Is it just the road to Wrestlemania or has the WWE got its act together?

Bounty Hunter

To me it seems WWE has got its act together and it started ever since the last draft afaic.

They have got SD main event picture back to a good standard with Edge,HHH, Jeff, Taker and more all genuine contenders while haaving a decent midcard of people like MVP, Koslov, Matt Hardy and co pushing and involved in storylines.

ECW is now a proper independant brand seperate from the old ECW and is used very much to develop new talent like Swagger, Bourne, Mizorisson etc, aswell as having the ECW title now being used as the stepping stone between mid card and main event with people like Christian and Henry also involved.

Meanwhile Raw is still the flagship and has constant perrformers like HBK, Jericho and Orton who is now the companies no.1 heel, aswell as its own up and comers like Kofi and CM Punk and the no.1 name atm in its champ John Cena.

Is it just that its now the road to Wrestlemania when the company usually bring their A game or do you think the WWE is actually doing well atm? has it turned a corner? is the future looking good?

Mr.Nice Guy

No I don't think so anyway. From the predictions thread it seems people expect Wrestlemania to feature Cena and SuperHunter in title matches so that tells me the company hasn't improved at all.

Raw is still a pale shadow of its glory days, Smackdown is dominated by SuperHunter and his ego and ECW is still the ugly cousin of the WWE family.

I will give the PPVs a look but it doesn't bother me in the slightest to miss a WWE show these days. No new stars, same old glass ceiling, same old piss-poor storylines.

Not to sound too cynical or anything... :pac:

Bounty Hunter

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

No I don't think so anyway. From the predictions thread it seems people expect Wrestlemania to feature Cena and SuperHunter in title matches so that tells me the company hasn't improved at all.

Raw is still a pale shadow of its glory days, Smackdown is dominated by SuperHunter and his ego and ECW is still the ugly cousin of the WWE family......

not the biggest fan of Superhunter and his politicing but arent he and Cena argueably the two biggest draws, and Edge if anyone has dominated the SD scene (excluding his post taker time off) imo.

Rjd2

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

No I don't think so anyway. From the predictions thread it seems people expect Wrestlemania to feature Cena and SuperHunter in title matches so that tells me the company hasn't improved at all.


Not to sound too cynical or anything... :pac:

Ok
What is wrong with Cena being in the main event? The man is one of the best workers on Raw plus is the companies biggest draw, I don’t care what the internet thinks I am looking forward to Cena v Orton in the main event if it gets enough time. The man unlike Super Hunter jobbed himself silly last year he deserves the main event slot.

Mr.Nice Guy

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

not the biggest fan of Superhunter and his politicing but arent he and Cena argueably the two biggest draws, and Edge if anyone has dominated the SD scene (excluding his post taker time off) imo.

They are draws but where is the new blood? How is this an example of WWE getting its act together when it's still the same guys headlining? What's really changed?

Rjd2 wrote:

Ok
What is wrong with Cena being in the main event? The man is one of the best workers on Raw plus is the companies biggest draw, I don’t care what the internet thinks I am looking forward to Cena v Orton in the main event if it gets enough time. The man unlike Super Hunter jobbed himself silly last year he deserves the main event slot.

I've been a fan of Cena's for a good while. I agree with everything you say there however it does disappoint me that WWE have no one else to turn to when he's been viewed as their main man since mid to late 2005. That's almost four years. No one has come close to dislodging him. To me that indicates an inability on the part of WWE to build new stars. Too many people with stroke dominating things. I don't include Cena in that though. I don't blame him for it.

It is merely the Road To WrestleMania, i think.

WWE always seem to linger around the later parts of the year. People losing interest, etc. but then come January-April (and possibly into May) they kick it up a notch.

Since a few weeks before the Rumble, it's all been going great for WWE. Last year, as a whole, I thought was pretty solid, if I'm being honest. Still don't like the two chambers at No Way Outp deal, but other than that i really liked last year.

I've grown to be quite fond of CM Punk. I really thoroughly enjoyed all the intertwining stories that happened during the summer with Batista, Cena, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, JBL and Kane.

I hope WWE can keep it interesting until December, But i reckon they'll go for another big "who dunnit" storyline at the start of the summer, and again, it'll suck. I can only imagine what'll happen to Vince this year. Someone will reverse over him in monster truck or something ridiculous.

rossie1977

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

not the biggest fan of Superhunter and his politicing but arent he and Cena argueably the two biggest draws, and Edge if anyone has dominated the SD scene (excluding his post taker time off) imo.

looking at the smackdown numbers since HHH moved there that could be debated big time, crowd reaction and drawing power isn't the same thing

Bounty Hunter

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

They are draws but where is the new blood? How is this an example of WWE getting its act together when it's still the same guys headlining? What's really changed?

Well having new guys headlining right now isnt the fault of the WWE at the minute its the fault of them from a few years ago atm they do seem to be developing new stars mostly through using ECW 100% as a development brand and elevating stars with the ECW title which is like the new IC title i.e the stepping stone from mid card to main event often. CM Punk, Morrison, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, etc are all new stars that got their first chance at ECW before going on to Raw/SD next up may be Swagger or Christian.

And of course when talking about new stars you also have to consider those that are now solidifying their status as a main eventer/headliner. People like Edge or Orton who are still relativley young have now developed into the top heels on each respective brand (whichever brand their on atm), While Jeff Hardy for one is now a fully fledged member of the main-eventers not just a crowd fav.

For me atleast the WWE is currently doing better than it has for a long time, although again im not sure if this is just the fact that its the road to wrestlemania where they always tend to bring their A game or just them getting their act together.

Evolution Enter

Bull****, the attitude towards Triple H everytime I read a wrestling forum. How Undertaker is considered the way he is with his record, and how Triple H can be be considered, especially at Mania is absolute bull****

Trips put over Benoit at Mania, and again at Backlash

Then he puts Cena over at Mania,

HHH has one of the worst records at Mania of all the top guys and he's still attacked for holding guys down

Who did Taker ever put over at Mania? Nobody. I'm a huge fan of both Taker and HHH, and have been following wrestling for twenty years. Absolutely galls me to hear people rant about 'super hunter' and forget the entire history of wrestling was built by guys in his position. Flair, Hogan, Lalor, Hart, and TNA's Jarrett

Judge one, judge all

rossie1977

Evolution Enter wrote: »

Bull****, the attitude towards Triple H everytime I read a wrestling forum. How Undertaker is considered the way he is with his record, and how Triple H can be be considered, especially at Mania is absolute bull****

Trips put over Benoit at Mania, and again at Backlash

Then he puts Cena over at Mania,

HHH has one of the worst records at Mania of all the top guys and he's still attacked for holding guys down

lets judge this correctly

while HHH was putting over cena IN THE TITLE MATCH MAIN EVENT......................undertaker was near the bottom of the card beating mark "f**king" henry

while HHH was putting over benoit IN THE TITLE MATCH MAIN EVENT............taker was beating kane for the 200th time on ppv in like 4-5 minutes

want more taker second match on the card at WM19, 2nd match on the card WM21, HHH in title matches on both those cards.

i am not a big fan of takers streak but...main event title match or squashing jobbers for the most part prior to 3 years ago, i wonder which i would choose

DRakE

Trips puts people over once a year omg!

Bounty Hunter

not just wrestlers it seems HHH is now intent on burying threads on here too

callaway92

It has been a long tome since I was looking forward to the next episode of RAW but the last couple of weeks I really liked and and am looking forward to the next one..Could Randy Orton be any better..The man is class..Him and Cena saved my love for the business

Bounty Hunter

yeah i think Randy has really stepped it up recently with his role as lead Heel imo, hes been on top form.

Furious-Red

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

yeah i think Randy has really stepped it up recently with his role as lead Heel imo, hes been on top form.

Agreed he has impressed me over the last few months with the new character

CMpunked

Furious-Red wrote: »

Agreed he has impressed me over the last few months with the new character

New character?

In the words of él Austin:
Cé?

I like his involvement in the angle, but is it really a new character?

callaway92

Comic-Book-Guy wrote: »

New character?

In the words of él Austin:
Cé?

I like his involvement in the angle, but is it really a new character?

Yes it is a new character..He is a guy that cant control what he does..He (pardon this) hears voices in his head:pac:

He is a psycho now but in the past he knew what he was doing but in a cocky way

Bubs101

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

yeah i think Randy has really stepped it up recently with his role as lead Heel imo, hes been on top form.

Thinking about Jericho's return really make's you realise how much he's improved in the space of a year. I remember his facials and movement were just awful in that segment and he really floundered. Now I'd reckon he'd give Rocky a run for his money

rude awakening

but in saying all this can we actually see wrestling getting back to the days when we had propper storylines i.e 1997-2002/3 Rock/Austin, The Heart Foundation, Taker/Foley, but aswell as having proper storylines we also had proper wrestling, where vince didnt believe that every wrestler he hired needed to be a muscle bound athlete i.e. mike knox, snitsky, khali.

callaway92

The Attitude years were 9/10 years ago now..Things have changed.Many more TV chanells..Internet etc.They probably will never reach the same heights in the future as they did in the past

CMpunked

callaway92 wrote: »

The Attitude years were 9/10 years ago now..Things have changed.Many more TV chanells..Internet etc.They probably will never reach the same heights in the future as they did in the past

Why would more tv stations matter?

WWE programming is still on just the one channel per show in the US

callaway92

Comic-Book-Guy wrote: »

Why would more tv stations matter?

WWE programming is still on just the one channel per show in the US

lots more choice of programmes for people to watch..duh

CMpunked

callaway92 wrote: »

lots more choice of programmes for people to watch..duh

But theres still only WWE, TNA and Ocasionally ROH. (for those who "like" it ).

Back then there was just WWE, WCW and... well not much else.
So if a wrestling fan is going to watch wrestling they know what time its on at and will watch it.
So granted that WWE will never be at the same peak that it was in the 90s but when you look at the general trend of americans that watch tv anymore you'll see that the decline is pretty much across the board.

Bubs101

Comic-Book-Guy wrote: »

But theres still only WWE, TNA and Ocasionally ROH. (for those who "like" it ).

Back then there was just WWE, WCW and... well not much else.
So if a wrestling fan is going to watch wrestling they know what time its on at and will watch it.
So granted that WWE will never be at the same peak that it was in the 90s but when you look at the general trend of americans that watch tv anymore you'll see that the decline is pretty much across the board.

Yeah but the point is wrestling fans don't only like wrestling, they like other shows to and with more competition there's more options for fans. Anyway, ratings are irrelevant when you get little money for adds and your nearest same sport competition is a joke

callaway92

Bubs101 wrote: »

Yeah but the point is wrestling fans don't only like wrestling, they like other shows to and with more competition there's more options for fans. Anyway, ratings are irrelevant when you get little money for adds and your nearest same sport competition is a joke

Thats exactly what I meant..Thanks

CMpunked

Bubs101 wrote: »

Yeah but the point is wrestling fans don't only like wrestling, they like other shows to and with more competition there's more options for fans. Anyway, ratings are irrelevant when you get little money for adds and your nearest same sport competition is a joke

I could understand it when you said it bubs, thanks

Who do you mean in the latter stage of the post?

Fozzy

Comic-Book-Guy wrote: »

I could understand it when you said it bubs, thanks

Who do you mean in the latter stage of the post?

TNA

Bubs101

Comic-Book-Guy wrote: »

Who do you mean in the latter stage of the post?

What Fozzy said. 10 years ago ratings were important because and only because there were two large companies intent on destroying each other competing in the same timeslot. The rating was a way of assessing which was more popular. To each company PPV buys and merchandise were financially infinitely more important.

Now ratings are irrelevant. No wrestling show is in any danger of being cancelled because they do better than the networks average. For the WWE, their rating is completely irrelevant because it brings in no added revenue and there's no competition. For TNA, their rating is irrelevant because they're so far behind the WWE that there's no point in drawing attention to it as it only emphasizes the gap and brings in no revenue.

PPV is the lifeblood of a company. TV is exposure and build for the PPV. The only wrestling show next year that should give a crap about their ratings is ROH yet both companies are obsessed with them atm because it's the exact same people from WCW and WWF and they haven't evolved. Hopefully ROH can take advantage of that

Cactus Col

But surely ratings aren't completely irrelevant ... as a measuring stick between TNA and WWE maybe. But ratings have to be fairly decent, or the product won't be on a tv station for very long.

callaway92

Cactus Col wrote: »

But surely ratings aren't completely irrelevant ... as a measuring stick between TNA and WWE maybe. But ratings have to be fairly decent, or the product won't be on a tv station for very long.

TBH WWE could still take a big drop in ratings and they'll be fine. USA will keep RAW because atm its most watched show on cable...SD got the highgest amount of viewers ever for MYNetworkTV and ECW is getting higher every week thanks to Mark Henry..

MickL

how has not one person mentioned Rhodes or Dibasie. both have featured heavily in the last year and are future main events and at 22,, maybe versus each other now that i'd like to see.

CMpunked

MickL wrote: »

how has not one person mentioned Rhodes or Dibasie. both have featured heavily in the last year and are future main events and at 22,, maybe versus each other now that i'd like to see.

Maybe because they haven't done anything of major importance yet.
Sure, they are part of ortons crew and thus heavily involved with the angle there, but its about orton, the mcmahons and HHH.


I'd say in time they will break out even more and find their own footing.

But i wouldnt put them down to one of the reasons to why the WWE has improved.
IMO they have helped to show the WWE have gotten better in bringing in some new blood.

MickL

If you look at the upcomming talent in FCW you can see the WWE has a bright future,

CMpunked

MickL wrote: »

If you look at the upcomming talent in FCW you can see the WWE has a bright future,

Like a young ginger haired axe-wielding finlay-bashing seamus!