justcoz

It's time for Vince to move Stephanie on to something else. I've mentioned it before but prepare Stephanie to be the representative of WWE to the media and public in place of Linda and Vince. Let her write a book about growing up in a male dominated industry, make an appearance on Oprah, address stockholders each quarter, etc. Market her as the woman leading WWE into the next millenium, even if Linda and Vince are still very actively involved behind the scenes. It will help disassociate Vince's roid rage from WWE and the media would flock to this attractive (in my opinion), intelligent woman being groomed to run a wrestling company. Vince will be compared to Hugh Hefner when he put day to day operations of Playboy into his daughter's hands. I wholeheartedly agree with Vince putting Stephanie in a creative role to help her learn how the business operates. It's been well over three years however and I think she understands how creative operates by now. In regards to creative, I would also look into bringing in Chris Kreski again and have him oversee the creative teams for each show. If Kreski is unavailable than Paul Heyman would definitely be my next choice. Perhaps if HHH would be another choice if he would agree to retire. Despite his backstage politics, I actually believe HHH is very knowledgeable of the business; he respects old school but he was also a very important part of the edgy adult oriented wrestling boom of the 90's w/ DX. I have faith in him running the company some day. It would be very interesting to see Vince allow Bischoff to head up a Raw creative team and Heyman head up Smackdown. You know Raw talent would totally freak if Bischoff would be put into a position of creative influence. I just find it odd that Vince has two men who were a very instrumental part in challenging him to change his product, which of course led him to his greatest success, and he only employs both of them as on-air talent. One guy reinvented the way wrestling was presented on television and the other got a company over on adult themes, workrate and hardcore wrestling. You are Vince McMahon. Would you want either Bischoff or Heyman on the opposite team as you? What type of deal does Bischoff have anyway? If he walks off as an on-air talent, could he work behind the scenes for something like TNA? How about Mick Foley. His storyline is the main reason Randy Orton is over enough to be wearing the title right now. The shows themselves are too formulatic. They need to change their look, change the announce teams and present a product which looks and feels different from 1998. I'd start as soon as this fall's new television season. They should actually do that every season. Crash TV is dead. I think the backstage skits have run their course or should at least be used more delicately. I wouldn't be against having several squash matches on each show to get new talent over and maybe two main event caliber matches with time and plenty of hype throughout the show. Also, end the scripting of promos and interviews and let talent develop their own mic skills and display their own personality. Russo and Ferrarra didn't script Steve Austin, The Rock or Mick Foley's promos. Kevin Sullivan and Eric Bischoff didn't script the NWO or Flair's interviews. From footage that I saw backstage from the Russo era, creative instructed The Rock on what points he should make in his promo and made suggestions but he wasn't following a script word for word. Work on their characters and make suggestions... yes... scripted promos... no...

I actually think Luther Reigns has some potential to be a star. I mean, c'mon, he was Mule in The Girl Next Door! One of the best wrestler movie cameos I've seen since The Rock. He can talk, he seems motivated, he has the look, he has Kurt Angle working with him. Give the program with Eddie a chance before we bury the guy. Learning how to work with someone like Eddie Guerrerro isn't a bad thing.

Yes, because we wouldn't possibly want a good wrestler to get a midcard gimmick character over to the point where he was getting tremendous pops, high quarter-hour ratings and selling merchandise. The midcard retard character can't be getting more attention than HHH - that's just not right.

That's my only problem with HHH. To be honest with you, I think he's going to be awesome at actually running WWE and taking over the family business. I'd really like to see the product he could produce by not booking for himself and instead actually trying to put others over. I'm not talking about jobbing like he did to Benoit and Benjamin. I'm saying that he needs to completely remove himself from the picture. Start thinking for the company instead of HHH. Let the next Mania be his retirment match or something and have him take a GM or announcer role. It's just time to move on.

Doing something eventually with Eugene and Trish could be fun. They would perform it much better than Sable and Zach Gowen. Trish is just so freakin' adoreable in a naughty, bitchy, slutty, bad girl kind of way. Much sexier than face Trish. As for Eugene, I say start having him mount some wins against jobbers/indie guys on Raw and Heat. Matches where he demonstrates his wrestling knowledge and mat skills so they can again get the "pro wrestling idiot savant" over with the crowd. Don't over expose him on the mic. If they do backstage interviews or anything, let Regal do the talking with Eugene just throwing out the occassional wrestling history fact. Let Regal take a strong managerial role and promise everyone that he's going to build up Eugene's confidence again after the bloody hell he as put through by HHH/Evolution. I still think it's pretty terrible how HHH sucked away Eugene's heat. It was getting over in the midcard because he played the character in a very likeable way, they were booking him to outsmart everyone instead of looking like an idiot and his in-ring skills. HHH came into the picture and suddenly Eugene was the retard getting outsmarted and looking bad. Plus, they stopped having him mat wrestle and instead had him play the slow guy who didn't know his own strength, essentially making him Mighty Igor or old school Putski rather than pro wrestling's Rainman.

I understand what you are saying but there is a difference between wanting to win a match by scoring a pinfall and wanting to cripple and paralyze your opponent. That's always been kind of referenced in the announcing. Kidman's SSP isn't necessarily a move that they sell as 'putting someone out of commission' and threatening their career. It's sold as high risk offense if anything, where Kidman is putting the match and his career in jeopardy by missing. If he hits, more than anything probably, he's knocking the wind out of the guy and getting the pin. They've never sold any wrestler, beyond Lesnar's Mania mishap, as being injured from the SSP so it wouldn't be implying that everything else is fake with Kidman saying he didn't mean to injure Chavo, put him on a stretcher and into an ambulance and out of his livelyhood. Noble wouldjust object to that statement. It could be pretty good if told correctly. I doubt WWE will touch upon it because they probably have them scheduled to lose the tag championships to Heidenreich rather than booking an interesting tag team championship match among good cruisers.

Yes, that would totally be hotshotting and Meltzer and everyone would complain that it needed more time for a slow build. First, Jericho should unsuccessfully try to kill HHH using other methods. Poisoning his creatine drink. Leaving a dirty needle in his gym sack. Throwing Big Show from the roof of a building, onto HHH's car, with HHH inside. Locking him in a room w/ Stephanie. Then finally shooting him leading into Wrestlemania.

For a moment on Monday night, when Orton was standing there face to face with HHH holding the championship, I actually thought that Orton was going to hand him the title, siting that he wasn't ready to compete against HHH and Evolution. I thought for sure it was going to be a swerve, ala the finger poke of doom in WCW and they were going to draw this out for several months. Also, I find it ironic that they could have totally used The Rock to put Orton over but it was probably vetoed because of HHH's jealousy towards Rock. Imagine Orton standing in the ring facing HHH and Evolution, about to hand over the championship, Rock's music hits. Rock cuts a promo about standing on your own and being independent, this is Randy's time, blah blah blah. Then again, God that Diva segment would have totally sucked...

Worked shoots are fine as long as they don't expose the business and go over the casual viewer's head. This is where Russo went wrong in WCW. A BAD WORKED SHOOT: Chris Jericho goes on Raw and says that he's tired of being held down by HHH, how the creative team make him job out to everyone just so HHH can protect his spot. He's tired of never getting airtime because HHH and Evolution take up all of the television time and give him and Benoit the shaft. HHH holds other's down and because of his pull with the McMahon family will never step down and let anyone else main event and challenge for the title. A GOOD WORKED SHOOT: Chris Jericho goes on Raw and proclaims that the Raw audience have spoken and they are sick and tired of HHH challenging for the championship. Where is Chris Jericho's title shot? The first ever Undisputed Heavyweight champion of the world? Fans are tired of turning on their television and seeing HHH and Evolution on the screen. They want Y2J. They need Y2J. Jericho wants his championship match. He wants his PPV main event. He wants his shot at the World Heavyweight championship. Basically the same thing is being said and us smarks can "ooh and ah" about how Jericho did a shoot on HHH. To the casual fan, Jericho is just telling it how it is and he simply wants a title shot. He isn't going over their head with insider references and he isn't acknowledging things being scripted. Only us fans who follow the insider stuff can point are fingers and say, "that's a shoot." Kind of like w/ HBK and Bret Hart. When Bret Hart shot on HBK he would reference HBK "losing his smile" because he was a coward who wouldn't face him in the ring in a rematch. He wasn't saying that Shawn Michaels lost his smile because he didn't want to job to him. The insider fans knew what he was referring to and the casual fans just thought he was calling HBK a coward. One is the type of shoot that Russo booked with Vince McMahon watching over him. The other would be what Russo would book on Nitro without having an editor. I say let them make this an angle. Show some footage of Chavo being carried out. Have the announcers speak seriously about how despite the outlandish things we see each and every week for the sake of entertaining the fans - the business is very real and one mishap can end a career and affect someone's life tremendously. How Kidman didn't have any intention of injuring Chavo with the move, they were just having a competative match and accidents happen. Let that be the them which angers Noble. Accidents happening. Have Noble demand that Teddy Long ban Kidman from using the shooting star press. Run an angle where if Kidman does the move, he's dq'd. Like someone said, it's better than Kidman and London spray painting Noble's pick up truck or shining their belts with Chavo's bandanna. WWE creative team style.

Really excellent point. Those are the recognizeable names from the Monday Night Wars and they were the guys who everyone, marks included, expected to step up when the NWO, Goldberg, Austin and Rock, etc. went away. You can even throw in RVD because of his popularity in ECW and upon his WWF debut. And they also had Raven for a few years and gave him the shaft. They have this mentality that they must create new stars but in the process they are pretty much skipping over a generation of guys who are still relatively in their primes (although the later years of their primes). I would also add Matt Hardy, Christian, Edge and even Stevie Richards to that list. They had something with the ending of Mania and Eddie and Benoit hugging to end the show. Going into the next night, there was a renewed interest in the product from smarks and marks. They did nothing with their title reigns though. They didn't allow either to demonstrate the workrate that brought each of them to those championships. I've said it in a few other threads but think of how awesome those reigns would have been had we seen Eddie vs. Benjamin, RVD, Mysterio, etc. rather than JBL. What about Benoit vs. Jericho, Christian, Edge, Hardy and HBK instead of Kane and HHH? Benoit played second to whatever program HHH was in throughout his entire reign. The same applies to Eddie playing second to Taker. If the company themselves don't take the gloves off and trust these guys to be their future for at least the next year or so - then the fans are going to tune out because it's basically the same glass ceiling sh*t. They spent more time pushing JBL, a midcarder, than their champion and they also insulted the demographic their champion represented in doing so. I like the fact that they are going to have Orton maintain his edge as a babyface and I loved the angle where Evolution turned on him. I don't think we needed it to be drawn out. I do think that if this is going to work and Orton is going to ever be seen as a legitimate star - HHH needs to job to him and move on to something else, allowing Orton to move on to other challengers. HHH is 1999 and for the sake of the family business, he needs to realize that and just become a special attraction, not the main event.

There are a few things they could do for him to make money. First, they have WWE Films and RVD has appeared on television and straight to cable action films. Produce a martial arts/action film for him. Even if it's straight to DVD or a Spike TV movie. He has enough of a fan base to guarantee buys or a decent cable rating with the right promotion. This would get him off of television for a bit for filming. When he returns to television, repackage him slightly without the airbrush tights like someone mentioned. Bring him in as an arrogant heel who believes he is a movie star now. Have Paul Heyman be his agent. Maybe have occassional "ECW rules" matches with no DQ's and no countouts where RVD can again use chairs in his offense. There is still more of a future for him on Smackdown despite the fact that they didn't push him upon jumping like they should have. I actually think he looks slightly more motivated on SD than Raw. He's probably grateful that he gets longer matches on SD and he has more athletic/quick guys on the roster. Especially if they turn him heel and let him go with Eddie, Mysterio, London, Kidman, etc.

Yeah, Josh Matthews is the closest thing they have to a legitimate future announcer.

Eugene: Nick Dinsmore played this part like a champ upon his debut. They had a really nice thing going with the Regal/Eugene pairing. Something that could've developed SLOWLY with Regal taking a liking to Eugene but always having to go along with Eric Bischoff's orders. Regal being outsmarted by Eugene and liking it. Eugene wrestling lower card guys and jobbers and shocking everyone with his innovative wrestling style and unexpected knowledge of mat wrestling. WWE stars could have been shown embracing him and marveling at his knowledge of wrestling history. We could have got some laughs with Eugene randomly mouthing off various things related to wrestling's past - even shots at the smark community. Really played on making WWF/WCW history to Eugene what The Beatles were to Sean Penn's character in I Am Sam. Smarks would have liked him because he wrestled like Nick Dinsmore, only with some novelty references to stars from the past. Creative could have mocked smart fans a bit by having him comment on the Super J Cup, dressing up like Ultimo Dragon because he wanted to see Ultimo on Raw, etc. He could still have the stunners, hogan ear cup and people's elbow. He also throws in an NWO 4-life hand signal or DX crotch chop and spray paints Eugene on Coach's back. He also establishes his own wrestling style because he's a freakin' wrestling idiot savant! Instead, Regal/Eugene prove to be a dynamic tv pair and they blow their wad on the suspense just a few weeks into their relationship. Regal likes Eugene instantly, immediately stands up to Uncle Eric, Eugene turns on him and joins Evolution to be with his favorite wrestler. Regal's in-ring comeback is a thrashing by Kane rather than a PPV fight in Eugene's honor. That is one year's worth of angles for creative in less than two months!!!!! Probably because they don't have a wrestling mind in there pacing all of this for them. Their writers are lazy and can't pace anything, they only know they have to get to "this person vs. this person" at the next PPV. In the ring, Eugene is only seen on television giving a people's elbow and a stunner. No wrestling which is Dinsmore's strong point. His pops haven't been the same since they stupidly turned him heel and allowed HHH and Evolution to out smart him. Suddenly then, he became a retard to the casual fan and not the idiot savant who was smarter than all the stupid heels. He's pushed to main events when he should have been wrestling Superstars style matches with OVW jobbers on Raw for six months and building an undefeated streak that surpasses Goldberg's. WWE doesn't have any "attitude" though. Eugene gets booed because HHH is booked to look cooler. They don't let Dinsmore get his wrestling and the character over gradually, he's just pushed right to the top attraction so HHH can feed off of his pops. JBL: See above. This character could have been GOLD if developed at a slower pace. Not into a racist feud with Eddie Guerrerro and insulting the Latino viewing audience who adds to Smackdown's ratings. Definitely not into a WWE title reign! JBL should have been campaigning through November, along with GW, to get a WWE title shot. JOHN CENA: Pitiful babyface run that has totally cut the balls and edge from his character. You know, the type of things that GOT HIM OVER as a heel. It's like turning Stone Cold face and not allowing him to shoot the finger and tell people he's going to whoop their ass! THIS IS JOHN M'F'N CENA MOFOS! He's not meant to deliver babyface style raps and carry noisemakers to the ring or toss out t-shirts to the crowd. He's meant to be edgy and make people listen for how far he will push the envelop. Cena is weak and stale now because he's being nice and not controversial. The writers or Cena (not sure how that works) want to write cute little rips like, "Oh, he swings the other way" that piss off the heel and get a pop because he just insinuated that the other wrestler gay. That's not cutting edge - that's gay! EDDIE/BENOIT: Ah, the end of Wrestlemania. What a beautiful site. Eddie and Benoit closing the show. The next few months of WWE sports entertainment with two deserving workhoarses as champions and the possibility of some classic matches. You know, Eddie feuding with the guy from the APA? Benoit vs. Kane? Oh, I'm sorry, you were thinking things like Eddie vs. RVD or Benoit vs. Jericho or hell even The Hurricane. Chris played second to HBK/HHH and then HHH/Eugene. The WWE champion was nothing but a bit player in their storylines. The reign was a match against Kane and then another with Randy Orton. Both of which were quickly pieced together without much storyline buildup. Chris Benoit deserved a reign where his talents were respected and he allowed himself to demonstrate why he earned that position without Rock charisma or Hulk's look. Ditto for Eddie. I understand that Kurt Angle's post Wrestlemania hiatus more than likely screwed up a continuing program with them. Then Brock's retirement as well. I thought that was the reason for the draft lottery? They acquire both RVD and Booker T who so desperately needed the new digs and could have benefitted from a title program? Instead they rush JBL's push. My frustration isn't with JBL having the title. It's that he got it this soon when he should've got the character over first. Maybe people would have accepted him with the belt six months from now. The championship should be a reward for someone getting a character over. The championship shouldn't be used to get someone over and to establish a character. That's what we have with JBL. SHELTON BENJAMIN: There was a golden opportunity for WWE to get Shelton over on Smackdown in Lesnar's absence. A series with Eddie for the championship even. His presence on the show could have been a God send in Benoit and Angle's absence. In WWE's mind, they pushed Shelton with his move to Raw and victory over HHH. It was a big deal at the time, yes. The follow up to it was again pathetic. Shelton went from the cocky talented kid with a smirk on his face when he faced HHH to a bland smiling babyface. Generic music. Glorified jobber attire. He never got the mic. Main evented for maybe one or two weeks before they seemingly decided to de-push him. Now again look at the possibilities that existed with keeping him on Smackdown.

I like the idea of putting Shane Helms in there. Hurricane may sell merchandise but the gimmick has run it's course largely because WWE creative didn't do anything fun with it. No arch nemesis villains. Nothing. I also believe Helms could be a legit main eventer in the future without being saddled by the gimmick and the thing with Flair a few weeks ago would be a very logical tie-in. I would say: Batista HHH Helms Shelton Benjamin w/ Flair in an advisor role, let the man retire already

I made a point in another thread about how they goofed Eugene by not taking it slow with the angle with him and Regal. How he should have been chalking up weekly wins on Raw against OVW or indie jobbers before being thrown into the main event. How they should have let JBL develop as a character before putting the championship on him. How creative don't know how to pace anything. After saying all of the above, I LOVED LAST NIGHT! True, they could have dragged this out for a bit but this was one case where I think it worked in their favor to hot shot. It was a "Holy Shit" Raw moment that the show had been lacking. You just assumed they were going to end it with the Evolution/Randy celebration and when HHH gave the thumbs down and Orton mouthed "you f*cker" before going down it was pretty much a mark out moment. It reminded me so much of a sudden Horsemen/NWA turn and I think that's why I liked it so much. Granted, I kind of wanted to see Batista and Orton aligned because I think Batista has greater babyface potential than Orton. The question going into next week is if Randy is a face, heel or tweener. I'm hoping they let him continue his cocky arrogant persona and don't turn him into another smiling generic pretty boy baby face. Let him be the same Randy Orton. I don't know, maybe bring Foley in for a match with HHH/Flair? It would add another dimension to the Orton/HHH feud and would be interesting given Flair's comments about Foley in his book.

World Wrestling Entertainment can be the parent company. Smackdown can be referred to as WWF Smackdown and their champion is the World Wrestling Federation champion. Raw can be referred to as WCW Monday Night Raw and their champion is the World Championship Wrestling champion. They can do an angle with Bischoff and Shane teaming up and putting the WCW logo on Raw to spite Vince. This way the champions have a title lineage and an organization attached to their title. For instance, last night when Randy Orton referred to himself as the youngest WWE Heavyweight Champion, this shows that even the talent is confused as to what title they own. Randy is the World Heavyweight Champion. JBL is the WWE Champion. The title that Randy won isn't the same title won at Summerslam by Yokozuna or Brock Lesnar. So if the company themselves are confused, how do you think the casual fan is with something as simple as, "Who's the WWE Champion?"

Exactly. His first Raw was handled perfectly. His interaction with Stone Cold and Austin liking his attitude especially. His mannerisms in the entire match with HHH. The week following the win he should've came out with some new ring attire that made him look more bad ass rather than his Team Angle persona. He should've had some new music, something from Jay Z or something. He should've kept the cocky attitude and they would have had a new star. Instead we got the generic smiling babyface that WWE have yet to realize routinely gets shit on by their audience. The minute I knew they blew it with Benjamin was during the third match with him and HHH when he was tossed outside the ring and HBK interjected and brawled with HHH making the match a no contest. I don't think the announcers even spoke of Shelton again. I was waiting for an interview with him backstage or something. Maybe something where he commented that he beat HHH twice and couldn't understand how politics enabled HHH to be considered a challenger for Benoit's title. Christ, even a Benoit vs. Benjamin RAW title match would have been logical since he had two victories over the former champion. Nada. There are times when it's obvious that WWE want to push someone and make them a huge star. For instance, JBL and Orton. Then there are others where they try to create the impression that they are trying to make someone a huge star but they really aren't. Benjamin falls into that category.

They lost my business with the webcast increase to $35. I ordered EVERY PPV at the $17.95. You can't tell me that sitting at your computer watching a live feed is the same quality as ordering it from cable, and they keep all of the profits to boot as they don't have to pay a PPV provider. That was just greed and I know I'm not the only one who stopped ordering the webcasts. I doubt very much that you get to keep the "extras" on your hard drive. You probably have one week to watch them but I'm not entirely sure of that. They are a nice touch with the extra fee but they should have kept the PPV webcast the price it was and offered the additional extras for the $35 fee. They would have kept their regular webcast customers and made more $$$ from some of them who wanted to view the additional footage. I'm not even sure if it's possible to share webcasts anymore. I never did it when it was possible. I haven't heard any mention of it lately so it's probably a thing of the past.

I'm still trying to figure out if I'm ordering this tonight or if I'm doing my typical Sunday night HBO routine. Does anyone still share webcasts? Yeah, I'm pathetic. To further show how bad WWE is these days, certain bars and the local Hooters, who used to ALWAYS have PPV nights, aren't even showing it.

That was perhaps one of my favorite WWE television moments this year. Possibly behind only the early Regal-Eugene skits and HHH/Regal last week. They should consider running these relay matches more often. Maybe even take notes from TNA's X Division. Put some teams together, run a little series of matches, have standings, a championship match to crown the year's Smackdown Relay champions. Then the winning team, after winning a cash prize/trophy, must face each other in a Triple Threat to face the WWE champion. Possible teams: Rey Mysterio/Paul London/Billy Kidman Ultimo/Kenzo Suzuki/Funaki Jamie Noble/Akio/Chavo Guerrerro Eddie Guerrero/Rob Van Dam/John Cena Kurt Angle/Luther Reins/Charlie Haas Booker T/Rene Dupree/Mark Jindrak Doug Basham/Danny Basham/Heidenreich The Dudleys Nunzio/Johnny Stamboli/Chuck Palumbo (back from Raw)

You are totally right. However, I think the lack of acknowledgement of the "smart" Internet wrestling community is a terrible mistake. The people who post here are for the most part the diehards. While they don't make up the total percentage of WWE's audience and the product shouldn't be totally catered toward them, it's a vocal and knowledgeable crowd who watch weekly and would like to buy every PPV. With that in mind, what we typically see as "crap" should be somewhat listened to. I'm not saying that Internet fans are never wrong but for the most part, the finger is on the pulse of the larger audience. For instance, we were crapping all over the Diva competition and now you see casual fans, marks I guess, booing the contestants, chanting over their skits, etc. Let me take you back to 1997. WWF is losing to WCW in the ratings. Who did they try to target? The smart wrestling community. Vince McMahon was on television saying they wouldn't insult our intelligence with good guy vs. bad guy. They created a working relationship with ECW. Work rate was suddenly noticed among the talent on their roster after years of pushing roided up stiffs. They had "insider" digs at WCW. They created Byte This which in it's early stages wasn't all that concerned with kayfabe. In turn, the Internet community supported them against WCW. Again... I don't want to come across like I'm disagreeing with you because I agree with almost every point you make. Let's just say this is healthy discussion/debate. You are correct, wrestling no matter what goes on in the ring and the athleticism displayed by the talent, will always be seen as a circus and it will always have circus like elements. Larger than life characters and scenerios. But as a company they have to know what type of circus aspects work with their target demographic and current audience. You have to know how to read your audience pretty much. If the arena is booing or mocking what they are seeing, for instance the Lita-Matt-Kane angle and the Diva competition, you have to read that and make the appropriate decisions. Cut the intended plans short so you don't turn away your audience. They don't do that. They literally and sometimes blatantly disregard signals that the audiences, and I'm talking the Internet and beyond, for their own jollies. Case in point, how they went on with Katie Vick and thought they hit a "home run". Stone Cold and The Rock may have not worked if the product around them was The Goon, Sparky Plug, MVP and Bastian Booger. They worked because their characters and the company itself were in touch with what was going on in pulp culture around them. Ditto for Hogan/Piper and the Rock n Wrestling/MTV connection. Right now, there is a reality tv craze. Didn't Paul Heyman want to tap into reality tv with ECW at one point? I remember it being reported that he was laying the foundation for such a show. I wonder what he had in mind. Vince McMahon would rather know what Bruce Pritchard is thinking though. Competition is definitely needed, however, WWE does technically have competition. It's called other programming on television. Monday Night Football. Will and Grace. The OC. MTV Video Awards. CSI and Survivor. Vince always boasted that he's in the sports entertainment business, not the wrestling business. So it shouldn't matter if it's another wrestling company challenging him, right? While I definitely see your point and agree with your opinion I also believe it's really bad business to keep things so predictable and formulatic. What are we waiting for? A 2.5 Raw rating? When things went into high 3's and they didn't retain those Nitro viewers that should have been the first sign. >>I like backstage segments - they make me give a shit about characters. Much more than interviews, especially since skits with THINGS HAPPENING can disguise people's weakness on the mike. << Not sure about that because it also forces wrestlers who aren't actors to be actors. I just consider working a promo or interview directed towards a live crowd is more important to establishing a character. Sometimes they do hit an occassional gem with a backstage segment. For instance, the Flair and HBK exchange the night that Flair faced HHH. Then there are the segments like the Lita pregnancy stuff that just make it difficult to be a fan. Even embarrassing. HHH is a damn over heel but shouldn't anyone be with the amount of tv time he gets? And if he wouldn't have had his invincible reign, Benoit's title win at Wrestlemania wouldn't have been anywhere near as sweet or dramatic as it was. I typically enjoy watching HHH but there comes a time when someone needs to put ego aside for the best interest of the business. Particularly if you are married into that business. You may say, what about Benoit's title win or the Shelton Benjamin upset? Well, Benoit THE WWE WORLD CHAMPION spent the summer being a bit player in a feud between HHH and a retard. He will more than likely lose his title to Randy Orton at Summerslam and I ask you where are the quality matches we could have got with his championship reign? Christ, even a blow off tv match vs. Jericho. We instead got him playing second to HHH. As for Shelton, his upset and the push that should have coincided with it, lost any momentum when he was thrown out of the ring and became an after thought in a HHH vs. HBK brawl. Benoit also played second in that feud as well. There may be HHH fans out there and I've been guilty of that from time to time throughout his career. I was a Hogan fan as well and I hated when he insisted on being dominating. Part of creating that next ONE BIG STAR is for the old ones to step aside. HHH has been near the top of the card since at least 1999. We are looking at Wrestlemania 21 featuring him vs. Randy in what will be ANOTHER World Title match more than likely. Let's just hope Randy goes over convincingly. If that's the case and HHH steps to the side and lets Orton actually have a solid championship reign and not play second fiddle to him - I'll be satisfied. I also love the JBL character as of late. I didn't care for it initially with the ethnic crap they did with Eddie. The best wrestling characters are extensions of their real life personalities. JBL is a Bush supporting, pro Iraqi invasion American. He plays the character to perfection because it's him amped up in campiness a bit. I also liked the Eddie vs. JBL feud. My problem with JBL is that it's another example of the company not listening to their fans and pretty much doing as they wish. There were others on the roster with bigger pops, more established characters and personas, etc. They were bypassed because Vince and his company men wanted to push Bradshaw. Not a proven ratings draw or someone with a strong reaction from the audience. And Eddie's title reign was aborted. He was a proven ratings draw with a strong ethnic following that actually helped Smackdown's ratings. He spent much of last year being the most popular guy on the roster who was on the verge of a championship push. Inexplicably he was put back into a tag team with Chavo at his peak in popularity. He finally got his reign and they put him immediately into a program with an average worker and a new character that wasn't established yet. On top of that, they also had that new character insult Eddie's personal struggles and that ethnic group he represented, essentially a good bit of the company's audience. Ratings tanked, Eddie's confidence did as well, now he's without the title with a lame duck reign after waiting years for it. The quality of the show gets better immediately after Eddie drops the title, ratings improve and the company looks at JBL and says, here's a long term champion? Oh, and let's put him in there with Taker because we need to establish new stars. It should also be noted that the Orton/Foley and Jericho/Trish/Christian storylines were written primarily by the Foley and Jericho/Trish - not the WWE creative team. The creative team is the main thing wrong with this company right now. Then the people like Pritchard in Vince's ear. Let me break down what you just said. Every time that wrestling has become vogue within pop culture it was due to one incredibly over personality. True. However, it was also based on there typically being a revolutionary figure behind the scenes. The product and format itself DID CHANGE to make way for that one recognizeable face to put with it. In '84, it was Vince JR. finally doing what he wanted to do with daddy's passing. Raiding talent, going national on cable, getting Hogan, aligning with MTV, bringing in celebrities, doing something completely against the "wrestling format" with the TNT show. In '95, it was Heyman creating this cult thing with Philly diehards that focused on raunch, violence and pushing workrate and diverse styles of wrestling. In '96, it was Bischoff, going head to head with Raw, presenting glitzy live wrestling television each week, putting main event level wrestling on weekly television and ending the tv squash-a-thons, raiding WWF and ECW talent, creating the NWO. In '97-98, it was Vince Russo stepping up to Mcmahon, Vince finally listening to someone who wasn't just a YES MR. MACMAHON type. Creating a creative force, taking elements of what Bischoff and Heyman were doing, altering the product and look, running with Stone Cold, Mick Foley and The Rock when opportunity presented itself. So what we are all speaking of, altering the product, DID happen. IN TOTAL AGREEMENT WITH YOU HERE. There is no reason we can't have shocking defections from roster to roster. Frequent trades. Mix things up a bit. Get an HBK to Smackdown. I thought the point of the two seperate rosters was to create the illusion of a WCW/WWF rivalry. I liked the dueling GM's, particularly the early Stephanie/Bischoff stuff and the draft Heyman/Bischoff debates. The way they've handled the split rosters and have failed to pit them against each other on camera and create talent jumps, play off the drama we had legit on Monday nights, is WWE's biggest failure. Bigger than the NWO. Bigger than the Invasion.

1. I'm in agreement with bringing back the time limits for matches. I don't agree with scoring falls throughout the entire duration however. It may be a nice touch for championship matches but I don't need to see John Heidenrich and Shannon Moore battling it out for falls. Pretty much each show should hype five matches two with 10 minute time limits, two with twenty minute time limits and a championship match with a 45 or 60 minute time limit. Five matches and the remaining time can go to filler. Interviews with the participants in each match. Video packages. Some angle/storyline development. It's okay to throw in a quality produced Confidential style piece on the background of Randy Orton, a Where Are They Now with Bruno Sammartino, etc. 2. Book mostly smaller venues until the next wrestling boom necessitates playing large arenas again. Smaller crowds bring more energy which creates a better feel on television. It would also make the taping coming from a Madison Square Garden or overseas seem that much more important. 3. Darken the arena lighting, change the overall look and graphics for each show. The presentation and look of the shows have been the same since 1996, especially Raw. This includes a new brand logo. 4. Change of the announce teams. What's the first change MNF makes when their ratings sink? The shake up the announce teams. Bring back three man teams. Raw: JR, Stone Cold or Mick Foley and maybe someone for humor like Kevin Nash or Scott Hall? Smackdown could remain pretty much the same but have Cole, Tazz and Roddy Piper. 5. Drop the backstage skits where wrestlers act as if they don't know the camera is on them and give away their secrets and strategy. Even my girlfriend, who rarely watches, thinks these are just horrendously bad. It's very hard to justify why I watch this crap when Lita is telling Stacy not to tell anyone that she's pregnant on live television. 6. Rotate Raw and Smackdown going live. Smackdown will never be seen as a legitimate show by some fans and those in the company if Raw is the only live production. If this means moving Smackdown to Sunday night or Tuesday night, so be it. They need out of that Thursday thing. Particularly with The OC on FOX this fall in addition to the regular NBC/CBS competition. 7. Allow the wrestlers time to cut in ring promos prior to their matches. ECW used to do a lot of this. It's a good way to build heat for the match with the audience. Also, allow the wrestlers the opportunity to show their own character. Would Austin, The Rock or Ric Flair had taken off if they had their promos scripted to the word for them? Would Hall and Nash have got the NWO? Everyone should have freedom to take their character wherever they can. Stop limiting what wrestlers can do in the ring or with their characters. Not every match needs to be "WWE style". That can be your main event style but variety is needed. Especially with the cruisers. TNA are pushing the X Division and if anything ever gets them over that may be it. Why? Because in the WWE we have Paul London in a four minute front face chin lock by Jamie Noble because it "tells a story" (ie, makes HHH not look as slow as he is anymore). I agree that you need more substance to high spot after high spot (which TNA doesn't do enough of, IMO) but to completely have them wrestling heavyweight style is mind numbing and robbing the audience of something exciting for the sake of certain egos within the company. 8. Bring back managers. So many guys these days may have the look but they don't have the mic skills to be taken seriously as a contender. I miss the days when the Grand Wizard primed guys to take Backlund's title or Heenan was obsessed in finding someone to take out Hogan's reign. They have guys on their payroll like Teddy Long, Jonathan Coachman, Paul Heyman, Arn Anderson and even Eric Bischoff or Shane McMahon who would be great leading stables of wrestlers in managerial roles. Others like Jim Mitchell or Joel Gertner are out there as well. 9. Bring back the element of ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. It's been missing from the product since Nitro went off the air. It's just formulatic television and it's bland. Have someone like Randy Savage show up for a one show deal - maybe to get taken out by Randy Orton. Let Roddy Piper confront Ric Flair on one episode of Raw and get punked by Evolution. People flicked the channel from Monday Night Football to Raw or Nitro because you never knew what to expect on either show. You know what to expect on Raw now. Stupid talentless Diva wannabes in embarrassing skits and a twenty minute HHH promo. Why change the channel? 10. Overhaul the creative team completely. Place Paul Heyman in charge. This guy was canned for not being a Yes man to Vince and Vince needs to realize that this is exactly what he needs. He also needs to ask himself where the wrestling business would be if Heyman's mind didn't create the ECW product, leaving the business in 1995 with no alternative to Mabel in PPV main events, Isaac Yankem, Hogan vs. Zeus in WCW, etc. Each show has their own booking/creative committee with a few screen writers, Foley, Bischoff, Cornette, maybe someone like Tommy Dreamer. For those of you who say those guys couldn't possibly work together. That's the beauty of it. Vastly different philosophies to create a more diverse and interesting product. Make a move to get Chris Kreski back, I don't know. The bottom line is someone with a wrestling background and mind needs to head it up, whether the bulk of the work is coming from screen writers or ex wrestlers. Keep Bruce Pritchard away from the creative process. Also, put Stephanie McMahon in Vince and Linda's role when it comes to addressing the media and shareholders. Have her write a book about growing up in the wrestling business, book her for Oprah, create the impression of a powerful young woman in a male dominated industry. This will be more valuable to her in running the business than determining who Edge will feud with next.

I agree with you to an extent but Batista does have a look that could make people stop while channel surfing and the personality type they should push is his roided up fashionable pimp daddy/GQ/Dean Martin seemingly real life vibe he's got going . I think the casual fans are noticing him which is why he's been receiving pops. I'd seriously consider turning Batista face to feud with Randy Orton before they turn Randy face. >>2004 was watchable up until Wrestlemania 20...then it seems like everyone stopped caring, as did I. << Which is funny because the end of Wrestlemania left so much hope for the product and it all got f'd up the next night. We had Eddie and Benoit as world champions and we got how many **** classics? Thanks to the WWE political environment the two spent their reigns feuding with Bradshaw and HHH rather than anyone that can actual work. Think of how differently it would have been had we got Eddie vs. RVD for the championship or Benoit vs. Jericho? What if Shelton Benjamin wouldn't have made the move to Raw and would have carried over the World's Greatest Tag Team/Guerrerro tag feud with Eddie in the singles for the world title? Maybe we'd have a Summerslam where two young guys like Orton and Benjamin would be challenging the two guys who spent the past twelve years working their way to the championship. Would have been much more interesting.

The product just needs a complete and total make over. Despite Raw still being a "live" show, there is no excitement over that concept anymore. When you used to watch a live Nitro or Raw there was a general feeling that ANYTHING could happen at ANY TIME. You could be shocked at any moment. Nothing ever happens anymore with the exception of the same boring build towards the pay per view storyline. They've been running the same paint by numbers show formatting for about five years now. The show still looks like it did in the Attitude era with the exception that there are no Rock, Mick Foley and Stone Cold. The announce team needs to change. Get rid of Lawler. His act serves no purpose any more and he brings nothing to the product as a color guy. His squeaky voice is enough to ruin even a good product. You wanna shake things up a bit? Bring in Stone Cold on color. Lawler can go be the commissioner on TNA and reunite with the Jarretts for all I care. The backstage skits need to go. It's just ridiculous and suspends any belief whatsoever in the product. Why are these people acting like they don't know a camera is near? Why are they telling secrets and building plans for later in the show on live television? It's a stupid Russo/Crash TV era product of the wrestling biz that needs to be forgotten. Put Mean Gene back there with a microphone interviewing people instead. I say Mean Gene because he is good at that, unlike Todd Grisham. Ditto for the 20 minute in ring promo. These things were only cool when it was Bischoff and the NWO gloating on Nitro or Austin, Rock and DX being entertaining. Either let them be interviewed backstage or cut brief in ring promos prior to their matches. Realize that the audience they do have DOES NOT want to see the Diva competition or the Kane/Hardy storyline. Not one of those women even seem to have Diva potential, they are horrible on the mic, their personalities take away from any attaction they may have, they can't say their lines with a straight face and they are just an embarrassment to the show. Much of that applies to Lita also. Just terrible porn star quality acting. Beyond creative, the product has shown no growth in addition to it's overall lack of direction and that is what ultimately turns off people. The company is full of Yes men who don't stand up to Vince or Stephanie and seek to amuse themselves with the content they produce rather than their audience. For instance, the first week into the Diva competition, when fans were very directly booing and chanting over their presence, action should have been taken immediately to end the competition. Instead they get more tv time, start off the shows, etc.

They aren't smart enough to end the Diva search the way they should. Just have the WWE divas physically whoop their asses with Trish on the mic telling them that none of them are wanted. Vince announces that the winner of the Diva competition will be determined by which ladies are daring enough to come back on WWE television after being abused and threatened by the WWE divas. None of them appear on the next Raw and the competition ends. Behind the scenes, they give each of the girls some kind of cash settlement and a few of them are given tv time whenever a bimbo appearance is called for. The women's division get over with the fans for speaking the truth and calling an end to what everyone, smark or casual, consider bad WWE television.