Biggest Problems with the WWE

[wisdomwizard]

I'm still enjoying the WWE overall. I still enjoy the main event angle. And I'm still positive Daniel Bryan will win the WWE Title in some way at Wrestlemania XXX. But while I think they've been doing a lot better over the last four years, I do think myself that there is still room for improvement. And since I've seen a few too many complaint thread come up, I think it would be a good idea to have a catch-all thread to list all grievances we may have.


Having said that, what do you feel are the biggest problems in the WWE right now, and what specifically do you want to see them do to fix them?


One thing I'll mention is they need to stop cutting to the crowds during the backstage segments. Cutting to a bored-looking crowd doesn't do anything for them, and I just don't see how it helps with suspension of disbelief. I'm sure it's one of Kevin Dunn's hair-brained schemes but since I don't think he's getting fired anytime soon. I would appreciate if they would at least cease with that production mess.

[Boo!]

I'd cut down on in-ring promos. They take far too long and get nowhere. How can an angle be furthered by having someone dueling wth a a 'WHAT?' chant all the time. Cut the crowd out, do backstage interviews/promos and save the ring for the action. I find it amazing how in this day and age of short attention spans people still take an entire eight minute segment of a show to cut promo with about 20 seconds of content.

[Hit Girl]

Ultimately, the biggest problem with WWE, and the one that all subsequent problems derive from, is their management attitude, which includes a refusal (I use this term because their booking approach can ONLY be intentional. No one can be that inept unknowingly) to create new stars (which are the core requirement for the long term success of a wrestling company) and their carny/playground/prison mentality towards their wrestlers. What do I mean by this? I mean public burials, which damage the potential success of their wrestlers, and serve only to alienate the audience. I mentioned this earlier today on another thread. Imagine if the management of a restaurant didn't like a waiter for some reason, and to punish him, they sent him out to the customers to serve stale food. That's what happens in WWE, and it happens in no other business, especially in entertainment companies, which WWE deludes themselves into thinking they are.

[Bub (BLM)]

Getting cold feet when the audience is ready and excited to take a chance with something new. They do it all the time. Kofi in 2009, MVP in 2010, Christian in 2005 and 2011, Bryan this year.

[BorneAgain]

Give people up and down the roster more defined personalities and actual honest to god feuds, complete with back and forth mic work, and angles distinct to them.

Beyond the fact that the match results have become stale with it being way too dead on obvious exactly who and how guys will lose, so many guys just feel... there. Guys like Dolph Ziggler are capable of doing so much more that what they're given. Hell guys on Superstars are capable of that much more. There are angles and stories on Extreme Warefare Revenge 10 years ago that got me more emotional invested than the one note guy faces other one note guy that current passes for so many matches on Raw.

They have talented people, hell the match quality is some of the most consistent quality ever, but it can only mean so much where the's no ooomph behind so much of it.

[angryfan]

The biggest problem that I see is their delivery and perspective. It's short-sighted and has lead to many of the problems that we see now.

For years, no one outside of main eventers or special attractions got ANY reaction on SmackDown. It was always "That's just Smack Down, that's the B show, it doesn't matter".

Now what do we see with RAW? THe main eventers get mixed reactions, midcarders, outside of major cities, get Conway pops frequently, and even worse, they get Schiavoned by the announcers.

Midcard match? Who gives a damn if it's entertaining, talk about the main stars.

The problem is that it's Pavlovian in reverse. Actively ignore more than half the roster, and the areas that are not hotbeds for wrestling will see them as not being important. Then when they get reactions in MSG, or Toronto, or Chicago, it's "Bizzarro-world" because they're being cheered, or booed respectively.

[rnrk supports BLM]

Not enough gimmicks, not enough zaniness. They've been very, very slowly taking steps to correct this over the last year or so, and they still periodically keep regressing.

[Boo!]

Short-sightedness could be cured by taping in advance. We've seen when Raw is delayed/taped and also with TNA - live or taped makes no difference at all to the audience. Is there a jump when Smackdown is live? No there's not. Because people are used to watching television that isn't live, it's no biggie. If they taped say 7 weeks of television at a time with editing things around PPV outcomes, I think the product would improve. We'd see ideas carried through to the end. Pushes given their chance of gaining traction, storylines going through a natural progression. Going live each week is now just habit and since the demise of WCW, completely unnecessary.

I said in another thread, people don't not watch a TV show (and WWE is more a TV soap than a sporting event) on the basis that it isn't live. They watch it if it's good. They could tape 6-7 weeks of television in one go and I bet the ratings difference would be negligible but at least they'll do something and see it through to the end rather than what happens now which if something doesn't work perfectly week one, its never heard of or from again.

[MrBRulzOK]

Their biggest problem is their inability to make new stars, at least to the degree that they make a difference. Whenever they seem to have a chance to do so, for whatever reason they always do something to screw it up: The Nexus; CM Punk following Money in the Bank; the recent Daniel Bryan storyline.

The only real stars they've made recently would be The Shield, and even in their case I don't know exactly how much a difference they make business-wise, if any.

They can only rely on past names for so long. Eventually that well is going to run dry and they are going to have a hard time recovering.

[Deleted]

Making everything seem important. Far too many inconsequential matches and overall shows.

[The Ichi]

Simply put, Vince doesn't have the grapefruits anymore and doesn't take risks. A lot of that is on lack of competition, but still.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Nov 12, 2013 22:17:32 GMT -5 MrBRulzOK said:

Their biggest problem is their inability to make new stars, at least to the degree that they make a difference. Whenever they seem to have a chance to do so, for whatever reason they always do something to screw it up: The Nexus; CM Punk following Money in the Bank; the recent Daniel Bryan storyline.

The only real stars they've made recently would be The Shield, and even in their case I don't know exactly how much a difference they make business-wise, if any.

They can only rely on past names for so long. Eventually that well is going to run dry and they are going to have a hard time recovering.

I'd actually argue that they're trying too hard to build "stars" and not doing enough to make a strong roster from top to bottom. It's always " this guy is a former World Champion" or " this guy beat John Cena". Because they don't care about the midcard and conditioned the fans not to care either, they feel like they "need" to shove every moderately talented wrestler into the "main event" to get him over and have him be taken seriously. We either end up with serviceable midcard acts getting pushed beyond their abilities and suffering for it (Ryder, Riley) or a hot act just straight up hitting the wall creatively because they pushed him too hard to the point where there's nowhere to go except actually giving them a run with the world title, but then they realize that it's "too soon" at the last minute (Ryback, Barrett, Cody Rhodes). Everyone seems to get a huge mega push to establish themselves before getting sent DOWN into the midcard, instead of doing it the right way by having them move UP the ladder. All it does is make people look like they've "fallen off" once that mega push is over.

[Heartbreaker]

• Lack of pushing younger stars and messing up perfect opportunities. Like mentioned WWE has a horrible habit of pushing someone who has a lot of potential then competely messing it up by an awful conclusion to an angle then having that person in midcard hell. Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, even Punk at times, Kofi Kingston.
• Pretty much the same as I said above but messing up massive angles that started off exciting and gave WWE attention for a good reason. The poster child of this is CM Punk in 2011 why in god's name did it end with TRIPLE H VS. KEVIN NASH OF ALL THINGS? Recently Daniel Bryan which is now about the damn Big Show and of course the Nexus angle. This is more awful because I am too scared to get excited about angles anymore.
• Ignoring/trying to force the fan's reactions. When a certain superstar/diva is over with the crowd either if they are heel or face and WWE does not like it because the fans aren't responding to someone they like such as Alberto Del Rio, Curtis Axel and a lot of divas over the years. Then usually WWE responds by squashing the person the fan likes.
• Lack of characters. Every damn heel has to be SERIOUS and AGGRESSIVE meanwhile every face is boring, bland and smiling. And if someone is actually given a pretty cool character eventually they lose it.
• Inane booking. For example having someone win on a pay-per-view and on the next night they have to lose. Making a champion/Money In The Bank winner lose a lot which makes them look weak. Having the world titles change every month. No real stories for other divisions besides "You has belt. I want it."
• Relying way too much on John Cena. Yeah he's the top star of the company we get it but he gets injured a lot and is getting older. One day he's gonna retire and who will help the WWE with the lack of top stars? Or what if he ended up having a career ending injury one day?

[Deleted]

Nov 12, 2013 21:53:22 GMT -5 Boo! said:

I'd cut down on in-ring promos. They take far too long and get nowhere. How can an angle be furthered by having someone dueling wth a a 'WHAT?' chant all the time. Cut the crowd out, do backstage interviews/promos and save the ring for the action. I find it amazing how in this day and age of short attention spans people still take an entire eight minute segment of a show to cut promo with about 20 seconds of content.

This just sounds like giving up to me. WWE constantly fights against what chants because they generally don't create scenarios that necessitate much more attention from audiences than that.

WWE's biggest problems stem from imbalanced storytelling. They pretty much punish midcarders for not generating heat when they are rarely put in situations where that's even really possible. It seems ironic to me that with this current age of WWE being booked predominately by Hollywood writers that we aren't treated with more complete storylines that have a beginning, middle and end. I'm not slamming the concept of Hollywood writers booking wrestling shows, it just really shocks me that it hasn't been more conducive the story telling aspect of things in WWE.

The midcard is so hollow, yeah the Usos are awesome but all they are is an energetic tag team that chant their name along with fans. Santino walks funny and attacks people with a sock puppet. R-Truth is the guy who raps his entrance. Curtis Axel is Mr. Perfect's son. All WWE really needs are to take certain personalities, mix them up with characters that play in contrast to them and conjure up fun and exciting ways for them to interact with them. Even if they were doing a poor job of it I'd call it an honorable failure but they don't even try.

Michael McGillicuty isn't working? Let's arbitrarily change his name. That's not working? Let's give him Paul Heyman. Still nothing? Give him the Intercontinental Championship. How the hell isn't he over yet? A lot of people made their mind up on Curtis Axel, but all of their booking is based on factors outside of his talent, he never got to speak for himself, his matches were never about him, of course he's not gonna get over.

WWE has this big thing about how everyone has to look like a star but they book everyone to look inconsequential and not as good as the main event. The amount of times the announcers call a match with guys like R-Truth, Miz, Ryder, Kofi, and the like and consider the mere prospect of these guys winning a match an "upset". The amount of times we're reminded of the concept of an upset victory, WWE often goes out of their way to tell us what a damn miracle it would be for a midcarder to win a match. Maybe it's always been this way, but even though there's no chance in hell Isaac Yankem DDS is beating World Champion Bret Hart, doesn't mean the announcers would completely shit over that possibility while the match is happening, or that they would book the match to be so one sided it only serves to hurt Isaac Yankem and really gain nothing for Bret.

I really hope there's a time where WWE (or TNA for that matter) get over the idea that there has to be a "face" of the company and not just let the WWE as a whole be the event. If there was any time for WWE to rest on its laurels it was the Attitude era, but shows were vibrant, full of life and varied enough to keep interesting. People look back and can say the storylines were juvenile and sometimes offensive, but at least the company had an identity, a direction, and were never complacent with success. WWE are making money now obviously, but I just can't fathom the powers that be can objectively say their shows are bringing it each week, and if they are aware of that they would be asinine to think that's the talent's failure.

To summarize it all comes down to TELLING STORIES. Good ones, awful ones just attempt telling them instead of hours of impromptu tag matches and lazy non-title matches. Watching WWE is like watching an unprepared guitar player. He might have a few rehearsed licks that really blow people away, but throughout most of his set he's stumbling through notes and constantly starting songs all over again thinking he'll nail it eventually.

[Deleted]

Pretty much everyone in the mid-card can have a good match with each other but they need more mid-card angles and storylines other than "you've got the IC title, I'm coming for it!" The E is really lazy right now and if there were another company with national TV that had an iota of a clue as to what they were doing things could get interesting.

I use this analogy often in regards to the WWE but Vince McMahon is wrestling's Alexander the Great, once you've conquered the known world what is left for you to do? If Alexander is any indicator you leave your chosen people to govern the places that you conquered and once you die everything that you fought for falls apart.

[Deleted]

Their biggest problems? thats a hell of a long list.

But right at the top is their absoloute refusal and just plain stubborn attitudes towards who THE FANS want to see , they are so stuck with this holding pattern and mindset that yea we hear the cheers for Bryan , Ziggler , Punk ...but guess what it isn't what WE the WWE want...so heres more Big Show , heres more Khali , heres more Axel even going as far is rumors are true to try to find whatever reason to blame low buyrates on these guys just to have a reason to shove them back to the midcard and go well we tried oh well.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Creative in general

They have good ideas but then drop the ball in silly ways or, get carried away and decide to overcomplicated what should be simple storylines by adding stupid swerves (Nash texted himself) or hint at other motives (the bigger picture) without thinking things through and thus turning the storyline into a mess.

[Boo!]

Nov 12, 2013 22:47:38 GMT -5 @nichotine said:

Nov 12, 2013 21:53:22 GMT -5 Boo! said:

I'd cut down on in-ring promos. They take far too long and get nowhere. How can an angle be furthered by having someone dueling wth a a 'WHAT?' chant all the time. Cut the crowd out, do backstage interviews/promos and save the ring for the action. I find it amazing how in this day and age of short attention spans people still take an entire eight minute segment of a show to cut promo with about 20 seconds of content.

This just sounds like giving up to me.

It's not giving up. The point of a promo isn't to 'beat' the audience, it's to get a message across. You can tell someone you want to beat him at the PPV without in far less time than the whole in-ring promo rigmarole takes. The whole thing just takes too long. You've often been there 3 or 4 minutes and nothing has happened other than someone's come down, got in the ring and is holding a microphone.

Why do that when you can put a guy in a room, tell him to stare down the barrel of a camera and sell something which he will (or should be)able to do.

Promos aren't promos anymore. They're segments. Jake Roberts never needed 11 minutes in the ring to sell you a match. With so much competing for the attention span of youth today its unfathomable that you allow "I want to beat you" to run longer than any match on the card that night.

[Deleted]

Nov 12, 2013 23:15:30 GMT -5 Boo! said:

Nov 12, 2013 22:47:38 GMT -5 @nichotine said:

This just sounds like giving up to me.

It's not giving up. The point of a promo isn't to 'beat' the audience, it's to get a message across. You can tell someone you want to beat him at the PPV without in far less time than the whole in-ring promo rigmarole takes. The whole thing just takes too long. You've often been there 3 or 4 minutes and nothing has happened other than someone's come down, got in the ring and is holding a microphone.

Why do that when you can put a guy in a room, tell him to stare down the barrel of a camera and sell something which he will (or should be)able to do.

Promos aren't promos anymore. They're segments. Jake Roberts never needed 11 minutes in the ring to sell you a match. With so much competing for the attention span of youth today its unfathomable that you allow "I want to beat you" to run longer than any match on the card that night.

Okay I follow you now. I agree although I still think there are exceptions, sometimes I like a good meaty in-ring promo, Mick Foley is the king of this and though not everyone is Mick Foley, I think it's worth a shot sometimes, but only if the story is right. Like Triple H's diatribe about how if the fans want a villain he'll be a villain, that was great. But yeah the week by week "Triple H has another decree" gets redundant fast and they hardly ever really use this device as anything but filler.

[Deleted]

Another thing that amazes me is that back in the day all of the top guys i.e. Hogan, Macho, Jake the Snake etc. would get about a 2 or 3 minute promo and get their point across and get everything over without having to do a rambling 10 minute promo that hardly says anything.