CH Punk
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Advice: Noted
Stuck in the Retro Zone
Posts: 15,570
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Post by CH Punk on Sept 29, 2016 22:20:15 GMT -5
As Phil Parent said, WWE still gets top ratings in the key demos, so this freefall of Raw viewers isn't teens and young adults jumping off, it's old people. Apparently, old people hate what's going on in WWE right now. Admitting you like wrestling nowadays isn't as lame as it was after the year 2000. My friend and I were watching Smackdown with a friend who hasn't watched since the attitude era the other night and he was totally getting into it. I have to agree with them NOT trying to be cool. But whatever they seem to be doing now has somewhat worked. At least it seems so to me, and I'm smack dab in the middle of the target demographic. I haven't seen so many of my peers interested since the late 90s. As for the younger fans, I don't know. I don't know what is cool and I don't care, I'm not them. Lol I think you're right in terms of mainstream acceptance. The fact that ESPN is covering it is huge. It's not frowned upon like it was not that long ago to be a wrestling fan. In the past year, Coca-Cola was a sponsor. COCA-COLA. You don't get bigger and mainstream than that. That said, two mains things I would do to change WWE's image (in order to shed the rest of it's more negative image): 1. Make promos and taking segments closer to what you would see on Talking Smack (it would make guys more believable in their portrayals of their characters). But that doesn't mean you get rid of scripts (I think some guys would need those kinds of promos to make it, but don't shackle the guys that can talk to hyper scripted promos). 2. Completely get rid of the childish toilet humour. Personally, the Heath Slater/Rhyno segment at Backlash stuck out like a sore thumb because it was based around Heath having the shits rather than their antics.
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Post by Loser troll. Please ban me on Sept 29, 2016 22:22:25 GMT -5
Vince can wear overalls, sunglasses, Come out on a skateboard and then pose with his arms crossed.
If that ain't cool I don't know what is.
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Post by Hit Girl on Sept 29, 2016 22:55:01 GMT -5
Bring back Carlito
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Post by Ryback on a Pole! on Sept 29, 2016 23:33:11 GMT -5
When Punk and Bryan were at their peak they had a chance. Both had huge crossover appeal, both getting referenced outside wrestling and both two guys whose characters appeal to modern culture.
Unfortunately WWE had them play second fiddle to the established stars rather than making them the two top guys.
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Reflecto
Hank Scorpio
The Sorceress' Knight
Posts: 6,847
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Post by Reflecto on Sept 30, 2016 0:53:22 GMT -5
Realize there is no universal COOL anymore, and there probably never will be again...so there's never going to be that quick fix for any of these things.
Society is just too fragmented, too split between different groups of people, and each of those groups have their own 'COOL'...and then, you have the issue because there's almost no one or no thing who has enough overlap between every group of people so that EVERYONE- or even a big enough majority of groups to matter and make a dent in society- would say "Okay, they're COOL".
The only hope we would have would be if WWE turned around and went all out with characters, building one to each specific group out there- heck, wrestling's built on timely gimmicks that work where it could bring everyone in to have THEIR hero- and give EVERYBODY a horse in the race. Even then, you'd have the likely risk where their 'group' would be DEVASTATED if their hero doesn't win the big one and get all glory for all human time.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2016 2:03:52 GMT -5
propeller caps
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Post by onestepplan on Sept 30, 2016 3:54:29 GMT -5
Wrestling peaks when it taps into the cultural consciousness; It's not a coincidence that the two boom periods came about when wrestling fell in line with the shape of pop culture at large at the time. The Hulkamania era ran concurrent with the neon/A-Team/He-Man era. It was bright and bold and superhero ridiculous and the 80s mainstream ate it up. The Attitude era was trash/x-treme which went perfectly with the Jerry Springer/Bill Clinton/It's the 90s! attitude of the time.
If they want to be mainstream/cool again, they have to re-calibrate for current pop culture. Right now the two best routes for pro wres resurgence are "Prestige Television" in the vein of Game of Thrones/Breaking Bad/Orange is the New Black. That means the sprawling sophisticated storytelling that dominates the TV landscape(among young viewers) at current. Or over-the-top, unabashed quirky absurdity in the vein of Adventure Time/Adult Swim/General Memes. The second option makes me really, reaaaalllly think that Lucha Underground would be particularly successful if it had the mass exposure/brand of a WWE. WWE would do well to take a lead from LU much as they did from ECW in the 90s.
Pro Wrestling will never be a trend-setter. It doesn't have the cultural cache and it's honestly not run by people who are savvy enough to influence society at large. But it can become part of the conversation when it makes strides to get with the times.
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Welfare Willis
Crow T. Robot
Pornomancer 555-BONE FDIC Bonsured
Game Center CX Kacho on!
Posts: 44,259
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Post by Welfare Willis on Sept 30, 2016 4:57:08 GMT -5
Raw in Skinny jeans.
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Post by wildojinx on Sept 30, 2016 9:29:57 GMT -5
Make the WWE a sort of "shared universe" where storylines have ramifications over all the WWE, not just in that one segment. And i dont mean in the lazy way where the authority figure just lists all the matches happening that night, im talking intersecting storylines.
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Allie Kitsune
Crow T. Robot
Always Feelin' Foxy.
HaHa U FaLL 4 LaVa TriK
Posts: 46,205
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Post by Allie Kitsune on Sept 30, 2016 9:37:29 GMT -5
Realize there is no universal COOL anymore, and there probably never will be again...so there's never going to be that quick fix for any of these things. Society is just too fragmented, too split between different groups of people, and each of those groups have their own 'COOL'...and then, you have the issue because there's almost no one or no thing who has enough overlap between every group of people so that EVERYONE- or even a big enough majority of groups to matter and make a dent in society- would say "Okay, they're COOL". The only hope we would have would be if WWE turned around and went all out with characters, building one to each specific group out there- heck, wrestling's built on timely gimmicks that work where it could bring everyone in to have THEIR hero- and give EVERYBODY a horse in the race. Even then, you'd have the likely risk where their 'group' would be DEVASTATED if their hero doesn't win the big one and get all glory for all human time. Well done. It's hard to express that sentiment without getting into forbidden topics, but you did it. I don't know if I'd have been able to pull if off. I'm too impatient.
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Post by willywonka666 on Sept 30, 2016 9:42:31 GMT -5
I don't think they set out to be cool, they just luck into it-last time they were at their peak, they had steady competition and a good economy-they have neither now.
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Post by Toilet Paper Roll on Sept 30, 2016 10:15:16 GMT -5
Not sure it will ever happen again. The kids who grew up with the product of the eighties felt the products that they were presenting in the early nineties was still geared too much towards kids.
But when the product became edgier and something the now teenaged kids could appreciate the industry took off.
Not sure how you replicate that when the product for quite some time now has tried appealing to both audiences.
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Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Sept 30, 2016 10:29:46 GMT -5
When Punk and Bryan were at their peak they had a chance. Both had huge crossover appeal, both getting referenced outside wrestling and both two guys whose characters appeal to modern culture. Unfortunately WWE had them play second fiddle to the established stars rather than making them the two top guys. The fans can see themselves in Punk and Bryan in a way they can't with Roman Reigns or Orton, those two are the guy who's inherited the family business that will hit on your girlfriend in front of you. There's no connection there and the only person whose dreams are being played out through them is Vince, who always wanted to be that guy.
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Magnus the Magnificent
King Koopa
didn't want one.
I could write a book about what you don't know!
Posts: 12,509
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Post by Magnus the Magnificent on Sept 30, 2016 11:04:55 GMT -5
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Post by wildojinx on Sept 30, 2016 11:38:30 GMT -5
Throw in the dicks, gymini, KC James, and the Hearthrobs. New boom period! EDIT: And have Dean Malenko manage them all.
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Reflecto
Hank Scorpio
The Sorceress' Knight
Posts: 6,847
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Post by Reflecto on Sept 30, 2016 12:27:35 GMT -5
Not sure it will ever happen again. The kids who grew up with the product of the eighties felt the products that they were presenting in the early nineties was still geared too much towards kids. But when the product became edgier and something the now teenaged kids could appreciate the industry took off. Not sure how you replicate that when the product for quite some time now has tried appealing to both audiences. That's really the whole self-fulfilling prophecy that IS the weakness of the "smark bubble", though. WWE, at its heart, is a KIDS' SHOW. Period. This doesn't make it a bad thing to be beloved by older fans. Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Adventure Time, My Little Pony, Steven Universe, the list goes on and on- they're beloved by older fans as well as younger fans...but they were still KIDS' SHOWS at their heart, it was accepted, and the fanbase has the inherent idea "okay, just because I love this does not necessarily mean that this show is FOR ME. Kids are still the target audience, so the show should put kids first and I'm willing to accept that." The only problem is that adult wrestling fans, for some reason- never really ACCEPTED THAT point, and it's the whole problem for WWE being "cool" again. Where the traditional circle of life would be: The kids who grew up with the product in the '80s as Hulkamaniacs. The product became edgier in the '90s...and spoke to those kids as teenagers, and they loved Austin and Rock. They grow up, got to college, started their careers and families of their own...and then take their OWN kids to the show to be John Cena fans (or Roman Reigns fans if they waited a bit) and the cycle starts over again. The only problem with that, is that we didn't put away OUR toys. And now, we smarks have our own sense of entitlement, where we demand "nope. Screw that circle of life. MINE! MINE MINE MINE!", and the Hulkamaniacs of the '80s, who became the Austin/Rock fans of the '90s, NOW demanded WWE book their shows to fans in their 20s in the 2000s, and fans in their 30s in the 2010s, and next decade to fans in their '40s, and fans in their 50s in the 2030s, and so on until we all die off (and WWE dies with us because they had to book to what WE wanted.)
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Futureraven: Beelzebruv
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
The Ultimate Arbiter of Right And Wrong
Spent half my life here, God help me
Posts: 15,135
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Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Sept 30, 2016 13:07:22 GMT -5
Not sure it will ever happen again. The kids who grew up with the product of the eighties felt the products that they were presenting in the early nineties was still geared too much towards kids. But when the product became edgier and something the now teenaged kids could appreciate the industry took off. Not sure how you replicate that when the product for quite some time now has tried appealing to both audiences. That's really the whole self-fulfilling prophecy that IS the weakness of the "smark bubble", though. WWE, at its heart, is a KIDS' SHOW. Period. This doesn't make it a bad thing to be beloved by older fans. Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Adventure Time, My Little Pony, Steven Universe, the list goes on and on- they're beloved by older fans as well as younger fans...but they were still KIDS' SHOWS at their heart, it was accepted, and the fanbase has the inherent idea "okay, just because I love this does not necessarily mean that this show is FOR ME. Kids are still the target audience, so the show should put kids first and I'm willing to accept that." The only problem is that adult wrestling fans, for some reason- never really ACCEPTED THAT point, and it's the whole problem for WWE being "cool" again. Where the traditional circle of life would be: The kids who grew up with the product in the '80s as Hulkamaniacs. The product became edgier in the '90s...and spoke to those kids as teenagers, and they loved Austin and Rock. They grow up, got to college, started their careers and families of their own...and then take their OWN kids to the show to be John Cena fans (or Roman Reigns fans if they waited a bit) and the cycle starts over again. The only problem with that, is that we didn't put away OUR toys. And now, we smarks have our own sense of entitlement, where we demand "nope. Screw that circle of life. MINE! MINE MINE MINE!", and the Hulkamaniacs of the '80s, who became the Austin/Rock fans of the '90s, NOW demanded WWE book their shows to fans in their 20s in the 2000s, and fans in their 30s in the 2010s, and next decade to fans in their '40s, and fans in their 50s in the 2030s, and so on until we all die off (and WWE dies with us because they had to book to what WE wanted.) Well, at their core, those shows are generally well written and can appeal to demographics outside their target because of their quality and intelligence. No matter how people in the smark bubble react, that's not usually the case with WWE, though NXT and lately Smackdown have been giving it a good go. It's a backwards argument, how does it become cool? Forget about that, put on good, coherent shows over an extended period of time and things will build because people want to know what's going on and then it's cool again. Hell, aren't Smackdown's ratings going up already? Focus on the show and the outside stuff comes along almost on it's own.
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Post by Bob Schlapowitz on Sept 30, 2016 13:37:29 GMT -5
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Lupin the Third
Patti Mayonnaise
I'm sorry.....I love you. *boot to the head*--3rd most culpable in the jixing of NXT, D'oh!
Join the Dark Order....
Posts: 36,336
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Post by Lupin the Third on Sept 30, 2016 16:11:28 GMT -5
Wrestling ants.
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Post by Hit Girl on Sept 30, 2016 16:25:36 GMT -5
Sell to Disney. They can bring in MCU writers and producers to book the product.
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