Why is it that WWE are making all these blunders?

[The Mandarin 0]

We all know what they're ("they" being WWE creative and the McMahons) doing wrong. WHY are they doing it wrong?

 

Obviously, none of us know them personally, but one could guess what's going on in their heads. So start making assumptions. If you'll recall, the rule of the outspoken- your assumption may be wrong, but keep persisting until it is seen as truth.

 

Have at it.

 

My assumption: I think the writing is bad because the wrong people are being hired. This is because the management can't see past the Hollywood credentials.

[Guest Loss]

The reason HHH is given such a substantial push is because he's the one person on the roster they know won't leave. There's no one else that's family.

 

The reason they push big guys over smaller guys is that the biggest stars in company history have all been heavyweights, and Vince looks at the period where Bret and Shawn headlined as the low point in the company's history.

 

The reason RAW is bad is because it's written to entertain Vince, not entertain an audience.

[Guest Loss]

My assumption: I think the writing is bad because the wrong people are being hired. This is because the management can't see past the Hollywood credentials.

I disagree. The writing is bad not because of who is being hired, but because of the handcuffs on the writers to come up with good material. It's Vince who decides who goes over, who gets pushed and who gets the most TV time. The writers have to write within those guidelines.

[Tawren 0]

I just can't wrap my mind around what they do in those meetings.

 

Writer 1: I know, let's do an angle where Kane stalks Lita and then forces her to have sex with him!

 

Writer 2: Awesome!

 

Writer 1: And then, Matt Hardy can feud with Kane, leading to a winner-marries-Lita match!

 

Writer 3: Thus ending the feud and giving Matt and Lita a happy ending?

 

Writer 1: No, fucktard. Kane can win and marry Lita on Raw!

 

Writer 2: Fantastic!

 

Writer 3: How do we have Lita give birth?

 

Writer 4: To a hand?

 

Writer 3: No, we already did that.

 

Writer 1: I know! Lita won't have to give birth! We'll have a jobber, some random guy -

 

Writer 2: A talentless hoss!

 

Writer 1: YES! He can make Lita miscarry!

 

Writer 2: Then Kane can feud with him!

 

Writer 1: And Kane can be the face, fighting for his dead baby and wife!

 

Writer 3: I thought Kane was evil, for RAPING her?

 

Writer 1: Dude, it'll have been like a month since that. The fans will have forgotten.

 

That is how it has to work. I just can't wrap my mind around it.

[Guest Loss]

My theory is actually that Vince comes to them and says, "Write a storyline about Kane getting Lita pregnant." The writers are blamed far too much for what ends up on TV. Vince has total autonomy.

[Guest Loss]

As far as the talentless hoss thing, I think there are some in the company who think actually wanting to put on "good" matches is a bit markish and that the goal should be to make money, not put on a "good show". Usually, good shows are the ones that make money, but often times not. I'm sure it gets mentioned all the time that Vince made Hulk Hogan the biggest star in company history and that he did very little in the ring, so "talentless" probably doesn't apply to them because they don't think like wrestling fans. As for the hoss thing, they don't think fans will pay to see wrestlers that look like everyday people, so they look for freakishly huge guys and push them.

[JoeDirt 0]

Obviously we've had a lot of threads on how bad the WWE writing is right now, but it really does truly boggle my mind.

 

1) Insulting the viewer's intelligence: We're supposed to boo Kurt Angle for shaving Big Show's head and forget the chokeslam onto the concrete? We're supposed to forget that Kane is an evil bastard who basically raped Lita and boo Gene Snitsky for sending him off on a stretcher? We're supposed to get behind wrestlers who we can tell the writers have no long term interest in?

 

2) Matches on TV that should be on pay per view: We get Angle/Eddie for free and pay for Eddie vs. Luther and Kurt vs. Big Show? Please. HHH vs. Benoit ironman match on RAW? And ending in Eugene interference? Come on now.

 

3) Focus on the wrong people: Benoit's non-HHH title defenses on PPV during his title reign (Kane and Orton) were both simply determined by a battle royal on RAW while the focus went to HHH and HBK the first time and HHH and Eugene the second time. Put the focus on your champions! That should be EVERYONE'S goal, not just the guy feuding with the champ. And don't have a world title match at a PPV decided with a battle royal because you couldn't think of anything else to do, that's just lazy booking!

 

4) Crappy entertainment: Lame John Cena jokes...crappy Diva Search and Tough Enough crap...Simon Dean...Jacqueline winning the cruiserweight title. The list could go on and on.

 

5) No long term planning: Putting the cruiserweight title on Jacqueline and then firing her shortly thereafter...no long term planning on RAW aside from a Randy Orton push...they're heading towards an Angle/Taker WM main even on Smackdown? Who cares? There's no elevation! Who are we supposed to get behind on Smackdown?

 

6) Wrestlers out of the loop: Why has Rob Van Dam not been in a feud since August of 2003? Why are so many wrestlers just "there"? Seriously, what has Chris Jericho done lately? What about Eddie Guerrero? There needs to be thought put into the booking of not just the top angle, but the guys below that too. Otherwise everyone just gets stale, and the audience gets third rate, "we'll throw this out here just so we have SOMETHING going on" booking.

 

I think maybe the biggest problem is that the writers aren't really wrestling fans...Stephanie obviously sucks as head writer, and Vince has some stupid vision of the WWE being great "entertainment" that results in C-movie level crap being produced just so it's not "rasslin" but "entertainment."

[strummer 0]

I was thinking about this the other day. I really think that Vince's ego is so big that HE has to get credit for the WWE's success. The wrestlers are merely pawns that he plays with. In the 80s he gave everyone gimmicks to show that the gimmick HE gave them made the wrestlers stars, they didn't do it by themselves. This may sound ridiculous, but I think part of the reason Vince has always pushed roided up, big stiff workers is that so he can get the credit for making untalented wrestlers into big stars. He likes it when Meltzer always says "Vince has made some of the worst wrestlers ever into big stars". Meltzer has always praised Vince for making stars out of talentless workers. If Vince pushed talented workers, the workers would get all the credit and attention. In today's product, Vince has to make sure his "vision" of wrestling is shown, so he can get the credit for the success. If Raw featured great wrestling, Vince wouldn't get any credit, the wrestlers would. But if there is a lot of talking and angles, Vince get all the credit himself, because they were his ideas. Basically, the focus has to be on Vince, and not on the workers. Vince's ego makes sure that he gets all the credit, no matter what.

[JoeDirt 0]

My theory is actually that Vince comes to them and says, "Write a storyline about Kane getting Lita pregnant." The writers are blamed far too much for what ends up on TV. Vince has total autonomy.

I blame it more on Stephanie. The WWE was going along fine until she took over the book in October of 2000. Then there was a NOTICEABLE drop in the quality of the shows.

[Guest Loss]

6) Wrestlers out of the loop: Why has Rob Van Dam not been in a feud since August of 2003? Why are so many wrestlers just "there"? Seriously, what has Chris Jericho done lately? What about Eddie Guerrero? There needs to be thought put into the booking of not just the top angle, but the guys below that too. Otherwise everyone just gets stale, and the audience gets third rate, "we'll throw this out here just so we have SOMETHING going on" booking.

This is a big one. This time last year, they had already started the ball rolling for Benoit's journey to the top, Eddy's split with Chavo and eventual title win, the Jericho/Trish double turn, Undertaker versus Kane, and even Goldberg/Lesnar had been teased. This year, only HHH/Orton has actually been teased on TV, and Angle/Taker is the only other rumored match they already have decided, which they have yet to start building up. I'm wondering what all but four wrestlers are going to be doing at Wrestlemania this coming year.

[Guest Loss]

My theory is actually that Vince comes to them and says, "Write a storyline about Kane getting Lita pregnant." The writers are blamed far too much for what ends up on TV. Vince has total autonomy.

I blame it more on Stephanie. The WWE was going along fine until she took over the book in October of 2000. Then there was a NOTICEABLE drop in the quality of the shows.

True, but Vince could remove Stephanie from that position tomorrow if he chose to do so.

[Guest Anglesault]

Maven is main eventing a PPV.

 

Drugs are the only answer

[Ted the Poster 0]

True, but Vince could remove Stephanie from that position tomorrow if he chose to do so.

You know he won't, though. Sigh.

[Guest Loss]

Maven is getting the opportunity he's getting because he's homegrown. I think there was a chance for them to make him a star right after Tough Enough, but he lost his momentum after his loss to Jericho on RAW, and it wasn't because he lost the match, it was because they did nothing with him after that. He should have evolved past the role of the "Tough Enough kid" by this point.

[Guest Anglesault]

Maven is getting the opportunity he's getting because he's homegrown.

But he's uhm, to put it nicely, not very over and not exactly good.

[Guest Loss]

Maven is getting the opportunity he's getting because he's homegrown.

But he's uhm, to put it nicely, not very over and not exactly good.

I'm not arguing with you. But I'm telling you the reason Maven is being pushed.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Only one thing can save the WWE now...

 

JASON VORHEES, BITCHES!

[AndrewTS 0]

Maven is getting the opportunity he's getting because he's homegrown. I think there was a chance for them to make him a star right after Tough Enough, but he lost his momentum after his loss to Jericho on RAW, and it wasn't because he lost the match, it was because they did nothing with him after that. He should have evolved past the role of the "Tough Enough kid" by this point.

The way Cena started out, he was hardly any better than a Tough Enough kid, character-wise. He changed his character quickly, it got over, and now he's doing just fine, although he's a little stale at the moment.

 

Meanwhile, Maven is really no different now than he was after TE ended. Hanging around with other, more over guys isn't going to change the perception of him.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

This time last year, they had already started the ball rolling for Benoit's journey to the top, Eddy's split with Chavo and eventual title win, the Jericho/Trish double turn, Undertaker versus Kane, and even Goldberg/Lesnar had been teased. This year, only HHH/Orton has actually been teased on TV, and Angle/Taker is the only other rumored match they already have decided, which they have yet to start building up. I'm wondering what all but four wrestlers are going to be doing at Wrestlemania this coming year.

Well alot of it is the writing, and some of it is lack of credible storylines. They don't have a Lesnar or a Goldberg to throw at each other. They can't do a Taker/Kane situation, Trish is just "there" as the bitch that gets into everyone's business (but mostly Lita's), Jericho is sitting on the cusp of the main event, as he seemingly always is.

 

The only wrestler they are planning to "push to the top" is Randy Orton, and he has already had a half-assed attempt at being there.

 

Even the guys that have been around for years seem like nothing but "flavors of the month". Look at the Dudleyz...stale as hell, even though they can be truly effective heels (the interaction with the crowd being a big part of it) but everything they could do to be as they were in the past has been taken from them. The Dudz are just that...duds. There is no true "big name" tag team left anymore in either brand's division. That is pathetic. The sad thing is that if they worked at it they could use alot of the wrestlers that they can't do anything with and create a very good tag scene, but they don't. "Tag teams don't sell shows"... well not by themselves they don't. Shows are built on the products of the whole. Vince needs to realize that PPVs aren't always sold on the main event, and a solid undercard can make up for everything. I would rather watch a great 2 hours leading up to a crappy ME than a crappy 2 hours leading up to a perfect ME. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

The rosters are depleted, weak, and even unknown. Sadly, they need to make new stars, but it's very hard to bring in NEW fans with new stars. They need to step up their advertising agenda and look at where they need to go to sell their product, which is their wrestlers.

 

That right there is a big reason TNA isn't as well-known as it could be. The fans that watched in 97-99 see guys like Jeff Jarrett and just don't know what to do. I have talked to many that were fans during that age, and they LAUGH IN MY FACE when I say "Oh yeah, well Double J is a World Champion".

 

Same thing for Raw and Smackdown. Sure, some fans (especially WCW fans) would love to hear the names of Jericho, Benoit, and even Booker T thrown around at the top of the card, but when they hear John Cena, Snitsky, La Resistance, Luther Reigns, and BRADSHAW WORLD CHAMPION... they can't help but go "waaaaaa??"

 

Why are they making these blunders?

 

1) We say we want new stars, but for the most part what we want is for the independent scene to get more recognition. Most want to see guys like Low-Ki, AmDrag, and others have their time to shine in the WWE, but instead we get the new stars of Snitsky, Hussan, and other guys who from all accounts aren't exactly GOOD, but HEY...they are NEW. Just what we "wanted".

 

2) The "homegrown" idea. Vince needs to look in the mirror and realize that if money is his sole purpose, he has to use what works, no matter what ANYONE says. He has (sort of) started to give the outside a good push with Benoit and even Booker T as of late, but they are still way behind guys like HHH, Orton, and even Bradshaw.

 

Vince has a MYRIAD of options at his fingertips and he touches none of them because they aren't "his". The biggest example of this is WarGames.

 

3) Booking & Writing Favoritism. There were stories all this year of the writers not finding anything for guys like Rey Mysterio and other very talented workers to do, but it seems to me that the big reason is that if the writers know what Vince wants, they give it to him. Why should they waste their time working on a long drawn out Rey Mysterio storyline if Vince is just going to veto it. Instead, they say hey "what if Lita gets pregnant!" and we get stuck with that for months.

 

Number 3 leads into Number 2 which leads into Number 1.

 

Let the writers write what they want and throw it against the wall. Chances are it's going to stick more times than it's going to fall off. Let the writers talk to the workers and see what THEY want and work that in. It's not rocket science and it would not even take that much time each week, though if it is taking the writers until 30 minutes before Raw to get a show done, then they need more help than that.

 

 

As always, I throw my hat into the ring to be a WWE writer.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Everyone is either stupid, insane, or self-serving megalomaniacs... or all of the above.

 

That's about it.

 

I think Mavens getting a push because HHH wants to make a Rock clone greater than Randy Orton, so he can freely beat him whenever he wants.

[Guest Chris2005]

The sad thing is we are the diehard fans who have been loyal to the WWE for years and not once have they ever catered to us. This year started off with a bang. Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit becoming world champs and look at them now. Is it entirely their fault? I really dont think so. Eddie was thrusted into a main event feud with fucking Bradshaw. A has been and never will be singles star. His character might be decent now but he is not main event material. And look at Benoit, he wins the championship and then is thrust into the mid card. While HHH/HBK 30 was forced down our throats and higher up on the card than Chris Benoits first championship in the WWE.

[Chazz 0]

My theory is actually that Vince comes to them and says, "Write a storyline about Kane getting Lita pregnant." The writers are blamed far too much for what ends up on TV. Vince has total autonomy.

I blame it more on Stephanie. The WWE was going along fine until she took over the book in October of 2000. Then there was a NOTICEABLE drop in the quality of the shows.

That and no Head to Head Competition like Nitro Provided. If NWA:TNA got a National Cable Deal Head to Head with Raw on Monday's, I'd bet Vince would "Reassign" Stephanie elsewhere In The Company and totally away from The Creative end. Then again...

[Guest Anglesault]

Everyone is either stupid, insane, or self-serving megalomaniacs... or all of the above.

 

That's about it.

Do you write for the NY Times?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I wouldn't exactly call it "writing".

[The Niggardly King 0]

I'll just throw in Smackdown's title scene. Every champion is...

 

1. A heel

 

2. A comedy character

 

It's pretty much unbearable to watch SD! when all of the champion's are jokes, and have no direction. Plus they're all heels, which is not a good thing.

[The Niggardly King 0]

And I doubt things will change. Why? This is the same company, that when it had their worst year fiscally, they pushed King Mabel, Desil, and Sid near the top.

[Guest Anglesault]

I'll just throw in Smackdown's title scene. Every champion is...

 

2. A comedy character

.

And the hilarious thing is that their comedy champions over the last couple years(specifically world champions) have all been HUGE bombs, yet they insist on repeating it.

[The Niggardly King 0]

I'll just throw in Smackdown's title scene. Every champion is...

 

2. A comedy character

.

And the hilarious thing is that their comedy champions over the last couple years(specifically world champions) have all been HUGE bombs, yet they insist on repeating it.

Well, the study of statistics has shown that they're bound to find one that does decent.

[Guest Duncan Eternia]

What I don't understand is how WWE could have botch EVERY big angle since basically 2000. I think one problem is that everything is too scripted for the wrestlers. All the promos are written out, the matches are for the most part all scripted out. WWE really should let some (not all) wrestler's do their own thing. Maybe then the audience would see that they have some personality and thus actually care what they do. But that's just my opinion.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Lazy booking. Every Eddie feud in 2004 for the World Title has been about his heritage or that all Mexicans are evil like him.

 

Brock: Made fun of his heritage

 

Angle: Hated him for lying, cheating, stealing

 

JBL: Same as Angle except with a blend of Brock.