Would a vintage/classic brand work?

[willyjakes]

I've always thought that there are a ton of wrestling fans who are just dormant right now and disillusioned with the product...who loved the way things were done in the 80's and early 90's but steadily peeled away over the years due to poor writing and character development, titles that mean nothing, ppv's seemingly every other week etc. basically stuff that's been beaten to death

I wonder if it would be wise for the wwe to create a vintage brand to tap back into the old fan...cut out the stupid fillers that we don't care about (titantron, backstage skits with the magical invisible cameraman) and go back to doing things the old way. Jobber squashes, more meaningful well planned character development, only a few ppv's a year, longer title reigns, quality matches...just basically a brand geared for the 30 and over crowd

Would something like this work?

[Phil Parent]

I always thought a well-ran veteran brand would work. Have the guys work within their capabilities, do NOT run house shows that would strain the old legs, I say the veteran brand works once a week on TV and has a match every PPV, with the WrestleMania match given good promotion.

[Deleted]

I don't think the original post was implying they use guys in their 40's and older as the roster, just a more no nonsense approach to the presentation.

How fairly depressing most "legends" shows are to watch compared to how they were in there prime is enough evidence to suggest trying to do a promotion of all legends wouldn't fly.

I do think wrestling needs a more stripped back approach. NWA Hollywood is doing that already. It's basically like a studio TV wrestling show from the past, except with current rising stars.

[Ultimo Chocula]

Yes, absolutely it can work. The only hurdle is to get people who are used to the sports entertainment approach to try it out. I know a lot of people are burned out on the WWE and Impact but don't know where else to turn. I think that if they gave a more traditionally run wrestling show a chance, get used to how it flows and get to know the characters, they would really go for it.

[Evilution E5150]

isnt this kind of what the point of ring of honor is for

[Brian Suntan]

I think most people who miss the 80's and 90's, really just want those specific periods of time back, as opposed to a 2012 approximation of them.

I could be totally wrong about this, but I honestly don't believe people really would be happy with hours of squash matches, or months on end between PPV's.

[Red Impact]

Jul 12, 2012 19:30:14 GMT -5 Brian Suntan said:

I think most people who miss the 80's and 90's, really just want those specific periods of time back, as opposed to a 2012 approximation of them.

I could be totally wrong about this, but I honestly don't believe people really would be happy with hours of squash matches, or months on end between PPV's.

Yeah, I think the landscape has changed enough that getting this idea to actually work beyond a really niche audience would be difficult. There's a reason wrestling evolved to what it is now, it has to try to keep up with a lot more than it had to in the 80's.

[Phil Parent]

The reason it changed from squash/jobber matches to all-name cards is because the industry moved from being oriented towards ticket sales to being oriented towards TV ratings / PPV buys / DVD sales.

When you made your money primarily via house show, you wanted people to come and see your top guys fight one another and you didn't want to give away these matches on TV because then less people would buy tickets to your show. They did Name VS Jobber matches on TV so that people watching at home would get a chance to see the Name talent look good and maybe cut a promo ahead of the show coming to town.

Then WCW Nitro came, and Bischoff focused on getting TV ratings weekly, thus cards that were mostly Name VS Name, including using lesser names as glorified jobbers.

You couldn't go back to have the old clear-cut Jobber VS Name format for the simple reason that companies that are big enough to be on TV are on there and are TV / PPV / DVD oriented, and so book Name VS Name, whereas companies that aren't big enough to be on TV depend ENTIRELY on their ticket sales, and they don't have TV to use to promote their stars and their shows, so they must promote Name VS Name too to sell the best they can.

At best, these companies today can post their shows on the internet, but I feel (Opinion!) that you couldn't do Jobber VS Name shows online to hype Name VS Name shows... but you know, I'd like to see somebody try.

Also one last thing, who are your job guys if you are a small local indy? I don't think anybody nowadays would really accept being job guys like Horowitz, Lombardi, Gill, Power and those guys were. Everybody wants to be or at least have a chance to see themselves as, a star.

[TuneinTokyo]

I don't pay attention to any wrestling except the local show every three or four months. It's a second generation promotion the father being a local hero, the late Woody Farmer. They keep it pretty old school but that's due to lack of production costs. I'm sure they'd sign right on to whatever is happening if they had ticket sales. Too bad they can't acquire some local TV time. I'd tune in once a week for it.

I would tune in for a old school WWE show but I'm sure they wouldn't do it right. Again everyone has a theme song and a $40 t-shirt etc.

If you gonna do it make it late 60's-70's. Make it about rules and purses and sanctioning bodies. Represent the ring side doctor, time keeper. Get rid of the guard rails and don't allow people to bring in their crappy signs.

Judging by the crowd that showed up to the last local show it was half real wrestling fans and half guys like me doing the nostalgia trip.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Jul 12, 2012 19:21:25 GMT -5 Evilution E5150 said:

isnt this kind of what the point of ring of honor is for

One problem with ROH is that they use a lot of guys who are are generic looking and have little to no charisma.

Plus when I finally saw Davey Richards wrestle (live, no less) I was massively let down. All that hype about being the best in the world went out the window as I watched a guy barely sell anything and apparently think he was in a kickboxing match half of the time.

[Ultimo Chocula]

Jul 12, 2012 19:21:25 GMT -5 Evilution E5150 said:

isnt this kind of what the point of ring of honor is for

Ring Of Honor is swallowing it's own tail by trying to be seen on the same level as MMA. They forget that what draws people to wrestling is not that it's a real sport but the suspension of disbelief that these varied and interesting characters are interacting in a slightly fantastical way.

[willywonka666]

Jul 12, 2012 19:30:14 GMT -5 Brian Suntan said:

I think most people who miss the 80's and 90's, really just want those specific periods of time back, as opposed to a 2012 approximation of them.

I could be totally wrong about this, but I honestly don't believe people really would be happy with hours of squash matches, or months on end between PPV's.

I'm open to new names and faces IF they can approach it the way they used to and get me interested in the characters. The way they do things these days I'm not really into anybody. As far as ppvs go, hell yes I'd be happy waiting on a really important event as opposed to having it every few weeks. Everything is overdone and played out over and over, from monthly ppvs to an authority figure EVERY week. Back in the day, you only saw the president when something major went down. You didn't see chairs all the time. We should be desensitized to all this stuff by now, yet people still tune in. I don't though. I'd check out a show if the characters were interesting and they pulled back. Less is more in this case although it would never make the money WWE does.

What would be perfect is if it took off and Vince tried to copy it

Noone said it had to be squash matches though, to start a promotion, everyone would be on an even playing field, some would just be better than others, but you don't have to have straight up jobbers, or not half the roster anyway, just a few, and those that are a little better