There was some customary whining in the UFC / Pride poll thread (which, by the way, is dealing my work on Heavy.com, a non-wrestling website) about how I should go back to reviewing a weekly TV show. Besides the fact that I don’t get the channel that carries WWE programming in Canada and don’t have any desire to sit through 2-4 hours a week of product I don’t enjoy, let me spell out exactly why this current product fails to excite me so much. There are no rockets. I shall explain.
You’ve heard the phrase “tie a rocket to his ass” with regards to pushing a new star, I’m assuming. If not, it basically means what it sounds like: You have someone you want to make a top guy, so you attach him to a figurative rocket and launch him. Sometimes he flies, sometimes he blows up. If you happen to be a fan of the person getting that rocket push, then you’ll have some pretty significant emotional investment in him and will want to continue watching the product as a result. For example, back in 1991 Bret Hart had gotten a couple of failed singles pushes but built up a fanbase, and when the Hart Foundation split for good suddenly Vince gave him the rocket push and you, as a fan, could feel that this was the time that he would get a real shot. Which he did. Ditto for Shawn Michaels in 1995, as love him or hate him at the time he was shoved further up the card with every show and you can feel the star power growing around him. My personal favorite was The Rock, as in 1998 it was like watching your favorite underdog sports team suddenly evolve into a contender right before your eyes. It’s exhilarating as a fan, because you can say “That’s my guy, I was a fan before he was this awesome.”
Now, nobody gets pushed, much less rocketed. Sheamus won the title in a silly gimmick match, didn’t get to defend it successfully against anyone of note, and then lost it in a multiple man match without Cena getting his revenge. People start to get behind Kofi Kingston and WWE turns around and basically gives up on him, and now he’s not even on the Wrestlemania card. Miz & Morrison are the hottest team in the business since the Hollywood Blonds, but they want both guys as singles wrestlers, so they split up the team at their peak and turn them into midcarders. Now they’re both in tag teams again, at basically the same level. CM Punk wins the World title, turns into a great character, and then gets killed dead by Undertaker. And on and on. Anyone you get behind as a fan will inevitably let you down because WWE will no longer allow anyone to break out. They don’t care about Cena’s heel/face crowd problems because they don’t care if people like Cena. They’re selling the WWE brand, not Cena. If Cena is insanely over and sells some merch for himself, bonus for him, but he’s got to make sure to mention that WWE Universe (tm) in every pre-written promo and how he wants his legacy (tm) to be part of the WWE Hall of Fame (tm). They’re no longer concerned with making stars, they’re concerned with making money. And that’s fine for them, I can totally respect that and I don’t blame Vince one bit for going to the middle of the road. However, for me, I prefer UFC because if I’m a fan of Brock Lesnar, I know that if he goes out and kicks everyone’s ass in every fight, he’ll make HIMSELF a huge star until someone MAKES him give up the title. You see the difference? Brock might let me down eventually, but it’s from his own actions (or his wacky diseases), not because someone decided that he’s won enough lately and it’s time to push Shane Carwin now instead. That’s what the Rock and Steve Austin felt like in 1998 – two guys going out and TAKING their destiny because they wanted it. I don’t know what anyone on TV now really cares about, and that’s why I don’t want to watch them on a weekly basis.
Rant over.
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`Tags: Bret Hart, Canada, CM Punk, Hart Foundation, Lost, Miz, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, The Rock, TV, UFC, Undertaker, Wrestlemania, WWE
I still miss WWEClassics.com reviews for the blog. That’s all I’m saying.
I really like this post as it captures my feelings on the topic as well. Although I don’t believe Scott is a Jeff Hardy mark, I can’t remember a guy who “took” it like he did recently. Yes, he pretty much imploded because of his own stupidity but the guy had the fans with him in a such a way that no matter how many times he lost to Umaga or how many times HHH beat him or even when the Great Khali crushed his head in three minutes, he still had the fans’ support to the point they HAD to put the belt on him. Honestly, when he won the title the first time, it was one of those “special” moments that can only be captured once. That’s why people winning titles so many times is sad because it weakens wrestling.
Sigh.
I was pretty into Punk last year, he’d pretty much done the same, he seemed to have taken his destiny to, but got the legs cut out from under him when Taker came back.
Well said, and an interesting take on what’s missing these days. My reasons certainly vary, but I don’t think I could disagree with anything you said, sums it up well.
Man what’s up with Scott? Dude needs to relax. He should totally start ranting on a weekly pro wrestling show again.
Yep, that’s all pretty much completely right. The only possible rebuttal I could offer – more just why I tell myself that I should keep watching, certainly not a decree that You Must Do The Same – is that at some point down the road, making stars & making money aren’t going to be mutually exclusive. Eventually, they’ll get sick of being on Brand WWE Autopilot and they’ll have to give somebody the rocket push when the older guys give it up, right? I think we all said this in 2002 as well.
I know stasis is currently a very profitable mode for the company, but there’s no way I’d buy into the idea that Vince isn’t at least trying to create Austin-level stars. Whether he has the vision or the long-term focus to do it at this point is another matter.
I was actually talking about this to a friend last night while we watched WrestleMania X (specifically the two Bret matches). He’s not really a fan, but will watch matches I deem interesting for quality or historical reasons and his reaction to Bret/Owen was that “you never see this kind of match anymore” in comparison to times I’ve shown him the recent stuff by say Cena/Orton/HHH. If someone who isn’t a casual fan can see how cookie cutter things have become compared to eras past, it’s time for WWE to vary the formula, unless they are perfectly happy with producing stale product forever (or until it becomes unprofitable).
My friend also observed how when Bret won the title, it was an actual moment with recognizable stars like Luger, Savage, Piper, Hall, etc. all coming to the ring to celebrate the fall of Yokozuna. That put Bret over so much and made the title mean a ton at the same time, yet a title switch today is just an afterthought, especially since we just had three at the last PPV.
Yep the titles are dead now, I can safely the last time I cared about the title was probably when Edge won it. The last time I was emotionally invested in who had the title would have been when Benoit had it
(obviously I mean the FIRST time Edge won it)
It’s hard to believe that it was only three years ago that John Cena was in the midst of a WWE title reign that lasted over one year. I was at the Unforgiven 2006 PPV where Cena originally won the title and started thinking to myself: “Wow, seeing the WWE Title change hands is a really rare and special occasion now. I’m glad that I was able to witness it in person!”. Of course, being there live to witness a title change is no longer a big deal these days.
I think the big problem is that Cena got injured in 2007 and had to forfeit the title because seeing him finally drop the title in the ring after holding it for over a year should have been a HUGE deal! I think that was a big turning point for how the company looked at title reigns as no one has been world champion for nearly that long ever since. I honestly believe they are just too paranoid to let anyone hold a world title for a really long time for fear that they will get injured before they can lose it. The same thing happened with Batista’s long initial reign in 2005, and Undertaker and Edge also had to forfeit their titles in 2007 because of injuries.
Unfortunately, that now leads to world title changing hands so frequently that they have lost all meaning and you can’t even keep track of who has held what title any more.
I remember reading somewhere that the WWE decided to start pushing the WWE name more than individuals after Brock Lesnar left. They spent all kinds of money and did a lot of great booking to get Brock over…. just for him to leave after 2 years and eventually use his name in the UFC. If you think about it, 2004 is about the time where things changed and felt different. I think that was also the year Scott stopped watching Smackdown. I can understand where Vince would want to protect his investments and not build a name to be used in a different venture. But as a fan it sucks. I’ve been a fan of John Morrison since he was Eric Bischoff’s assistant. He gets a good push every so often, but he hasn’t been shot to the top in a unique way. I enjoyed watching American Dragon at a couple RoH shows and I count myself as one of his fans, but I am afraid that he won’t be able to prove himself as the “Best in the World”.
Everyone says it, but the best characters are the ones that are a wrestler’s own cranked up to 11. That’s half the battle. The other is the opportunity to take the ball and run with it, and with everything scripted, it’s very hard to pull it off.
I agree regarding Lesnar. They basically took Lesnar as a Sable situation; the WWF built her up and she cashed in elsewhere, so after Sable all valets/female wrestlers were dumb meritless bombshells who only meant something because they were WWF Divas.
Same thing with Lesnar. Now every main eventer is only worth something because he’s a WWF-approved Superstar.
Great rant Scott. I still watch wrestling and consider myself a fan, but haven’t been emotionally invested in the business since HBK first retired back in 1998. I was a huge fan of the guy since his Rockers days.
I agree with Scott. I’ve also noticed that all the guys I really cared about from when I was young and watching WCW all pretty much won or are gone. Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero…I remember the feeling when they finally won the big one for the first time. There’s nobody in the company anymore that makes me care like that. I still enjoy some of the guys there (Jericho, of course, Punk, Edge) but most of the guys are too generic now, and the ones who can get themselves over with their promos, characters, etc. typically get either buried or left to wallow in the midcard/upper midcard so we can see Cena VS Orton VS HHH for the 5000th time.
The only one left who hasn’t won one of the world titles that I actively root for is Christian (I’m not counting ECW and neither should you!). I guess I’d be happy if he won, but even with him, he’s not on the level that Benoit, Jericho, and Guerrero were for me once upon a time, and I don’t actually have any faith that he’d have even a decent run. He’d likely win via Money in the Bank and promptly drop it the next month.
I really wish TNA would do better. I don’t think they will, to be honest, especially not with the Russoish crap they keep putting out, but I would love to see some real competition, because it might actually force WWE to do things differently. This is what happens when there’s no competition. They can spin the wheels and not push new guys. Hell, forget the wrestling stable back in the late 90s, the whole company is “The Corporation” now. And that’s really disappointing to me.
Agree re/ Christian. I think I can count on one hand the guys who, if you were to say, “So and so is getting a big push” I would actually tune in. Christian, Matt Hardy…uh…a sobered up Scott Hall?
Scott were you listening to Def Leppard when you wrote this? …Cuz I am right now.
I was sitting here trying to think of any individual cases where people worked hard to get themselves over, and I really can’t think of any in recent years aside from maybe Jeff Hardy. Edge worked like crazy (I truly can say that “That’s my guy, I was a fan before he was this awesome.”), but he did all that 4 years ago.
What I’ve noticed that is that there’s been a decided lack of “1st time WM champions” for YEARS now. The last time it happened was WM 21, with Cena and Batista. Since then, every time the title changes hands at WM, it’s been to someone who’s already been champ (Rey’s win at WM 22, even though it was semi-main, for all intents and purposes was buried based on the booking all around it).
Think about the way it was so many years ago:
WM IV, Savage.
Two years later at WM VI, Warrior.
Three years later at WM IX, Yokozuna (if only for a moment).
Three years later at WM XII, HBK.
Two years after that at XIV, Austin.
Then the Attitude era carried things as a whole for a while before the MNW ended (through ‘01), after which things in large part were in limbo (esp. the overall infamously dreadful ‘03), until there was a brief renaissance with Benoit at WM XX, in 04 (I’ll throw Eddie in, too, for the hell of it). After the next year with Cena and Batista…nothing.
I also think this is why so much TV has killed the specialness of big moments, since they can be thrown out to occur whenever. And since they don’t occur very often any more (again, just a handful of times here and there over the last few years…the last really big thing I can think of that was “new” was Jeff’s win at Armageddon…over a year ago), sometimes it’s like “what’s the point?”
So although I do think the build to this WM has been awesome, and overall I’ve enjoyed the last few years of WWE programming, I think I do get a sense of why people argue that WWE is just treading water.
I’ll add that Orton has really hit his stride in recent years, but again, he might as well be old guard now. It’s good he’s risen to the occasion, but at the same time, he’s been expected to.
Scott, I was reading the replies to that UFC poll post and I really wanted to respond but I came home from work and got faded and passed out lol.
But i’m glad you addressed that so just let me add my two cents.
I’m a huge fan of yours. I got into your stuff like 10 years ago (omg my life is flying by!!!) and obviously it was all wrestling reviews that I was reading, but man I read every review you ever wrote, slowly like I was reading a book or something.
I would read a recap of you taking a dump at this point because I really enjoy your writing style and perspective on things. And I hope you continue to recap the occasional PPV just because 1) Your the top guy I trust when it comes to work rate reviews/star ratings on a match and 2) because I love reading long recaps by you.
Having said that the wrestling business has changed into some kind of horrible weekly TV show that is just total garbage. I totally agree with the reasons for that you stated in your post and I won’t even try to embarrass myself by adding on to that spot on post. Please don’t waste your time reviewing this dogshit that has replaced traditional professional wrestling. I like how your doing UFC and movies/tv shows (but how about a lost thread bro?!?!), and I say keep that up and do your thing man. Don’t torture yourself by sitting through the longest running weekly episodic television show of all time. Write about what you enjoy and like doing. I would way rather read a review of yours of an old school MMA show than read you recaping some show that is the same every week. Good for Vince to find a way to create a self sustaining wrestling promotion with all interchangeable parts, but I ain’t gonna watch that shit.
Lastly just let me say that you also rock at recaping UFC shows and movies and I hope you do more and more of that. In fact that could even open you up to a broader audience, and have more people read your great writing, not just wrestling smarks.
So thanks for all the entertainment you’ve provided me since the late 90’s, and I really hope that you keep writing for the rest of your life and that doing these new recap things gets you more readers and even lands you a nice paying gig somewhere writing about MMA and pop culture.
Anyway, not trying to kiss your ass or anything, but I just wanted to let you know I enjoy the direction you have taken, and I certainly am I glad your writing talents wont be wasted on a weekly piece of shit show like monday night raw.
I feel the same way that you do, Scott. I’ve lost faith in ever being invested in the product again. Right now the only thing I watch is NXT to catch Bryan Danielson. He’s one guy who I’m really behind and who I really want to see succeed on a big stage, but I can’t help but think about how after NXT he’ll probably be delegated to jobbing to guys like k kwik or mvp indefinitely.
I saw the topic before reading the actual rant, and I thought “he’s been gone since May ‘99, hasn’t he?”
The last time I thought “that’s my guy! FINALLY!” was Benoit and Guerrero. I like Punk, and Danielson has the potential to be that guy, but I think part of it is “moment” + tenure. I remember marking out like crazy when Austin won at WM XIV because he had ascended as a star and beaten a great heel. I hate a lot of the “paying dues” crap, but it does help to build anticipation.
Scott,
First off, just want to say I’ve read two of your books and I’m a fan. Though I think you have an incredibly Canadian take on things—whatever that means—I like your style.
I can’t say I completely agree with your rant here, however. While I’ll agree that Vince & company are 100% committed to expanding the WWE brand, I can’t say that today’s WWE modus operandi is any different than it was 10-15-20 or even 50 plus years ago. The name of the game has always been making money, hasn’t it? Now, I know you said you don’t blame Vince for “going to the middle of the road,” but I can’t help but sense some resentment in your sentiments here.
A word on the UFC…
You mentioned Brock Lesnar and the UFC as if Dana White isn’t interested in making a buck. Do you actually believe Brock, or any other fighter for that matter, has a bigger hand in who they are or how big they become than Dana White does? Come on, Scott! If anyone has Vince McMahon’s business model down to a tee, it’s Dana White! Don’t you find it a little convenient that whenever a UFC fighter appears on Sports Center or on some other news outlet that there’s always an interview with UFC president Dana White that follows? And don’t you find it a little suspicious that most casual MMA fans know who Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin are, but have no idea who the hell Anderson Silva is? Silva’s unbeaten in his last 14 fights, is currently competing in two weight divisions, and is arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the world… and hardly anyone outside of the immediate MMA fan base knows who he is? Where’s Anderson’s rocket? Anderson embarrassed Unbreakable cover boy Forrest Griffin a few months ago… let him have his!
But that’s not going to happen, is it? No. Why? Because at the end of the day, Anderson Silva didn’t get his start on TUF, nor does he sell video games, t-shirts, action figures, or training supplements. Just like the WWE, the UFC is a business concerned primarily with making money! So, Dana White, instead of pushing bona fide STARS like Silva, will only continue to push cash cows like Over-the-hill Liddell and a man who he was BURRYING a year ago when he left the company (sound like anyone we know?), Tito Ortiz, on shows like TUF regardless of whether they deserve it or not. He’ll also continue to publicly take shots at UFC alternatives like Strikeforce, and call guys like Fedor Emelianenko frauds for not fighting in HIS cage. (Again, very familiar, no?)
And you know what’s crazy about it all? A good majority of the MMA fan base will perceive it as gold and gospel all because UFC President Dana White said it was on Sports Center!
How’s the old saying go again? “Perception is reality”… I think is how it went.
I’m all for you writing about what you’re into nowadays–I mean the UFC is hot right now–just don’t be a mark and lose perspective. Honestly, IMO, I think the WWE is the way it is today mainly because of the business landscape they’ve created for themselves. I think even Vince himself would concur that maybe McMahon-ifest destiny may not have been the greatest idea, but I think he’s making due and doing probably better than most other promoters could or would have.
Just my take. Nice rant. Thought provoking as always.
-Dwattz
But the problem now is guys can only ascend through WWE. Once you’ve seen a guy jobbing for ages, suddenly seeing him move up and win the World Title doesn’t exactly thrill the fans. Due to WWE’s arrogance, in the past if a guy wrestled elsewhere he was “paying his dues” then showed up in VinnieLand when he was “Ready for the big time”. But if the dude’s been jobbing IN WWE for years, seeing him ascend wouldn’t really work.
Also, ascend to what? Around WM14 there were like 5 guys who were legitimate Main Event World Champion type guys. Today any one of about 20 guys could be World Champion, and it wouldn’t seem unusual. People complain about glass ceilings and holding guys down, but you do need to have about 5 guys who the elite. Sadly, in WWE’s case those guys would likely be HHH and his friends…..
World titles don’t mean much anymore. WWE has 2 titles that aren’t even brand-specific, and they change hands regularly.
But I really don’t agree with the whole “jobbers can’t be taken seriously when they get pushed” angle, nor ever have. Except for cases where the suspension of disbelief is violated—such as when HHH’s pedigree magically knocked out A headshrinker, despite their indestructible heads—–a guy turning his career around quickly is believeable if he sells well, given that announcers can ignore past kayfabe and invent a guy through words—-overnight the pedigree morphed from a snotty kids move to “the most devastating maneuver in the history of our sport” (I’m channelling tony schiavone here).
Speaking of which, I’ve never had great love for JR. His announcing was always pedestrian to me, and never seemed to be bombastic enough for big occasions (too technical at times). I liked Schiavone for big events (although his weekly Nitro rants were hilarious and annoying) as well as Vince. Both were over the top showmen for the PPVs. Thoughts.
I think Scott hit the nail on the head. WWE has morphed into pre-fall WCW—-there is no room for new stars, because of business concerns.
That formula works well until the other side takes the opposite approach—let shooting stars rocket to stardom. Its how Vince overcame WCW’s dominance at first—giving wide swath to Austin and Rock. Should TNA ever get two or three rockets and allow them to soar, Vince will finally be forced to adapt. However, TNA seems to be following the WCW old stars model for now.
Of course, the downside is there is “too big for wrestling.” Rock left for Hollywood, Austin did some TV cameos and now can rest on his money/laurels—leaving the company in the lurch. Also, the rocket model only works if you have a rocket—when you don’t, its painful. The Patriot was rocketed, but wrestling fans knew him as the jobber from WCW who tagged with Marcus Alexander (excuse me, “Buff”) Bagwell. Bret didn’t have good opponents for years, so the product suffered.
Vince’s plan makes sense for him right now—instead of feast or famine with the rocket method, its a steady, boring diet of rice and beans.
I wonder how much the economy has to do with it. We’re in the worst recession since the Great Depression and the WWE is still turning a profit. The WWE is a luxury business; people are going to give up PPVs and live events to tighten their belts. Why mess with something that works in perilous economic times?
And I wonder how much the PG shift has to do with Linda McMahon running for senate.
The PG shift happened long ago—its why most of us stopped watching. We’re mostly attitude-era guys here, but when Triple H killed wrestling by taking over the top spot, we mostly walked out the door.
Basically, the attitude thing partially brought WWE to prominence, but created lots of backlash—parents groups outraged, professional protesters picketing, steroid charges up, etc. It was only worth it when you’re the underdog. When you’re the top dog, it creates more risks than its worth.
Vince’s ideal time was the 80’s, when family friendly heroes sold well, so there was no monster backlash. Of course, it depended on stars like Hogan, and once they left there was a dearth of talent. So Vince needs family friendly + interchangeable stars for sustained success, which is what he has now.
Around 2005 or so I stopped watching wrestling on any regular basis. Eddie died, and a lot of the fun seemed to be gone. Then the whole Benoit thing happened in 2007, and that just destroyed my emotional investment in wrestling.
However, I was also just becoming disillusioned with the essence of pro wrestling. The more I knew about the backstage workings of what wrestling is, the less excited about I became. I always loved the athleticism involved, but it started becoming homogenized and uninteresting.
Fans were also a real big turnoff. Everyone’s a critic (myself included). Wrestling seems to have more commentators than fans nowadays. Too much of the magic has been given away.
Add to that the fact that I’ve also gotten really into MMA. I never cared for it much in the freakshow days, but now you have the highest caliber athletes getting into it.
Side question: how do you guys see this affecting pro wrestling? IT seems that yesterday’s top amateur wrestlers and other athletes went to pro wrestling, because that’s where the money and the fame was. However, now, athletes can compete in MMA with more advantages:
1. Much less travel
2. The training is hard, but does not put as much wear and tear on the body as taking bumps every day.
3. The thrill of real athletic competition.
4. Not needing a certain look.
While the guys in the UFC (especially the undercard) aren’t making big time money, they also have sponsorships and endorsement deals to fall back on.
I’m wondering if, within a generation or two, the quality of the wrestlers will severely diminish.
I think you’re right, but it’d be interesting to see if ex-UFC fighters transition to pro wrestling. It seems like the window for UFC fighters is much smaller than in boxing or wrestling. I have no way of verifying this, but the money window seems smaller? I mean, definitely than boxing (Pacquiao and Mayweather will probably make twenty mil for their eventual fight) but in wrestling you have to figure a guy like Cena can make more over time if he stays on top than a UFC fighter?
I think it was on the Warrior DVD where they said that you can’t just strap a rocket to a guy’s ass and make him The Guy, he needs to get over with the fans himself first. However HHH was the one who said it, so that kinda fucks up that logic. The problem is WWE wants TOO MANY guys to be Number One. With all the muscle tears(nothing whatsoever to do with enhancement drugs no sir), and the possibility of guys leaving, there must always be lots of other guys to carry the can. Had Hogan gone down c1987 they would have been fucked. But now you can have like 5 or 6 Main Event guys out injured or off doing God knows what, and there’s another dozen or so Main Event guys around. Every match at Mania has at least one dude who’s a former World Champion, and some are made up entirely of past or former World Champions going at it. If you’re NOT a Former World Champion or a PPV Main Eventer you’re a loser.
I just checked out your champions wrestling at this year’s Mania and was shocked to realize FIFTEEN guys on the card are former world champions, and you could inflate that to 19 if you include the WWE version of the ECW title or TNA/NWA title. There’s thirteen wrestlers on the card who have never held a WWE or WCW world title, so they are actually outnumbered by the champs.
They need to unify the belts badly and let the designated champion work two shows… the emphasis of being champion should be made important again. There is no aura of a brand split anymore so I don’t see a reason why this couldn’t work? I think the two world titles theme work well up until around 2006 where the brands were kept separate pretty well and there was a true sense of competition between them.. and the question of which champion was better was intreging.
Do people even remember that Batista is a SD guy holding the Raw world title? Does it even matter? Should we care?
It’s time for ONE champion, I also believe this will add huge value and will stop the whoring of the straps and once again put the emphasis of being ‘the man’ you have to be the champ.
I’m actually one of the few people that don’t believe they should unify the World titles (then again, I’m in favor of the brand extension). The reason I don’t like it is the same reason it didn’t work when that was the original plan: Quite simply, the writers/bookers couldn’t figure out what to do with the brand that wasn’t getting the World title shot.
And while it may be as simple as this month Raw gets the title shot, and Smackdown has the #1 contender’s match, and it alternates each month — that doesn’t really work in practice. For one, the feuds don’t tend to last only a month. Let’s say Batista is champion, and he’s got a heated feud with John Cena that the fans are really getting behind. They’d have to pull the plug on that at the end of the month to insert a feud with Edge, for example, which the fans might not buy. If one show is featured as the top contender for three months, the other show flounders.
If this is truly why it didn’t/wouldn’t work, I think the solution is simple: FIRE THE GODDAMN WRITERS! Just like when a wrestler is let go because “creative” has nothing for them, after a few times the solution should be finding writers who can come up with ideas. I swear WWE makes this all far more complicated than it needs to be. I realize they have more first-run shows than they once did, but it sounds like they have a whole army writing the shit that appears on TV each week. Just narrowi it down to like 2-3 good writers for each brand with either Stephanie or Vince working with both groups for continuity.
Not to sound like a smartass, but it’s 15 guys who have been WWE or World Champion, and another have have held either the NWA/TNA or WWECW World Title, making twenty overall.
And Scott’s initial point about Kingston blew my mind. Here the dude was pinning Orton clean just a couple of months ago, and now there’s no spot for him at Mania. Hahaha.
The lack of a sustained tag division is insane and bad for business.
There are three types of tag teams:
(1) New guys. The Rockers. Bret Hart in the Hart Foundation. Edge & Christian. The young Road Warriors. These are guys who don’t have the charisma or work rate to stand on their own, so a tag team covers their weaknesses and gives them experience and development time on the big stage.
(2) Mid-carders. The Nasty Boys. The New Age Outlaws. The Quebecers. The Dudley Boys. Jim Neidhart in the Hart Foundation. Even guys like the mature Road Warriors, Harlem Heat and Steiner Brothers. These are decent characters who, for a number of reasons, will never be upper card or main event players. Sticking them in a tag team lets them be relevant, cover up their weaknesses, and allows for continued development so one partner can break out late in their career (Booker T, Steiner).
(3) Upper card guys looking for something to do. Putting Rock & Mankind on a team keeps them busy while other guys feud over the World Title. Hundreds of examples of this.
My point is this: The WWF doesn’t use the tag division as a semi-farmer system like they used to and like Japan has down to a science. They throw inexperienced guys into the mid card (or upper card like Cena and Orton) immediately, even though these guys don’t have developed characters or in-ring styles yet. And these guys sink (and maybe, maybe, after years of being pushed they start to get over).
The WWF needs more of what they did with Miz and Morrison (and before that Edge & Christian)–package a tag team, let them run wild, KEEP THEM TOGETHER, then finally push one or both of them when they break up years down the road. Stop having a bunch of bland, generic midcarders spinning their wheels.
Completely agree with this post. The lack of a sustained tag division is a major problem for WWE today. Not to mention the obvious matter of not having a sufficiently strong tag division. In fact, just about every tag team today is almost scoffed at by the way WWE presents them. Hart Dynasty and Cryme Tyme, for example, are merely low-rent characters who keep wallowing in the undercard together, going nowhere on an endless treadmill. It’s insane how much WWE has forgotten how to utilize tag teams.
It says a lot that even Miz and Morrison are back in tag teams at this very moment to have secure spots on the WrestleMania card; and that the it seems like the Tag Team Titles will be in the hands of makeshift tag teams for the foreseeable future.
I agree with the spirit of Scott’s post concerning the lack of “the Rocket,” although I’d say that it’s still employed to one extent or another even today. Drew McIntyre will most assuredly be a world champion within 54 weeks (the timeframe from now to WrestleMania XXVII). He’s currently’s Vince’s new pet “Project.”
And although the title reign was “rubbish” to quote our UK friends, it’s hardly been a disaster for Sheamus, who finds himself in a comfy program with Triple H going into WrestleMania. He’s definitely not fading away (although he may look like it).
A lot of people rightly bring up the historical importance of WrestleMania 21 and how it was the beginning of a new era with Batista and Cena claiming the two crowns of WWE at that time. I give WWE credit for interweaving this history into the current Batista-Cena feud over the WWE Title going into this year’s WrestleMania. (Actually, the build for this year’s ‘Mania is across-the-board the best since X7, so I give the devils their due.) Another point about WrestleMania 21 is that it was in some ways the first big coming out party for Edge, since he won the very first Money in the Bank ladder match. So you had Batista and Cena suddenly at the top with Edge clearly well on his way. It was full-force direction in the uppercard.
In the intervening years, Vince has actually tried to plug Rockets on to a couple of different guys–most notably Mr. Kennedy and Bobby Lashley–but they failed. For a while there it felt like WWE would never elevate anybody to the top again, with the company happily spinning its wheels with HHH/Cena/Orton/Batista as many posters have said.
We do appear to be on the road to some guys getting higher up in the card, slowly but surely… I think what people miss the most, judging by comments, is the “earned” final conclusion to their favorite wrestler’s odyssey. As of today, the most likely guys to reach the top after “paying their dues” would be Miz and Morrison. In fact, the entire real-life and kayfabe backstory of The Miz will make his main event ascension quite sweet one day–WWE has an epic tale on their hands with that if they follow through in the next couple of years. But there isn’t enough of that today and it shows.
For me personally, I’d like to see WWE intentionally take Jack Swagger and reinvent him from being the joke he’s been on Raw the last nine months into something threatening. As bosnywash1 wrote, the transition from jobberdom to threat can be deceptively easy to pull off when well-executed. The one guy WWE actually did that with in 2009 was Miz; they practically buried him only to see him rise up like the phoenix as (today) an upper-midcarder. We could actually use a lot more of that kind of storytelling in today’s pro wrestling.
Bosnywash? Please tell me that’s an MST3K joke.
Then you guyes NEED to watch NXT on Syfy. The entire show is based on pushing new people and is currently the best show the WWE has. Sadly, looking at the ratings for it, people don’t seem to want to watch new wrestlers. I’d be surprised if it gets a second season. Of course, just like when people from ECW got drafted to either RAW or SD, there’s no guarantee anyone will be successful outside that show.
They should just call them “the Raw world title” and the “Smackdown world Title” and be done with it. Make them brand specific, so we know they’re on equal footing. As it stands, it appears the “World Heavyweight Title” carries more prestige than the “WWE championship”, even though the former is the old WCW title.
Its real simple as far as titles go:
RAW: name them the raw world Title, Raw Intercontinental title, Raw tag titles. (Screw the women’s titles, no one cares).
Smackdown: Smackdown world title, Smackdown US title , Smackdown tag titles.
For Mania, you could square the tag teams and the middle titles off against each other and have them battle to draws, not decreasing either brand if you must. If you need some additional goald, make the Smackdown TV title and the Raw TV title the lower rung titles for new guys.
Fantastic Rant. A Men.
to sum it up in one sentence: in the past the product got the worker over now it’s the other way around.
although (as mentioned before) Hardy and Punk are the two exceptions that (even if it was only for a brief time period) overcome the odds and got over DESPITE the way they were booked – both being stuck in the midcard but managing to get a lot more reactions than they “should have”.