What's the problem with the WWE?

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Speaking of Bradshaw...

 

I hate Dr. Tom.

 

That guy has his head so far up Vince's ass that he could give him an eye exam.

[Guest God Junior]

Good wrestling matches=No one outside the internet gives a shit.

I disagree. The main element of Heyman-booked SmackDown was good wrestling matches, and their ratings went up significantly. Also, if you look at the quarter-hour ratings breakdowns, matches involving good wrestlers tend to get higher ratingsm regardless of buildup.

 

Of course, a hot storyline will probably draw more viewers in the short term, but a strong in-ring product will, in my opinion, draw a larger, more dedicated long-term fanbase.

[Guest The Czech Republic]

I hate Dr. Tom.

I like our Dr. Tom, and the WWF's Dr. Tom was good in the Heavenly Bodies.

[Guest Loss4Words]

The main problems, above all else:

 

1. The pace of television is twice as fast as it used to be, and the elevation of new guys is just as slow. Also, there is a stopping point, a certain point where wrestlers outside of the current top tier will be pushed, and they never try to push them past that point. The last wrestler to get a truly balls-to-the-wall, let's hide his weaknesses and promote his strengths, let's put this guy over anyone we have to put him over to get him over and let's not give up no matter what push was HHH.

 

2. Pay-per-views can no longer be distinguished from your typical RAW or Smackdown, just because every match has been done and because everyone's basically been in the same spot for years now, there are few fresh matchups.

 

3. The bumps were so out of control a few years ago that now the fans are bored with most wrestling matches because they remember when the risks were greater. Unfortunately, the injuries have caught up to them and now they have no choice but to give their fans a safe style that they don't care about because they haven't been trained to care about it.

 

4. When Vince Russo left, so did the storylines for the midcard. For most of 2000, the top angles were planned months in advance and the rest of the show was filled in the weeks prior to the PPV. Now, everything is on the fly. When you have no long-term plans, you have no long-term goals, and this is why no one new is getting over. This also explains why main events usually draw pretty good quarter hours but because so little time is invested in the other one hour and 50 minutes, they can't sustain a high two-hour rating to save their lives.

 

5. Wins and losses are traded with such frequency so often and without such forethought that only a win over a main event guy means anything, and those are never clean. There is complete and total parity below the top tier when there should be four to five tiers of wrestlers so the young guys can work their way up the ladder in the most defined and clear way possible.

 

6. The mindset of the company is one that blames those who point out their problems for there actually being problems instead of listening to those suggestions and filtering out the good from the bad. They are in total denial that there are any issues, primarily because The McMahons are involved in the day-to-day booking in more hands-on fashion than they ever have been, and no one is going to tell them their vision is all wrong for political reasons.

 

7. House shows and weekend programming have been too de-emphasized. WWE had an hour of programming on MTV every week for years and never did anything special with it? Do you realize how many companies would KILL for that time slot? Yet they chose to use it to do jobber matches and recaps of the shows that really matter, making it Must-Miss TV for even the most diehard WWE fan. As for house shows, the lineups change quite often and they do not promote the shows on television, making them seem like must-miss shows because it's well-established that the wrestlers half-ass the small shows and also that they will never see a special angle or title change.

 

8. The company has a very poor reputation in the mainstream. No one cares about WWE, and the ones who do happen to know the truth and are disgusted by them. Wrestling is seen as an obviously fake television show with bad acting and writing, unrealistic matches and over-the-top embarrassment featuring objectification of women, racism and homophobia and Vince has done nothing to attempt to change that image. He's embraced it in some ways. They can't market to children anymore because of their bad reputation, so there goes the next generation of fans. And the over 18 crowd has been turned away by creative issues. So who's the target audience now? Those over 65 who miss Murder She Wrote? If that's the case, they need to re-sign Hulk Hogan.

 

To me, those are the main problems, and Goodear, while the WWF product has never been my favorite as a wrestling fan, in their peak years, they were pushing new stars, they were listening to their audience, they were keeping established guys from wearing out their welcome and they were putting people on top who the fans wanted to see on top. That is the main difference between the WWF of 1997-2000 and the WWE of now.

[Guest JMA]

Is Bradshaw really a problem on his own? I have a feeling that when you remove a couple of others on that list he ceases to be a problem

 

He's more a wacky sidekick

He once threatened to rape a staff member. He's also been involved in hazing. He's an ass kisser. He hates internet fans and mocks them. He's a blind patriotic redneck.

[Cherry Blossom Viscount 0]

>>>He once threatened to rape a staff member.<<<

 

This was never proven, just rampant smark speculation.

 

>>>He's an ass kisser.<<<

 

I take it you've never had a job before?

 

>>>He hates internet fans and mocks them.<<<

 

Gee, I wonder why?

 

>>>He's a blind patriotic redneck.<<<

 

He can see, nothing wrong with a little patriotism, and what is your criteria for being a redneck? Being from Texas? Being named John? Damn, you're so lame.

[Guest Army Eye]

1. The pace of television is twice as fast as it used to be, and the elevation of new guys is just as slow. Also, there is a stopping point, a certain point where wrestlers outside of the current top tier will be pushed, and they never try to push them past that point. The last wrestler to get a truly balls-to-the-wall, let's hide his weaknesses and promote his strengths, let's put this guy over anyone we have to put him over to get him over and let's not give up no matter what push was HHH.

Your points are excellent. One I hadn't really thought of is the total waste of the weekend TV slots. The last one to get this push described above was Brock though.