cm funk

I don't think the hottest product with the best booking and the best talent in the world could sustain the amount of tv they have. They can't even keep a live RAW crowd hot for 3 hours. The only crowds that stay actively engaged are the ones that are rebelling against the product. The Attitude era burned out in 2 years or so, and that was with way less tv, less PPVs, and everything having a "must see" feel to it. 3 hour RAWs are a chore for me to watch and I've been skipping a lot of them over the last few months and checking out segments after the fact. RAW used to be appointment tv for me, but watching the WWE product for 3 hours, where they struggle to fill the time and bore their crowds to sleep, is tough. I started watching RAW last night and it was so bad and boring that I quit about halfway. The crowd actively booing the Bellas and not giving a shit about Eve was hilarious, but not in a good way. Apparently I need to check out the main event segment as it sounds like the crowd was quite vocal in their distaste for the current booking and treatment of Daniel Bryan. I haven't sat down to watch SD on a Friday night in years. Pretty much since they threw in the towel on the brand split there's no reason to watch SD, as it's just RAW lite now. Sure, you get some good matches on the show, but there's nothing must see about it at all, and it was already at a disadvantage not being live. I never watch Main Event, just check out random matches online if they sound good or get pimped as good. And I consider myself a bigger WWE fan than a lot of people on this board. I think there's a lot to like about WWE production and presentation, its top notch. They have a great talent roster right now and you routinely see good-great matches on tv. But there are so many things wrong with their writing and booking and the general inertia of the company right now. With all the hours of tv they do, even if they fixed the problems in the creative, made longterm goals and stuck with them, and pushed the people the crowd wants to see.....there's like no way they can sustain all these hours of first run tv. I have my own ideas about things they could do to improve the actual product and slow down their booking and make things more logical, but I don't know if it would even matter. Their tv product and audience just is what it is at this point.

I actually think they've been heavy handed with it. It hasn't felt organic at all to me. They think they're doing a Batista face turn with Reigns, which actually was organic, but this is not that. It's just so blatant and obvious that they want to push this face turn with him, by their own choice. Fans weren't clamoring to see Roman Reigns: Diesel pt. 2. I thought the Survivor Series "monster moment" with him came off so forced. Maybe that's just me, but I'm not feeling it. If anything, this stuff is making Ambrose look like gold and exposing Reigns as a guy who's not quite ready for this push

Angle is one of the toughest, most focused athletes ever. I totally get why he was so respected by his peers. Was the gold medal part of it? Sure, but he came in and backed it up with an intense drive to be the best. When so many people who've spent years in the sport put him over the way they do it's hard to argue with. I don't think he gets fluffed for the wrong reasons. How many stories do you still hear about how tough Meng is? Or how legendary of a drinker Andre was? It's the same with Angle. He's "legit" with his peers for being a badass, a guy who will wrestle through injury, concussions, drug abuse....the whole deal. None of which means he needed to be rushed into the HOF when he was, and I don't think history has been kind to his in-ring style for a number of reasons, but I can at least understand why he gets so much respect

It seems clear to me, more than usual, that they're flying by the seat of their pants and have no idea what the long range goal is. It seems to me that they had a clear idea and direction when they started the whole "authority" angle, but the whims of whoever (likely Vince) seem to change on a weekly basis. They start things and then drop them, get halfway to something and totally change direction.....it's been very schizo and chaotic creatively. You get stuff like the Dolph/AJ/Big E angle totally fizzling out, Big E basically taken off tv, then brought back with a big babyface push. Which is actually something that is working out....but they basically just dropped an entire angle and hit the reset button because they had no idea where to go with it. They have an idea that Big E is a blue chip prospect, they know that AJ is a star, and they are petty and vindictive when it comes to Dolph missing so much time with the concussion in the middle of a big angle and not filtering himself on social media and interviews, basically. John Cena coming back early seemed to throw them for a loop completely, because throwing the WHC belt on him, burying Del Rio in the process, and rushing a title vs. title match is pretty much the booking of insane people. They've gone into crazy Cena overkill lately and it's sad that they don't seem to have confidence in other performers and the product in general. It can't help that there's been so much backstage upheaval going on. Their head writer quitting unexpectedly, Michael Hayes being suspended or whatever, the recent cleaning house of top level execs.....it seems like things are very chaotic from the top down, and it's reflected in the product. Total Divas and the network launch seem to be contributing to that chaos as well. I also think it's telling that we've known for a long time that they want to end up with Vince vs. HHH/Steph in some form at WM, but they regularly move their own goalposts. In the story they originally plotted Vince would have been back on tv weeks ago and would have been (presumably, since it was logical and all signs were pointing to it) Big Show's secret benefactor. I think when they started this whole deal they had specific big picture ideas which haven't necessarily changed, they just screw up so many little things and it snowballs out of control. They've basically killed their PPV business off the last few months, whoever was in charge of booking so many screwy finishes and booking the shittiest Survivor card in forever needs to be fired. I try to look for the positives with WWE, but they've exhausted my patience lately. Is it possible that Vince has hit senility and is rapidly losing his grip on things? And nobody has the balls and/or is able to tell him no? I think that's as good a bet as any. We all know the stories about his work ethic and his personality, his mood swings, his disposition....the lack of sleep. I've got a bad feeling with him. The guy is almost 70, I think Linda's senate run took a huge toll on him, and if you believe the reports the guy has nowhere near the stamina he used to. Meltzer has reported several times from sources that Vince pushes himself to the limit on Mondays and then essentially crashes from exhaustion for a few days. And I think the odds of him stepping back are slim to none. And HHH isn't stupid, neither is Steph, they have to recognize that Vince's best days are behind him, but he's the boss, and who's got the balls to say that to his face? Vince is not going to hear that, he's way too stubborn.

Ah, that makes sense

I don't think it would have worked because the WCW crowd wasn't going to boo Randy off the bat. He was too well liked and respected as a performer. The same people that were hardcore NWA/WCW fans that hated Hogan being on top in their company were the same fans that would cheer a Randy Savage over him. Everyone loved Savage. Put Flair/Savage together against Hogan and the crowd would turn against Hogan even more. Hogan, to his credit politically, recognized that and that's why he brought Savage in as "a Hogan buddy" and immediately stuck him with Sting underneath him on the face tier. Those two were the biggest threats to his "#1 babyface" status. And Flair was always going to be more popular with that audience than Hogan. Flair against a beloved babyface....sure, those fans would hate Flair in that moment, but Hogan was far from beloved. It's no surprise that when they pushed Savage-Flair as the top program and put Hogan in the background a bit their business picked up, and really picked up when they finally turned Hogan heel.

Meltzer and Austin was a trip. I really hope they do a pt. 2, and 3, and 4 and on and on. Very entertaining. Austin loves wrestling history, and who better to talk to about that than Dave? I guess they taped the show in Vegas the weekend of the last UFC show? Or somewhere in Cali? Austin did his cold open "from the BSR ranch" but the interview was taped and at points he was describing things physically and made a comment like, "you have to be sitting right in front of me like Dave here is" The Pillman talk was very cool, and sad. Insightful that Dave thought Pillman "went crazy" at some point around 94ish, and Austin admitting to really not being close friends with him as much as people think. The Montreal talk was interesting too. Loved Austin ribbing him a bit for giving the scaffold match he was in -***.5

they don't know how to be subtle, and when they stumble upon something organic they typically go overboard and run it into the ground WWE head of creative: Stephanie McMahon says it all really

The Usos have been one of my favorite acts this year. Last night wasn't their best performance, and they did seem a little over hyped up/reckless at points. But I didn't think anyone looked particularly great in that match. Everyone involved, sans Rey, has had much better performances on TV and PPV this year. That match just didn't live up to it's potential. I think if you see more of the Usos you'd become a fan. They've been part of some really fun tags and 6 mans.

It's Seth Rollins, not Rowens, lol. I believe he took the surname in honor of Henry Rollins. I think Seth is a punk rock reference too, but the name is escaping me Rollins and Harper were both long time indy guys. Rollins was known as Tyler Black, Harper was Brodie Lee. They both worked all over for years. Reigns is pretty much a total WWE product. He was a well regarded college football player who had cups of coffee in the NFL and CFL. He's part of the Samoan family tree. His father was Sika. Rosey (3MW, S.H.I.T.) is his older brother. The Usos are actually Reigns' nephews, believe it or not. They're Rikishi's sons.

Did they ever do a big Batista v. Orton match on PPV? They probably did, but I can't recall it. That would have been a natural major feud for them, and that I've followed WWE the entire time both were at their peaks and can't remember tells me they dropped the ball on that I thought Cena/Batista being held off as long as it was and done at SummerSlam as a face vs. face match was well done, and it was cool that they had Batista win. When the did the actual program when Batista was on his way out and at his peak as a performer is led to a really cool dynamic, because Batista's character was just awesome at that point. Cena and Orton had good runs against each other. I really enjoyed it. It's just that.....it's been done. It's 2013 and you did it 2007 and 2009....you can't go to that same well again

I don't think Orton is an anti-draw, if anything he's just neutral, status quo. They've pushed him as champ enough times that they should realize this. He works best as a guy who hovers around near the top of the card, but isn't the main focus. He's perma over, but the audience doesn't want to see him as the focus. He works best as that near the top established guy who puts people over and elevates them by working with him, that's the best role for him, and he doesn't seem to have any problem doing jobs or showing ass. And he's more over when he's in that role. He's been pushed in main event roles longer than Cena, not as constantly, but basically for over 9 years now in and out of the main event. I don't know how much stock I put into them thinking Daniel Bryan is to blame for buyrates/ratings over the last few months, but it's crazy, because seeing them panic in the fall year after year is like groundhog day. Sept-Oct the ratings always drop because of MNF, teenagers/college kids in school....the same reasons every year, and they always panic. I think it's pretty telling that both the Punk and Bryan initial ME pushes were derailed by over focus on HHH and bad creative....and the blame gets put on the guys who are the most over with the crowds and not where it belongs. Cena-Orton is just tired at this point. Been done too much already, and both guys are better when they work with fresh opponents.

I found the opener disappointing, but I had really high expectations for it. It was perfectly fine work wise, but it wasn't next level, and I didn't think the booking was all that great. Seen much better tv matches from different variations of this group. The 12 man on RAW just last week for example. Usos looked really good, Rollins looked really good. The Reigns push came off a little forced to me and he didn't really have any "holy shit!" moments in the match to me. He's looked better before. I thought the Diva tag was perfectly fine, when it could have been a mess. It was laid out in a way where every girl got to do something, it was bang-bang-bang most of the way, and nothing was screwed up, and nobody's weaknesses exposed. The crowd chanting for Jo Jo and popping when she got a near fall on Tamina was kind of awesome. I was watching New England-Denver back and forth with the show, and I totally tuned out on Cena-Del Rio, missed almost all of it. I'm sure it was perfectly fine, I just have no interest in seeing them wrestle. They've killed Del Rio. Big E-Axel was fine for what it was. Axel worked really hard, Big E is over and works really hard too, so it worked for me. I feel bad for Axel. I like him, and I don't know why he doesn't connect with crowds. He works really well as a no-nonsense asskicker/technical wrestler, and he doesn't have a bad look. Maybe a guy like him just can't get over in the WWE environment. I feel like he'd be huge in New Japan. I find him way better and more interesting in ring than Karl Anderson, for example. Cool seeing Mark Henry back. Match wasn't anything special. Henry is much leaner, and It's going to take me a while to get used to him bald. Loved him using headbutts and the JYD spot. Punk/Bryan vs. The Wyatts was the best match on the show IMO, but that isn't saying much. I'd probably go *** on it. Harper looked really good and Rowan is perfectly fine carrying his end of things. There's the argument that the Wyatts needed the win, but I think it was more important for Bryan/Punk to win, and the feud will continue. The Wyatts will get a win over them eventually, probably at TLC, and it will mean more. The main event was very not good, and the crowd couldn't give two shits about it. "BORING" chants, multiple "DANIEL BRYAN" chants.....you could see all that coming though. I've wanted to see the titles unified for years now....but I don't get excited about seeing Cena vs. Orton for the hundredth time Overall a very forgettable show

I just say Backlash out of habit. It's still the show that carries over from WM will all the rematches and such

Not anymore, no I think Elimination Chamber is probably #4 now, with Backlash #5. They put so much more effort into that Rumble-Backlash "WM season". They've had Brock wrestle on the Backlash show the last 2 years, though maybe it's just part of his deal that he doesn't work during hunting season I'd actually argue that MITB has become more important than Survivor to them as well The one thing I'd say for Survivor is they put it in major cities. Boston this year, MSG 2 years ago, Miami in 2010, DC in 09 etc. I'm not even sure how important that is, but it's something. The card this year is terrible, and I'm not sensing any buzz beyond people talking about how terrible it is. Not a single match on the show that I'd pay to see.

No way RAW and/or SD would air in full on the network, but if they're smart they'd incorporate them into the programming. Pre-game show, post-game show, a "this week in the WWE" type highlight show etc. I don't know what they have planned, but there's some awesome possibilities. Not just for entertainment value, but to maximize the potential of the whole deal

Personally, I'd be more inclined to subscribe to it if it was an a la carte digital service. Cable TV is a dinosaur. Everything is on demand now. The cable companies are fighting tooth and nail against a la carte for obvious reasons, but still, they see the future, and are slowly relenting to it. I'm not a big tv watcher or cable tv guy anyway, I don't want 500 channels to deal with to find what I want to see. I'd pay to watch a WWE channel, but I wouldn't pay the 10-15 dollar fee ON TOP of whatever the cable provider charges

Classy. This is the same guy who supposedly begged his "good buddy" Chuck Liddell to retire because he was so punch drunk, yet still let him fight when it was clear Liddell's chin was gone and his brain was damaged and he had no business fighting anymore And he wants to try and guilt GSP into fighting when everyone around GSP is coming out now with stories about how GSP is close to bad news status brain wise, if not already? You stay classy, Dana White

EPIX was basically another movie/stuff channel though, right? In line with HBO and Showtime. Those networks are deeply embedded, so I can get the "we don't need another one of those" vibe from the cable companies WWE Network would be a niche network catering to a small demo. It's apples to oranges.

Would be an interesting tactic. The way it was talked up in the past they'd have most PPVs on the network on a delay (a week or two later) while still airing first run on PPV. In theory best of both worlds, because there's that hardcore base that has to see the shows live, but people who otherwise skip shows or pirate might be more compelled to pay for the network. And WM, SummerSlam and maybe Rumble would be PPV exclusive and not air on the network til long after the fact. If they did put WM on the network....would it air live and compete with the live PPV? Or would it be on a week or two delay? I'd guess delay

He's been dead for 8 years and was talked about/debated extensively after he died. The vast majority agree that he was great and there's a pretty strong consensus on the different phases of his career.....so there hasn't been a need for further debate or revisionism like with say Kurt Angle. I don't think of him as "glossed over" at all

An increase in royalties for footage that appears on the network might offset that for a few guys (and help out some old guys), but yeah, it sounds like active wrestlers will lose out here

Everyone has a downside guarantee (ranging from as low as $40,000 up to around a million for top guys are the numbers I've seen). A percentage of the house and a percentage of PPV money is set aside for talent. Then from that percentage it's divided up amongst talent based on card placement/estimated value as a draw, etc. Meltzer talked about this recently related to the corporate shakeups. Jane Geddes had been doing payoffs and learned the system from Jim Ross. He said less guys were happy with Ace's payoff system because he used a stricter formula (and obviously with creative whims a strict formula may not be equitable). With Geddes bumped up and someone new taking over talent is worried about how it will affect payoffs. It really is kind of a crazy system to still have in a publically traded corporate environment/era because it's very imprecise, open to the interpretation of the payoff guy, and could be seen as unfair in many cases. I know it's the way payoffs have always been done: champ gets a certain % guaranteed, challenger a certain %, all the way down to guys at the bottom who'd get what's left over in the NWA and territory days.....but it seems antiquated, along with the independent contractor status, lack of health insurance etc.

I thought the gun control rant would never end, but most of the show was enjoyable. Good mix of wrestling talk/politics/bs/etc

One of the best stories was Punk talking about the Be A Star campaign and how it's very important to him because of being an outsider who was bullied, and someone asked how he was bullied/what names he was called and he was like, "they called me a faggot" and the WWE handlers were like, "woah woah woah you CANNOT say that" and Punk is like, "why? that's what they called me"