Order storyline, except it has a conclusion that goes somewhere, and it’s interesting, and it gives us a new wrestler with a compelling agenda, and a face turn to boot. It’s smart. And it was always smart. They’re not pulling shows out of their ass, they plan some things out, and this is clearly one of those plans.
Dylan says
As a side note, my female friend who watches the shows with me sometimes, who now knows a lot more about wrestling than she ever wanted to, really likes Garret Bischoff. Mainly because she thinks he’s hot. I think this is probably part of the appeal–although hopefully like Velvet Sky he proves himself capable of backing it up with solid in-ring ability.