Fixing WWE

[BruinDust]

This won't fix anything but a couple of changes I'd like to see is during backstage interviews.

The wrestler is usually looking at the interviewer while cutting their promo. They should be looking directly at the camera.

And when the interview is over, the interviewer should throw it back to the commentators. Instead, the interviewer just stands there looking stupidly off camera to the wrestler that is walking away.

When did all of this change? I feel like they started doing this in the last 10 years and I'm not sure why.

This one drives me nuts. The wrestler cuts a promo, then walks away and the camera pans to the interviewer with a puzzled/disgusted/scared/etc. look on their face.

 

[These Are The Days]

I'm in April 1998 in the Raw archive and Christ alive so much of the content is absolutely horrible. Maybe 1 match per show doesn't end in a DQ. But I think I know now why people liked the Attitude Era so much. You let guys get themselves over on the mic and when they did, crowd participation was part of the ritual to whatever catchphrase they dropped and it allowed for the talent to be interesting. The hardcore segments were unpredictable chaos and the roster was streamlined to fit onto a single show and there was a place for nearly everyone not named Flash Funk or Tom Brandi. And above all, fresh young talent getting pushed was the goal.

WWE as it is can be fixed and it can probably be done overnight. The talent is better now than it was in 1998. The company resources are infinitely better and you have women being something else other than sex objects. The sad truth is the best of WWE can literally happen tomorrow but no one wants to execute the vision because doing so will probably cost time and money. Oh yeah and Linda won't get the f*** out of politics so you gotta run it like it's 1991.



Start by killing all these f***ing dinosaurs like Lesnar, Edge et al and cutting the roster by about 1/3 and the rest will figure itself out.

 

[KCC]

I'm in April 1998 in the Raw archive and Christ alive so much of the content is absolutely horrible. Maybe 1 match per show doesn't end in a DQ. But I think I know now why people liked the Attitude Era so much. You let guys get themselves over on the mic and when they did, crowd participation was part of the ritual to whatever catchphrase they dropped and it allowed for the talent to be interesting. The hardcore segments were unpredictable chaos and the roster was streamlined to fit onto a single show and there was a place for nearly everyone not named Flash Funk or Tom Brandi. And above all, fresh young talent getting pushed was the goal.

WWE as it is can be fixed and it can probably be done overnight. The talent is better now than it was in 1998. The company resources are infinitely better and you have women being something else other than sex objects. The sad truth is the best of WWE can literally happen tomorrow but no one wants to execute the vision because doing so will probably cost time and money. Oh yeah and Linda won't get the f*** out of politics so you gotta run it like it's 1991.



Start by killing all these f***ing dinosaurs like Lesnar, Edge et al and cutting the roster by about 1/3 and the rest will figure itself out.

IMO the AE was incredibly overrated. People just wanted to see the top stars like The Rock and Austin. Said wrestlers would generally open the show and then close it. The rest of the 90% was often very boring to the point where you could hear a pin drop crowd wise. The hardcore stuff had its moments and I do think there was a place for a lot of wrestlers but I don't think it went over well with most people. As I said, the majority were there for the top guys and were willing to sit through all the boring garbage to get to it. Because everyone was always waiting for the close out and how unpredictable it was week to week. JMO of course and what I notice when I went back and looked. lol

 

[GKJ]

I get the Attitude Era for it’s time and why it worked, I got in in the middle of it, but you watch some of that today and it’s unwatchable, especially outside of the top stars. I couldn’t imagine a father showing any of that stuff to his 20-something kid and convincing them it was worth sitting through every week.

 

[ManofSteel55]

The reason nothing is entertaining anymore is because they go back to what used to work constantly. There are no new storylines. None of the talent is especially unique. Everything has been done before. They need new storylines. New spins on characters so it isn't all "hey, I remember when they did this 20 years ago/10 years ago/last edition of Raw.

 

[ManofSteel55]

IMO the AE was incredibly overrated. People just wanted to see the top stars like The Rock and Austin. Said wrestlers would generally open the show and then close it. The rest of the 90% was often very boring to the point where you could hear a pin drop crowd wise. The hardcore stuff had its moments and I do think there was a place for a lot of wrestlers but I don't think it went over well with most people. As I said, the majority were there for the top guys and were willing to sit through all the boring garbage to get to it. Because everyone was always waiting for the close out and how unpredictable it was week to week. JMO of course and what I notice when I went back and looked. lol

There is a reason the AE was amazing, and a good chunk of it was Nitro. We, as fans, would flip to the other channel to watch the other wrestling show when something dumb was happening. It worked pretty well. Just wait for Kaientai and choppy pee pee to flip channels, watch there until the Dungeon of Doom shows up and flip it back, ha ha.

 

[Transplanted Caper]

• It's a work, we all know that, but it should *feel* real. It should feel organic, and it doesn't. Get rid of the scripted promos, especially for the veterans who know what they're doing out there.
• Be willing to throw plans out and get behind talent who get themselves over.
• Quit overproducing everything. Even on things like intros you feel like some performers are out there trying to hit every point like they have a checklist.

Ultimately, wrestling is about storytelling. Like any good television show or movie, it should elicit a reaction and allow the audience to envelop themselves in that world and react to it. When a sitcom makes you laugh or a drama makes you cry, you know it's not real, but the show has done a good job of building a coherent, credible, narrative. Too often, WWE's programming jolts you out of that world you're trying to engage with because of poor booking and over produced content that has performers looking to try and hit their cues rather than be themselves.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

IMO the AE was incredibly overrated. People just wanted to see the top stars like The Rock and Austin. Said wrestlers would generally open the show and then close it. The rest of the 90% was often very boring to the point where you could hear a pin drop crowd wise. The hardcore stuff had its moments and I do think there was a place for a lot of wrestlers but I don't think it went over well with most people. As I said, the majority were there for the top guys and were willing to sit through all the boring garbage to get to it. Because everyone was always waiting for the close out and how unpredictable it was week to week. JMO of course and what I notice when I went back and looked. lol

Maybe it's cause I was kid and just I did or maybe it's just nostalgia/looking through rose color glasses, but I feel like they cared about the midcard more in the AE and early RE era. Let those guys get themselves over too. I cared just as much about the NAO or the Godfather or Too Cool or RVD or The freaking Hurricane, for example as I did for The Rock and SCSA.

 

[These Are The Days]

If WWE was to ever be successful again they need to go back to somewhere around the Ruthless Aggression style of product. It didn't have nearly the shenanigans and sophomoric bullshit of the AE, the match booking made more sense (i.e matches just straight up end without a ref and "Stone Cold wins!") and talent was still allowed to put themselves over on the mic and were allowed to act like adults. Stephanie's army of perfectly behaved school girls except for the ones who try to be "edgy" sometimes is so f***ing dull it's half the reason I stopped watching aside from part-time dinosaurs getting all the title shots.

WWE is literally lipstick on a pig

 

[Kaner9]

Maybe it's cause I was kid and just I did or maybe it's just nostalgia/looking through rose color glasses, but I feel like they cared about the midcard more in the AE and early RE era. Let those guys get themselves over too. I cared just as much about the NAO or the Godfather or Too Cool or RVD or The freaking Hurricane, for example as I did for The Rock and SCSA.

That's true and it helps so much. I liked loads of wrestlers who would have never had a chance at the wwe title and that was cool with me. How rare is that now? For me almost never.

 

[Say Hey Kid]

Raw & Smackdown just don't have enough talent to exist. Cancel them, those tv hours, and those wrestlers and focus on NXT so you can have a good product with good wrestlers that can compete with AEW.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

That's true and it helps so much. I liked loads of wrestlers who would have never had a chance at the wwe title and that was cool with me. How rare is that now? For me almost never.

Not only that, the midcard of the AE was flat out stacked.

Edge, Christian, The Hardys, Bradshaw, The Dudleys, Owen Hart, Jericho, Guerrero, Benoit. Add to that the top level of Austin, Rock, Undertaker, Michaels, Kane, HHH, Big Show, Mick Foley.

Also, the "women were just eye candy" notion about the AE isn't accurate either. You had women that could actually go like Chyna, Luna Vachon, Jackie, Lita, Ivory

 

[GKJ]

Raw & Smackdown just don't have enough talent to exist. Cancel them, those tv hours, and those wrestlers and focus on NXT so you can have a good product with good wrestlers that can compete with AEW.

They have too much talent. WWE has so much talent they’re restarting EVOLVE to be NXT for NXT

 

[Say Hey Kid]

They have too much talent. WWE has so much talent they’re restarting EVOLVE to be NXT for NXT

Please re-read my post. I didn't write "WWE". Good luck in the ATD.

 

[Bondurant]

Vince needs to stop relying on this massive writing team and treating wrestling like a weekly scripted program. Stop sticking to the plan when it is clearly not working. The customers are telling Vince what they want and he can deliver but he is obsessed with following the plan laid out by the writers.

Let those with creativity shine. A stark contrast between today and the past is the lack of quality mike work. Jake Roberts dropped his Muck of Avarice promo on a PPV. It is not fair to compare everyone to Jake but there is no promo effort on the current product. It is part of wrestling. It sells the damn business.

 

[Jackpot Jaret]

For me, the first thing i would do is get rid of those generic, boring looking world titles and bring back one of the old designs (preferably the winged eagle). The world title doesn't look prestigious whatsoever anymore

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Vince needs to stop relying on this massive writing team and treating wrestling like a weekly scripted program. Stop sticking to the plan when it is clearly not working. The customers are telling Vince what they want and he can deliver but he is obsessed with following the plan laid out by the writers.

Let those with creativity shine. A stark contrast between today and the past is the lack of quality mike work. Jake Roberts dropped his Muck of Avarice promo on a PPV. It is not fair to compare everyone to Jake but there is no promo effort on the current product. It is part of wrestling. It sells the damn business.

To your point, without letting guys make their own promo we don't get Austin 3:16

All he was told was that Jake cut a religious promo on him, so he came up with that legendary promo in the moment as a response and played off the Bible theme with Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass.

Imagine how different things would've been if every second of that show was scripted

 

[ShelbyZ]

The one thing that always sticks out to me about the Attitude Era is how they seemed to do their best to avoid reaching for nostalgia. When they had the opportunity to do so and brought back a "legend", they did their best to align them with the current product, and minimize focus on their past (if at all):

-They had the Road Warriors at their disposal, but split them up in a huge dose Vince Russo booking before they pretty much just walk out on their own
-John Tenta comes back and gets hidden under a mask and along with George "The Animal" Steele is comedic enhancement talent in the The Oddities stable
-Big Bossman comes back, but as a heel with a new SWAT attire
-Moolah and Mae Young come back, and while Moolah wins the Women's title, they basically just add comedy to the joke that was the Women's division for most of the AE
-Undertaker is gone for like 8 months and they basically tossed out most of the remaining elements of the "Dead Man" gimmick for his return
-British Bulldog comes back and gets a bit of a push initially but gets some attitude donning jeans and coming out to some hardcore music (Bonus: WWF also signed Jim Neidhart at the same time, but instead of bringing him back to TV, he gets sent out on some development role and wrestles matches for HWA and/or MCW before quietly leaving. IIRC, they were both brought back at the behest of Stu Hart while the WWF tried to smooth things over with the faction of the Hart family that wasn't trying to sue them after Owen's death.

All of those are probably vastly different in today's WWE:

-Tenta comes back with Fred Ottman as the Natural Disasters and squashes every tag team and gets a run with the tag belts
-Same goes with Road Warriors
-Bossman comes back with his campy music and blue outfit as a baby face and single handedly arrests every member of Retribution
-Bulldog gets some extended push and accolades and Neidhart is also put back in the picture and pushed
-George "The Animal" Steele feuds with The Fiend, kicking out of 7 Sister Abigails before winning on a count out
-Mae Young wins the womens Royal Rumble, then she and Moolah beat Jax and Baszler for the tag belts before winning clean over Asuka and Banks at Wrestlemania to hold all the gold

 

[eXile3]

For me, the first thing i would do is get rid of those generic, boring looking world titles and bring back one of the old designs (preferably the winged eagle). The world title doesn't look prestigious whatsoever anymore

It isn't. There are 19 belts right now, including two that are supposed to be #1. There should be 1 world title.

 

[kanuck87]

There's no fixing WWE until Vince is gone. The biggest issue with WWE is that they need control every single detail, and this includes trying to control who gets over, even if this is something they don't actually get to decide. It's the audience that decides this, not them.

They have superstars on the lower mid-card who can legitimately get over and be solidly in the upper mid-card or even be championship material, but Vince does his best to keep them down because they were getting over without any hype whatsoever from WWE and Vince can't have that. Lacey Evans and Mustafa Ali are a couple of prime examples here. Both were great as faces and really cutting some really solid face promos (Lacey as a patriotic ex-military and Mustafa Ali as an underdog). Then all of a sudden, Vince pulls the rug from out under them, have them turn heels and now they cut garbage promos. Both have gone back to irrelevancy as jobbers and this is exactly how Vince wants it to be.

Let the superstars do their own thing and see who rises to the top. Instead, they try to tell us who should be on top and this clearly isn't working.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Bring back the Hardcore championship

 

[Sheppy]

Bring back the Hardcore championship

Unfortunately hardcore matches now basically mean you're getting pelted a dozen times with a kendo stick.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Unfortunately hardcore matches now basically mean you're getting pelted a dozen times with a kendo stick.

Now granted I haven’t watched WWE since 2000 or so, but I had no idea that hardcore matches are that watered down these days??? Sheesh.

I mean I can understand why we can’t have the craziness of a typical Mick Foley era hardcore match week in week out nowadays..what with everything we know about CTE and all.

But man...

Are chairshots still a thing?? I assume not.

 

[HandsomeHollywood]

I can still watch late 90s early 00s Attitude Era just fine. I guess it depends on what you're watching wrestling for. Matches in the AE often ended in DQ or were quick because a lot of it was set up to the PPV, and then at times, the PPV was the set up for the Raw the night after. A 2 hour show full of storylines and character development is A+ with me. One of my main gripes of today's Raw is the neverending matches that often go through 2 commercial breaks, are booked 50/50, and rarely have anything on the line. You have to build so people want to see matches, and make them special, rather than business as usual and very boring where nobody comes out of it with momentum.

Build, squash, build, payoff. That's the formula. Not competitive matches, no build, payoff, rematch, rematch, rematch. Which is what they seem dead set on these days. Start treating wrestling like wrestling again, and not this weird, sterilized, quasi-sport they do now.

 

[BostonBob]

Start treating wrestling like wrestling again, and not this weird, sterilized, quasi-sport they do now.

It's not wrestling dammit.....it's Sports Entertainment !!!!!!!