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DrVenkman PhD

WWE General Discussion - March 2009

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John Cena was interviewed by the New York Daily News about his opinions of New York Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez steroid admission:

 

They are the personal choice of the athlete and he got defensive, saying he used because he felt he needed to. If there was a set of stipulations set in place, he may never have even considered it. The government should take the initiative, and if you get caught using drugs, then you should go to jail. A criminal record will hurt your endorsements and long-term contracts.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/03/...uez_in_jai.html

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It's important because John Cena, the cornerstone of WWE, is saying that any athlete who takes steroids should be put in jail. It has to make you wonder what Vince thought of that, not to mention the wrestlers currently in WWE who have a steroid suspension on their record.

 

And holy shit, that Top Rope Theater was hilarious. I never watched any of those episodes until now. Michael Cole showed more charisma in that one segment than he has in 12 years with the WWF/E.

 

OH MY!

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WWE.com's Top Rope Theatre is amazing.

 

http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/vms...ch22-28/9659642

 

"And I don't mean the kind the astronauts drink!"

 

Seconded.

 

It's a shame this kinda stuff gets lost on the website instead of being put on TV. And major kudos to Michael Cole for being willing to have a laugh at his own expence. Watching that turned me into a true Coleminer.

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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport...icle2339994.ece

 

Ken Kennedy's new interview with The Sun, it's quite long. Once again Ken is claiming 'some guy I thought was a doctor' ordered the roids off the internet for him, without his knowledge. There's also an odd bit half way through, where he says that he's not on anything mainly because of the wellness policy. but implies no-one should care what wrestlers do to their own bodies and it's nobody's business but their own.

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Does theone always have to be arrogant ass in every post?

 

He's safe for another year so he's pulling out the stops now!

 

---

 

Are the WWE engineering and building up their fanbase from ground zero again? Just to think, in 1994 they had those colorful kiddie characters, that grew and evolved as the fans grew over the 5-6 years into the attitude era. So that would be a fan growing from the age of 12-18 with the product growing and match them. In terms of money, surely that's the more successful model to do, to grow and educate your fans into the promotion.

 

So in 5 years time we could have another attitude era when the current fan base grows older. There seems to be a 5 year cycle in wrestling where it peaks, ebbs and rebuilds.

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Does theone always have to be arrogant ass in every post?

 

He's safe for another year so he's pulling out the stops now!

 

---

 

Are the WWE engineering and building up their fanbase from ground zero again? Just to think, in 1994 they had those colorful kiddie characters, that grew and evolved as the fans grew over the 5-6 years into the attitude era. So that would be a fan growing from the age of 12-18 with the product growing and match them. In terms of money, surely that's the more successful model to do, to grow and educate your fans into the promotion.

 

So in 5 years time we could have another attitude era when the current fan base grows older. There seems to be a 5 year cycle in wrestling where it peaks, ebbs and rebuilds.

 

There is virtually no way the wwe could expand their fan base by attracting new fans over 18 years old. You have to get us when we're young...

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Well, we're all still watching after 'our time' be that out of habit or because we still like the product who knows. I was just looking at it and thought, maybe they 'engineer' their own 'boom and bust' style product to get the most money and keep things 'fresh'.

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They haven't been in business long enough to know. It's like everyone saying "Wrestling works in cycles and it's on the low end right now." Sure, wrestling has gone down only to spring back up with a bang in the past... But it there's no record of that happening enough to know it's a set pattern that the wrestling business will follow.

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I don't buy that WWE is engineering their own cycles. The current downtrend started in 2002 after the horrendously botched Austin heel turn at WM X-7 and then the Invasion angle. The virtual disappearance of the most popular guys in the company from active duty (Rock, Austin) over the next year or two without putting over a new generation of talent, along with the stale second tier main eventers of HHH and Undertaker constantly being pushed sent ratings down to their current lows.

 

There were times from 2000 to 2005 to get over a whole slew of main eventers (Jericho, Benoit, Angle, Brock, Goldberg, Booker, Batista, JBL), but most of them simply fizzled out (Batista), left for greener pastures (Goldberg, Brock), or were victims of bad booking (Jericho, Booker). Cena, Edge and Orton are over right now, but all of them still fall short in stature of HHH, Taker and HBK in terms of popularity and name recognition.

 

They also have the problem of not really having anyone on the bench to become a main player. They tried CM Punk last year, but no one is going to take a cruiserweight seriously as a world champion (Sorry, Rey.) Their best hope is giving MVP, Christian or Shelton the MITB win and letting them run with it for awhile before cashing in. Heck, build up one of the guys all year and have them win the Rumble too so they can use both title shots at WM 26.

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Rey's not the best example to use considering he was made to look like complete crap when he had the belt. I can't recall any World Champion in the last couple of years who had more clean losses and was presented as poorly as Mysterio was. Only in the few couple of weeks that he feuded with Booker did the booking actually have him fighting back and looking strong.

 

On the main point the talk about cycles as someone noted is difficult to figure out, considering there are so many other factors (booking, injuries, programming changes) which account for changes in revenue.

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I think it was made clear with both Rey and CM Punk, that they both had a career night when they won the belt, and that keeping it was going to be a long shot. They were not made to look dominant. Rey had it worse than Punk, as atleast Punk was having competitive matches with Batista that would end in controversy, and got clean wins over JBL and Regal. Rey if I remember correctly was getting his ass beat by just about everyone on the Smackdown main event and upper card roster as champion. Someone in WWE seems to have mixed up the concepts of underdog and loser. If either man get another reign I hope it'll be a bit stronger.

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They haven't been in business long enough to know. It's like everyone saying "Wrestling works in cycles and it's on the low end right now." Sure, wrestling has gone down only to spring back up with a bang in the past... But it there's no record of that happening enough to know it's a set pattern that the wrestling business will follow.

 

I'm sure there's some historian who can follow this back into the 30s and prove it

 

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I might be the only Kozlov fan. He's not that bad, but his matches need to be short competitive slugfests. It seems to be the only thing that motivates him to be his best. He shouldn't be going longer than 10 minutes maybe 15 at the most with the right opponent. Dude would of been a star if he came around even 10-20 years ago.

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It was linked earlier, but I felt this needed a specific mention. It's from Kennedy's interview with The Sun. It's mad because no one's ever openly criticized the Wellness Policy publically like he just did. I wonder if there will be reprocussions for that.

 

The testing is ridiculous, I swear it is more rigorous than the NFL. I hear stories that when they get tested, they get told in advance. They get called up a month or two months ahead of time and are told 'You'll have a test on such-and-such a date'. So, if they are taking anything, they can stop taking it, get it out of their system, then take the test. I don't know how many times I've been tested this year. It seems like every time I go to TV, I get tested. There's a note up on the wall, and I have to go in front of a guy, pull my pants around my ankles, pull my shirt up to my armpits, and stand there and pee into a little cup. They watch the pee come out of the end of your willy. When you're doing it on a weekly basis, it tends to be a little much. But I do understand the health reasons. I'm probably going to get myself in trouble here, but we live in a free country, if I'm not hurting anybody, what's the big deal? I'm not hurting you. If I have health issues down the road, then I have health issues.

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Regarding Kennedy: Maybe he'd get tested less frequently than "every time I go to TV" if he showed up for TV more than once a month and didn't already have a strike against him (maybe two, I can't remember).

 

Regarding the "Coleminers": I did not know Michael Cole had that kind of charisma. He's just not suited for having somebody in his ear telling him what to say, apparently.

 

Regarding engineered cycles: The only reason WWE stopped marketing to kids & entered the Attitude era was because WCW was already in the Attitude era and were drubbing WWE in the ratings. WWE wasn't going to out-draw the 18-34 male market with kids & parents, so they adapted.

 

Regarding Rey/Punk as uncredible champions: Size is irrelevant, it's how you're booked. Santino was booked as an unstoppable Russian monster in OVW, for god's sake, and he's what, 5'10", 220-something?. Whatever overness you believe Koslov to have is not because of his size, it's because he kicks the shit out of people.

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Regarding Kennedy: Maybe he'd get tested less frequently than "every time I go to TV" if he showed up for TV more than once a month and didn't already have a strike against him (maybe two, I can't remember).

 

Regarding the "Coleminers": I did not know Michael Cole had that kind of charisma. He's just not suited for having somebody in his ear telling him what to say, apparently.

 

Regarding engineered cycles: The only reason WWE stopped marketing to kids & entered the Attitude era was because WCW was already in the Attitude era and were drubbing WWE in the ratings. WWE wasn't going to out-draw the 18-34 male market with kids & parents, so they adapted.

 

Regarding Rey/Punk as uncredible champions: Size is irrelevant, it's how you're booked. Santino was booked as an unstoppable Russian monster in OVW, for god's sake, and he's what, 5'10", 220-something?. Whatever overness you believe Koslov to have is not because of his size, it's because he kicks the shit out of people.

 

Fair point, I hadn't thought about that.

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When will Kennedy ever learn to keep his mouth shut? Every time he does, he just keeps digging a bigger and bigger hole for himself.

Fine by me!

 

but most of them simply fizzled out (Batista)

I can't stand the guy, but I don't think you can say Batista "fizzled out". The guy is still over & a draw for the company, he just gets injured a lot.

 

but no one is going to take a cruiserweight seriously as a world champion (Sorry, Rey.)

As pointed out, it's not Rey's fault he was booked like complete shit as champ. Let's not forget the guy was crazy over & shown to be a draw before he got the belt, and not just because of the Eddie sympathy.

 

Their best hope is giving MVP, Christian or Shelton the MITB win and letting them run with it for awhile before cashing in. Heck, build up one of the guys all year and have them win the Rumble too so they can use both title shots at WM 26.

Shelton can't talk, so no way he gets elevated to ME status. He's about as high as he'll go on the card right now. They had no faith in Christian before he left for TNA, what makes you think they've changed their minds now? The only one out of those 3 that has any shot of winning MITB would be MVP, and I still can't see him winning it right now. I don't think they are ready to make him a ME'er yet.

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It was linked earlier, but I felt this needed a specific mention. It's from Kennedy's interview with The Sun. It's mad because no one's ever openly criticized the Wellness Policy publically like he just did. I wonder if there will be reprocussions for that.

 

The testing is ridiculous, I swear it is more rigorous than the NFL. I hear stories that when they get tested, they get told in advance. They get called up a month or two months ahead of time and are told 'You'll have a test on such-and-such a date'. So, if they are taking anything, they can stop taking it, get it out of their system, then take the test. I don't know how many times I've been tested this year. It seems like every time I go to TV, I get tested. There's a note up on the wall, and I have to go in front of a guy, pull my pants around my ankles, pull my shirt up to my armpits, and stand there and pee into a little cup. They watch the pee come out of the end of your willy. When you're doing it on a weekly basis, it tends to be a little much. But I do understand the health reasons. I'm probably going to get myself in trouble here, but we live in a free country, if I'm not hurting anybody, what's the big deal? I'm not hurting you. If I have health issues down the road, then I have health issues.

 

Yeah, well Nancy and Daniel say hi.

 

That's why I hate the whole 'personal choice issue' talking point. People's families don't have a choice do they? Also, it would require wrestling fans to basically ignore the huge body count piling up.

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I'm probably going to get myself in trouble here, but we live in a free country, if I'm not hurting anybody, what's the big deal? I'm not hurting you. If I have health issues down the road, then I have health issues.

 

 

Yeah, well Nancy and Daniel say hi.

 

That's why I hate the whole 'personal choice issue' talking point. People's families don't have a choice do they? Also, it would require wrestling fans to basically ignore the huge body count piling up.

 

 

I was just going to say that. Three or four years ago, he could have said that and gotten away with it. Now he just sounds like a massive idiot.

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It was linked earlier, but I felt this needed a specific mention. It's from Kennedy's interview with The Sun. It's mad because no one's ever openly criticized the Wellness Policy publically like he just did. I wonder if there will be reprocussions for that.

 

The testing is ridiculous, I swear it is more rigorous than the NFL. I hear stories that when they get tested, they get told in advance. They get called up a month or two months ahead of time and are told 'You'll have a test on such-and-such a date'. So, if they are taking anything, they can stop taking it, get it out of their system, then take the test. I don't know how many times I've been tested this year. It seems like every time I go to TV, I get tested. There's a note up on the wall, and I have to go in front of a guy, pull my pants around my ankles, pull my shirt up to my armpits, and stand there and pee into a little cup. They watch the pee come out of the end of your willy. When you're doing it on a weekly basis, it tends to be a little much. But I do understand the health reasons. I'm probably going to get myself in trouble here, but we live in a free country, if I'm not hurting anybody, what's the big deal? I'm not hurting you. If I have health issues down the road, then I have health issues.

 

Yeah, well Nancy and Daniel say hi.

 

how did that happen?

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