STALENESS

Tommy Platinum · 02-05-2009, 05:22 PM

This is quite a general topic, but I have noticed that a lot of WWE's top stars are incredibly stale right now, and this is one of the main reasons the product is criticised so heavily. I often talk about WWE's refusal to take any risks to make the product more exciting, and this is demonstrated by the fact that most of the top stars have been face or heel for a long time and are in serious need of freshening up.

I was looking at the wrestlers currently confirmed for the Smackdown elimination chamber, and it is a great indication of just how stale a lot of guys are. Triple H, Edge and The Undertaker have been horribly stale for about a year, yet they remain top guys on Smackdown without any character development of adjustment. Edge gets sent to hell by Taker after Vickie puts him in the match at Summerslam. Edge says he's going to take Vickie to hell with him.... he returns and its the same as it was before, with Edge as the unbelievably stale heel constantly in the title picture. Vickie has made Edge stale (although he would still have been stale without her) while The Big Show has also been made ridiculously stale in recent months. Then you have Triple H who is clearly boring as fuck, and Undertaker who hasn't done anything memorable in months either. They've all just been the same for so damn long. Edge just does the same thing over and over. Returning, winning the title in bullshit fashion, losing it to Taker, repeat. He is not ''Rated R''... just stale as can be.

On RAW, we have Cena as the ultimate babyface marketed for children, and he too has been portraying the same character for years. The only difference being that he has become more and more watered down. Obviously Smackdown is the worst for this, as Orton is pretty damn interesting right now, but even guys like Jericho are pretty stale at the moment. The ''fans are hypocrites'' gimmick has kinda run its course. Down in the midcard you have the likes of Kane and Rey.... yeah. Well I say midcard, but they are in a World Title match, and yes, they are both stale as fuck. CM Punk is loved on the internet, but surely you can see that he is boring as hell in WWE? Does he even have a character?

WWE really fail at character development as nobody is enough of an individual, even if they have shown considerable charisma elsewhere (eg Punk). A lot of the top guys in particular have been the same way for so long and are incredibly stale, yet WWE refuse to do anything about it. Why make a big chance when you can keep booking the same crap over and over, right? Edge, Cena and Triple H are classic examples of this.

Do you believe most of the top stars are in need of a big change? Who do you consider the most stale wrestlers on the roster, and why won't WWE do anything about it?

Lost · 02-06-2009, 04:28 AM

I couldn't agree more. The WWE (Primarily Smackdown) is in urgent need of something, new? Triple H is by far the worst in terms of stale atm, while I love Hunter for everything he's done for the company, he really needs to be doing something else, something different with his character. A heel turn would be perfect, but then who would fill the void of playing Smackdowns top face? CM Punk is very similar to Hunter, but instead of going heel, this guy needs character development, something to give the people more intrest into his history... I mean theres only so much being straight edge can do.

Randy Orton (Legacy) and Matt Hardy (Jeff) are by far (well in my opinion) the most intresting characters the WWE have atm. There is so much these characters have going for them for the next several months its hard not to be intrested, its bringing new light to the company, on both brands, I just hope the WWE steer the ship the right way with those to.

RaiZ-R · 02-06-2009, 12:17 PM

Triple H is easily the most stale worker in the company. His unbeatable tweener superman gimmick get's old even quicker than Cena's unbeatable face superman gimmick. He needs to do something different because he's gone as far as he can with everything he's done in his career so far. He could either go full face and stop with the cocky act and have a fued with a young up and comer who he just can't beat. When he allowed Shelton Benjamin to defeat him in two straight matches, it was hugely exciting. It felt like Shelton had Hunter's number and he would always be one step ahead. Doing that again, possibly with Shelton, or even better someone new. MVP or Kennedy perhaps. Have Hunter stumped by this challenger and make it about his journey to discovering how to beat this new obstacle in his way. It would be a huge boost for the challenger to get two or three straight wins against such a huge star as Tripper, and it'll be something fresher for Hunter to do. Or just have him go full-on psycho heel and have him terrorize and bully the entire SD! roster (heel or face) in an effort to regain the title. Have him do what he has NEVER done before and not think things out, just attack on impulse and think about the consequences later. Have him destroy peoples favourite faces, and have him eventually come up short and be beaten by someone that no one would expect to save the show from his actions. MVP or Edge in a face role, or maybe Jeff Hardy after his fued with Matt, solidfying him in the main event.

On Raw, it's Cena. He's been face forever. It's been at least 8 years. That's too long. I'm not one for turn after turn after turn, but come on. When a face is getting the boo's Cena is getting, there's a reason, and it's not because the guys not entertaining. Cena needs to go heel, his tweener moments since his return (although few and far between) have been the most exciting moments he's had in recent times, but tweener just doesn't cut it. He needs to be full blown heel. Vicious and evil, cocky and brash, make people hate him. Truly HATE him, cos they will love him and WWE for it. Have him destroy HBK, easily Raw's most lovable face, have him annihilate him completely. Please God let HBK bleed for this one event because it would be so shocking for such a sudden vicious turn (for whatever reason) that it would make Cena the most over heel in that one segment. The boo's would be insane after such an intense beatdown. It would make Cena immediatly fresh and new, and exciting. It would be epic.

neXus · 02-09-2009, 09:59 PM

In Smackdowns defense, MVP was involved in an angle that seemingly is starting to pay off, but many people shit on him and act like Funaki is now more credible. Then you have people who are really the depth of the brand in Umaga and Ken Kennedy, who were, and in Kennedys case, still are injured. That leaves the possibility of Shelton, R -Truth, Kendrick or Khali to be put in the chamber. The IWC hates Khali, they call Shelton & R-Truth spotmonkeys, and while they do jizz over Kendrick, I'd laugh so hard I'd piss my pants if he got into the match. There really wasnt much talent to add to the chamber match than what they did add.

I will say that WWE needs to focus on their mid cards more though so that they can rely on fresh blood to fill in from time to time. Right now it seems like, in all main stream wrestling, the main event scene is the focus. Be it segments, promos, interviews, or a match, during the course of a show we are reminded of the main event angle at least three times.

Bigpapa42 · 02-09-2009, 11:05 PM

Put it this way... I pretty much stopped watching wrestling entirely for about two years and only started back up a bit last summer... And when I came back to it, I felt like nothing had changed. A few guys were gone, and there were a couple new faces. But precious little. Guys like Cena, Edge, Triple H, Undertaker, Orton, etc. all seemed to be about the same place as they were when I stopped watching. That is not a good thing at all.

Summersftw · 02-10-2009, 06:45 AM

I'd basically reiterate what nexus said, in that i think the issue is really the midcard, and the real lack of focus in it. Smackdown has a really exciting midcard division (guys like Shelton, MVP, Kenneday, Umaga, R-Truth, Kendrick etc...) yet there are zero midcard feuds or storylines, and haven't really been for months and months. They're beginning to establish MVP Vs. Benjamin, which i think is a great move, but hope they can pull it off with a bit more excitement than the pretty dull Punk/Regal 'feud' (read as fighting each other every week with zero promo). I think it's a shame really that they didn't have Regal and Punk have some mic time, they're both good on the mic, especially Regal. I guess he works a lot better as a comic heel though.

The tag division as well needs some SERIOUS effort. It's just the champions, and then one other team chosen at random who'll be the number one contenders. They'll have singles matches over a couple of weeks, then they'll have a title match, and that'll be the end of that feud.

It may just be me, but i much preffered to older style of WWE PPV booking, when they would have 8-10 matches on a card as opposed to the 5-6 that there are nowadays. It allowed for a lot of the smaller feuds to get PPV buildups and really showcased the whole roster.

King Steventon · 02-10-2009, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigpapa42
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Put it this way... I pretty much stopped watching wrestling entirely for about two years and only started back up a bit last summer... And when I came back to it, I felt like nothing had changed. A few guys were gone, and there were a couple new faces. But precious little. Guys like Cena, Edge, Triple H, Undertaker, Orton, etc. all seemed to be about the same place as they were when I stopped watching. That is not a good thing at all.

How is having an established group of main eventers a bad thing?

Tommy Platinum · 02-10-2009, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Steventon
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How is having an established group of main eventers a bad thing?

The only bad thing is the lack of character development.

King Steventon · 02-10-2009, 09:50 AM

That, and the lack of fresh match-ups.

Tommy Platinum · 02-10-2009, 09:55 AM

So I guess that kind of answers your question. I assume he is saying that it is always the same guys main eventing with nobody new pushed for any prolonged period of time, meaning we see the same matches over and over and things get very stale.

STALENESS

This is a discussion on STALENESS within the WWE Discussion forums, part of the Wrestling Forums category; This is quite a general topic, but I have noticed that a lot of WWE's top stars are incredibly stale ...