2007: Most disastrous year in WWE history?

[Lil' Bitch]

This year has been so depressing.

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

They also lost a couple of international TV deals due to the Benoit tragedy which put their plans for international expansion back. MMA has drained some of their audience and brought back old wrestling fans who have now grown up. UFC now has the same kind of popularity WWE had in 98-99.

 

A little off topic, but am I the only one that thinks UFC is as fixed as wrestling?

[CBright7831]

What was HLA?

I think the Stephanie segment was guaranteed for the Unforgiven 2002 PPV, which included Rikishi in drag too.

Right after Road Dogg was fired from WWE in 2001, I worked an indy show with him. He told everybody about how Stephanie was bisexual and how she would get it on with other girls for HHH.

Heh

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

It's been a bad year since WWE has needed to change booking direction multiple times.

 

-Undertaker injured, plans made to hotshot the Smackdown title to Mr. Kennedy.

-Mr. Kennedy injured, Smackdown title given suddenly to Edge.

-Edge injured, Smackdown title vacated and awarded in battle royal.

-Benoit's murder/suicide forces WWE to drop Vince limo angle.

-Same incident throws off ECW title picture.

-Suspensions en mass throw off McMahon bastard child angle.

 

WWE has been unable to get any momentum going in their programs since May.

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

It's been a bad year since WWE has needed to change booking direction multiple times.

 

-Undertaker injured, plans made to hotshot the Smackdown title to Mr. Kennedy.

-Mr. Kennedy injured, Smackdown title given suddenly to Edge.

-Edge injured, Smackdown title vacated and awarded in battle royal.

-Benoit's murder/suicide forces WWE to drop Vince limo angle.

-Same incident throws off ECW title picture.

-Suspensions en mass throw off McMahon bastard child angle.

 

WWE has been unable to get any momentum going in their programs since May.

 

Good point, actually, as now I think about it, Jan - Wrestlemania was really strong, and totally won me over after how poor I thought last year had been.

[cameron chaos]

They also lost a couple of international TV deals due to the Benoit tragedy which put their plans for international expansion back. MMA has drained some of their audience and brought back old wrestling fans who have now grown up. UFC now has the same kind of popularity WWE had in 98-99.

 

A little off topic, but am I the only one that thinks UFC is as fixed as wrestling?

No, there are many like you who can't accept that just because their favourite "sport" to watch as a kid was/is worked, not every other physically violent sport is a co-operative wink wink nudge nudge exhibition. There are a few noted works in MMA history, all under the PRIDE banner and all of them associated with the early shows that had pro wrestlers like Nobuhiko Takada and Alexander Otsuka booked to get a puroresu crossover audience interested before they raided UFC, RINGS and IVC. They are known and not disputed.

 

if the NSAC or CSAC suspected UFC were rigging fights, they'd not exist for very much longer. Real sports can't get away with rigging works without lawsuits, investigations and serious damage to their reputations. Look what happened to PRIDE when it was alleged Yakuza were trying to pay people to "put on a good fight but go down".

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

Well, I don't think its fixed because I 'can't accept that my favorite 'sport' to watch as a kid was/is worked', I just feel sometimes things seem a little fortunate for them in terms of 'storylines' and events. Like the Bisping points.

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

I love Hoff, but generally the most disastrous year in WWE history is the one where one of the most celebrated wrestlers ever murders his wife and son.

[Black Lushus]

only if it leads to their doors closing...which it won't, at least not this year. PR nightmare? Yes. Going out of business? No.

[bob_barron]

Hell in the Cell was terrible. HHH basically has HBK to thank for sucking less in '02 than he did in '03. Summerslam, the 3 Stages of Hell or whatever at Armageddon (I think Armageddon...the December PPV), and the EC, although that was much more to it being the first EC match, as well as the work of HBK, Y2J, and RVD. Acronyms FTW!

 

EDIT: My personal opinion of the EC is also tainted by the fact that I'm a huge Michaels mark. So are all my friends. We actually got a noise complaint when he won the title. We could not believe it.

 

That Armageddon match is awful. I really like the HIAC match against Nash though.

 

I was at the first EC. I just hung my head in disbelief when he won. So mad

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

I love Hoff, but generally the most disastrous year in WWE history is the one where one of the most celebrated wrestlers ever murders his wife and son.

What about 1999? As a singular event, I think Owen Hart was a worse blow because it should never have happened.

[Cheech Tremendous]

I love Hoff, but generally the most disastrous year in WWE history is the one where one of the most celebrated wrestlers ever murders his wife and son.

What about 1999? As a singular event, I think Owen Hart was a worse blow because it should never have happened.

 

Yes, it was a terrible event that didn't need to happen, but it was still generally accepted as an accident. The Benoit murders and steroid links have led to the most disastrous press and coverage that the company has ever received. It might not hurt the company profit in the short run, but that's mostly because the WWE is one of the best run and most efficient business model around. However, these stories are so damning they could eventually lead to the downfall of professional wrestling in the United States. Think about that for a moment.

[Bix]

only if it leads to their doors closing...which it won't, at least not this year. PR nightmare? Yes. Going out of business? No.

Depending on how the hearings and such go, they're probably the closest they've been to an American network cancelling them since the bad ratings in '96-'97. They already lost TV in Italy over Benoit.

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

only if it leads to their doors closing...which it won't, at least not this year. PR nightmare? Yes. Going out of business? No.

No. Doesn't matter. When one of your biggest stars kills his family and himself after brain damage related to drug abuse and head trauma, that's more than a p.r. nightmare. That's going to hurt business big.

[Hoff]

Again, all I ever said was in terms of entertainment. I was less entertained in 2003 than I have been since Diesel's run on top. And I'm pretty sure Barron is on crack cocaine. Armageddon bad, HITC good? Surely you jest, sir.

 

Then again, maybe this is one of those things like the HBK/Cena Wrestlemania Rematch that everyone likes but really kind of sucked I didn't care for.

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

I was still watching in 2003, and I remember it being pretty dull-to-bad, but Chris Benoit murdered his family and half the roster has apparently been busted in a drug raid, so that's not very entertaining at all.

[Black Lushus]

Then again, maybe this is one of those things like the HBK/Cena Wrestlemania Rematch that everyone likes but really kind of sucked I didn't care for.

 

Nigga you crazy

[Hoff]

I'm not going to stir up the board again, but I'll be happy to provide a doctoral dissertation on why the Mania match was better to anyone who asks. It's not even close, really.

[Black Lushus]

I'm not saying whether or not the Mania match was better...I'm saying that match on Raw was one of the best free TV matches in years, bar none.

[RepoMan]

I was actually really into wrestling back in 02-03. I loved the SD! six but I was pretty embrassed to watch Raw with my roomate or pepole on the floor in my dorm. Strangly, the non wrestling fans were into shit like HLA, Katie Vick, ect.

[Black Lushus]

well I think that was the idea.

[cabbageboy]

I'll split the difference with Cena/Michaels and say that I really didn't like either match worth a damn. To be honest I've never seen an HBK match that goes past 30 mins. that I thought was any good.

 

This will sound incredibly cynical, but you can't compare Owen's accidental death to the Benoit tragedy this year. The WWF made money off of Owen's death...the Owen Tribute Raw did a 7.1 rating. There's no possible way to spin the Benoit situation into money, cause Vince would likely try if there was a way.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

I'll split the difference with Cena/Michaels and say that I really didn't like either match worth a damn. To be honest I've never seen an HBK match that goes past 30 mins. that I thought was any good.

 

This will sound incredibly cynical, but you can't compare Owen's accidental death to the Benoit tragedy this year. The WWF made money off of Owen's death...the Owen Tribute Raw did a 7.1 rating. There's no possible way to spin the Benoit situation into money, cause Vince would likely try if there was a way.

I think it's fair. Owen's death was the worst thing that ever happened at a wrestling event. Finances are just that. And I'd be willing to bet that the accident is the one thing Vince McMahon wishes he could undo.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski]

After Owen died, the business was still strong.

After Benoit died, ratings kept dipping.

[snuffbox]

They also lost a couple of international TV deals due to the Benoit tragedy which put their plans for international expansion back. MMA has drained some of their audience and brought back old wrestling fans who have now grown up. UFC now has the same kind of popularity WWE had in 98-99.

 

A little off topic, but am I the only one that thinks UFC is as fixed as wrestling?

 

Probably just you.

[megaadvice]

Ever since I have been watching the REALLY BAD years have been

 

1995

1999 (looking back on it, just put in a tape of a random Raw, no matches lasts more than 3 mins and even Austin loses his 96-98 awsomness. From a ****+ match oint of view the worst year since I have watched)

2002 (Smackdown was brilliant, Raw was absolutly terrible)

2007 (I have not watched much but it does not take a genius to work out that John Cena is THE ONLY GOOD THING that WWE and the whole of wrestling has to offer right now)

 

IMO, Cena has saved WWE from year that should have put then in financial difulculties to a profitable year.

[The Metal Maniac]

Off topic a little, but...

 

I just feel sometimes things seem a little fortunate for them in terms of 'storylines' and events.

 

That may be true, but you need to consider how often things don't go the way they want them to.

 

Look at Cro-Cop. If UFC was fixed, he woulda knocked Gonzonga out in the exact same way Gonzonga knocked him out, because Mirko Cro-Cop is a *name* fighter. You don't think they wanted HIM in the main event? Cuz you're wrong, if you don't. Same goes for Shamrock/Tito. If it was fixed, would it have been 3 and 0? Fuck no. Shamrock woulda won a hard-fought re-match, so people would've *cared* about the rubber match, and it would've made $$$.

 

As it is, wasn't it just on Spike?

[mfn]

Off topic a little, but...

 

I just feel sometimes things seem a little fortunate for them in terms of 'storylines' and events.

 

That may be true, but you need to consider how often things don't go the way they want them to.

 

Look at Cro-Cop. If UFC was fixed, he woulda knocked Gonzonga out in the exact same way Gonzonga knocked him out, because Mirko Cro-Cop is a *name* fighter. You don't think they wanted HIM in the main event? Cuz you're wrong, if you don't. Same goes for Shamrock/Tito. If it was fixed, would it have been 3 and 0? Fuck no. Shamrock woulda won a hard-fought re-match, so people would've *cared* about the rubber match, and it would've made $$$.

 

As it is, wasn't it just on Spike?

 

The Tito/Shamrock blow off was on Spike TV.

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

Off topic a little, but...

 

I just feel sometimes things seem a little fortunate for them in terms of 'storylines' and events.

 

That may be true, but you need to consider how often things don't go the way they want them to.

 

Look at Cro-Cop. If UFC was fixed, he woulda knocked Gonzonga out in the exact same way Gonzonga knocked him out, because Mirko Cro-Cop is a *name* fighter. You don't think they wanted HIM in the main event? Cuz you're wrong, if you don't. Same goes for Shamrock/Tito. If it was fixed, would it have been 3 and 0? Fuck no. Shamrock woulda won a hard-fought re-match, so people would've *cared* about the rubber match, and it would've made $$$.

 

As it is, wasn't it just on Spike?

 

Aye fairplay, but I swear if Cro-Cop goes on a 'I'm fighting till a lose again' rampage and wins the title then retires...

[mysterious_w]

2007 (I have not watched much but it does not take a genius to work out that John Cena is THE ONLY GOOD THING that WWE and the whole of wrestling has to offer right now)

 

I guess you watch absolutely nothing from Japan then.