WWE needs more.....

[Promoter 0]

Okay, who else thinks the wwe is going back to the philosophy of shades of grey over "good guy/bad guy" again? If not why not! It's been long enough as this is what slowly brought them back. Hopefully, the creative team won't botch it up. It could also just be fluke or coincident. Anyways, what are thoughts about shades of grey booking and writing?

 

I think it has more chances to make the product unpredictable and when they did do this it worked great. Using quick examples......for the present and from the past.

 

"With HHH's own team wanting the title shots as well - maybe the stipulation should be changed to the surviving members get to run the shows. That way HHH might think it's wise to sacrifice Edge and Snitzky during the match - there would be strategy involved and make the match that more dramatic." I think it makes perfect sense for the Snitz and Edge to be on the team. Remember who made the match and why. Eric is no longer Evolution's little buddy anymore so he purposedly excluded Flair (who made demands and tried to question Bishoff's authorit) as part one of the punishment. Snitzky's included because he's the only other upper-tier heel (Christian being the other but has an IC match) on the roster. Edge has issues with Benoit and Jericho so if he happens to take them out then everyone's happy. It could also be a way to get either Edge or Snitzsky in Evolution. It never made sense not having heels vying for a heel held title and faces vying for a face held title.

 

The bluuring of the lines adds certain realism and that "anything can happen" feel to the shows. If the faces win this sunday, I actually think HHH is going to be painted as a sympathetic character when the faces keep challenging him for his title week in and week out. The wrestlers shouldn't drastically change their characters, the "good guys" can still be the stand-up rule abiders, where as the heels can be the cowardly cheaters - some fans just like heels better, and others like most faces, but for example can't stand Maven. Let each wrestler connect with a niche of the fanbase and keep the black and white face and heel lines blurred.

The hardcore wrestling fan might not like the change(initially) and the house show responses might be confused and quiet(initially) but if compelling storytelling is the result than I am all for it. The Hardcore fans will still watch the show, however new viewers might come aboard with more "grown-up*" storytelling.

*By "grown-up" I don't mean more Necrophelia angles, but a more developed and interwoven storyline. For this to work - it this is even the goal - they need to keep track of wrestlers histories together and can't forget histories that don't make snese in their present angle, but explain it in a believeble way. The characters need to be consistant and their actions rational and explainable to their current situation.

 

 

I like the "shades of grey" raw. Here's why: Everything just about everyone did fit with their characters. I loved Bischoff pulling the dick move by threatening to strip HHH of the title. Of course Snitsky doesn't belong in the World Title picture, but he's too dumb to know that. The look on HHH's face said it all. "You stupid baby kicking bastard - I'm stuck with you because of your uncle for Survivor Series, but I will beat your ass the first chance I get." Trips then going to suck up to Edge worked for me too, then the minute Edge rebuked him, he went back to the "okay, i'll deal with you too" vibe. Excellently played by the Game.

 

Even Batista played his part well. I would have prefered to see him destroy some guys after getting all pissed off last week (hey maybe he could have killed all of the recently released jobbers!) but he had a good match with Randy. And the longing gaze at the big belt didn't give me a feeling that he was going to go after his boss, but more of a "some day" kind of thing.

 

Anyway, the main event story lines are really working for me. Good move giving Benoit a blood feud to keep him busy for a while. Keeping him busy with Edge makes Randy a more believable captain. it worked in 1997 and 1998 when the wwe was lacking in talent. They had to rely on their storytelling to remain competition for wcw. Now they have potential of strong wrestling and try to be cute and hollywood where the fans have left in droves. In 2000, they had the right mix right up until KOR 2001 imo. The characters had more depth where it was possible for them to be more ambiguous.

 

Look at Vince Mcmahon for instance in 2000. He came back to help The Rock and fans bought it even with his past. The reason being that we saw the "bad guy" side of Vince Mcmahon with his rivalry with Austin, but we also saw his "good guy" side with trying to fight for the honour of his daughter(who in turn rebelled against him). The fans thought Vince was in "good guy" mode when he came to the aid of The Rock. However, the old Mr. Mcmahon crept back and he turned on The Rock and it made sense. He wanted his family back together again and his "evil daughter and son in-law" created a dynasty. Vince's reason for turning on The Rock was that he never gave Vince a "thank you" for making him who he was(the past with being corporate champion and being his agent for a movie).

 

You see that is ONE example. The problem is that Vince hires "canned" writers who did not make it in hollywood really. You hire failed hollywood writers and give them say over traditional booking and you are asking for trouble. The problems come in when these guys don't understand the characters and come up with stupid ideas.

 

Austin's heel turn is a prime example of this. You know why Austin was getting cheered for crushing The Rock? That's his damn character and why he became loved in the first place. DTA was his slogan and the fans never really bought Austin being true to Vince Mcmahon. That's why at the box office(among other things) the heel turn bombed. His explanation made no sense. He said he was tired of the fans sponging on him and he never asked for their support. Well, duh that is the same kind of promos Austin gave in 1997. He proclaimed to Vince in an interview that Vince was not going to turn him into a good guy or a bad guy. Austin broke the mould and became the people. The wwe also started to break the other "good guys and bad guys" with this thinking. The writers tried to make Austin more homo-erotic and psychotic in an attempt to turn him more heel and it didn't work all that much because I think the fans just did not buy it. It was too much out of the character's realm. Goldberg wearing a wig as well comes to mind.

 

It can be done, but the correct writers need to know how to make the shades of grey compelling and believable. Eric Bischoff's current character makes absolute sense after all this time. It should have happened sooner. We saw how Bischoff was a jerk in wcw. When he was kissing Hogan's tail he did so that it also benefitted him. He has let Trips run raw and has got absolutely nothing. Even Bischoff's humiliation by Vince at times does not make complete sense in terms of his long term character. They just need to have people under creative who understand characters and creating plots for unpredictable circumstances to happen. That is what's killing them the most. I think Erin and Rick have stated this well.

 

That is why I liked how they went about the Orton/HHH AT FIRST. They have fumbled the ball though. I won't get into all of that right now, but it's also knowing when to do certain things with the right talent as well. They have to know when to apply the creative juices to the right people with the tools to pull off what they are trying to accomplish. An example would be the Vince Mcmahon and The Rock circumstance I brought up earlier. The angle worked because Vince had the tools and the timing was right. Now, if they had put Shane Mcmahon in that same scenario the whole thing would have flopped imo and not have anywhere close to the same impact. The booking of the match also played a part where Trips came off looking surprised and stunned, but happy at Vince screwing The Rock at WrestleMania. The added bonus was that a face had never lost in a main event before and there were two very over faces in the match. Of course, they drove the success of that angle to the ground with Vince always interferring in matches taking away the impact.

[Special K 0]

It would be great, but I fear it won't happen. The writers can't even give the characters distint personalities beyond face/monster heel/cocky heel anymore. It's really, really sad. The worst part is they can't create distinct face characters at all nowadays. Witness Orton. Oh cool, he poses a lot now. Must cheer.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Bluring the lines would work best if they did it with just one character, and gave them a good push. If they did it with everyone, then it would flop miserably. The best gates are invariably drawn by the guy the people hate the most taking on the guy the people love the most. If they lines are blurred, with neither guy significantly more evil than the other, then chances are it will bomb.

[Special K 0]

You can't overload, sure. But slow turns and ambiguous characters can be very big. I would site the Kurt/HHH/Steph love triangle and the Jericho/Rock feud during inVasion, and the Austin/Hart feud as examples.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I am quite enjoying Eric's not quite a face but not too much of a heel character. That's the way a GM should be anyway... what was his reason for disliking faces? "You're popular and the people watching my show love you, thus I hate you!". Huh? This new direction is much better. Maybe more shadres of grey would work for WWE. Would more Shades of Gray work for TSM? Find out in the future!

[Brett Favre 0]

It's exactly what this fed needs.

 

And I liked the Batista segment a lot too. They did show something in having Edge and Gene going after HHH once they win on Sunday. 99% of the time, the champ's teammates are just bad so we must help bad to win, and bad must keep the belt because he's bad. It's about time they changed that crap.

[Only The Strong Survive 0]

all of this kind of booking requires months and months of preparationm through matches, promos, backstage skits, and the like... apparently the booking team has a horrible case of A.D.D. (witness the supposedly "slow-burning" Triple H/ Orton feud)

 

Yes, it can make things unpredictable, but with the way these shows are written, it's just not a possibility. A wrestler is either a face because he's going against heels, a heel because he hates American or makes fun of people, or a heel because he's got a massive ego.

[Guest Bad Brad Jacobs]

I think they need to have more emotional depth for the wrestlers. For example, a top heel would lose for several weeks in a row, or months in big matches. Realistically, it would not be odd to see someone in real life break down mentally from something like that. But in WWE we never see that. I think that the real way to make good characters work now is to make them legitametely believe that the cause they are fighting for is the right one. I want a heel who doesn't think that they are a bad person. I also want a heel who will be sad when he loses, and not just look like a angry/dumbass fool. And I want faces who aren't perfect. Hogan was a good example of this. Even when he was a face, if he felt like he needed to he would go to the eye rake or use a chair, and he didn't feel guilty (in story) about it afterwards.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I dunno...I think sometimes they go for the shades of grey thing too much with some guys...they are trying to book Randy Orton like this, and it doesn't work. They're trying to portray him as a "Stone Cold"-esque rebellious face (RKO-ing people, sneak attacks, etc), and it doesn't work with his arrogant youngster character.

[Guest Duncan Eternia]

It would be great, but I fear it won't happen. The writers can't even give the characters distint personalities beyond face/monster heel/cocky heel anymore. It's really, really sad. The worst part is they can't create distinct face characters at all nowadays. Witness Orton. Oh cool, he poses a lot now. Must cheer.

Exactly.

 

I hope WWE soon hires some writers that actually know how to develope characters. Or better yet let the wrestlers develope themselves...everything is too damn scipted right now. Watch the Monday Night War DVD and listen to Cornette talking about Austin, Rock, Foley being themselves. He makes some great points.

[Special K 0]

I did really enjoy the backstage Batista segment a lot. Instead of being so hyper, he just seemed really sedate and at ease. Then he gave a great (as in not completely overblown) sneaky look and the inscrutable look at the belt.