What would it take to make you interested in the WWE again

[iggymcfly 0]

I haven't watched two episodes of Raw in a row since Cena's last title reign started and I haven't watch a full show of ECW or Smackdown in almost a year either. The bad gimmicks and non-existent storylines are both major detriments, but the worst part is that the main event scene is just terrible everywhere. Cena hasn't had a realistic threat to his title since Mania, Edge doesn't have any decent opponents, and the ECW Title's such a joke right now that it's ridiculous. There are just never any interesting feuds, and most of the characters are so jobbed out that they don't even look like credible threats. From a quick glance around the board, it seems a lot of people are similarly frustrated.

 

Anyway, the simplest thing that I can think of that would actually get me tuning into Raw again would be if they brought back Jericho and put him right into a main event program with Cena. They could run a stalker angle where Jericho blames Cena for pushing him out of the WWE (since in storyline terms, Jericho left the WWE crying because of a loss to Cena) where Y2J comes back to make Cena's life hell and take the title away from him. I think that's one program I could really get into and seeing Jericho back in the main event would be enough to get me tuning back into Raw regularly, especially if he ended up taking the belt from Cena and holding onto it for a while as a real badass heel instead of the Honky-Tonk Man like wuss he was booked as before.

 

Any thoughts for anyone else that could get them legitimately on the edge of their seat waiting for Raw every Monday? (Or for ECW or Smackdown if that's what you prefer).

[JasonX 0]

Jericho is the only chance they have left to spark a "big angle"; the idea thing would be to wholesale redo the Ric Flair/Terry Funk feud from 1989. Jericho comes back to be part one of three WWE Legends Judges for a match between Cena and insert heel here and afterwords Jericho asks for a title shot. Cena gets uppity and dismisses Jericho's request and Jericho snaps and essentially cripples Cena, getting rid of him for 2-4 months and forcing him to vacate the title in the process. Jericho wins the WWE Championship in a tournement, with him squashing all of the major top wrestlers on Raw (including HHH) and raining misery down on everyone on Raw until Cena comes back to reclaim the belt, with Cena chasing after Jericho for the belt.

 

[Darth Vader 0]

It not really who needs to be there but how the product is presented. WWE just needs to really start looking outside the box. Do something interesting, for the love of GOD!! History shows that they don't do that unless they have to. They run status quo unless they have a reason not to. It's been that way since WCW folded. So unless they are in danger of being booted don't expect anything more out of them than what your getting now. TNA has a golden opprotunity to gain some serious ground right now, but unfortunatly they're idiots too.

[spman 0]

To be completely honest, and now I'm not saying I want it to happen or that it should happen, but the only chance WWE has of being interesting again is if Vince and Stephanie McMahon were to either die or both completely get out of the business.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Dumb luck and trusting your talent.

 

See The Rock, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Two of biggest superstars in WWE history. Neither of which came into the WWE playing those characters. Rocky Maivia was such a disaster, they had no other choice but turn him heel. Steve Austin came up with the Stone Cold character.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

Some new faces might get my interesting. I know myself and half of the internet are waiting for the Magical formation of the 'New Hart Foundation'... but that'll never happen.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

My kneejerk, smarmy answer is "a whole grip of people would have to come back from the dead." Seriously... I'm not sure; I still "watch" every show out of habit, but I never watch it live, even when I'm home to watch it, and fast forward through pretty much everything. It's reached the point where the most interesting thing about the WWE to me on an everyday basis are the Divas.

 

I also have a unusual fascination with Matt Hardy and WGTT, and continue to watch out of some despearate hope that either or both will ever be pushed.

[Scroby 0]

I haven't watched two episodes of Raw in a row since Cena's last title reign started and I haven't watch a full show of ECW or Smackdown in almost a year either. The bad gimmicks and non-existent storylines are both major detriments, but the worst part is that the main event scene is just terrible everywhere. Cena hasn't had a realistic threat to his title since Mania, Edge doesn't have any decent opponents, and the ECW Title's such a joke right now that it's ridiculous. There are just never any interesting feuds, and most of the characters are so jobbed out that they don't even look like credible threats. From a quick glance around the board, it seems a lot of people are similarly frustrated.

How can you say that the ECW and Smackdown shows suck when you haven't watched either of them in such a long time?

[Chazz 0]

Have Steph step down as the head of creative. Besides it being an obviously huge conflict of interest for her to be in this position while her husband is a top tier worker, she flat out sucks at it. Also, Vince should create an enviroment where the writers will not be punished/fired for telling him when something is working,not working, etc. Ah, dare to dream.

[Failed Bridge 0]

Steve Austin came up with the Stone Cold character.

Paul Heyman and Kevin Nash would say otherwise.

 

I don't know if my interest could ever be rehashed. If they got rid of all the failed hollywood writers and put some wrestling people back to booking then perhaps I'd check it out. They would also have to start using more technical wrestling in their matches again along with allowing moves that were "banned" (piledrivers, brainbusters, etc) which means train the more athletic guys and stop wasting time on people that should be in the World's Strongest Man Competition.

[Jingus 0]

if Vince and Stephanie McMahon were to either die or both completely get out of the business.

The spman speaketh truth.

 

I still watch all the shows (albeit via taping them to watch later, and fast-forwarding past all the commercials and the crap I don't wanna watch to get to the 20 good minutes each week... 5 for ECW), but I'm definitely not interested in the WWE product. I damn sure haven't spent any money on it in years. If, oh, say, ROH, Chikara, IWA Mid-South, and NOAH had tv shows I could watch, I'd never bother going back to the WWE to get my fix again.

[iggymcfly 0]

How can you say that the ECW and Smackdown shows suck when you haven't watched either of them in such a long time?

 

I said I haven't watched a full show in a year. I still try tuning in every few weeks and usually end up bored to tears after 10 or 15 minutes, switch the channel to something else and never switch back. I also follow the product on the internet and look if anything seems interesting. I started watching Raw off anf on again for a while when it looked like HBK might take the title from Cena and tuned right back out when he started feuding with Khali. Also, when I said:

 

 

Any thoughts for anyone else that could get them legitimately on the edge of their seat waiting for Raw every Monday? (Or for ECW or Smackdown if that's what you prefer).

 

I didn't mean any other outside wrestlers. I just meant any ideas from any other posters that would get them interested in the product again.

[mysterious_w 0]

Letting guys come up with their own promos again. Sure give them a gimmick, but let the wrestler work within that gimmick and think of things himself.

[eiker_ir 0]

Letting guys come up with their own promos again. Sure give them a gimmick, but let the wrestler work within that gimmick and think of things himself.

 

 

 

Bringing Jericho back is the only thing for me, i started losing interest after the Summerslam where he wrestled Cena

[Toxxic 0]

Jericho. Pushed and treated with respect, not jobbed out. Fuck, it would be so easy for him to come back and rip into Cena, if they cut him loose he'd get the crowd behind him in no time. I'd venture that a returning wise-ass tweenerish Jericho laying into clean-cut babyface Cena would be enough to get Jericho massively over and end up turning Cena heel naturally, which would at least be a change of pace.

 

Cena: "I'm here to fight!"

 

Jericho: "How can you fight, Junior, when you can't even think!?"

 

Only rather better than that half-assed example I've just thought up. You can surely imagine what I mean.

 

 

Secondly, Samoa Joe. Again, with a big push. I thought TNA were actually going to run with him, but they keep bringing in dead-enders like Sting and Angle and Joe just can't get the title reign he should have had. So if I had a choice between seeing Joe limited to the upper-midcard in TNA or WWE, I'd pick WWE where at least he gets more exposure. Also, his moveset wouldn't actually have to be that limited; he doesn't pull out headdrops, the Muscle Buster can be pretty much a flat back-bump, the Rear Naked Choke is a perfectly legitimate submission that won't damage anyone - sure, he kicks hard, but if they were prepared to live with that Joe could be in there. He doesn't have 'the look', but if they can avoid packaging him as Umaga II he'd surely do enough.

 

Push Matt Hardy as a singles wrestler, to the point where he's a potential World Title contender. Not terribly realistic, but not hard either.

 

Get a decent Cruiserweight division.

 

Hell, hire most of Shimmer (without enforcing implants on them) and let them wrestle. It's not the best wrestling I've ever seen, but most of them are fairly decent and it would be a welcome change from Diva 'matches'.

 

That all I've got. None of it will ever come to pass.

[dubq 0]

Interested in the level of actually watching the programming and possibly ordering PPVs? I doubt that will ever happen for me again. I haven't watched a full episode of anything since 2002, and the last PPV I saw was the first One Night Stand (before the ECW "brand" expansion). All of my knowledge re: WWE and what is current comes from online.

 

They lost me for good. I was a die-hard fan of WWF/E since I can remember (born in 1977). Hell, I even taped every single Raw from September 1995 until August 2002. I still have the VHS tapes in one of my closets somewhere too, heh. But yeah, they lost me, and I don't think I'll ever come back. I'm interested on the same level as TNA.. I will read results or check out photos on their site.. but I doubt I'll ever spend time in front of a TV watching something of theirs again. =\

[pappajacks 0]

The only way to regain my interest is to have top stars with personality.

 

Another Stone Cold, Rock or nWo, adapted for today's era.

[Youth N Asia 0]

I honestly don't know. I haven't watched an episode of Raw or Smackdown since November of 05. I was just getting burned out on the same old stuff over and over again. I tuned in for A MINUTE with the who killed Vince thing, but got sick of it real fast

[foleyfanforever88 0]

-Regal as RAW General Manager, but also wrestling from time to time.

 

-As much as I loved the whole "King Booker" thing, I'd like to see Booker return to his "street" ways and dump Sharmell. Then push him in the upper mid-card, because right now, nobody buys him as WWE Champion again.

 

-More simple feuds that make sense. For example, I really liked the Hardys/Cade & Murdoch feud.

 

-A new WWE champion crowned at Summerslam. I don't hate Cena as a wrestler, I just hate him as the Superman champ.

 

-Title pushes that make sense and are built up. I have no problem with Kane challenging Edge at GAB, but we all know he isn't going to win, simply because he was just randomly awarded the title shot 3 weeks before the PPV.

 

-I still say merge the tag titles, and the tag titles only. I think tag wrestling is something that should be featured on every show, and their should be more #1 contendership matches to make the titles seem more important.

 

-Jericho. Enougn said.

 

-Get rid of the shit that nobody wants to see. Example: Eugene.

 

-Really, its all about the feuds. Give me a reason to want to see the blowoff match. If you want to have Matt Hardy and Finlay feud, just because it will give us good matches, great. But give us a reason why they want to keep fighting each other.

 

-Build up Main Eventers on Smackdown. I love Edge as champ, but other than Batista, there isn't anybody on Smackdown I fear could take the title off him until Undertaker returns. Give Matt one PPV shot, and give Rey one on his return but please, please don't let him win.

 

I'm sure I'll come up with more stuff later..

[normam 0]

I agree with most of what was said on the post above, get rid of the crap such as eugine. His gimmick was OK at best for about a month (again, at best), but come on, who wants to watch a fully grown man act (or is he) like a complete retard and use shitty moves that went out of date 20 years ago? not me!

Bring back the hardcore title.

Make better use of the pre match buildups towards ppvs, at the minute its just lame.

Give people more pushes for the titles, people like hardy, finley even booker.

 

In my opinion wwe has gone down hill eversince vince bought out wcw. Since the invation angle back in 2000/2001 its not been as good since. No wonder the rock & austin left!

[haVoc 0]

The shows just aren't exciting or shocking anymore. I want to be shocked and I don't mean Vince's limo or Katie Vick. I want "Whoa! Didn't see that coming!" Bischoff made many mistakes in WCW, but when he was on he was great at being spontaneous and he pushed Vince to do the same.

 

Another problem is there has been no new style of wrestling to emerge in the last number of years and everything that was exciting about Hardcore and Cruiserweights has had it's nuts cut off to protect the main event talent. Plus, the main event talent is booked in the same crap they've been doing for years.

 

I've been a fan for years but someone who only been watching a year can see what's coming since WWE contently repeats the same crap every few months.

 

Here's a quick preview for Raw.

 

- WWE has announced on its web site that King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley will kick off Raw on Monday night.

 

It's not hard to predict Kennedy interferes then Cena runs in which leads to Coach making a tag match for later that night.

 

Nothing is exciting or new these days and even if Punk, Kennedy, MVP or the Hardy's got a surprised push/title run they would just be booked in the same old formula.

 

 

 

 

[edgehead69 0]

Well I think everyone would love Raw if Cena's matches always had a stipulation....

 

Whats the stipulation? 'If your name is JOhn Cena you lose" match

[Youth N Asia 0]

Ending run ins for just about every important match would help as well

[imajackoff? 0]

I havent seen a PPV since this board hoodwinked me into getting the replay of the first ONS. Before that, it was the first Invasion PPV. Any WWF series programming was removed from my DVR over 2 yrs ago. Sure, I would take a peek if Jericho came back and was able to run with the ball. Honestly though, I dont even think that would work now.

 

His time was 2000-1 and they fucked it up. He should have been a major media crossover star but HHH's political nonsense took care of that.

[Mecca 0]

This thread amuses me........

 

#1 For anyone that is posting that they need to unban moves and let guys go, that's all fine but if you posted in the Benoit thread about how they need to protect guys more then SHUTUP. You can't have it both ways the WWE has banned tons of dangerous moves for that reason now you want them unbanned after not 3 days ago bitching that the WWE needs to protect its workers.

 

I think Smackdown is consistently a good show, Raw grates on me because I don't like Cena but at the same time asking them to job him hurts their bottom line as a company.

 

I like smarky things for the most part but at the same time I do realize that in the grand scheme most of that stuff doesn't sell or make money in the national market. The majority of the WWE audience could give a fuck that John Cena is a shitty worker or Lashley for that matter and at the same time could careless how good Finlay is in the ring.

 

Also if you grew up during the boom period or started watching in 97 anything like that, you are a spoiled fan. That era is one of the best ever and involved several once in a lifetime type performers. You can venture further back into 93-96 where shit in wrestling was 1000 times worse than it is now. The early 90's were a horrible time for wrestling in general.....

 

There is some overexageration and ridiculous expectations here....

[garfieldsnose 0]

Wrestling has a simple formula. You can only come up with so many storylines and ideas before one of them stands out from the others. Expecting new and refreshing angles every week is a horrible expectation.

[dh86 0]

Cena losing the title clean and convincingly would at least get me watching to see what happens next.

[edgehead69 0]

Cena losing the title clean and convincingly would at least get me watching to see what happens next.

 

Don't Count on that... Cena is like the Hogan of the 2000's

 

 

[Mecca 0]

So who's he gonna lose to? Lashley? Orton? No matter who he loses to the majority of us won't like that guy either........

[edgehead69 0]

I have a good feeling about Randy at Summerslam... But then again I bet 25 dollars that cena ownt exceed JBL's reign at vengeance.... and lost...

Randy won it 3 years ago at SS 04 so why not? I just dont want HHH to beat him right away )or at all