Wrestling Thread 5: FKA The Viking Experience • Page 62

Just realized that Money in the Bank is going against the Game of Thrones finale. lol

 

I forgot they had Shane beat down Roman...so that's definitely happening on RAW leading to a tag match between Shane/Elias + Roman/Miz. Just the idea that Shane is a RAW person so Roman has to appear feels very dumb.

They're gonna end up pulling a No Mercy and trot out their big matches before 9pm and leave like the womens MITB and Roman/Elias for last.

 

You know the Smackdown tag scene is bad when two of their suggestions for tag champs are the WWE Champ and the intercontinental champ. Sheesh.

 

Heath talking his factions on E&C was good stuff

- Nexus were sometimes barred from changing in the locker room, seems like they had heat for being green and debuting in a main event angle
- for 3MB he wanted it to be a more serious gimmick and he wanted Fandango, Ambrose, and EC3 because at the time they were all in developmental or not doing anything. creative said no to all three and Drew and Jinder were picked for him and while Jinder didn't mind, Drew was pissed. Heath was bummed they were together for two years and never got a shirt.
- for Social Outcasts he wanted them to operate like The Flock and he didn't understand why as "outcasts" they were booked so normal and chummy and talking on the mic.

overall he sounds happy, says he usually works Main Event or nothing at all and then goes home, seemingly indicating he's not on the house show loop much anymore. says he's fine with not working if they're gonna pay him. it's a bummer though because he sounds really proud and excited about all the shit he's done, the interview covers his whole main roster run. hope he gets his day in the sun.

 

So they cut out Dijakovic's white nationalist gimmick out? Good. I really fucking hate the foreign heel, American face thing. I guess they're still doing that with Dream singing the US anthem. Lazy lazy writing.

 

XFL games to air on ESPN, ABC, Fox properties

 

The is the lowest my level of interest in the WWE product has been in years. I didn't even watch SDL last week at all.

 

So what would you guys do to fix the problems? Saying get rid of Vince is a cop out answer.

 

Keep Vince but trust the writers. Allow shit to breathe a little. Sometimes it takes a bit for an idea to pay off. Have more interactions between wrestlers and have mini stories in feuds.

 

Good writing and good stories seem like the simplest thing, second they aren't doing anything with a bunch of wrestlers. I'm just sick of seeing the boring lashley and Corbin shit at this point. It's totally stale. Give riccochet an interesting feud for people to care about him as a character rather than a dude who does flashy fun moves, give aleister better lines or no lines at all and let him go over on orton or someone big and established. There was a point the last two years where there was a bunch of wrestlers you could see winning the rumble, now that pool seems like it has shrunk considerably.

That's what happens when you let rusev day disappear, let shinsuke fall to the bottom of the card, have the bar written off, dean gone, aj taking time off, no d.bry, Luke trying to leave, burying Bray, the revival squashed, ember injured, Sasha and bayley etc. there used to be a time where a Shelton Benjamin or a Ken shamrock getting a world heavyweight title shot got a huge pop, like woah this guy is great and he deserves a chance and maybe he becomes the next edge or Jeff hardy.

Also, I liked the title challenges every week, sometimes you'd get a fun surprise and a fresh match up you didn't always get to see.

That's not to say they don't have some good things going, they don't need to scrap everything. It's just when shows are so long, you have to at least try to hold the audiences attention for the in between stuff.

These things happen because they seem to have no cohesive plans, it's all contemporary and when wrestlers drop they just totally drop. They leave them there, only build them up to feed them to Lars or someone. Kofi is an example of why being spontaneous works but I don't see why they couldn't do a little of both.

 

One thing I would like to see more of is an actual focus on the mid card. Rey/Joe and Balor/Bobby have been months long "programs" that they don't even seem focused. There haven't been multiple contenders for the titles and both seem directionless. The titles don't mean anything because no one is striving for them. NJPWNOPE just had a show headlined by the Junior and Never titles. You could NEVER do that with WWE WAS because they mean nothing, even as a Raw Main Event. Miz seemed to make the IC title important for a while, then it went to Raw and became shit.

 

nxt seems to have a good blueprint in place

1) shorter shows / don't try to have everyone on every show. Its actually more enjoyable to watch your favs when they only appear once or twice a month because it feels special instead of just seeing the same thing week after week. this even applies to PPVs -- Takeovers always have room to breathe and can put on multiple long, excellent matches and still end at a reasonable time. Whereas main roster PPVs even if you get a good match you're so exhausted by the volume of wrestling its harder to enjoy it.

2) meaningful tv matches. especially for mid-card feuds, you don't need to end them all at the next PPV. You can do it on the weekly show.

3) better lighting/camera work. Main roster stuff likes to keep the lights somewhat turned up on the crowd. NXT lights it in a way that keeps everything focused on the ring. I think this is one of those little things that goes a long way to making NXT more engaging.

4) mauro on the mic. enough said.

idk if this stuff would make the non-smark ratings that actually translate to TV numbers pop back up, but would certainly make me more interested in watching.

 

Honestly yeah, making the mid card belts mean something would be a good first step. Also making non title feuds meaningful. That would give them something to fill Raw and Smackdown with. There's also no reason why feuds can't involve other wrestlers. Have other guys come in and out of feuds, not being the main focus but to allow some downtime in a feud you know?

 

I haven't any WWE programming since Mania, there's just no reason to. I'm happy ratings are going down and I hope the continue to, that's when we will see some fuckin change.

 

They can't even book stars right now. No one seems to be at the top, we just have a bunch of watered down former top guys going for the main titles.

 

I mean, its a cop out answer too, but follow the NXT model more closely. You know at all times who the big people in NXT are, and who is being built up.

Dana Brooke v Candice LaRae is a perfect example. In kayfabe, neither was a relevant wrestler until a month or two ago. Candice is getting wins on TV and is clearly getting involved with the champion. She may not be in the Takeover match, but I can believe by Takeover:Toronto she'll be a contender. Dana Brooke, by comparison, stepped up to Ronda, got brutalized, and even got the "update on her medical condition" article from WWE after. That's a natural launching point for a face turn, which they tried following up on right after WM. She's now in the MITB ladder match...and the way we know she's a legit contender is...matches on Main Event that nobody watches.

Even if I dont want a Dana Brooke push, if shes in the MITB match and Ruby isnt, that Main Event match should 100% have been on the main show...certainly over Naomi/Billie Kay that went nowhere, or using some of the inexplicable nearly 10 minutes they gave Alicia Fox on that same episode. Becky shouldnt have wrestled at all, much like week to week, we rarely see the main NXT champs wrestle.

On one show, I know where people are headed. On the other, I honestly couldnt rank the entire division if I tried because I dont even know what counts week to week.

 

Also, wins and losses dont hurt NXT people by and large, because there is always a sense of momentum PPV to PPV. Any person can be built to a moment, and the fans trust even questionable choices because they have a history of paying them off long-term.

Honestly, the main roster shows would have to book from now to at least Summerslam perfectly to even start to turn things around. I dont even think they'll make it a month before completely rewriting things.

 

Make Raw 2 hours and Smackdown 1 hour!! BOOM fixed

 

How fucking easy would it be for WWE to do a G1 tourney with fresh matches every week? They could have some amazing matches on a weekly basis and take up two months of programming.

 

411MANIA | Rancid Lead Singer Says He’s Backing AEW and Cody Rhodes, Thinks WWE Has Nothing to Get Behind Anymore

Lars Fredrickson backing AEW.

Can't wait for those Rancid/Downstait colabs

 

The roster is so deep with talented performers that never make TV, they could basically replicate NJPW and be WAY better off (Tag League, Super Juniors, NJ Cup, etc)

 

I wonder if aew wrestlers will get less generic themes

 

Is Tim out of the band? Always saw him as the definitive lead

 

I honestly think a part of the problem is there really isn't much differentiation between what Raw and Smackdown are supposed to be.

You could do something like Monday being Roman/Cena/TV G focused and Tuesday be AJ/Finn/IWC focused.

It def doesn't have to be that exact thing but like, if i didn't enjoy Monday what makes Tuesday seem DIFFERENT to me?

 

hire writers who know shit about wrestling instead of comedy writers