Does wrestling TV need writers?

[JerryvonKramer]

I haven't done my analysis yet.

 

Of course, the gimmicks and angles and even the general gist of promos are all Vince's or Creative's ideas. Of course. The word-for-word thing IS the thing I'm caught up on, because that is the precise problem with so many of today's skits and promos.

 

I am nerdy enough to have exact promos from the 80s and early 90s in mind where I have a good sense that they were scripted word-for-word and also for ones where I'm pretty sure they weren't.

 

I also like to be theatrical, so I am saving my examples for the big long analysis post with youtube links that I am planning. Unfortunately, I know I wont have time to do this until at the earliest Wednesday evening. This post is doing little more than building hype for it. Yes, my life has come to this, building hype for a forum post about wrestling promos

[jdw]

I haven't done my analysis yet.

 

Of course, the gimmicks and angles and even the general gist of promos are all Vince's or Creative's ideas. Of course. The word-for-word thing IS the thing I'm caught up on, because that is the precise problem with so many of today's skits and promos.

 

I am nerdy enough to have exact promos from the 80s and early 90s in mind where I have a good sense that they were scripted word-for-word and also for ones where I'm pretty sure they weren't.

Thought we hit this way back on the first page:

 

I actually think word-for-word promos are a bit overblown. Does anyone think a writer is coming up with every word Trip is saying?

 

Are Taker's promos in the past three years scripted out any more or less then his and Paul Bearer's were back in 1992-94?

 

Does anyone really think Cena is a good enough actor to remember 10 straight minutes of promo script without a single break to retape something (like they'd do in his scripted movies), or that he has a more general "script" to work off?

 

* * * * *

 

I'm going to go back to this again. Raw and Smackdown are weekly TV shows. As dictated by the revenue streams, their point is every bit as much to get people to watch the shows as it is to get people to go to house shows or buy the PPVs. 52 weeks a year, no re-runs. 5 hours a week now, not even counting the other shows.

 

260 hours = Raw + Smackdown

13.5 hours = Cheers at it peak season

 

I'm not sold that Pro Wrestlers are so much more gifted creatively than Cheers Actors when it comes to being able to pull shit out of their asses to fill 246.5 *more* hours of TV content a year.

 

Again, I think we overplay just how much of the "script" in terms of words ends up on TV. But we also underplay the importance of "scripting out" 260 hours of Television Content a year where the point is to get people to watch that content this week, and next week, and the week after in an era of diverse viewing and entertainment competition and options.

 

I've got issues with Russo as a person involved in Pro Wrestling, and a lot of his theories are utter bullshit on top of being delusional. So I tend to hate that this discussion springs from a shoot tape of the jerkoff. It poisons a broader discussion.

The Million Dollar Man, Mr. Perfect and Undertaker stuff was all scripted out. Word-for-word? Who really knows, since Curt is dead, Ted is going to take credit where he can for the good stuff, and Mark ain't talking.

 

But hell... the Hogan-Savage turn was "scripted" to a large degree. Hogan and Savage didn't sit down and come up with that stuff. It's pure WWF-style goofiness.

[Guest Andrews]

Piper speaks in depth about the concept of writers in wrestling in the Bloodstained Memoirs documentary. His argument in effect was that if the promos and interviews are scripted, it takes away the wrestlers ability to think for himself. So when they are put in situations on the spot, they die on their ass.

[goc]

I think they should have a big picture group of wrestling people who script out where they want to go and then let another team handle how to get there week to week. I feel like that's what they're trying to do with their "office team" and "road team" but I suspect those two teams are just working against each other.

[Log]

The "working against each other" thing there is the problem.

 

It's not necessarily writers or the idea of writers that's the problem. It's the culture of WWE. No one could really thrive and be creative working like that.

[Slasher]

I think they should have a big picture group of wrestling people who script out where they want to go and then let another team handle how to get there week to week. I feel like that's what they're trying to do with their "office team" and "road team" but I suspect those two teams are just working against each other.

Sadly that was the point. They wanted to breed competition in their creative ranks, theoretically to get the best out of everyone.... So yeah.

[Guest Andrews]

I think Piper and Hogan's (and probably Warrior's) promos were scripted by their old buddy, cocaine.

Legit lol

[MojoJsyn]

Apparently according to this BleacherReport , Triple H is making changes to scripted promos.

 

No more scripted promos just bullet points.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

Apparently according to this BleacherReport , Triple H is making changes to scripted promos.

 

No more scripted promos just bullet points.

Wrestling Observer wrote that this change in promo style will only apply to Florida's developmental, not to the roster in general.

[Death From Above]

I want people to go watch the backstage promos from the 1980s SNME shows and tell me how writers are a modern invention. Every word of those interviews were clearly scripted. Lots of 80s WWF promos were, Vince has always been a control freak, he just loosened up for a bit when desperate in the late 90s. The Hogan-Orndorff stuff is another example where everything they were saying in their backstage segments and Barbershop appearances were scripted and cheesy but highly effective.

This is sort of a bad point since "classic" WWF is pretty routinely roasted for being bland, predictable, and mostly fucking horrible.

 

There's a reason the first thing most of us did when the internet became a thing was start watching other things.

[MojoJsyn]

Apparently according to this BleacherReport , Triple H is making changes to scripted promos.

 

No more scripted promos just bullet points.

Wrestling Observer wrote that this change in promo style will only apply to Florida's developmental, not to the roster in general.

 

 

Progress is progress.

 

I'm sure H probably would have liked the change even on the main roster.

 

Vince more than likely wouldn't change so H suggested lets try it in development.