Where would we be?

Crockerinho

Where would we be right now if some of the major benchmarks in the WWE did not happen.

I think its quite interesting when you think about all the major things that have happened and how it shaped the product we all watch today.

Where would we be right now if the Montreal Screwjob never happened? Where would we be if Hogan was never born? Where would we be if Steve Austin never jumped ship to the WWE?

I'm too tired to add my views now, but i'll come back to this and post a real answer to some of those questions.

Until then, what do you think were the most important benchmarks over the years in terms of how they shaped todays product? Would WWE still even be around today if Austin never jumped ship? What would the repurcussions have been if Bret was never screwed? Would he be champ right now? He may possible have headlined last nights mania instead of being inducted into the hall of fame.

Tyler Durden

Good points Crock. I don't have any answers....just opinions. The single most important thing that happened in my time of viewing was the manner in which Eric Bischoff led WCW through their Monday Nitro programming.

The reason I say this is that wrestling (outside of PPV's) prior to 1996ish was awful. I mean really really bad. I would never ever have become attached to the product that they were peddling prior to that and, for people who deride Raw now.....man I'd love them to get hold of a time machine and go back to seeing what we used to have to watch. Very slow paced programming, hardly ever (and I mean ever) any matches that actually involved any high ranked guys wrestling each other. Instead the regular roster guys would come out, cut a promo, beat up a jobber and then maybe you'd get a run in with the roster guy they were feuding with.

Then Nitro came along. Now don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware of how Bischoff plagiarised ideas from Japan (nWo) and ECW (their smaller more skilful roster). The success of Nitro forced Vince to change his programme style completely, both in match content and quality and then (ultimately) with "Attitude" in order to compete and succeed.

Now, without Nitro coming in, and without Nitro being a success, would Vince have moved so quickly? Would Vince have carried on pushing the same old names? Well, since (as soon as he financially could) he obtained Hogan, Nash, Flair and many others (years after deriding their age on his own programming) I think it's clear that the industry would never have progressed so quickly without Nitro's success and, of course, Vince without prompting would never have driven guys like Jericho, Benoit and Eddie to the top of the mountain without being shown the way forward first. None of those guys matched what Vince believes to be a genuine WWE Superstar "prototype".

So, for me, Nitro was the biggest thing to shape what we watch today. Without Nitro's success Austin would never have been dismissed, WCW would have stayed second rate, we would never have had the Stone Cold phenomenon, Bret would have had nowhere to go so would probably still be wrasslin' old school on WWE, the Montreal screw job wouldn't have happened since Bret couldn't have feasibly gone anywhere else, Rock would never have become a phenom since old stars like Nash and Hart would never have left WWE and Vince wouldn't have been forced to push young talent and we would have a genuine and valid reason to moan every single week about the quality of Raw (which would probably have been broadcast from a high school arena by now)

The Phantom

Where would we be without the McMahons? Including Vince Sr

K Jay

Where would we be if WWE had decided to make the main event of Wrestlemania The Barbarian Vs Bugsy?

I had a sig, once.

Blitzkrieg

You have to hand it to Vince, he knows what works and then when he stops knowing, he looks elsewhere. That's what any smart businessman would do..

I'm still waiting for Vince to start his own X-Division because of how popular its become in TNA. Maybe he doesn't see the need to just yet but if he has to he will. Vince is having fun right now, he's playing around, do what he likes, but when he's pushed again he'll act. That's why wrestling has always needed competition, much like automobiles or any other industry. People thrive off competition and steal ideas to pass off as their own and possibly add to it. Much like the relationship between Bulldog and I. The Rock and HHH needed each other to push one another to the top, no its Carlito and Masters, etc, etc.

Where would we be right now if The Rock hadn't retired? Would WWE still be finding a way to generate 8.0 ratings? Would people have become sick of The Rock? Would there be more stars because of Rocky? Would there be less because WWE wouldn't need them?

Tyler Durden

Depends how they would have handled Rock from 2001 onwards. Hunter, Taker, Michaels (albeit with a 4 year break in the middle) are all still there after many many years and the crowds still love them, and Rock had just as much if not more about him than they did, so he would still have been gaining huge attention and support from the fans.

I don't actually think his staying around would have made a huge difference long term to the ratings, people fell out of love with wrestling around 2001 onwards because of the incredibly bad writing, not because of the performers who were for the most part putting on stellar matches through 2001/2.

Wrestling is just like any TV show in that regard, when it is written well it does well, when the stroylines don't garner interest, the ratings drop. Had anybody except Steph been fronting up creative from this time onwards they would have been canned, but Vince as always has to ultimately take the blame since it's his decision to have the shows written in the way they are now and it's his decision to have his daughter front up the writing team.

Thanks largely to international success the company is still extremely profitable, unless his ratings started tanking completely (and hopefully they have pretty much bottomed in the 3.5ish areas) Vince is going to pretty much going to carry on going the way he is until he hopefully unearths either a character that clicks with the public to a huge degree coupled with an improvement in storyline quality. In the meantime I have to hope Vince is forced into better action (since he works better under pressure) by a rival organisation, but that isn't happening soon.