Angles being rehashed..

[Guest Your Olympic Hero]

We always complain about all of the old angles being rehashed, but are there any opportunities for new ones that we will LIKE? Or have all the good ones been overused to the point where we hate everything? Maybe wrestling has run its course and is about to hit a major downfall? Your thoughts...

[Guest Redhawk]

Wrestling has been rehashing storylines for ages, and with good reason. Certain storylines just work, especially the simple ones, i.e. Babyface goes After Heel Who Cost Him a Title/Match. The problem is that WWE wants to rehash the angles that only work for a certain time, i.e. Babyface Versus Evil Owner and Babyface Versus Heel Who Shows Doctored Videotapes.

 

One new angle I'd like to see would be Raven manipulating, molding, and using Kane as his weapon of destruction, complete with Raven using Kane's past to get to him. But I guess that would be rehashing the Paul Bearer-Kane angle.

[Guest DrTom]

The problem is, when they try to go in a new direction, we end up with crap like Katie Vick, that even soap operas would reject sight unseen.

 

The lack of compelling storylines has a lot to do with the lack of compelling characters right now. Everything's become so egalitarian in the booking that it's hard to really get behind the plucky babyface or boo the cheating heel, primarily because those characters are hard to find these days. The face who keeps getting screwed over by the heel won't happen, since WWE has to give someone their heat back right away. As a result, feuds suffer for being so even all the time, and characters don't get a chance to supplant gimmicks.

[B. Brian Brunzell 0]

^^Good points my man, good points^^

[TheFranchise 0]

They also repeated the infamous SS screwjob a few times, and that worked with The Corporate Champion...

[Guest deadbeater]

I disagree, they have a lot of good dynamic characters, especially in the women's division. At least seven natural and compelling stories I can think of can come from them alone, just based on the competitive spirit. And the stories can be told with egalitarian booking. they were going in the right direction with several stories, but for some reason or another did not carry it through.

[Guest saturnmark4life]

i'm just posting to bump the idea of raven mindfucking kane. IT'S PERFECT. Kane has ben getting so vomitously 'human' as of late, and having raven make him kick the shit out of booker and rvd and shawn michaels would probably PISS PEOPLE OFF, and that's what heels are supposed to do. But not in the hhh sense. Hell, it might even work with someone like batista or albert.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Maybe wrestling has run its course and is about to hit a major downfall? Your thoughts...

If wrestling has yet to hit its big downfall, I shudder to think what could be in store for us. ;p

 

Seriously, there's no need for ratings-grabber storylines if they just pick a direction and go with it. The WWE's biggest problem has always been no long-term booking, and it's shown through the years when a new storyline is always being implemented to "remedy things" when really, the only thing they do is allienate people from the product.

 

I mean what's the purpose of doing the Steph/Eric attraction angle if they're going to forget about it a week later? (not that people cared to begin with). It would seem that storyline got thrown in the garbage, along with any reason for Shawn/HHH to actually be feuding for as long as they have. The "Brock jumping to Smackdown permenantly to keep the belt off Raw" storyline got ended when they decided to hot-shot the belt onto Big Show. It's all just a jumbled mess and until they learn to book long-term, they'll always be grasping for the "next angle that will save the business."

[Guest JMTapes]

You nailed it Dr. Tom. Good Work!

[Guest AndrewTS]

Sorry, but the Raven of ECW and WCW lore is dead. Replacing him is Johnny Polo dressed up as Raven.

[Guest CanadianChris]

The lack of compelling storylines has a lot to do with the lack of compelling characters right now. Everything's become so egalitarian in the booking that it's hard to really get behind the plucky babyface or boo the cheating heel, primarily because those characters are hard to find these days. The face who keeps getting screwed over by the heel won't happen, since WWE has to give someone their heat back right away. As a result, feuds suffer for being so even all the time, and characters don't get a chance to supplant gimmicks.

You have it pegged, my man. There's only so much you can do in a feud with the booking being so even-steven all the time.

 

Feuds are also suffering from the fact that there's no real definitive end to them anymore. How many matches can you legitimately peg as a "blowoff match" these days? Those used to happen all the time, and they were ALWAYS huge. The biggest and best matches in wrestling history were almost always blowoff matches, just because the crowd was so hot, and that usually got the wrestlers jacked up. Just look at:

 

Hogan/Savage

Hogan/Andre

Flair/Steamboat III

Savage/Steamboat

Savage/Flair

Hogan/Warrior

Savage/Warrior

Flair/Funk

Michaels/Razor I

Hart/Austin II (didn't end up being a blowoff, but it had that feel)

Cactus/HHH HitC

 

All of them were blowoff matches to HUGE feuds, and all of them are remembered as great matches (ok, maybe not Hogan/Andre, but who doesn't remember that one anyway?). Probably the only match in the last year and a half to have that feel was Rock/Hogan. Matches just blend in with one another these days, and that's a VERY bad thing...viewers don't have any incentive to tune in and care.

[Guest Johnny Blaze]

I agree that the main problem is a lack of compelling characters, but compelling storylines make compelling characters. I think if they came up with something good, or even rehashed some of the classics, it could do wonders for the characters involved.

 

Also, if they were to rehash angles, I think they should start with Hart/Austin, Flair/Steamboat, or they could try to finish what WCW didn't with the Apocolypse angle. Hart/Austin would actually be really cool if they were able to bring SCSA back and have him play the Hart role. Have someone start calling him out as a means to get themselves over. Maybe even go full bore and play it out for the whole year that the orginal was supposed to go before politics got in the way. Flair/Steamboat could work with Benoit and Angle, just have two awesome wrestlers going out and trying to take the title from each other. No stupid backstory, just 2 guys who want to prove that they're the best, although they kinda have that going already. The Apocolypse could be cool if they played like it seemed WCW was gonna. Have a few guys start watching each other's backs because they feel like they don't have a choice if they ever wanna go anywhere near the top. Have them start out not really trusting each other, or even acknowledging that they support each other, and have it build slowly from there.

[Guest dreamer420]

Raven has proved match after match that he doesn't belong on any WWE shows other than Heat. The only time I've been impressed with him was his Backlash Hardcore title match with Rhyno last year, and other than that he hasn't proven that he deserves a push of any kind.

[Guest EricMM]

I think ultimately what has been missing has been solid fueds for most of the card.

 

Clearly the Guerreros/Can-Am/Can-Am2 fued has been going on forever. The only problem with this is that they had their "blow off match," but booked it so that they could continue the fued later in the week.

 

There are no more blow off matches because the people on top never ever change. Maybe they shouldn't change much, but if only they would change a little bit. Give an upper mid carder a fued with an upper card person, and let the upper card person end up with the belt. Test the waters, as it were.

 

It just feels like the only fueds that exist we've seen a million times before, and otherwise things get booked week to week.

 

Like, what the HELL is the RAW main event fued anyways? HHH vs HBK?

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

Speaking of Rehashed....

 

I missed the first 20 minutes of Smackdown this week. But, Scott Keith's "SD Rant" said Steph made a few Bret Hart References.

 

What was said?