Discussion
Mastodon2 said:
When I watch the modern stuff, I do worry for the future of the company. The backstage finances (Vince apparently leveraged WWE money into his second XFL attempt, which has now come to light after it failed and now shareholders are wondering why they investment was gambled on this risky passion project), the squeaky-clean presentation and the lack of exciting new stars makes for an enjoyable if not amazing product.
The women's wrestling is now very good and way, way better than it ever has been, Drew McIntyre has the look of a champion, is good on the mic and exciting to watch, but who is there to fight? Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins are good even if the super tightly-scripted promos are boring. Bobby Lashley is still awful and will never get over with the fans. Otis is good fun. Braun Strowman is a monster and one of the guys I think could have slotted into the super competitive Attitude Era and still looked good.
Maybe the crowds are part of the problem. While the Attitude era had that crazy energy and the "anything could happen" feel, the crowds went absolutely crazy and there was so much energy. Now when I watch WWEs current stuff, the crowd are so quiet, everyone is trying to film the event on their phones or literally just staring at their screen and ignoring the action entirely.
I think Vince McMahon needs to loosen his grip, stop trying to curate everything in his personal vision and let the superstars lead a little more, like they did in the 90s. Steve Austin, The Rock and DX were all massively popular and all were mostly characters created by the actors playing them. Remember the transition from Rocky Maivia to The Rock? One of the most hated wreslters in history to one of the most popular - that was entirely the doing of Dwayne Johnson because he was sick of playing that awful babyface that managment wanted and the fans completely rejected. You'll never get another success story like that if you don't give these guys some freedom to run with the mic and the camera and make some magic happen.
It is worth bearing in mind that when the then WWF began the so called "golden age" of wrestling they didn't develop most of the talent themselves. They came to then as established stars and very good in ring performers. The women's wrestling is now very good and way, way better than it ever has been, Drew McIntyre has the look of a champion, is good on the mic and exciting to watch, but who is there to fight? Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins are good even if the super tightly-scripted promos are boring. Bobby Lashley is still awful and will never get over with the fans. Otis is good fun. Braun Strowman is a monster and one of the guys I think could have slotted into the super competitive Attitude Era and still looked good.
Maybe the crowds are part of the problem. While the Attitude era had that crazy energy and the "anything could happen" feel, the crowds went absolutely crazy and there was so much energy. Now when I watch WWEs current stuff, the crowd are so quiet, everyone is trying to film the event on their phones or literally just staring at their screen and ignoring the action entirely.
I think Vince McMahon needs to loosen his grip, stop trying to curate everything in his personal vision and let the superstars lead a little more, like they did in the 90s. Steve Austin, The Rock and DX were all massively popular and all were mostly characters created by the actors playing them. Remember the transition from Rocky Maivia to The Rock? One of the most hated wreslters in history to one of the most popular - that was entirely the doing of Dwayne Johnson because he was sick of playing that awful babyface that managment wanted and the fans completely rejected. You'll never get another success story like that if you don't give these guys some freedom to run with the mic and the camera and make some magic happen.
The likes of Jake "the snake" Roberts, The Macho Man, Ricky "the dragon" steamboat, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Million Dollar man etc etc. The WWF may have given them a new gimmick at times but they were already established stars. The golden age then was combining these with some of the existing WWF talent from the territory days (like Andre) and the new megastar they built in Hogan.
They have been through a creative lull before when they had an exodus of talent to WCW and other stars were past their prime and the new talents they were trying to get over failed. 1995 for example is considered a very poor year for the company.
Thanks to the pressures of competition, and a number of stars they poached from WCW, they were able to pull it together again for the late nineties and early 2000s.
That has all gone away now and there is no territory system to develop new talents and creatively developing new stars has never been a WWF strongpoint. The Rock for example was saddled with a crap gimmick when he first emerged and found success as a heel first. They wanted to make The Hitman a cowboy before he pushed back.
Does it have a future?. I am not sure really. I think many fans would prefer to watch something from the eighties, nineties or early 2000s than the current stuff. I think as well Kayfabe was very important. Even though you knew it wasn't real you needed that suspension of disbelief.
Edited by JagLover on Friday 26th June 07:19
For any fans of the wwf back in the day I can highly recommend the podcast something to wrestle with bruce prichard' (brother love) and conrad thompson (married to flairs daughter).
Weekly episodes profiling a character or era. I haven't followed wee for years but as a fan back in the day the podcast is fascinating.
Weekly episodes profiling a character or era. I haven't followed wee for years but as a fan back in the day the podcast is fascinating.
There are still loads of late 80's/early 90's episodes on Youtube which I'll sometimes have on as background noise, pure nostalgia talking but it just felt so much more fun back then. I would watch them on the network, but it's almost impossible to get through a whole episode without buffering or a playback error. Pretty dire time for the company at the moment though, they've released half their roster and are about to gut their best brand, NXT, as punishment to losing to the upstart AEW promotion, which is a better product in almost every way.
A Winner Is You said:
There are still loads of late 80's/early 90's episodes on Youtube which I'll sometimes have on as background noise, pure nostalgia talking but it just felt so much more fun back then. I would watch them on the network, but it's almost impossible to get through a whole episode without buffering or a playback error. Pretty dire time for the company at the moment though, they've released half their roster and are about to gut their best brand, NXT, as punishment to losing to the upstart AEW promotion, which is a better product in almost every way.
I have given the Network a try and they do have some gems on there but the problem is it is buried and hard to find, particularly for their mid eighties stuff.What they would need to do to make the Network more appealing is to put some work into it. Cover the key angles from a year, with original promos and the better matches, also include some of the more interesting one off matches, actually present what they have so that it is easy to find, not buried amongst a midst of squash matches and matches put on to fill airtime, spread over various different shows that are all separate.
Wrestling bios on YouTube covers past storylines and wrestlers from WWE and WCW. It’s pretty entertaining.
https://youtube.com/c/WrestlingBios
https://youtube.com/c/WrestlingBios
AEW is killing them at the moment, releasing Brayy Wyatt was high profile recently although it seems he wanted to leave, oh and Ric Flair.
Waiting for the NWO to rock up on AEW, suspect Bully Ray will at some point as well. How much they gotta pay Taker for an appearance opposite Sting?
Waiting for the NWO to rock up on AEW, suspect Bully Ray will at some point as well. How much they gotta pay Taker for an appearance opposite Sting?
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