What's Wrong with WWE

[johnson]

I think I figured out why a lot of it doesn't work anymore.

Back in the day, there were Faces and Heels and the faces were ALWAYS good and the Heels were ALWAYS bad. If a big name did a turn, it was a HUGE shock because of that. It made it simpler for fans and the storylines were cripser and clearer.

They seem to have forgotten this simple formula. There are always these gray areas with the characters and although this is far more realistic, it's way less entertaining. A few examples:

HHH: As the corporate figurehead, they should make him like Vinny Mac was...evil, devious and proud of it. Instead, you get him pedigreeing DB one minute, and the next he seems genuinely concerned about giving a Face a clean match. Recently, he sends Kane out to basically apologize to CM Punk (huh?) and tell the Shield to lay off him for the night. Rather than some EVIL corporate boss, he comes off as a guy struggling to do his job and making sporadic bad decisions.

Wyatts: They present as evil (obviously) heels, but target pretty randomly. They screw Cena one day, and then the Shield the next. It's more annoying than GOOD/BAD.

Orton: Obvioulsy a heel, but they used to do characters like this different. Back in the day, these types would ALWAYS win due to shennanigans or cheating and the hate built each time from fans. Now, Orton sometimes wins by cheating, other times like a legit champ, and other times due to seemingly unforeseen inteference (Wyatts). I think the crowd generally hates Orton, but they don't really do it with passion. He comes off as more of a spoiled, whiny diva.

The Turns make no sense either. Del Rio has been ruined trying to make him a Face for no reason.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

True, hard to tell who's a face and who's the heel. Even when the WWE promotes someone as a face or heel doesn't mean the fans will go along with it. I'll also admit that I'm generally inclined to dislike the faces (the heels make the show). Lastly I would like to add that they have way too many PPV's, it doesn't even seem like a big deal anymore.

 

[jakedog56]

Good points.

In addition, I think that the lack of competition is really hurting them. It seems to make them a little lazy.

That and bending to the star's egos and letting them do what they want way too often.

For example: I have never really liked Randy Orton. He is a 2nd generation star who is a decent worker but comes off as a spoiled brat who freaks out when he does not get his way. He is also not very good on the mic. Apparently he is also considered to be very hot by the ladies.
In the 80's/90's, they would have made him a Rick Rude-type character and have him flirting with the ladies and treating them like crap, pissing off boyfriends, etc. But in these days everyone wants to be a bad ass so they just have a roster full of bad ass types. It was much more fun when they cartooned up the characters a bit. Now it seems that many are basically the same. Muscular guy who looks tough and not much else to it.

At least in the past the bad ass characters had more than just bad ass. Steve Austin had tons of personality, Van Vader had his sci-fi gear and his weird mask, Demolition, the Powers of Pain and the Road Warriors had their make up, hair cuts, and S&M gear (at least Demolition had that last one). YOu had the vicious madmen from out of the country like the Russians, Kamala, Abdullah the Butcher, Killer Khan, etc. Even the fairly non-descript had something: The Blackjacks had their cowboys hats and whips, Buzz Sawyer, Bruiser Brody had the madman thing going. etc. etc.

Let's face it. Wrestling previously was not PC and it shouldn't be. Playing up stereotypes was a huge part of character development back in the day and it certainly made the characters more interesting.

What I would do with some of the characters and structure if I were running the WWE:
Alberto Del Rio- They actually had a pretty good character with the Mexican Million Dollar Man type, but they killed it when they made him a face. Should return to the former and play it up more. To have him throwing around money and buying people off like DiBiase used to do would be fun.
Wade Barrett-He falls into that "nondescript character" definition. They should play up the European angle and go into an anti-American thing (pretty standard old school storyline). They could easily make a faction with Barrett, Antonio Cesaro, Drew McIntyre, and the likes of Mason Ryan and Alexander Rusev. Make William Regal their ringleader and call them something like "The Eurpoean Union". Have them come out waving their home country flags and make everyone stand while their national anthems are played, etc. At this point my personal feeling is that Sheamus shouldn't be in a group as he seems to have the personality to stand alone (but his character is stagnating at the moment), but he could play up the ethnicity angle.

I like that the Road Dogg and Billy Gunn are back, but why not make them a faction unto themselves also. In adddition to being the New Age Outlaws, why not have them work with a constant flow of other old school wrestlers coming back for cameo appearances?

The Dolph Ziggler to Mr. Perfect should be an obvious one (I've heard many say it before). Dolph should be playing up how perfect he is in the ring at all times. When he performs a great spot move he should let everyone know that it was PERFECTION.

Damien Sandow's intellectual character was headed in the right direction but also not taken far enough. He should wear glasses and a tweed coat and pop in during interviews when someone makes a grammatical error and correct them on camera.

Another obvious one should be to make John Cena a heel but it never seems to happen. His popular Superman schtick is about as painfully boring as Randy Orton's character (or lack of it).

Too much time spent in the ring with mics! The should cut that time down significently.

More run-ins!!! More run-ins is always a plus. More sneak attacks during interviews. More outside of the ring footage with people attacking each other.

The return of the squash match. It seems that they keep trying to put big event matches on all of the time. I used to enjoy the squash match where one average looking guy was going in against a monster who obviously was going to destroy him in just a matter of minutes. To me it emphasized the difference between a good wrestler and the average joe.

They should also divide into 2 weight divisions with a lightweight and heavyweight classes. You could still have cross-weight class matches but my personal opinion is that it would be more interesting to have some belts divided by weight.

It seems that the WWE has not learned from the past. They touch upon the character development but just do not take it far enough. I think that they take themselves way too seriously these days and they really need to lighten up...........but I don't see it happening.

I could go on for a lot longer, but I think that this is enough for the moment. Anyone agree, disagree, have anything to add?

 

[johnson]

Agree 100% on Del Rio. It may be too late to go back to that though with how they've ruined him.

I can see the European Union, but I'm not sure it would have the same force as the Iron Shiek, Bolsheviks, and characters from our traditional "enemy" countries. Fans may find it hard to take seriously a trash-talking Bulgarian or Swiss guy.

I actually like the Zeb Colter schtick because so many people love or hate the Tea Party/Immigration stuff. He's the only character I see them going over the PC line every now and then. The problem is that Swagger and Cesaro present as more just two goons doing what they are told than independent guys that truly hate American. I do find it HILARIOUS that the second "Real American" is a Swiss citizen, but I'm not sure it's effective once the chuckles subside.

Agree on Ziggler. He used to do that kind of stuff and has stopped. It worked back then and they need to go back to it.

Love Sandow. His mic skills are great and I don't know that they need to do much different there...they just need to make him more credible by not losing every match he's in.

Disagree on Barrett. I LOVE the BNB segments. Probably the best part of some of the shows these days. I love the idea that he basically hasn't wrestled in weeks (like Fandango for a while) and is focused solely on insulting everyone around him. I could see him paired with Sandow?

 

[FNG]

CM PUNK quit today! Huge problem for WWE!

 

[futballiscool]

I agree with all of the posts so far.

My biggest pet peeve is the way the mid card is completely directionless. They put the top heels and the top faces in a couple of storylines and then ignore the rest of the roster.

Don't just throw Sandow, Ziggler, Kingston, Amrbose, Fandago, (etc keep going down the roster) in filler matches. With your 5 hours of time on Raw and Smackdown give those guys their own feuds against with one another. Have those feuds payoff in matches at the PPV. See which guys are connecting with the audience and give them a bump up with IC Championship matches (give the wrestlers and that belt a push).

Maybe give them more time on Smackdown since RAW's the money show. Still give them their chance though (on the mic and in the ring)

Savage worked his way up the card with awesome promos, great matches and then the classic against Steamboat. Steve Austin was basically a mid card journeymen who bounced between federations and then found his niche and caught fire. I think they have to let that happen organically again

 

[FNG]

another guy being lost is Zack Ryder. Guy is all over on twitter. Use him over 14,000 tweets and 1.5 million followers. compared to John Cena 3,100 tweets yes I know has more followers 5.5 million.

there is more guys too.

 

[geneh_33]

Back in the old days of wrestling not every knew it was all just a show. Now that everyone knows not many people care about it anymore.

I don't get off on a bunch of muscular guys talking crap about each other - because some promoter decided who will win before the match was set up.

 

[anotheridiot]

what happened is they bought out all the competition, the TNA that is left holds no threat, barely fill gymnasium sized arenas. The peak was when WCW was strong. If Shane kept running WCW and there was still competition none of this shit would be happening, which is they can do whatever they want. Turn a 500 pound giant into a crybaby because he has to punch dusty rhodes, then use him as a sandbag for lesnar.

Alot of the same is happening with UFC buying up all the competition. There is a reason its called healthy competition.

 

[jakedog56]

Back in the old days of wrestling not every knew it was all just a show. Now that everyone knows not many people care about it anymore.

I don't get off on a bunch of muscular guys talking crap about each other - because some promoter decided who will win before the match was set up.

Which is why they need to stop taking themselves so seriously. They need to make it more over the top weirdness. Why try to make it "realistic" when everyone is well aware that it is not real?

 

[anotheridiot]

Which is why they need to stop taking themselves so seriously. They need to make it more over the top weirdness. Why try to make it "realistic" when everyone is well aware that it is not real?

You could say the talking is what ruined it. Part of the graduating from the academy is how you do with monologues. Used to be an announcer in the back and a quick interview that was taped and could have been redone. Now you gotta grab the mic and talk to 20,000 people.

Gotta say talk is part of the demise.

 

[OregonDucks]

what's wrong?

like mentioned before, lack of competition is killing WWE. Vince buying out WCW was the worst thing to happen to pro-wrestling...

Also, the product has been so stale for so long in the PG era, that the fans don't follow the storyline characters roles anymore. They (the fans) create who will be the heel and face, depending on how the crowd feels that night. Cena is the companies face, yet the dude gets boo'd out of every arena. When Punk was so called the "voice of the voiceless" he originally was meant to be a heel, but the crowd went nuts over it.

Daniel BRyan was suppose to be a heel, crowd had other opinions and made him a face.

Orton back when he was a heel before he turned face, the crowd LOVED Him, so he got cheers instead of boo's everytime he showed up. the RKO chant was everywhere.

But that is WWE's fault, they've created such a boring product with stale storylines and storylines that make no sense that the fans have had to take it upon themselves to make things interesting and it has created a confusing and terrible set.

It makes no sense at all when your supposed top heel is getting cheered more than your top face. But WWE created this environment....

PG Era has ruined WWE's product.

 

[StanMarsh51]

what's wrong?

like mentioned before, lack of competition is killing WWE. Vince buying out WCW was the worst thing to happen to pro-wrestling...

Also, the product has been so stale for so long in the PG era, that the fans don't follow the storyline characters roles anymore. They (the fans) create who will be the heel and face, depending on how the crowd feels that night. Cena is the companies face, yet the dude gets boo'd out of every arena. When Punk was so called the "voice of the voiceless" he originally was meant to be a heel, but the crowd went nuts over it.

Daniel BRyan was suppose to be a heel, crowd had other opinions and made him a face.

Orton back when he was a heel before he turned face, the crowd LOVED Him, so he got cheers instead of boo's everytime he showed up. the RKO chant was everywhere.

But that is WWE's fault, they've created such a boring product with stale storylines and storylines that make no sense that the fans have had to take it upon themselves to make things interesting and it has created a confusing and terrible set.

It makes no sense at all when your supposed top heel is getting cheered more than your top face. But WWE created this environment....

PG Era has ruined WWE's product.

I partially agree but I think there's a variable you're missing...the heels that get cheered a lot tend to be great wrestlers (at least by today's standards). Punk, Bryan, Cody Rhodes Jericho, Ziggler when they were all heels were cheered a great deal, and they're all considered highly talented wrestlers. They also receive plenty of cheers during their face runs...and this may show that the fans nowadays appreciate good wrestlers more than anything. Ryback, Curtis Axel for example are heels and aren't cheered. Orton on his current heel run isn't really getting cheers (seems that fans finally realized he's an overrated wrestler), and if Batista turns heel, I don't think he'll get cheered much.

 

[jakedog56]

How about dividing the WWE into divisions like NFL/NBA/MLB?

It could spread the product out and allow for some seperation of the talent and keep things a little bit more fresh by moving wrestlers from one territory to another. The trick would to not make it so one division had all the big talent while others acted as only developmental territories.

You could have a West, North, East, and South divisions. It would be a HUGE change in format and require a complete rework of the way things are currently done but the possibilities are certainly there. Have the World Champions cycle through the different divisions periodically.

It would certainly allow for more wrestlers to be able to remain on the roster and display their talents and it certainly couldn't be as stagnant as the current situation.

Of course this is too big of a leap for the WWE to take. I would guess that it is not financially feasible but I still would like to see it.

 

[Mistaken4193]

I see 3 problems.

1. No competition back in the day they had to put up or shut up every week or go out of business. Now that they have no competition they can do what they want and not worry about it.

2. Too many PPVs it makes the storylines rushed i think they should only have 5 ppvs per year. Royal Rumble in January then build till April for Mania then build till june for MITB then build till August for Summerslam then build till November for Survivor Series then build back to January for the Royal Rumble. It allows storylines to properly develop.

3. Midcard titles have lost importance. Maybe since they have unified the world titles they can now throw the wrestlers competing for the WHC onto the Intercontinetal scene building its importance back up. Oh and get rid of the US title and replace it with the hardcore title.

 

[Louie26]

Good points.

In addition, I think that the lack of competition is really hurting them. It seems to make them a little lazy.

That and bending to the star's egos and letting them do what they want way too often.

For example: I have never really liked Randy Orton. He is a 2nd generation star who is a decent worker but comes off as a spoiled brat who freaks out when he does not get his way. He is also not very good on the mic. Apparently he is also considered to be very hot by the ladies.
In the 80's/90's, they would have made him a Rick Rude-type character and have him flirting with the ladies and treating them like crap, pissing off boyfriends, etc. But in these days everyone wants to be a bad ass so they just have a roster full of bad ass types. It was much more fun when they cartooned up the characters a bit. Now it seems that many are basically the same. Muscular guy who looks tough and not much else to it.

At least in the past the bad ass characters had more than just bad ass. Steve Austin had tons of personality, Van Vader had his sci-fi gear and his weird mask, Demolition, the Powers of Pain and the Road Warriors had their make up, hair cuts, and S&M gear (at least Demolition had that last one). YOu had the vicious madmen from out of the country like the Russians, Kamala, Abdullah the Butcher, Killer Khan, etc. Even the fairly non-descript had something: The Blackjacks had their cowboys hats and whips, Buzz Sawyer, Bruiser Brody had the madman thing going. etc. etc.

Let's face it. Wrestling previously was not PC and it shouldn't be. Playing up stereotypes was a huge part of character development back in the day and it certainly made the characters more interesting.

What I would do with some of the characters and structure if I were running the WWE:
Alberto Del Rio- They actually had a pretty good character with the Mexican Million Dollar Man type, but they killed it when they made him a face. Should return to the former and play it up more. To have him throwing around money and buying people off like DiBiase used to do would be fun.
Wade Barrett-He falls into that "nondescript character" definition. They should play up the European angle and go into an anti-American thing (pretty standard old school storyline). They could easily make a faction with Barrett, Antonio Cesaro, Drew McIntyre, and the likes of Mason Ryan and Alexander Rusev. Make William Regal their ringleader and call them something like "The Eurpoean Union". Have them come out waving their home country flags and make everyone stand while their national anthems are played, etc. At this point my personal feeling is that Sheamus shouldn't be in a group as he seems to have the personality to stand alone (but his character is stagnating at the moment), but he could play up the ethnicity angle.

I like that the Road Dogg and Billy Gunn are back, but why not make them a faction unto themselves also. In adddition to being the New Age Outlaws, why not have them work with a constant flow of other old school wrestlers coming back for cameo appearances?

The Dolph Ziggler to Mr. Perfect should be an obvious one (I've heard many say it before). Dolph should be playing up how perfect he is in the ring at all times. When he performs a great spot move he should let everyone know that it was PERFECTION.

Damien Sandow's intellectual character was headed in the right direction but also not taken far enough. He should wear glasses and a tweed coat and pop in during interviews when someone makes a grammatical error and correct them on camera.

Another obvious one should be to make John Cena a heel but it never seems to happen. His popular Superman schtick is about as painfully boring as Randy Orton's character (or lack of it).

Too much time spent in the ring with mics! The should cut that time down significently.

More run-ins!!! More run-ins is always a plus. More sneak attacks during interviews. More outside of the ring footage with people attacking each other.

The return of the squash match. It seems that they keep trying to put big event matches on all of the time. I used to enjoy the squash match where one average looking guy was going in against a monster who obviously was going to destroy him in just a matter of minutes. To me it emphasized the difference between a good wrestler and the average joe.

They should also divide into 2 weight divisions with a lightweight and heavyweight classes. You could still have cross-weight class matches but my personal opinion is that it would be more interesting to have some belts divided by weight.

It seems that the WWE has not learned from the past. They touch upon the character development but just do not take it far enough. I think that they take themselves way too seriously these days and they really need to lighten up...........but I don't see it happening.

I could go on for a lot longer, but I think that this is enough for the moment. Anyone agree, disagree, have anything to add?

Great post!! I think people like you should be the creative mind.

Also, WWE seems like its all about $$$, not about fans anymore. I love Cena, but Brass is so concerned about what it'll do to their pocketbook by turning him heel, for the betterment of the company.

Also, bringing back old superstars and immediately making them champs. What happened to Ryback, Barett, etc....All these young superstars right here and they need to bring Road Dogg & B Gunn back to be champs??

I could go on with superstars getting fu##ed over, but I'll stop.

 

[Louie26]

I see 3 problems.

1. No competition back in the day they had to put up or shut up every week or go out of business. Now that they have no competition they can do what they want and not worry about it.

2. Too many PPVs it makes the storylines rushed i think they should only have 5 ppvs per year. Royal Rumble in January then build till April for Mania then build till june for MITB then build till August for Summerslam then build till November for Survivor Series then build back to January for the Royal Rumble. It allows storylines to properly develop.

3. Midcard titles have lost importance. Maybe since they have unified the world titles they can now throw the wrestlers competing for the WHC onto the Intercontinetal scene building its importance back up. Oh and get rid of the US title and replace it with the hardcore title.

THIS!!!

Couldn't agree more!!

 

[anotheridiot]

I see 3 problems.

1. No competition back in the day they had to put up or shut up every week or go out of business. Now that they have no competition they can do what they want and not worry about it.

2. Too many PPVs it makes the storylines rushed i think they should only have 5 ppvs per year. Royal Rumble in January then build till April for Mania then build till june for MITB then build till August for Summerslam then build till November for Survivor Series then build back to January for the Royal Rumble. It allows storylines to properly develop.

3. Midcard titles have lost importance. Maybe since they have unified the world titles they can now throw the wrestlers competing for the WHC onto the Intercontinetal scene building its importance back up. Oh and get rid of the US title and replace it with the hardcore title.

wow, this does make sense. on number two, now they are "giving" the network subscriber every pay per view to get them to join, you wonder if they are getting everyone thinking they are getting 600.00 worth of pay per views for 120.00, then end up just getting 300.00 worth.

 

[Brahmsian]

NOTHING has ever been good about that farcical pseudo-sport.

I outgrew any interest I ever had in that sort of crap when I was 9 years old.

 

[Louie26]

NOTHING has ever been good about that farcical pseudo-sport.

I outgrew any interest I ever had in that sort of crap when I was 9 years old.

I thought only assholes used the words farcical and pseudo!