Over the top storylines - Like them or hate them?

Le Barron de HF

Justin make me proud
Mar 12, 2008
16,248
3,880
Shawinigan
I was discussing this the other day with my brother and do you think storylines such as the Eddie Guerrero/Rey Mysterio feud for the custody of Dominick or pretty much everything involving Kane (yes including Katie Vick I suppose), does it have a place in wrestling or no?


Personally, I dig it more than conventional/serious storylines. I am one of those people who find wrestling 'goofy' so I prefer when they embrace the whole 'goofy' side of it since as a viewer, I am entertained.

How do you guys feel about this aspect of WWE/wrestling in general?
 

quoipourquoi

Goaltender
Jan 26, 2009
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My two favorite wrestling storylines are where Mickie James attempted to become Trish Stratus and where King Cuerno took Mil Muertes' body after a casket match and displayed it in a trophy room with all of the animals he's hunted.

There is no limit on how far beyond realistic you can go, but there is good goofy and embarrassing goofy. Kane/Undertaker in 2010 is definitely the second one.
 

PeterSidorkiewicz

HFWF Tourney Undisputed Champion
Apr 30, 2004
32,442
9,701
Lansing, MI
totally depends on the story

This. It all depends, they can be awesome, or fall flat.

One thing I say is, its better to be creative than to go with constant conservative boring storylines. So I will always applaud the effort even if it fails. I like to be sports entertained, and that's more than just a guys "work rate" in the ring.
 

Kimi

Registered User
Jun 24, 2004
9,890
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Newcastle upon Tyne
In a vacuum I'm picking serious over goofy.


Goofy and over the top stories are really hard to do right, and WWE is terrible at it due to Vince's humour and taste.

It's far too easy to be snapped out of a show by a bad segment or storyline, the suspension of disbelief is important and you need to actively protect it. Over the top storylines are the ones that risk it the most, so you need to be really careful with it.

Jordan and Angle for example is terrible for this. Everyone knows it's fake and you can't buy into it. It drags the entire show down. It's the same with the Raw vs Smackdown crap they do. Everyone knows that it's the same people making both shows in the same company, so any fake rivalry doesn't work.


That being said, if your show is internally consistent then over the top stuff can work. For all the massive faults and issues Lucha Underground has, it is a decent example of this. They do some really whacky stuff that isn't out of place on their show.


But I much prefer good shows over bad ones, and serious is far easier to get right so go with that as much as you can.
 

BonMorrison

Registered User
Jun 17, 2011
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Toronto, ON
I generally prefer serious grounded in reality that being said, well-executed over-the-top storylines can be incredible.

For a recent example, I thought Orton burning down Wyatt's shed was AMAAAAAAZING but then it went totally off the rails.
 

Paris in Flames

Registered User
Feb 4, 2009
15,903
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I generally prefer serious grounded in reality that being said, well-executed over-the-top storylines can be incredible.

For a recent example, I thought Orton burning down Wyatt's shed was AMAAAAAAZING but then it went totally off the rails.

First thing I thought of too. In reality they probably pulled the trigger on burning it down a week or so early but in that moment and that moment alone....it was the best thing WWE had done in a long time, imo. It definitely fell off hard because the writers seemingly didn't know how or where to go from there but Wyatt continued to kill it...as he always does..with the facial expressions, etc. Dude is legit.

Considering my favourite thing on WWE TV for the last few months has been the Fashion Police...I'm gonna go ahead and say I'm down with over the top.
 

Le Barron de HF

Justin make me proud
Mar 12, 2008
16,248
3,880
Shawinigan
I generally prefer serious grounded in reality that being said, well-executed over-the-top storylines can be incredible.

For a recent example, I thought Orton burning down Wyatt's shed was AMAAAAAAZING but then it went totally off the rails.

Good call on that one, completely forgot about it. I love stuff like this and Braun lifting up the ambulance, such a combination of ridiculousness and awesomeness :laugh:
 

BonMorrison

Registered User
Jun 17, 2011
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Toronto, ON
Fashion Police, Braun flipping the ambulance, and Roman's attempted murder are more great examples of over-the-topness I've loved recently.
 

dahrougem2

Registered User
Dec 9, 2011
36,406
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Edmonton, Alberta
It all depends on the storyline, really. I like over-the-top stuff if there is an actual plan in place and it is executed well. A recent example of horrendous execution was Wyatt/Orton. That started off well and then failed miserably.

But I will always, always prefer the personal stuff. To me, nothing beats the personal rivalry The Rock and Stone Cold had in the late 90's/early 00's. That was all about wanting to be the better man, and I couldn't get enough of it.
 

Sacha Baron Corbin

Registered User
Jan 19, 2011
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I think you need a good mix of both grounded/personal stories like KO/Sami last year and over the top madness like Braun/Roman with the ambulance.

if I want to be "sports entertained" then the over the top stories seem to do that, but they can fall flat like Wyatt/Orton. I've noticed i get more emotionally invested in personal story lines, so I think both can get over and get heat but the more over the top, the harder they can be to execute
 
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Disclose

WE GET THAT RENT MONEY
Aug 22, 2007
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Montreal
i prefer serious stuff than comedy or totally, over the top stuff...
but back in the days its that kind of stuff that made me fall in love with wrestling.... Jake the snake ****ing around with Macho Man, Undertakers gimmick, etc...

so however its presented, it all depends.... broken hardyz is an amazing recent example that it was so bad, but so good that it worked with fans and did they ever pushed it beyond absurdity. i loved every bit of it.
 

PeterSidorkiewicz

HFWF Tourney Undisputed Champion
Apr 30, 2004
32,442
9,701
Lansing, MI
You gotta have balance. Not everything can be over the top, not everything needs to be super serious. Kinda like building a hockey team with the right mix.

As someone mentioned earlier, imagine no Fashion Police segments? That would blow.
 

GarbageGoal

Courage
Dec 1, 2005
22,353
2,377
RI
It really depends. If the workers do it right, it doesn't come off cheesy.

Single White Female with Mickie and Trish was awesome.
 

Shoalzie

Trust me!
May 16, 2003
16,904
180
Portland, MI
All storylines need to have some context and if you're going to do something outside the box...I want that story to have long-term ramifications. When you introduce something, it needs to be part of the WWE kayfabe world permanently. You can't do a crazy storyline and then pretend it never happened months or years later.

The numerous weird storylines that guys like Kane and Undertaker have been involved in...and we all bag on the WWE for the repeated face/heel turns of Big Show. You want to see some stories make sense and have them affect the character over the long term. Big Show flipping back and forth with heel and face has just been nonsense. You can't flip their character than many times and have it be believable.

You look at some of the stuff with Wyatt. Most of it doesn't make any sense when he's supposed to be supernatural and he faces a guy like Rollins or Orton who don't have mystical powers. Why wouldn't a character like Wyatt have legitimate powers to manipulate his opponent. You had Xavier somewhat fall under his spell when the Wyatts had the feud with New Day. The off-and-on existence of the Wyatt family has been strange. You see how much Harper and Rowan haven't had a good run outside of being in the Wyatt Family. We've seen the growth of Strowman as a solo competitor...one of the pleasant surprises of the last decade in terms of an expected character getting over in a big way.

How they've done the run of the Shield, the breakup with Rollins turning heel and then the reconciliation of Ambrose-Rollins...that's solid long-term storytelling. Maybe they didn't plan on reuniting them at any point but they pull the trigger on it now so run back the old footage and acknowledge what each character was like back then.

Tag team storylines are usually pretty well done because you have two guys who are partners and they go through highs and lows and most likely, you see a breakup and feud happen eventually. From the other direction, you see how an alliance is formed. I like how Sheamus and Cesaro had become a cohesive tag team after having a pretty heated singles feud. Their story has fairly well done you see them as a tag team now and you understand why they're partners.

We'll see how they write the interaction with Gable and Shelton on Smackdown. That partner dynamic could be interesting since both guys were on long-time tag teams. Shelton is the more experienced guy. How do they coexist when it looks like Bryan essentially threw them together.
 
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