mrbananagrabber
King Koopa
Paul Heyman's unofficial joke writer
Posts: 11,753
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Post by mrbananagrabber on Oct 13, 2015 15:44:37 GMT -5
Hear me out.
NXT is great for all the new up and coming guys, and it's the best booked, most entertaining wrestling show on television. So someone, somewhere in WWE knows how to write an hour of TV for wrestling fans.
Why can't that be brought into play for the mid/lower card guys that have nothing to do on Raw or Smackdown? Have an actual TV show, not meaningless matches and thirty five minutes of Raw recaps. Hell, even a title that is only defended on that show. Fandango, Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas, Sandow, Brad Maddox, those matador assholes, even get some NXT guys in..have promo's, feuds, all exclusively on the Network. Why can't they make another hour of TV that matters for THOSE guys?
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Oct 13, 2015 15:49:53 GMT -5
My personal belief is that SmackDown should be that show.
Let RAW be the show for all the "top stars'" angles while SmackDown can be focused on character development for the lower card.
If top stars' presence is necessary to keep the ratings afloat, then advertise "Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose in action" and then have them wrestle Los Matadores or something.
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JCBaggee
Hank Scorpio
Twitch streamer (twitch.tv/jcbaggee) Writer (CBR, "Advanced Death Saves"), huge nerd.
Posts: 6,772
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Post by JCBaggee on Oct 13, 2015 15:52:46 GMT -5
My personal belief is that SmackDown should be that show. Let RAW be the show for all the "top stars'" angles while SmackDown can be focused on character development for the lower card. If top stars' presence is necessary to keep the ratings afloat, then advertise "Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose in action" and then have them wrestle Los Matadores or something. Fans are going to catch on pretty quick that you're booking big talent to squash nobodies, and stop tuning in. Plus, you've destroyed the reputation and drawing potential of Los Mata--oh man, I can't finish that thought with a straight face.
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Oct 13, 2015 15:57:31 GMT -5
My personal belief is that SmackDown should be that show. Let RAW be the show for all the "top stars'" angles while SmackDown can be focused on character development for the lower card. If top stars' presence is necessary to keep the ratings afloat, then advertise "Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose in action" and then have them wrestle Los Matadores or something. Fans are going to catch on pretty quick that you're booking big talent to squash nobodies, and stop tuning in. Plus, you've destroyed the reputation and drawing potential of Los Mata--oh man, I can't finish that thought with a straight face. Except ideally, those matches wouldn't be squashes and the lower tier talent would be given storylines and character development to get fans invested in them,
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Oct 13, 2015 15:59:03 GMT -5
If they wanted to utilize full size of roster I would of brought back the brand split. The system they had was decent enough. Smackdown is where you get a good mix of veterans and young guys rising up the ladder while Raw is where more "seasoned" guys go. Not like you have to bring the WHC back. IC or US title could main event the TV shows sometimes or even the tag titles since they could travel shows.
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Post by Joe Neglia on Oct 13, 2015 16:01:44 GMT -5
Squash matches and focusing on low-card guys aren't going to cut it in Prime Time. Never will.
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Post by Gerard Gerard on Oct 13, 2015 16:02:57 GMT -5
NXT being a lone, self-contained hour is one the biggest appeals for me.
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BigWill
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Posts: 16,619
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Post by BigWill on Oct 13, 2015 16:05:54 GMT -5
They've tried this before and poor ratings always forced the show off television.
Fans just don't want to see a show full of superstars that aren't good enough to regularly appear on Raw.
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Oct 13, 2015 16:10:25 GMT -5
They've tried this before and poor ratings always forced the show off television. Fans just don't want to see a show full of superstars that aren't good enough to regularly appear on Raw. The problem with those shows is that WWE never made an effort to actually make people care about those shows. Those guys do need to be utilized. If they aren't "good enough to regularly appear on RAW" they're not going to magically become good enough by not being used. Part of the problem with WWE ever since the Brand Split ended is that WWE is too focused on trying to make everyone into the Next Big Thing that they've forgotten how to make an entertaining roster from top to bottom. Everyone on TV has to be a future or former world champion when in previous eras that was never the case. WWE loves the Attitude Era so much, yet they don't seem to remember that in the Attitude Era, even the jobbers were over and had some semblance of relevance.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2015 16:13:12 GMT -5
I want the brand extension to come back and be actually adhered to again. At least back when that was a thing if one show was utter garbage every week the other one might have something for you instead. God knows as bad as 2009 was for Raw it'd have been a lot worse without SmackDown (up until Taker came back and he, the Drew push, and Jeff Hardy leaving completely torpedoed the show's quality anyway) and ECW tearing it up.
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Reflecto
Hank Scorpio
The Sorceress' Knight
Posts: 6,847
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Post by Reflecto on Oct 13, 2015 18:40:58 GMT -5
Squash matches and focusing on low-card guys aren't going to cut it in Prime Time. Never will. This- but at the same time since the InVasion's end, you have the bigger problem where the entire show (and now in WWE, the entire company) is focused around one person (first HHH, then John Cena.) When the show's run like that and has no focus on the low-card at all, you end up with THAT PERSON as the star- maybe the person they're beating this month as the midcard, and the rest of the company are lowcarders. You can't do something like "On Raw, we're going to have Jack Swagger fight Heath Slater in the main event with no buildup!"- but if you don't give the lowcard at least SOMETHING to do, you end up putting all your eggs in one basket...and in an era like right now where the hardcore fans are accustomed to hate the star of the company so THEY can get e-street cred, having all your eggs in one basket is doomed to failure and plummetting ratings.
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auph10imitated
Dennis Stamp
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Posts: 4,951
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Post by auph10imitated on Oct 14, 2015 7:34:10 GMT -5
I think NXT is fine as it is, thats its appeal. It takes you back to simpler times without the oversaturation. That hour is enough to showcase what they need to showcase and then they have the specials. Its like 80's WWF with its weekly syndication and SNME.
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Post by Big Bad Kahuna on Oct 14, 2015 8:15:38 GMT -5
I want the brand extension to come back and be actually adhered to again. At least back when that was a thing if one show was utter garbage every week the other one might have something for you instead. God knows as bad as 2009 was for Raw it'd have been a lot worse without SmackDown (up until Taker came back and he, the Drew push, and Jeff Hardy leaving completely torpedoed the show's quality anyway) and ECW tearing it up. I agree Plus NXT is getting really crowded right now (Swann, Athena, Gargano, Ciampa, Asuka, Storm?, Sarita? etc) so guys n gals like Finn, Breeze, Vaudevillains, Enzo/Cass, Jordan/Gable etc can easily and CAREFUY be incorporated into the main roster, so there's plenty people on each roster
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RBD
Team Rocket
Posts: 765
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Post by RBD on Oct 14, 2015 9:27:49 GMT -5
I think there's so many different issues with their booking that there's multiple ways to address them.
I think that they have a deep enough roster that they could fill their TV time without overexposing talent, but they haven't booked anywhere near well enough for many years for this to be effective.
I do agree that giving a show its own identity is important. Smackdown used to have this to a degree as the 'wrestling show'. Less angles, longer matches. The problem was that these matches largely meant nothing. Since Raw has gone three hours, we frequently get longer matches on that show too. Smackdown is now little more than a Raw retread.
I'm against another brand split because I don't think this will lead to better booking. I've heard the idea of a 'soft' brand split suggested, which would be unofficial but have certain workers only appear on one show. Again, this would only work if they really improve the booking, genuinely commit to feature different performers on the B show and make a concerted effort to make them stars.
NXT is the only brand (as much as you can call it that) that has really established a separate identity as an alternative to the main WWE product. They should be taking cues from its success if ever want to replicate that with Smackdown or Main Event, which they show no signs of having any interest in.
If Raw is to remain three hours and NXT is to become a full touring brand, I would rebrand Smackdown and replace it with NXT. Three hours on Mondays is plently of time for the current product and they would still have Main Event to book undercard matches. If not, do something different with your non-Raw airtime. Anything.
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Post by Old Baby on Oct 14, 2015 10:27:15 GMT -5
I think they could spice up the secondary shows by trying out some different gimmicks, like having tournaments that play out over a month and culminate at a PPV or on Raw.
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auph10imitated
Dennis Stamp
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Posts: 4,951
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Post by auph10imitated on Oct 14, 2015 10:42:17 GMT -5
The brand extension ruined WWE and only ever favoured about 3 or 4 people, everyone else was lost in the shuffle and the whole thing was a horrible mess for about 10 years, thats the last thing they should ever consider doing
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