How out of ideas can the WWE get?

Cafe Society
1

Well, I tuned in to see the tail end of Raw tonight, and what do I see?

I see Mick Foley, several years past his heyday of great hardcore matches (like the unforgettable Hell In A Cell match with the Undertaker about 6 years ago). I see Ric Flair, who’s gotta be almost 100 by now, looking way out of shape. I see two guys who would have been ham-and-eggers in the 1980s. And I see the Rock, with his usual schtick, sporting a goatee and a huge ass tattoo on his arm that he didn’t have when this stuff got old a few years ago.

And now, to really top things off, we have…

The Rock and Sock Connection, teaming back up after what seems like 20 years.

:rolleyes:

I guess what’s old is new again, but geez, guys, you burned this schtick out years ago, and now you think it’s fresh again? Unbelievable.

What’s worse, it’s predictable. I could tell what was coming long before it was announced, and I haven’t seen any wrestling, even in passing, in at least months, maybe even a year.

If this is the quality of WWE script writing anymore, they are in deep, deep trouble. Bring back Iron Mike Sharpe and Lord Alfred Hayes. If it has to be predictable, at least give me wooden announcers and charismatic ham-and-eggers. I want Barry Horowitz and Reno Riggins to face JYD and Koko B. Ware in the main event of Superstars. It couldn’t be any worse than what they have now. Or Strike Force vs. Demolition on Wrestling Challenge. That would be fun. Cornball Robbie Dupree music and a wannabe hardcore entry song.

As you can see, I’m an old school wrestling fan. And I say, if I must watch cheese, at least make it cheesy. :slight_smile:

2

Well,

At least they haven’t dredged up Steve “Brooklyn Brawler” Lombardi and Bob Backlund…yet. :slight_smile: Not to mention Moolah & Mae Young.

3

Wierd. I happened to catch the end of it tonight for the first time in months too.

I was really surprised to see how flabby Triple H looked. He must’ve stopped juicin’.
And who were those tools out there with the Nature Boy?

4

I watched a bit of RAW tonight while eating dinner and it was okay. It wasn’t as bad as it was when I quit watching months ago but it’s nothing great either. At least they’re doing interesting things on SD!, from what I can tell. Eddie Guerrero feuding with Kurt Angle over the WWE Championship could easily surpass Flair/Steamboat if given the chance.

I’d still prefer the glory days of JCP/WCW though. WWF/E has never been as interesting to me as the mid 80s JCP or early 90s WCW.

5

And when did Shawn Michaels start wrestling again?

6

Summerslam 2002.

7

Wow, I guess it has been a while since I watched!

8

Tell me about it. I haven’t really watched since DX broke up.

Apparently I haven’t missed a thing.

9

Yeah, Michaels has been back for a while now. Hubby still TiVos it and I still groan. The only reason I watch is because Foley’s back and on the mic.

HHH has gotten lazy., and I don’t balme him. He’s proved himself and now he’s married to Steph and doesn’t have to work anymore…that’s why he’s flabby…he’s heir to the McMahon empire…for now, anyway. (btw, they got married the exact same day we did last year).

10

They would be Randy Orton (son of Bob Orton Jr., grandson of Bob Orton Sr.), who’s actually somewhat talented and can be hilarious occasionally. The other guy is Batista, who can throw a clothesline and has a sloppy powerbomb and a nicely trimmed goatee, and little else.

Unless, of course, what you were seeing was Ric Flair’s old-man-breasts.
Basically what you’re seeing is Triple H turning Raw into a vehicle for his own deification- basically like Hogan did with WCW. Ratings are down to the point where things should start to change pretty soon, and the “let’s pull a WCW and do things we or a different promotion did eight years ago” mentality will be fixed.

Besides, Smackdown is putting on some GREAT matches these days.

11

And to think, professional wrestling used to be so subtle and intellectually stimulating, too.

12

IMHO, the WWE died the minute they admitted they have actual script writers and tried to position themselves as a “soap opera”. We all knew they did, and we all knew it was fake, but the minute they faced up to it, any magic that was created behind the curtain was gone.

The ‘stories’ got sillier and sillier, the actual matches got shorter and less important to the overall event, and the characters became forced and thin. For a while there it seemed like the WWE became an overworked machine desperately trying to pump out the next big catch phrase, throw it on a T-shirt and put it up in the merchandise stands.

The dialogue got weak, the ‘cast’ got watered down. Any time they tried to come up with anything “new” it failed horribly. What Vince McMahon has (surprisingly) not seemed to grasp in his many years in the business is that people have been watching professional wrestling for ages. And they didn’t watch because some fat guy pulled a sock out of his pants, they watched because it was wrestling. It was an event. Wrestling has a high turnover in it’s audience -always has. People may watch for a while, lose interest and come back later. It’s mainstream popularity ebbs and flows. It seems that each time it drops a bit, he panics and tries to reinvent the wheel.

How they got so badly screwed in the trademark case is beyond me as well. With all the money and lawyers that company must have (or had at one point) how they didn’t get a better settlement boggles the mind. They don’t even have rights to grandfather their name change. They have to blur-out “WWF” from all old video, which severely decreases the resale value of their catalogue (the videos are nearly unwatchable).

13

Ric Flair? Hulk Hogan isn’t still wrestling, is he?

14

Any chance they will bring back BoBo Brazil? Wrestling just isn’t the same without a good CocoButt[sup]®[/sup]!

15

I thought Steph wasn’t actually McMahon’s daughter. As I understood it, Shane McMahon really is Vince’s son, but Steph isn’t really his daughter. I thought she was just a write-in daughter.

16

Nope, they’re really family. And HHH is really married to Steph.

17

Steph’s boobs on the other hand are an entirely different story…:slight_smile:

18

I think part of the reason Raw is in a slump is because WWE is trying to develop its future stars in house, finding it’s not working because they’re all uncharismatic pretty boys, and in the meantime relying on bringing back past moneymakers to see if they can attract the crowds again. Some of the old guys just can’t cut it anymore though, and their act has gone stale.

WWE should look through the indies, that are full of guys willing to kill themselves to make it big. They may not be pretty, but they’ll be hard workers and willing to bust their butts to make it big. The crowds aren’t looking for pretty boys. They want honest guys who are willing to bleed and have suicidal tendencies.

19

Remember the days of the Monday Night Wars? WCW and WWF/E were constantly trying to outdo each other to grab those ratings, and the storylines showed that. Now that WCW no longer exists Vinnie Mac and company can throw whatever crap they want out there. Without the competition they don’t have to worry about losing their core group of fans. The fans have no where else to go so they’ll keep coming back to the same crap that worked in the past.

And yes, Ric Flair may be old but he is still a wrestling god. If you’re a Flair fan you have to get the 3 disc DVD WWE released a few months ago.

20

I feel kind of dopey asking for a cite on this, but…cite? I haven’t watched wrestling with any regularity for a while but when I catch a bit of it and they’re showing clips “WWF” seems to be prominent.