re: Some thoughts on pro wrestling (WWE) as it is today

MMA going main stream killed pro wrestling. Why watch a soap opera when the real thing is so readily available?

as soon as Vince Bought WCW, and ECW and took away the popular competition the whole thing fell apart. Vince's greed killed wrestling.

WCW and ECW were going out of business whether Vince bought them or not. When AOL bought TimeWarner (who owned Turner) they cancelled WCW on TNT and TBS. The company was basically worthless without a tv contract. WWE already had most of the big ECW stars by the time they went under.

I know. ECW was in serious financial trouble, even with their TNN contract. They would not have lasted much longer. TNN was transitioning to Spike and wanted a flagship show for their new men's network and WWE's contract with USA was about to expire so the timing worked out. No doubt TNN knew about ECW's financial issues.

You are old. My 9 year old nephew loves this shite.

Good discussion in here. On top of what has been said:

1. Announcing - its piss fricking poor. Instead of using them to get the wrestlers over and calling the match, they force feed us WwE app, WWE network, group grabass, who's trending worldwide, total divas and alittle bit of overall story. JR and the nitro crew (mainly brain and tenay) added nuances that improved the product. Lawler is going through the motions and needs to be replaced.

2. No factions - nWo, DX, 4 horsemen, the Corporation, the Nation, the Flock, dungeon of Doom, Mean street posse just to name a few. Evolution, Shield and the Wyatt's.....Nexus?....crickets

3. Wrestling - everyone is brought up through the cookie cutter WWE preformance center and are all taught the same style, which means we get the same crappy product. The guys in the attitude/nitro era "called it in the ring" and it made it a lot better and more realistic. Just watched Rey Jr vs Eddie for the CW title at WW3 97' and that match crushed anything I've seen on Raw besides the Ambrose/Rollins match in the last 6 months.

4. Shitty backstage creative

Part of the reason it was can't miss TV was as much behind the scenes as in the ring. Who was in the limo that just arrived? Who just laid out wrestler X in the lockeroom? Cross wrestler interaction. Now all we get is a shitty Renee young interview in front of a shitty chain link fence


5. Titles don't matter

They need to restructure the company:

WWE title
IC title
TV title
Tag team titles

IC and US are too much alike IMO. TV title needs to be your up and coming guy who can wrestle on every show (think Bo Dallas). IC should return to prominence as being on the cusp to superstardom like it was traditionally.


DRIVEMAN OUT

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Wrestling has long-been awful, this is nothing new.

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yep, no more Dusty Rhodes, Dick Murdock or the Great Kabuki - nothing but pure atleats - physical specimens.

The camera work now makes me nauseous.

The whole zoom in and out thing after every fricking move sucks, and it takes away from the impact on a lot of the moves.

It all went to shite when Linda McMahon decided she wanted to run for political office.

Their family spent millions of dollars for two campaigns that were both failures. To top it off, there was no way she could run on a conservative platform while her husband's company made money off of sex and violence.

So we got what it called the PG-era; a kid friendly show and essentially a watered down and bland product.

I think there are several factors as to why the product isn't as good today ---

#1 The rivalries they're creating aren't getting me fired up. I think they've done so much over the years that it's hard for them to find new ways of getting guys to hate each other

#2 They need a real, bonafide HEEL. Heel's make the story so much better. Flair, NWO, they need a top-flight heel that can really create some heat and put a Face over.

#3 I agree with the comments about the camera work and the announcing. The announcing isn't what it used to be.

#4 Kids like Cena, but the adult crowd has grown tired of him. It's because we've been over-saturated with it. Cena is everywhere.

Hogan had the same tired act as WWF champion with his matches, opponents, finishers and everything else. But we only saw him 1 time a week. Today's generation would have killed Hogan too.