Are there any master politician wrestlers left?

[BigBadMick]

I was thinking about this during the HHH debate podcast. You don't really hear of wrestlers throwing their weight around backstage in WWE anymore.

Is it the system WWE has created, with no effective alternatives for disgruntled staff, and the brand taking prominance over any individual as a draw?

If he could have, would Vince have created this system thirty years ago? Is this his greatest achievement?

 

I'm spitballing here, but would like to hear if anyone thinks any wrestlers still have clout, play games to keep opponents down etc and all the dirty little games that HHH and many others are/were accused of in the past?

[Fantastic]

The most recent instance I can think of is John Cena and Randy Orton using their clout to get Mr Kennedy ousted for being reckless with Orton's shoulder.

 

Tyler Reks has claimed that John Cena put a stop to him using the Burning Hammer as his finish because Cena felt it was "too close" to his own.

[victory]

The top guys will always have pull. To what extent is just a guess. I think it depends on their personality. Really no different than any other job.

[gingears]

I'm not sure this qualifies, but there were reports of Batista vetoing a match with Daniel Bryan.

 

I think that is how the stars handle this sort of thing today. It's not so much that they get somebody else bumped down the card and more that they don't lend their own star power to it. It has been so long since a true main-event superstar has been created that it seems all of them have now made enough money that they can take or leave the position.

[BigBadMick]

Is it also the case that it used to be wrestlers gaining, consolidating and jealously guarding their position, and now management has so much more power that wrestlers are only worried about impressing the bosses now? Management and labour, rather than the old way of watching your back against everyone?

[dgrblue]

Although, i cannot provide direct proof of this, i believe, that john cena has limited creative control over his gimmick, and that he changed the finish at wm 30, and has changed the finish of mayches because he did not like how he would have been portrayed.

[funkdoc]

ehhhhhhhh i'm not buying the WM30 one

 

that 100% strikes me as vince not wanting both cena & undertaker to lose on the same show

[tlk23]

When did Hogan get the reputation that he ended up getting?

[Matt D]

That's a good question. You'd hear about some things, like how he wouldn't work with Rude because Rude was too stiff or how he attached himself to Demolition at Survivor Series 89 because they were very over when it made more sense for them to be on Warrior's team vs the Heenan family, or his role in Warrior's celebration at Wrestlemania VI(which, interestingly enough is looked at as a terrible thing now but at the time, Dave thought it was a perfect gesture and good for Warrior).

 

I think it was all really after he lost to Yoko at King of the Ring 93 though. 93 in general I guess. Right around then is when you have him not wrestling Bret at Summerslam, but he was so much worse after 93. He didn't give Flair a single win in their program. The Butcher program is INSANE for how it was set up not to draw anything. He only removed the mask after he definitively legdropped Beefcake. He had it so Vader beat up Bockwinkel instead of himself. He got right up after the power bomb. Etc.

[sek69]

Tyler Reks has claimed that John Cena put a stop to him using the Burning Hammer as his finish because Cena felt it was "too close" to his own.

 

 

I'm not sure how much can be attributed to sour grapes, but I seem to recall a couple of ex WWE guys inferring or straight out saying Cena had a hand in their depush/dismissals. Seems kind of odd he would wield his backstage power on random midcarders and not when his girlfriend got shoot kicked in the face on Raw that one time or any of the instances where they script him to do cringe inducing bad comedy promos.

[funkdoc]

re: hogan

 

i have long suspected that the WCW crap got him that label. you can justify politics when you're the biggest draw ever, and others won't likely get mad when the politician is making them more money as well. that didn't happen in WCW after the initial buzz, hence others were more likely to complain!

[Loss]

Not to mention that WCW paid wrestlers a guaranteed rate based on their past track record, and when they overpaid someone, they pushed him harder in an attempt to justify the money. So it's not like the WCW midcarders who resented Hogan were making more money because Hogan was around - they were getting what they were getting. That's why Brian Pillman wanted to work Bischoff into a big money contract: he thought doing so would give him a main event push. (Interesting that his motivations weren't the other way around, but that's another topic for another time.)