Post by saintpat on Nov 14, 2013 22:42:10 GMT -5
... before a true big draw had run out of steam?
I'm not asking this as in "I'm saying it has never happened before," but wondering when and how it happened.
I chose the Rest of Wrestling thread because I don't want to limit the discussion to WWE Attitude Era to Current. So this would include WWF/WWE and WCW, I guess, heck AWA if you think there's a prime example. The territories are a different animal altogether, because it was a different time and a promoter could always import a proven draw and move the played-out guy onto somewhere else, where he would start fresh.
Now what brings this to mind is the current situation where some believe that WWE is holding onto Cena too long and not "creating the next star" now -- projecting that it will make for some really lean times when Cena's time as a top draw comes to an end. I would argue that they have begun positioning CM Punk, Bryan and even Orton for that while still using Cena, as he still is the company's biggest draw, but I'm wondering about historical examples.
And by creating the next star, I'm not talking about a real down time as when -- with apologies to their fans -- the The Guy mantle was put on Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels when they simply were not major draws, as good as they were.
I'm also horrible at timelines (as in when this guy or that guy got the The Guy push when another The Guy was still drawing), so I'm hoping those of you who are better at this than me can come up with some examples -- of when it happened or when the effort fell valiantly short.
I'm not asking this as in "I'm saying it has never happened before," but wondering when and how it happened.
I chose the Rest of Wrestling thread because I don't want to limit the discussion to WWE Attitude Era to Current. So this would include WWF/WWE and WCW, I guess, heck AWA if you think there's a prime example. The territories are a different animal altogether, because it was a different time and a promoter could always import a proven draw and move the played-out guy onto somewhere else, where he would start fresh.
Now what brings this to mind is the current situation where some believe that WWE is holding onto Cena too long and not "creating the next star" now -- projecting that it will make for some really lean times when Cena's time as a top draw comes to an end. I would argue that they have begun positioning CM Punk, Bryan and even Orton for that while still using Cena, as he still is the company's biggest draw, but I'm wondering about historical examples.
And by creating the next star, I'm not talking about a real down time as when -- with apologies to their fans -- the The Guy mantle was put on Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels when they simply were not major draws, as good as they were.
I'm also horrible at timelines (as in when this guy or that guy got the The Guy push when another The Guy was still drawing), so I'm hoping those of you who are better at this than me can come up with some examples -- of when it happened or when the effort fell valiantly short.
