WWE (Wrestling) - Wwe Creative Team Is Doing Crap

the_game_HHH_dx_nWo · 12-31-2006, 03:23 PM

Im a vetran wwe fan but so pissed out how bad the creative team is doing vince fired paul heyman because december to dismember was an utter disgrace to wwe pay per views but it was vinces fault. when vince first started they hated him for poaching other companys talent they need to go back to that. Steve borden aka sting wants an undertaker kind of contract give it to him. Plus bring back old ecw extremists and belts plus instead of raw smackdown and ecw make the brands wwe ecw and wcw

the_game_HHH_dx_nWo · 12-31-2006, 04:10 PM

oh damn

jalapeno_wildchild · 01-01-2007, 09:39 AM

i must admit that SD isn't as fun to watch anymore. some of the storylines they've chosen to do, i have absolutely no clue why they did them, but i do like seeing the Undertaker and Kane on the same show.

abw92 · 01-01-2007, 01:24 PM

I agree that the shows, especially SD, aren't that great. There are one or two episodes a month that are worth watching if we're lucky.

**-Bianca-** · 01-01-2007, 04:48 PM

To defend SD a little, that show almost always has the best quality wrestling, overall, week in and week out on free TV.

I definitely agree that the storylines are awful though (Boogeyman? Eddie Madness? Vickie/Chavo suck?

). They just have no clue over there in that department and haven't since like... '02.

UnsilentMajorty · 01-01-2007, 05:46 PM

Storylines and the quality of the product (all brands; ECW/RAW/SD) does not matter.

It does not matter.

As long as WWE is selling merchandise (DVDs; PPVs; Weekly TV Shows; House shows;WWE 24/7 subscriptions; etc.) and making money it doesn't matter if the quality is bad.

As much as some of you might not want to admit, WWE is getting bigger and better and showing no signs of weakening. For instance, ratings for SD, and the other brands is growing each week; More and more people are attending house shows (up 45% from last year (2005) on average). These are just some of the major indicators WWE is gaining momentum and not in decline... And it is these things which WWE cares about more than anything else. Until these indicators start to drop Vince and Linda (CEO) don't care what they are producing as long as they are producing something that is generating revenues.

This all sounds counter-intuitive, but let's analyze why it holds true from a strictly business stand point:

The main thing older wrestling fans have to remember is professional wrestling is targeted at 8-14-year old boys and girls. This is who make up its primary audience NOT because they actually watch, but because it is this age group that buys the merchandise -- or gets their parents to buy -- And like I said above, this is what fuels WWE. It has nothing to do with the quality of the story lines, or even if the actual wrestling is any good, or not.

For example, let's look at the new ECW.

The new ECW is for a "new breed", a.k.a. those 8-14-year old boys and girls who see ECW as "rebellious" and "dangerous" in comparison to RAW and SD which is marketed to them as "standard" and conventional wrestling -- And it is just by the presentation alone; slick logo vs. barbed wire; straight laced wrestlers vs. Shannon Moore with his mohawk; etc.

The only reason you have Sabu, Tommy Dreamer and even (then) Paul Heyman, is for the older fans who grew up with the original ECW back in the 1990s in an attempt to get them to watch while their kids are watching. The same thing is true for Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and others. These are for the wrestling fans who are now parents (30s and 40s) who have kids who watch wrestling. And it is the kids who want the video games, the t-shirts, the action figures, etc. -- The merchandise -- Who the real target is. This has nothing to do with the story lines or the quality of the story lines.

So, as older wrestling fans you may hate what WWE creative is doing... And I agree the overall product is pretty bad save for a few matches, PPVs and gimmicks... But we don't really matter in the grand scheme of things because we aren't the primary audience they are appealing or marketing to.

**-Bianca-** · 01-01-2007, 09:57 PM

If by straight laced wrestlers you mean CM Punk, Punk is straight edge and they didn't create his image for a marketing thing; it's who he legitly is and who he always has been, even during his days as an indy king.

The mainstream product right now isn't the best it's ever been and it definitely has major areas lacking (which is why I buy ROH DVDs to supplement my Raw/SD viewing and, after last week, took Impact entirely off the TiVo again), but it's not the worst. Find tapes of the WWE in '95 (edit: an example). Or try to watch WrestleMania IV. That stuff is easily worse overall (IMO) than what's going on now, at least as far as wrestling quality goes.

I think some, through no fault of their own, don't fully realize how special and unique the Attitude Era really was. There was never anything of that all around quality before it and there is a darn good chance there won't be anything of that all around quality now after it in the WWE. Mainstream wrestling, in "normal" time frames, is going to have a lot of wrestlecrap and it's going to have bad matches mixed. There's going to be lots of product ups and downs and it's not going to drag everyone in. It's unfortunate, but it is what it always has been.

UnsilentMajorty · 01-02-2007, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Bianca- (View Post)

If by straight laced wrestlers you mean CM Punk, Punk is straight edge and they didn't create his image for a marketing thing; it's who he legitly is and who he always has been, even during his days as an indy king.

No. What I mean is they try and market the new ECW to the kids by directly contrasting it to RAW and SD's "straight laced" wrestlers (Christ Masters; Randy Orton; HHH; etc.) compared to those who look like Shannon Moore; Ariel and Kevin Thorn; etc. They market ECW as being the "rebellious" part of wrestling and this works when they purposefully put ECW side-by-side with conventional brands like SD and RAW.

Quote:

The mainstream product right now isn't the best it's ever been and it definitely has major areas lacking (which is why I buy ROH DVDs to supplement my Raw/SD viewing and, after last week, took Impact entirely off the TiVo again), but it's not the worst. Find tapes of the WWE in '95 (edit: an example). Or try to watch WrestleMania IV. That stuff is easily worse overall (IMO) than what's going on now, at least as far as wrestling quality goes.

IMO, from a strictly business perspective, the main problem with mainstream wrestling right now is it is homogeneous product that is driven more by marketing and merchandising than wrestling. The wrestling business is a packaged goods industry (selling products) and this industry has always been traditionally driven more by marketing than producing good products (because good marketing can sell an icebox to an Eskimo as an example).

This is why Vince and WWE are masters at what they do even if "smarks" (smart wrestling fans who are usually much older than the target audience of kids) like us hate to admit it.

WWE is a completely marketing-driven corporation. Marketing = an image and WWE is the master of this one particular aspect which has allowed them to be number one for decades.

(As an aside, this is also what has kept TNA and smaller promotions from gaining more momentum in the past as well; this is changing, but I digress...)

For example, this is why we see commercials for "See No Evil" and "The Marine" every other commercial break on the major shows (SD; RAW; ECW). This is why if they want people to root for John Cena in a match versus HHH and both are faces... Fans will root for Cena more because WWE marketing has told them (via WWE.com and other tactics) to. This is why they edit the pops you see on TV to be bigger or more subdued and the only real way you can tell how the crowd really reacted was to be in the arena the night of the taping. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

I bring this up is because they are marketing their image to impressionable customers... Kids... And not us older smarks who can see through it, and this is why it doesn't matter if the story lines are any good, or if the product (wrestling) itself is any good... Because marketing will tell the kids how they are supposed to react. It is the perfect place WWE wants to be and they have managed to maintain this position very well over the years.

However, it is changing and WWE is not perfect. We've seen some of their mistakes both in the past like Bianca states, and more recently, I.E. John Cena is not well liked by the majority of fans regardless of how much marketing they use to try and put him over; They didn't capitalize on the heat he generated at ECW's "One Night Stand II" when he went up against RVD ("If Cena Wins, We Riot!"); DX being brought back after 10 years (it works, but this is because they don't have huge anti-DX fans like Cena does; if it were reversed DX would have been disbanded after a few months ago because it's a rehash); etc.

Quote:

I think some, through no fault of their own, don't fully realize how special and unique the Attitude Era really was. There was never anything of that all around quality before it and there is a darn good chance there won't be anything of that all around quality now after it in the WWE.

There were a lot of factors that contributed to this era that came from outside of wrestling as well. America was not at war. The economy was a lot better for a lot more people which meant more disposable income to spend on things like wrestling (PPVs; house shows). There was a generally good feeling in the country that also allowed people of all ages to indulge in "guilty pleasures" like professional wrestling which also meant it wasn't "just for kids" anymore which is exactly why a lot of the story lines became more mature and filled with more flesh (nudity) and sexuality as well.

Now, if we talk strictly about the wrestling industry itself... The main reason the 1990s was a boom period was because there was more than one dominate federation and real competition among the various promotions which forced them to try and be better than each other which lead to some of the great gimmicks like DX and the NWO; Stone Cold/Goldberg; etc.

The good news, IMO, is TNA is becoming the NWA again and rising to a level where they can compete globally with WWE. Remember, TNA started out on FOX Sports with NASCAR results scrolling across the bottom of the screen... To now having a prime time show on Spike! TV Thursday nights. They have done what everyone thought was impossible now that Vince "owns" the industry. I predict we may see another attitude era for this generation and it may be just as fun and over-the-top as the one in the 1990s...

IF both TNA and WWE don't screw it up. What I mean by this is if Vince wants to shut down TNA and buy it like he did WCW... Then don't just buy it and put all the stars on RAW, SD and ECW. Let TNA be TNA (even if owned by WWE) just like the original ECW was ECW even though Vince bankrolled it for a long time because he liked what he saw and knew they couldn't be a threat if he was funding them. A lot of other industries operate this way because it breeds competition by default and makes more money in the long run for everyone involved. This will be Vince's second chance (if it comes down to this) to do it right and what he should have done in 2000, when he bought WCW (to save it from Time Warner killing it) and we as fans would have benefited most of all from all of these business machinations.