rzombie1988 Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 I'm sure I'm not the only one, but anytime I read or watch anything, I tend to think about how things would work out if this was wrestling. I'm always thinking about wrestling and trying to come up with different ideas on what wrestling is and can be. For the record, I've never seen a soap opera until about a week ago, atleast not in the traditional sense. I ended up finding basically a season of General Hospital from 1983 and was thinking about how pro wrestling could borrow a lot of things from them. I'd think we would need a completely fresh presentation of wrestling to make it work, but I think some things could be borrowed. You'd need a really open mind on what wrestling is, but something might be there. The main things that really impressed me were: - The fact that they had 5 storylines or more playing out 3-5 times per week. You don't like one storyline? There's a few others to choose from. While they usually weren't all amazing, they all ended up at worst making sense and at best being great. The amount of work that had to be put in to some of these things was impressive. They also made all the characters equally important and pushed/depushed them depending on where they were in the story. - Storylines beginning/ending at different times with there never being a time where there is nothing going on. There's no day after Wrestlemania period where the season ends. - Characters referencing/analyzing other characters and bringing up histories and past interactions. All of the characters seem connected in some way. I feel like I know the characters already before seeing them as they get played up and talked about. I guess some of this would be in the announcer's hands, but current announcers are so bad that I'd never trust it. I just think it'd be cool to get like say Kofi Kingston's thoughts on Brock or something and then building somehow off of that. - They make it so that you can't miss an episode or multiple episodes. There's seriously no good place to start as current storylines build on past storylines which built on past storylines. They referenced tons of stuff that I didn't see but now want to see to understand the story better. As for missing an episode here or there, I watched about 3 weeks straight and one episode was missing. While I only missed one episode, I felt like I missed a lot. Wrestling needs to copy from this. I feel like I can miss an episode of Raw and be okay, but I am really wanting to see that one episode of General Hospital that I missed out of three weeks. This is how I should feel when missing an episode of Raw. - The use of parties, social events and other gatherings of various sorts to get different characters to interact and to build storylines. In theory, I guess this would be your Royal Rumble or Battle Royale, but I feel like it could be other things like backstage segments. - The use of generalized and somewhat corny professions to build stories. You usually tend to have a doctor, a policeman/detective, a mobster and sometimes like a restaurant owner who end up butting their head into whatever is going on somehow. These are all pretty simple and easy characters to do, and maybe wrestling could borrow from it. Maybe Randy Orton is pressuring the WWE doctor for scoops on how bad John Cena is injured for their upcoming match or maybe a head of security is in charge of figuring out who attacked a wrestler(most relevant example I can think of is Foley trying to figure out who ran over Austin). Maybe it's kind of hokey, but I think there could be something there. One thing I'd also like to see is a promotion do a kayfabe death of a character. Comics kill off people, movies kill off people, so why can't wrestling? I know wrestling is quasi pushed as a sport/tv show, but it really is just a show at the end of the day and the wrestlers are no different than your average TV character except for the bumps. WWE obviously looked into this idea with Vince's limo explosion and it would have been interesting to see where it may have gone. Are soap opera's pro wrestling PWO? Or is Pro Wrestling a soap opera? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Pro Wrestling is totally a Soap Opera. And that's not an insult. I've always felt that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Oz is the greatest Pro Wrestling promotion of all time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingPower Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Your point about guys analyzing others & referencing storylines is truly lost. Granted Dusty Rhodes took a lot of heat about this since he was the booker & center of attention but late 80s Crockett, guys referenced other storylines all the time. Guys weren't in a vaccuum. They acknowledged other storylines & fueds going on within the same TV show they were apart of. And get this novel concept, babyfaces stuck together & offered their support to others, "hey brother, I got your back should you ever need help with XXX". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzombie1988 Posted March 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Your point about guys analyzing others & referencing storylines is truly lost. Granted Dusty Rhodes took a lot of heat about this since he was the booker & center of attention but late 80s Crockett, guys referenced other storylines all the time. Guys weren't in a vaccuum. They acknowledged other storylines & fueds going on within the same TV show they were apart of. And get this novel concept, babyfaces stuck together & offered their support to others, "hey brother, I got your back should you ever need help with XXX". Mid-80's NWA was exactly the thing what I was thinking as well. They had everyone get involved with everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 I like the ideas put forward here. I'd honestly much rather watch a WWE 100% committed to that sports entertainment philosophy than one that tries to play both sides of the coin depending on what is more convenient at the time. I think about things like wrestlers still half maintaining character in media (Roman Reigns lately), merchandise ideas for Dolph Ziggler getting killed a few years ago because of insider terms and that sort of thing. Not that I'm encouraging more content since they are already so overwhelmed, but since fans are so fascinated with the behind-the-scenes decision making, they should have a worked creative meeting once or twice a week on the Network that includes Vince, HHH and the writers. And they can make that work anything they want it to be. There is such an enormous gap between what WWE is and what it could be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.