Missing Obvious Angles

[celtics543]

I watched Raw last night for the first time in a long time and I came away amazed at how many matches happen with zero stakes. I listen to Bischoff's podcast quite often and he talks a lot about having stakes for matches and making them feel important. Royal Rumble season is one of the easiest times to have stakes because guys can literally fight for a spot in the match or fight for a certain number. In the past they've done stipulations where guys get to be number 30 or number 1 based on a match or small battle royal. Last night I watched several matches that seemed to happen just because that's what they decided would happen, no stakes to fight for just athletic displays.

I think this highlights a bigger issue in that there is almost no storyline in the WWE anymore. Wrestling thrives when there is lots of story and fans can sink their teeth into something and become invested. It's why the Attitude Era worked, not because of the over the top sex and violence but everyone had a storyline and everything felt important each week. Now it's basically cirque du soleil with huge men.

Am I missing something from not watching for a while or is this basically what it's all turned into?

[Bang Bang Bart]

To be fair, No. 30 has been already decided upon (R-Truth has the spot for winning Mixed Match Challenge).

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

I feel like they want it so anyone can jump in at any time and not feel like they’ve missed anything, which is why there isn’t a lot of heavy storyline work and constant recaps and reiteration of what few storylines there are. Which is all well and good for Joe Casual Fan, not so much for us who have been watching regularly for years and are constantly questioning why we continue to do so.

[bob]

Eric hasn't been on tv for quite a while

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

The lack of stakes in all of the matches is one of the biggest problems with WWE, and astoundingly is something that TNA have got right more recently than they have, via the 2012 Bound For Glory Series.

The weird thing is, a small commentary change would make all the difference - the winner's purse, man. Just mention the winner's purse. Even that would get us SOMEWHERE and we can add other shit later.

[Hurbster]

I miss Kurt.

[Bo Rida]

I agree with your general point but I like the rumble to be as unpredictable as possible.

[nickcave]

Jan 22, 2019 9:50:02 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

I feel like they want it so anyone can jump in at any time and not feel like they’ve missed anything, which is why there isn’t a lot of heavy storyline work and constant recaps and reiteration of what few storylines there are. Which is all well and good for Joe Casual Fan, not so much for us who have been watching regularly for years and are constantly questioning why we continue to do so.

I saw someone mention on another site that Raw and Smackdown are basically your equivalents of procedural shows like NCIS where they are targeting as broad of an audience as possible who do not care about long term storytelling and leave it on in the background while they do other stuff, whereas NXT is your equivalent of a prestige television program you'd find on Netflix so you can do more with long term storytelling and character development because they already have your money from month to month.

[Deleted]

You’re right. And it’s one of the main gripes I have with WWE. There’s too many guys who have no gimmick or distinctive looks. Their character is basically “I’m a good wrestler”... that’s not enough for me.

I get not every fan is the same. But I loved the New Generation era. I liked silly gimmicks like wrestling clowns, wrestling garbage men and wrestling voodoo guys. It catches the eye of the casual viewer and it’s what separates it from every other show. Watching the likes of Papa Shango, The Mountie and Yokozuna were what captivated me as a kid. I’m not sure I would have liked wrestling so much as a kid if it was Roderick Strong vs Sami Zayn. Although I think that would be one hell of a match now, on the grand scheme of things they’re just two “guys” and that would look visually boring to me if I just happened to turn on the TV one night.

Don’t get me wrong... I appreciate the shit out of a great match. I just wish we had more variety, that’s all. I’m okay with a few guys not having a gimmick... guys like Ricochet, Bryan, Styles etc can get away with it. But I don’t see what separates The Revival from Gallows and Anderson. I don’t see the difference in Sami Zayn and Johnny Gargano as characters. I can’t see what’s different about Curt Hawkins and Heath Slater.

Know what I mean? None of these guys have gimmicks or standout looks. They’re just “normal guys” who do nothing memorable or have anything about them that catches your eye apart from good moves.

I’d rather Sami Zayn was El Generico. I’d rather Luke Gallows was Festus again. Instead of these entertaining gimmicks, I’m watching two regular guys do regular things and act like regular people. I can go outside and see that...

[celtics543]

Jan 23, 2019 22:48:30 GMT -5 @negan said:

You’re right. And it’s one of the main gripes I have with WWE. There’s too many guys who have no gimmick or distinctive looks. Their character is basically “I’m a good wrestler”... that’s not enough for me.

I get not every fan is the same. But I loved the New Generation era. I liked silly gimmicks like wrestling clowns, wrestling garbage men and wrestling voodoo guys. It catches the eye of the casual viewer and it’s what separates it from every other show. Watching the likes of Papa Shango, The Mountie and Yokozuna were what captivated me as a kid. I’m not sure I would have liked wrestling so much as a kid if it was Roderick Strong vs Sami Zayn. Although I think that would be one hell of a match now, on the grand scheme of things they’re just two “guys” and that would look visually boring to me if I just happened to turn on the TV one night.

Don’t get me wrong... I appreciate the shit out of a great match. I just wish we had more variety, that’s all. I’m okay with a few guys not having a gimmick... guys like Ricochet, Bryan, Styles etc can get away with it. But I don’t see what separates The Revival from Gallows and Anderson. I don’t see the difference in Sami Zayn and Johnny Gargano as characters. I can’t see what’s different about Curt Hawkins and Heath Slater.

Know what I mean? None of these guys have gimmicks or standout looks. They’re just “normal guys” who do nothing memorable or have anything about them that catches your eye apart from good moves.

I’d rather Sami Zayn was El Generico. I’d rather Luke Gallows was Festus again. Instead of these entertaining gimmicks, I’m watching two regular guys do regular things and act like regular people. I can go outside and see that...

This is exactly what I'm talking about. WWE is just missing that little bit of creativity. They have matches with no heat because they have no storylines to make the matches important. The percentage of people who care if a match is a 5 star technical classic is really low compared to people who just want to be entertained. Most of the matches that are pushed as the most important in company history weren't even 3.5 star matches but the story was so good that people loved it. Now if a match has great story AND is a technical masterpiece is when you get an all time classic like Austin vs Bret or Undertaker vs HBK. Watching Sami Zayn vs Nakamura was cool but there was no story or anything to give it that lasting appeal. They need to stop treating their shows like acrobatic displays or wrestling displays and start putting some actual thought into the story.

It may seem very soap opera but I'd kill for a storyline like Raven/Dreamer/Sandman from ECW. None of them are great technical wrestlers but the entire thing is remembered fondly because of great storytelling. I mean if you've been a long time fan you can probably remember tons of storylines from Wrestlemania 1 through like 20 but from then on there are less and less storylines that were compelling and it's coincided with a downfall in viewership. It's a problem that needs to be addressed.

[sunnytaker]

I am a bit surprised that they skipped the usual bit where people anger a GM/McMahon and so ends up in a match to see who will be stuck with #1 in the rumble