WWE-What REALLY happened?

AudioSavior

What do you think the real reason WWE went down hill so fast after being so big for so long? Was it that, all good things must come to an end? The fall of WCW and ECW? The changing of staff and writers? Steph being somewhat in charge of the writing? HHH and Steph's marriage? Or is there something else that you think might have caused WWE to be at such a low?


I think it might be a little of all of them but I can't help but look how WWE is slowing starting to make a comeback and notice that TNA is slowly crawling behind. It makes me wonder if most of it was because WCW was about to crumble and there was no more competition. With TNA starting to gain some respect and fighting to improve, WWE seems to be trying to step things up at the same pave. Is this a coincidence? Maybe, but I wonder how much of a roll it really does play in WWE kicking it up a notch?
How about you?

Narc

It is a combination of all those things you mentioned. The top reasontho, it has to be the talent. No 1 today comes even close to The Rock, Stone Cold and Hollywood Hogan. With the time passing by, people usually tend to forget how great some wrestlers were. I downloaded some Rock's stuff the other day and thats the reason why wrestling was so good. That stuff he did was priceless. He was so good it ain't even funny. Btw, I downloaded that skit of when the nWo first showed up at the ppv and The Rock was AWESOME (and you Diesel TOO TOO TOOOOOOOO LOL). Today the best wrestler we got is Triple H and he is not even 1/10 as good as The Rock.

AudioSavior

It started to decline while those guys were still there and the top dogs though. SO I don't see how it can be the talent. They had a lot of talent at the time when it was at it's lowest.

Necro

VIP Room Moderator

Just goes in cycles I think. A lot of the Attitude era people were new fans, and didnt seem to watch much wrestling before then. I think once things got boring, they just stopped watching. Plus no companys to compete against you also has something to do with it. Jesus I could just remember having to come to that tough decision whether to watch Raw or Nitro each night. It seriously was hard when both were at their peaks. Makes both companies basically do whatever it took to win the ratings. In some cases it really was horrible I.E. Jay Leno wrestling haha. I think wrestling will pick up more in the next few years hopefully. I hope Ted Turner gets a new wrestling company, and shit actually turns out good. That would be sweet...

Tyler Durden

Loss of high quality performers - Austin, Rock, Foley all in a short space of time. These were the guys that made me want to watch the programmes and buy the PPV's so bad. HHH is up there with them, however I always think of him as more of a "glue" guy, holding it all together with high quality performers around him.

Departure of Brock Lesnar.

Quality of writing going downhill - Seemingly since Steph has been in charge of the writing team and predominantly since WMXVII. Mick Foley also mentioned recently that the company has "done comedy" really badly over the last few years. They haven't put enough humour in and when they have it's been embarrasing.

Long term injuries to Kurt Angle, one of the few performers who could have run with the ball but physically hasn't been able to.

Lack of competition - They're the only major show in town and it shows. WWE seeming always does better when under threat from elsewhere.
The lack of evelation of "over" performers - RVD, Booker T, Chris Jericho, Matt Hardy, Christian, Eddie Guerrero. The list is endless of performers who have reached a certain point in the WWE however, when they have required the big win to take them up to the top level, they've been looked over. These are all performers who at one stage were seriously over, but the WWE lacked faith in pushing them to the moon and, as a consequence, some are now barely over anymore.

I don't agree with the cyclical thing that is always spouted by the WWE. The shows have been rubbish and that's why the ratings are low, it's a cop out to just say it's cyclical. Sure that would have a small effect but it masks the key problems

There the ones I can think off immediately, I'm sure there are more!!!

AudioSavior

It went down hill before Brock even came into wrestling.

It even went down hill while Foley Rock and Austin were still around.

I agree that writing had a lot to do with it. That had gotten pretty bad when you look back at some of the stuff they were doing. Hopefully they will see the light now that this Batista storyline is working well.

Lack of competition is the biggest reason why I think it tanked. It just seems like vince sat back and floated along because he was the only guy on the island with all the naked chics and had no threat to worry about. he lost his drive to have it be the best it could be and just did his job.

The cyclical thing I don't buy either. I mean wrestling was big from the moment Hogan slammed Andre up until the day Maye gave birth to a hand. There has been no cyclical to even compare it to.

Necro

VIP Room Moderator

There has been some sort of cycle. Just like in the extreme wrestling warfare games, they say if wrestling is in a down period, or an up period etc. Most insiders say theres definitly cycles. Think about it the mid 90's wrestling was doing okay, bam 98 comes around attitude era, monday night wars, wcw folds, cycle starts going down. TNA comes cycle moves up a little, bigger company coms around it will get higher etc...

AudioSavior

I still don't buy the cycle thing. There was reasons why it had ups and downs. If things had been different they would have stayed up.If it is good it is good and staus up. I really wonder what made the casual fan stay turned in so much when it was big but then just give up so fast when things were not so great.That to me is jumping on the bandwagon. If a sports team is doing good everyone is a fan all of a sudden. I think that is what happened for the most part. The casual fan got bored and moved on.

The die hards stuck around. Most just bitch and complain but as long as they are still watching that is ok.

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Lol...this post belonged here..


I agree with Ida about the cycle issue. If there is a good product out there people will watch.

The whole problem to me is based around two things:

1. Lack of Competiton. The Monday Night wars brought out the best in WWE, because WWE was quite possibly for the first time overshadowed by WCW. We all know about the 83 straight weeks or whatever it was that WCW was king of monday wrestling. Vince and the writers had to focus and really step up their game. They stole ideas actually. The edgy promos from ECW. The hardcore aspect from ECW. The stable wars from WCW. The high profile matches on free television from WCW. And they found out a way to crate new stars, which brings me to the next issue.

2. Lack of Character development. How many new stars did WWE create in that era. Austin, Rock, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, The New Age Outlaws. You know what all those people have in common? Their gimmick is based primarily on who that person really is. Exaggerated a bit, but still. I know some guys personality sucks but here are some examples, Austin is a beer drinking, outdoorsman from Texas with a foul mouth, who drives a pick up, They let Rock, and Mick, and Jericho be funny and crack jokes, because they really are funny people. Now, they try to create some bull for somebody like they did in the 80's. They thought Batista should be a crazy, yelling, maniac. But he's just a laid back guy, and when they let him be him guess what? the fans bought into it more and love him now. Why does Masters have to be the narcisist? Maybe he does go around loving his body, but the fans don't want to see it. They can't relate to that like they can relate to something that's funny or obnoxious, or just a regular guy. If a guys personality sucks, then WWE has to step in and find something for them..but how many guys do you see now, who have no personality and WWE lets them float around too? You see it goes both ways. Guys with a good personality should be left alone, like The Big Show, and guys with no personality they have to create something for. Big Show is currently doing something that he isn't good at...being a mean bastard. He needs to be funny like he really is, and serious when the time is right. Are you telling me fans won't buy into a easy going, lovable giant who gets pissed off from time to time? WWE has the system all backwards if you ask me.

AudioSavior

I don't think they have it all backwards because they seem to be making som progress but I think they need to take bigger steps to keep the direction going the right way.