Current WWE

[sek69]

Honestly, I only DVR Raw to skip commercials. If you start watching about 30-45 after it begins, you can FF all the commercials for the whole show. Sometimes I do skip ahead if someone is doing a promo that goes on too long or there's an especially bad comedy skit, but for the most part I watch the whole show. I don't get how someone is able to assess the quality of the show if you watch less than a quarter of it. To me it's like skimming a few pages of a book and declaring it sucks. It might, but how can you know for sure?

[Strummer]

Bryan v HHH in a street fight is being advertised for the MSG house show in July. Could mean nothing but maybe they are going back in that direction

[sek69]

I figure the angle from RAW leads to Bryan coming back and telling Steph he's not surrendering the title, Hunter takes exception, and off we go.

 

Seems odd though considering the rumor mill was saying Hunter vs Roman was on the books for SummerSlam.

[Coffey]

One of the things I wish we saw WWE do was to expand more on the various different divisions. In example, I know there are different road agents assigned to different divisions. Is that also the same situation for any specific writers? I remember reading Court Bauer saying that he was working with a specific wrestler or two when he was in WWE.

 

If you have road agents & writers assigned to specific parts of the show, then each of those different segments get their section of each RAW or Pay-Per-View, you can build multiple areas of the product at the same time.

 

Have a Women's Division. Have a Tag Team Division. Have an Intercontinental Division. Have a WWE World Heavyweight Title Division.

 

Each person in each division should have specifically stated goals, be it going after a title, getting revenge, whatever. Just basic pro-wrestling. Since now all the Pay-Per-Views are on the WWE Network, this could be a nice opportunity for WWE to try something different. Outside of the non-Big 4 PPVs (Summerslam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble & Wrestlemania) WWE could use their other 8 shows to showcase a different "division."

 

Would it really be a bad thing if, for example, the main event of Extreme Rules was The Usos defending the tag titles against Rowan/Harper or whatever? It would be something different. Wade Barrett winning the IC title after winning the IC title #1 contendership tournament could have main evented a B-show PPV, no? It would make the win mean more, in my opinion.

 

If every RAW is three hours long but each agent/writer has their own block of time to their their stories, I don't think the show would drag so much. Build up the characters, build up the matches, build up the titles & sell the feuds.

 

That was one of the things about Nitro that I always liked: there was a lot of diversity in the matches. Especially when you compare like the Cruiserweights to the Goldberg stuff to the Raven stuff. In WWE, everything sort of feels the same, except for the women whom seem like a waste of time. I would like to see that change.

[Bierschwale]

Raw had its lowest rating of the year last night. I'm sure that will be tied into the stock fiasco

 

I saw a few different comment sections on various sites in which the posters were claiming that the underwhelming TV deal and subsequent stock drop was either deserved because of/directly tied to Brock beating 'Taker.

 

I'm gonna go out on a real long limb here and say that wrestling fans who would say things like that with straight faces are why there was an underwhelming TV deal and subsequent stock drop.

[DMJ]

Haha, too, too true.

 

As someone else said, there really isn't much of a link between the storylines on the show and the stock dips (and, in the same sense, the inevitable rises that occur prior to every WrestleMania season like clockwork).

 

The only connection that might be made, or at least seems reasonable to me, has way more to do with longterm booking and "star making" in that, if ratings continue to drop and hit record lows for an extended period of time, it looks bad for the company, which, over time, would likely effect the value of the stock.

 

But one single booking decision or the "People are tired of John Cena" argument is naive to the fact that there is more to the WWE product than The Streak and whether Cena should turn heel or not.

[southofheavy]

 

also @Johnny Sorrow how the fuck does an old guy watching this shit for literally decades not understand how fucking lame it is to throw Reigns and Batista out there in a shitty nothing TV match when they could potentially build that into an epic match at some point?

 

At some point could be two years from now. Reigns hasn't shown that he's capable of an epic singles match yet. He could very well be carried to one, but Batista ain't the guy that's gonna get that done. Plus, I don't think anyone gives enough of a shit about Batista to even waste time trying to build something. Throw the match out there and use it to build Reigns up now.

[dexstar]

A couple thoughts...

 

1. Reading other sites comments on the stocks and business and storylines and etc. is just sad - when you read some of these places you kinda understand why advertisers don't value wrestling fans, hahah.

 

2. I don't know if WWE can ever satisfy like some people want it to - I just don't think wrestling is really meant to be run in this manner, with a relatively static roster, 52 weeks a year, 3 hours a week (obviously not including secondary programming). They can't turn over like the old territories did, and even if they did, they still produce more TV. I really do feel kinda bad for the folks that write, because between the wildly shifting whims from up top, fickle crowds, and sheer amount of programming it has to be a challenge. It's fun to say "just do basic pro wrestling" but that's way easier to type than to produce for that amount of time with the restrictions they face.

 

3. The "is it good or bad" argument reminds me a lot of the real sports boards/blogs I frequent. There's a pretty heavy divide between people like me, who watch about 150 Detroit Tigers games a year but don't really get into second guessing and analysis, and people who get realllll into "fixing" whatever it is wrong. Same with football. I watch the teams I like because I like them, and since I have zero control over how anything happens, I just go along for the ride. That's a personal preference. I watch Raw the same way - I'm there to see where it's going and try to find what I like. There are a ton of things "wrong" but everybody has different definitions of "wrong" and I don't, personally, find it that fun to pick it apart on that level. If it sucks, I just check out for the night.

 

Overall, I think WWE gives us a really broad canvas, and you can make it work for your preferences if you want. I like to fan-fiction the gaps in storylines in my head, or get real meta tying characters to real people. Also like to drink/smoke during the shows. I do enjoy reading the criticism sometimes though because as an eternal optimist it tends to bring up new points I wouldn't think of. The Todd Martin/Scott Keith style is super grating to me though.

[sek69]

One thing that I never see get brought up too much is how many of their creative issues stem from the "we know better than you" mindset.

 

It's pretty irritating when one side of their mouth talks about how the fans have the power to make stars, while the other side kneecaps most of the guys who get themselves over. Not saying Zack Ryder was going to change the face of wrestling, but the level they went to bury the guy just to prove the fans were wrong for liking him was beyond petty to me. I mean, ffs they were so bent on doing things they way they want instead of what their audience was asking for their #2 show of the year got hijacked.

 

I'm not sure if it's their preconceived notions of what a star is, or just Vince being a size queen as usual, but it's clear we're not going to see any significant changes until that mindset is replaced.

[SomethingSavage]

A couple thoughts...

 

1. Reading other sites comments on the stocks and business and storylines and etc. is just sad - when you read some of these places you kinda understand why advertisers don't value wrestling fans, hahah.

 

2. I don't know if WWE can ever satisfy like some people want it to - I just don't think wrestling is really meant to be run in this manner, with a relatively static roster, 52 weeks a year, 3 hours a week (obviously not including secondary programming). They can't turn over like the old territories did, and even if they did, they still produce more TV. I really do feel kinda bad for the folks that write, because between the wildly shifting whims from up top, fickle crowds, and sheer amount of programming it has to be a challenge. It's fun to say "just do basic pro wrestling" but that's way easier to type than to produce for that amount of time with the restrictions they face.

 

3. The "is it good or bad" argument reminds me a lot of the real sports boards/blogs I frequent. There's a pretty heavy divide between people like me, who watch about 150 Detroit Tigers games a year but don't really get into second guessing and analysis, and people who get realllll into "fixing" whatever it is wrong. Same with football. I watch the teams I like because I like them, and since I have zero control over how anything happens, I just go along for the ride. That's a personal preference. I watch Raw the same way - I'm there to see where it's going and try to find what I like. There are a ton of things "wrong" but everybody has different definitions of "wrong" and I don't, personally, find it that fun to pick it apart on that level. If it sucks, I just check out for the night.

 

Overall, I think WWE gives us a really broad canvas, and you can make it work for your preferences if you want. I like to fan-fiction the gaps in storylines in my head, or get real meta tying characters to real people. Also like to drink/smoke during the shows. I do enjoy reading the criticism sometimes though because as an eternal optimist it tends to bring up new points I wouldn't think of. The Todd Martin/Scott Keith style is super grating to me though.

 

Just wanted to echo these sentiments. Tremendous post that sums up my thoughts on A LOT of the viewing I do nowadays.

[Sean Liska]

One thing that I never see get brought up too much is how many of their creative issues stem from the "we know better than you" mindset.

 

It's pretty irritating when one side of their mouth talks about how the fans have the power to make stars, while the other side kneecaps most of the guys who get themselves over. Not saying Zack Ryder was going to change the face of wrestling, but the level they went to bury the guy just to prove the fans were wrong for liking him was beyond petty to me. I mean, ffs they were so bent on doing things they way they want instead of what their audience was asking for their #2 show of the year got hijacked.

 

I'm not sure if it's their preconceived notions of what a star is, or just Vince being a size queen as usual, but it's clear we're not going to see any significant changes until that mindset is replaced.

 

How is the size queen stuff an issue when Bryan, Rollins, and Ambrose are 3 of the top 5 faces in the company? And the biggest push they've given to a guy out of development is years went to Bray Wyatt, a somewhat unspectacular looking overweight dude? There was a time when you could say WWE thought they knew better, but I don't see how it's a big issue right now. They're giving us Daniel Bryan and the Shield as the top two babyface acts right now, they're positioning Cesaro for big things long-term, they've given the Wyatts a big push, Zayn and Neville are the top pushed faces in NXT.

 

It took them some time to recognize how badly the crowd wanted Bryan to have his Mania moment, but when they did they booked him as strongly as you possibly could - kicking HHH, Orton, and Batista's asses on the go-home RAW, kicking out of the pedigree and beating HHH clean with the knee at Mania, thwarting HHH's interference and laying him out with his own sledgehammer, surviving a powerbomb/neckbreaker through a table and stretcher job, and making Batista tap clean in the middle of the ring. And then he went on last at Extreme Rules, above a big HHH match, and won clean. And the plan was for him to then beat Batista the next month.

[rovert]

I was going to like by default as it has Becky Lynch involved but I loved this WWE.com video. References the Beatles and the Monkees and is something that might have aired on OVW or Memphis TV:

[sek69]

 

One thing that I never see get brought up too much is how many of their creative issues stem from the "we know better than you" mindset.

 

It's pretty irritating when one side of their mouth talks about how the fans have the power to make stars, while the other side kneecaps most of the guys who get themselves over. Not saying Zack Ryder was going to change the face of wrestling, but the level they went to bury the guy just to prove the fans were wrong for liking him was beyond petty to me. I mean, ffs they were so bent on doing things they way they want instead of what their audience was asking for their #2 show of the year got hijacked.

 

I'm not sure if it's their preconceived notions of what a star is, or just Vince being a size queen as usual, but it's clear we're not going to see any significant changes until that mindset is replaced.

 

How is the size queen stuff an issue when Bryan, Rollins, and Ambrose are 3 of the top 5 faces in the company? And the biggest push they've given to a guy out of development is years went to Bray Wyatt, a somewhat unspectacular looking overweight dude? There was a time when you could say WWE thought they knew better, but I don't see how it's a big issue right now. They're giving us Daniel Bryan and the Shield as the top two babyface acts right now, they're positioning Cesaro for big things long-term, they've given the Wyatts a big push, Zayn and Neville are the top pushed faces in NXT.

 

It took them some time to recognize how badly the crowd wanted Bryan to have his Mania moment, but when they did they booked him as strongly as you possibly could - kicking HHH, Orton, and Batista's asses on the go-home RAW, kicking out of the pedigree and beating HHH clean with the knee at Mania, thwarting HHH's interference and laying him out with his own sledgehammer, surviving a powerbomb/neckbreaker through a table and stretcher job, and making Batista tap clean in the middle of the ring. And then he went on last at Extreme Rules, above a big HHH match, and won clean. And the plan was for him to then beat Batista the next month.

 

 

The Shield is a top act, but Reigns is the one they see as the next Top Level Guy. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming into pushing Bryan, and they seemed baffled by the crowd shitting on Batista's return. To be fair, since NXT is Hunter's baby they seem to be focusing less on big guys, but then you have reports of guys not getting developmental deals because the feeling in the company is they have enough small guys who can wrestle.

[rovert]

Attended the WWE Live Event in Dublin. The Cesaro vs Sheamus match at Payback should be fantastic based it.

[Coffey]

Just wanted to drop-in & say that Jim Ross, on his latest podcast (with Goldberg) had an idea for Wyatt to turn face with Harper/Rowan turning heel on him & having him (Wyatt) be saved by John Cena before RAW went off the air. Jake Roberts being the new manager of Harper/Rowan.

 

That idea is fucking terrible & ideas like that are why RAW sucks to so many people.

[The Chief]

That idea is terrible, but what does that have to do with people thinking Raw sucks?

[Strummer]

if they do Bryan/HHH again over the summer they really should attach a stip to the match where they can finally blowoff this Authority storyline. Doing it at SS would provide a nice one year symmetry

[Coffey]

That idea is terrible, but what does that have to do with people thinking Raw sucks?

 

More John Cena on top & having to help one of the new(er) non-John Cena acts is the exact opposite direction from where I would think they should go.

 

I should have been more descriptive, admittedly, I meant a lot of fans in general, not those posting here. I forgot that was just a recent topic of conversation. My fault.

[fakeplastictrees]

Disband The Authority? I am all for it. I would love for Vince Mcmahon to come out on Raw and starts talking about the Wallstreet fall from grace. During this over-the-top rant, Vince mentions that management having their hands and heads in all other places aside from business is one of the reasons for the great stock crash of 2014.Personal agendas, egos, etc. "AND IT COST ME 350 MILLION DAMNIT!". Vince then mentions that going forward- all authority figures will be working from Titan and will be attending to the business they have negelecated while trying to screw Cena and put the fix to Daniel Bryan.

 

This will give WWE some nice wiggle room as Stephanie, Vickie, Teddy, HHH, etc. will still have their jobs and an occasional blurb might be sent out by one (or more) of them via Twitter, Facebook, wwe.com, etc. to setup matches. This will clear the air of the authority figure stink that has been in mainstream wrestling for far too long.

[Loss]

I think it would be even better for Vince to somehow blame the stock drop on Daniel Bryan -- saying that him being champion has caused a mutiny among investors.

[Bierschwale]

Yeah, that'd be pitch perfect. The newly minted ex-billionaire blaming the dude who'd probably be a forklift operator if he wasn't the best wrestler in the world for HIS failures.

[Strummer]

Alvarez is saying that the plan is for Bryan to surrender the titles on Monday. No title match at Payback but two matches at MITB where one winner becomes champion and the other winner gets the briefcase. Bryan is scheduled to immediately be put back in the main event scene when he returns.

 

They wanted him to do a one shot to return the titles to give him more sympathy

 

 

Edit: read this at cageside which featured other Alvarez tidbits so I assume this was him also

 

 

And if this goes down that's even more heat put on Stephanie and Hunter. I'm all for pushing strong heels but when is this thing going to be blown off?

[Strummer]

Also Bryan was on Jericho's show and revealed the booking last fall was simply to get Orton over as champion. So if he wasn't working there is the answer many of us have been looking for. He said the booking didn't do Orton any favors either. Totally agree with him there

[Bierschwale]

I'm calling it now, even though I only have about 20% confidence in it: Reigns is going to win the title and Rollins is going to win the briefcase,

[Bix]

Alvarez is saying that the plan is for Bryan to surrender the titles on Monday. No title match at Payback but two matches at MITB where one winner becomes champion and the other winner gets the briefcase. Bryan is scheduled to immediately be put back in the main event scene when he returns.

 

They wanted him to do a one shot to return the titles to give him more sympathy

 

 

Edit: read this at cageside which featured other Alvarez tidbits so I assume this was him also

 

 

And if this goes down that's even more heat put on Stephanie and Hunter. I'm all for pushing strong heels but when is this thing going to be blown off?

These are the exact words I wrote in the newsletter from the notes Bryan and I were sent:

 

Expect the official on-screen decision about the WWE World Heavyweight Championship to be made this Monday on the Memorial Day edition of Raw in Knoxville.

Did Bryan say more on an audio show I didn't listen to yet?