RavishingRickRudo

Good Wrestling comedy is more slapsticky and visual than anything else, which is different from gag and "joke" humour (though Family Guy often incorporates slapstick in their shows).

Oh come on, she clearly got those breasts as a joke.

I imagine Steph sees wrestling as being camp, so that justifies to her the low-brow, often absurd (but not in any humourous way - more "silly" than anything), comedy.

Have you SEEN the credentials of their writers? Their head RAW writer for a long time - Brian Gertwitz - wrote for BIG WOLF ON CAMPUS. The WWE doesn't attract the kind of guys I'm talking about. However, anyone can be bought, and I think it would be a smart investment by the WWE. These are the kinds of writers who take pride in their work, who have a reputation of putting out great shows, and they're getting paid a gigantic amount of money - I can't see how anyone would take it lightly. Plus, the publicity alone may attract some interest. This, in no way, is the current WWE-approach. They get hollywood writers because they want to be a credible television show, not because they want high level script, characters, and storylines. That, since their writers are qualified, it can't possibly be the creative departments fault for the decline in ratings or the bad television.

The second set of videos would happen after Survivor Series. Now, I don't know if I would have it in regular packaged format, or if I would have someone -say Josh Mathews- following Brock "on the road" doing various training. "I'm Josh Mathews and I have been given permission to follow Brock around the country as he gets ready for his return of the WWE. Today we're in Minnesoda as Brock gets back to his roots, training with his former amatuer wrestling team". Then you get clips of Brock training, and interviews with the coaches, wrestlers, etc. At the end of the video, I'd have Sheldon Benjamin standing there watching, with another wrestler coming up and asking "Hey, didn't you used to wrestle with Brock?". At the end of each video each week, a different wrestler would be watching - Benoit, Angle, Big Show, Taker, HHH, John Cena, and Batista. Each would be interested, each would have a different reaction. Now, personally, I'd include Brock training with some MMA guys - When he's in Oregon, he trains with Team Quest. When he's in California, he trains with AKA and Team Punishment. When he's in Iowa, he trains with MFS. It would help show the legitimacy of Lesnar, training in different fighting styles, and having these "real" fighters talk about how impressed they are with him. I think it would be a new way to go, but I am also a mark for that stuff so... With a few weeks away, after countless attempts, Mathews gets to talk to Brock. "What are you training for... which brand are you going to be on.... who will be your first opponent?" Brock: "The WWE" Mathews: "What?" Brock: "You asked me who my first opponent was... I answered it." Mathews: "I don't get it... you're going to take-on the entire company?" Brock: "That's right... in 5 weeks.. at the Royal Rumble - the first official date of my new contract." Mathews: "Well, do you have anything to say to those other 29 other men you'll be facing" Brock: "Get Ready. I'm Back." The RR is the perfect place to bring back Brock - you get him interacting with both sides of the roster, it'll draw a big number, and it still doesn't specify where he's going - so that when he wins, when he chooses to face Batista, there will be some momentum going for it.

I'd have 2 sets of videos setting up Lesnar. I'd have one run 5 weeks before Survivor Series. It would be a countdown - the screen goes black, you get "In 5 Weeks... He returns" in lettering and audio clips of announcers calling his matches ("Oh my GOD!" "That's inhuman" "This man is a monster" "Oh that's gotta hurt" "Somebody call 9-11", etc). Survivor Series comes up, you do the full countdown "5...4...3...2...1" and then you have it go crazy and go back up... Fast paced, hectic, choatic shots of Lesnar and his signature moves. Get a heartbeat in there, the sounds of a monitor (beep, beep, beep), wild animal sounds, intense music, etc. all mixed together. During this you get random numbers "1..3...2...4...3...4...1..." shifting through it. Then It goes up from 1..2...3...4 and slows down to 5...with an F appearing beside it. It stops for a moment ...calm... Then you have shots of Lesnars F-5, moving quicker and quicker... and then.... "Welcome Back" a shot of Lesnar sitting down at a table with Vince signing a WWE contract. This final one ("Week 0") would be at the PPV, as not to identify Brock as a Raw or Smackdown wrestler.

You can't just get any good "writer" for the show, you need to get a _show-runner_ that has proven to have written great characters, with great storylines and plot twists. Someone who has taken a genre and gone beyond it. A Joss Whedon, a Shawn Ryan, a Daniel Knauf, a David Milch, a JJ Abrams. And then you pay them a profound amount of money to retool your show. Enough money that not only pulls them away from "regular" television, but also forces them to take wrestling seriously since their paycheck depends upon it (throw in some added incentives). Being a wrestling fan is of little consequence. I doubt many of the writers above were big "fans" of their genres growing up. However, as great writers do, they will do the proper research into the genre. I doubt Milch knew the history of deadwood like we know the history of the WWE title before writing his show. The schmucks that write for the WWE probably don't do that, and the WWE doesn't think of getting them to do that. Besides, it's not the genre that is where the interest is - because a great show is universal. You take the characters and storylines from The Shield and put them in the setting of Deadwood, and it would work. You put them 500 years in the future like in Firefly and it would work. You put them in a wrestling ring and it would work. Their true interests do not have to be in wrestling, they have to be in themes. Cornette and Heyman, while great minds for wrestling, can't give the WWE what it needs. They'll write good wrestling shows, but they won't write good television shows. They won't write to bring fans in, and that's what the WWE needs. They have already formed their opinions on what wrestling is - that will never change. They have developed bad habits - that will never change. Their best writing, THEIR BEST WRITING, can't TOUCH Deadwoods worst. It's play-school. And wrestling isn't that different - if it was, then they wouldn't be losing fans. Those fans haven't turned off their television when they stopped watching the WWE. In terms of house shows, as a business, yes wrestling is different - there are much more marketing opportunities there. But that has little to do with the creative team and the creative direction of the shows. But if you want to stay in the 90's and the 80's, creatively, and never see where wrestling can go in this decade, then go right the fuck ahead. Continue living in that box and see where it gets you.

Lesnar needs to be protected because he's one of the few guys in the WWE that people would think "this guy could destroy just about anyone in a legit fight". Actually, I can't really think of anyone else who has _that_ aura. And its that rare bit of legitimacy he needs to keep by every and any means possible. Jobbing, especially to guys perceived lower and weaker than he, puts nice big dents in that legitimacy. In a fake sport, and especially in the very fake WWE, even a hint of realness gets the fans off. Taking that away from Brock wouldn't be a wise move, because once you lose it, it's very, very, VERY, hard to get it back.

I wouldn't want old wrestlers and old bookers on my creative team. It just means old thinking, which is good, but it won't take you to another level. That's what Vince did in the mid-90's, with Bill Watts and Jim Cornette. Fans want something fresh, something new. Back in the mid-90's, the NWO was a fresh (at least to the majority of wrestling fans) concept and Bischoff took it to places that you just didn't see in wrestling at the point in time; ECW was a "ground breaking" (cough) company and Paul was looking at wrestling from a more adult perspective which was fresh for those fans in Philly; WWE in the late 90's did something similar and Vince Russos more adult gimmicks was fresh for the WWE. But that was 8-10 years ago. Heyman isn't fresh. Russo isn't fresh. Bischoff isn't fresh. I haven't really heard anything from Heyman that would indicate that he knows where to go with wrestling and I certainly haven't seen in it in his booking. I like the Shawn Ryan idea. You take the writing, the twists, the characters and character development of the Shield and put it in a wrestling context - it would be amazing. Vic Mackey is a perfect pro wrestling character, and the way he is written on the shield - he's a helluva lot better than Stone Cold's one dimensional performances. Now, I don't like that the WWE is hiring c-level hollywood script writers because of 2 reasons: 1, they don't use them properly, and 2, the scripts they wrote and the shows they wrote for sucked. You get Deadwood-level drama, dialogue, storytelling and that's something totally different than fucking Big Wolf on Campus. You can take almost any character from a well-written show and you can put them in a wrestling setting. But you know what? No one is thinking like that. Not Paul Heyman, not Ricky Steamboat, not Ric Flair, certainly not Jim Cornette, not Arn Anderson, and not Vince Russo. Why? Because it's a fresh idea for wrestling, and they are nowhere near the pulse of current television standards, or even what wrestling could be. In the 90's there was a paradigm shift, even in the 80's there was a paradigm shift. In this decade, there needs to be a change in the way wrestling is seen - and that's not going to happen with guys who want to "go back to the way it was".

Benoit is best as a face. His top matches in the WWE (vs. Austin, vs. Angle, vs. Brock) were all as a face. He can get the crowd behind him much easier than he can get the crowd against him - I think one of the most interesting things about the guy is his admiration of DK and how he patterned himself after Billington. Just connecting the dots between the two and showing where Billington is now and the state he is in puts Benoit in a whole new light and sorta is a "writing on the wall" thing. And the midget punching Vis and getting tired and going back at it was one of the better spots the WWE has done in a while.

I bet HHH fans like HHH's promos. If you were to make a list of what a "great promo" is, I bet HHH would have most of the bases covered. Your personal preference is another story. I, for the most part, don't like his promos either, but I can put that aside and recognize how good of a speaker he is.

It is.

They score it like boxing - a 10 point must system. Winner of the round gets 10, loser gets 9 or worse (8). Regular fights go 3 rounds, so in the case Georges St Pierre vs. Jason Miller where GSP won every round, the judges scored the fight 30-27, 30-27, 30-27. Usually an 8 happens through a major ass kicking (in boxing it usually when a fighter gets knocked down). Unlike boxing, judges score on not just striking, but control, aggression, defense, takedowns, submissions, and damage. UFC championship fights (Heavyweight, Lightheavyweight, Middleweight, and Welterweight) go 5 rounds. Also unlike boxing, each round goes 5 minutes, rather than 3.

Did he really change ENTIRE shows, though? Or just the stuff that had to do with his character? Even if Hogan changed one thing -say his opponent- and that opponent was working a tag match previously, think of all the wrestlers are effected because of that and how the structure of the show would have to be realligned.

I wonder if he'll start putting glass in Lockes food?

Hogan had the power to change entire shows due to a clause in his contract, and often he used that clause which meant -even if it was the day of the show- the writers and bookers would have to redo the entire show. This meant very little preparation time, which led to mistakes on television that ultimately hurt the product. However, with that said, WCW gave Hogan that power, and they were doing just fine under that system during their peak years - so if Hogans politicing is a constant throughout the years, something else caused the downfall of WCW (ultimately, the AOL/TW merger caused the downfall of WCW - not any wrestlers, or bookers, or Vince McMahon). Granted, Hogans scheming led to several moments people will point out caused the death of WCW, but the WWE has had those moments as well and they're still alive today.

So great promo guys are guys who do not get better through time and who don't come up with their own promos? Wuhzuh?

You know how much I hate Mike O'Malley. It was all downhill after 28 Days.

Well, Lou Thesz wrestling in 7 decades is pretty freakin impressive.

For entire career, Hogan undoubtedly as Austin beat, due to being on top for so long in more places. But for WWF/E only, Austin drew more and made more for the company than Hogan. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah, Austin probably did more shows in 2 months than Hogan did in 12, add that in with the number of PPV buys and it's pretty easy to see how that's possible. I think Hogan being on top during 2 hot periods is probably one of the greatest accomplishments of any wrestler, though.

I will say Austins success came in a time of monday night television and 12 ppv's a year - anyone would get over-exposed within a few years - and Hogan didn't have to contend with that until the mid-90's with WCW. And in the mid-90's Hogans drawing period wasn't that long either.

I find it hard to believe that Austin drew more than Hogan in terms of _entire career_.

Thank god. If two guys who like sissy television and movies can't stick together, we're done for. I'd kill to be called ornery. You could call me Ornerudo. It'd be great times.

Well let's see: He is very smooth talking - no stuttering, no awkward pauses -, he can shift levels very well and is able to talk for long periods of time which makes it seem more natural than the rehearsed crap that frequents the program. There aren't many in the WWE that are better, so therefore he's one of the best they have. His promo on Batista with the chair in the ring was fantastic - if not completely self-serving and the equivalent of jerking off on the mic. Plus: "I guess Goldberg makes mics now, because this one can't work". And please don't make me defend HHH anymore, I feel so dirty.

Bob, BOB, is this true???? No... I don't believe it. Not you too, Bob.