Wrestling Agents - are we better off without?

gerrybbadd

I've been thinking a lot about this lately, after hearing an interview with AJ Styles about calling a match in the ring.

In WWE & TNA, wrestlers are assigned agents to work out their matches for them. I'm not sure about other feds like NJPW or ROH. Some of WWE's current agents are Road Dogg, Joey Mercury, Jamie Noble, Finlay, Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson, IRS, Billy Kidman & Michael Hayes.

I'm sure that some of these guys have lots to add to matches, but would the product be better if the wrestlers themselves had the power to create their own matches, and call it in ring, like used to be done.

Pat Patterson is much respected in the business, and has a great history of putting together great matches (i think he used to do the entire Royal Rumble for example), but what about Billy Kidman - he was hardly known for his stellar in ring career, full of 5 star matches!

gimmick

Something which all the agents today have which most active guys in WWE do not have is experience outside the confines of WWE. So for me they are important in that regard.

It might be a bit disrespectful of me, but Im not sure a match called by Heath Ledger Vs Ryback, two products of the WE system and nothing else, is going to be any better than one booked by a guy who has the experience of many years around the world.

Bounty Hunter

The agents very much so have a role but they should be allowed to give the guys they are producing leeway to fill in the blanks in the match which should not be 100% worked out for them.

It should be like scripting promos (or at least how promos should be done)... Writers do have a place but they should be giving the wrestlers bullet points (where they want to get to and maybe some verbage to use getting there) not scripting 100% of what the wrestlers say.

gerrybbadd

gimmick wrote: »

Something which all the agents today have which most active guys in WWE do not have is experience outside the confines of WWE. So for me they are important in that regard.

It might be a bit disrespectful of me, but Im not sure a match called by Heath Ledger Vs Ryback, two products of the WE system and nothing else, is going to be any better than one booked by a guy who has the experience of many years around the world.

Seriously though, it wouldn't be for everybody! Some of the lower card guys definately could do with the hand out. But then again, should somebody like a Cesaro be taking instruction from a Billy Kidman or Joey Mercury?

Moneymaker

So according to Meltzer, WWE expected Eva Marie to get a good reception on RAW.

It's like, you can never predict the audience, no matter how smart you are. And WWE.. you know, sometimes they can and sometimes they can't, especially now. But this one? This one was a no-brainer. And the idea that they didn't figure it out.. This was one where I was really surprised how they didn't figure this out. This was an easy one. It is the typical WWE, they're trying to go right, but they can't help themselves from going left. They think that she (Eva) is so hot that everyone is going to like her. It didn't work in NXT and it obviously didn't work tonight. People have so much access to photos of hot women, that being a hot woman who can't wrestle it doesn't mean **** anymore. There was a time when it did with Tammy Sytch and Sable. But times change. If Braun Strowman showed up in the Hogan era, they could have done Wrestlemania with him and match would have sucked, but they would have drawn big money.

Amazing company. Wish I could make 645m in a year by being totally tone deaf and clueless to my own audience.

sky88

Moneymaker wrote: »

So according to Meltzer, WWE expected Eva Marie to get a good reception on RAW.



Amazing company. Wish I could make 645m in a year by being totally tone deaf and clueless to my own audience.

I dont i seen paige shurg her off when she tried to hug her and i think a few others did as well. They wouldnt have had the divas have that reaction then still expect a good reaction.

Itssoeasy

I think the agents should be there but their involvement should be dependent on the guys in the match and their experience. I mean no disrespect to Jamie noble but I doubt he'd be able to tell triple h and the undertaker how to put a match together.

I think if guys have the match all laid out for so long and something goes wrong they don't know how to react as its all in a sequence and the sequence is messed up. There needs to be a plan b.

It's obvious the promos are fully written as it doesn't sound natural and more important the person saying it for the most part doesn't believe what they are saying and that comes across as such.

Paul heyman is brilliant at promos because he makes you believe in what he is saying.

Moneymaker

Don't know why my previous post ended up in here, i'll blame it on my phone :pac:

Anyway, absolutely not we are better off without agents. Why would we not want the likes of Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson and Ricky Steamboat not putting matches together?

I'm sure guys like Cena, Jericho etc have a lot of input into their matches but the agents are there for a good reason.

A big issue with TNA is their agents were horrendous and matches were awfully put together. So yes they are vital.

jaykhunter

Agents are needed as a liason between creative and wrestler; can't have wrestlers booking their own matches; although the upside would be higher workrate/crazier matches/more storyline drama, it'd be a mess, we'd see the same spots in different matches and probably burning the crowd out halfway through the show, like old ROH and their 4-5 hour shows! Part of WWE's success is their ability to showcase the stars, doing that by having bigger stars with longer/more story-driven matches/big spots.

I didn't say WWE were doing that right now or for the last few years! But wrestlers having their place on the card is important so you know who your stars are. Wrestlers are there to put over the company, not themselves. Of course the best of both worlds would be wrestlers putting together a match with the agent.

Chain Smoker

sky88 wrote: »

I dont i seen paige shurg her off when she tried to hug her and i think a few others did as well. They wouldnt have had the divas have that reaction then still expect a good reaction.

That bit in particular was extremely weird. The only way I can rationalise it is that it was to do with something in Total Divas where they're gonna be all all mad about her after coming in and hogging the limelight. Absolutely nothing about the way her return was staged or the actions of anyone involved a negative crowd response.

CSF

I assume that was something that was fed down on the spot. The expectation was that everyone would be like 'ooh look at this hot girl' and then when it wasn't they decided to go with a heel/face in the same team dilemma angle.

ERG89

Moneymaker wrote: »

Amazing company. Wish I could make 645m in a year by being totally tone deaf and clueless to my own audience.

Ah sure nobody cancels their network subs or stop buying tickets/merch despite all the moaning. So i'm sure wwe just are of the opinion that fans will buy any stuff they sell. If fans vote with their wallets wwe will listen but....nope :rolleyes:
Haven't watched Raw, i'll skip Smackdown this week after seeing the results and Mania as i'm not a subscriber as I feel there is more than enough wwe on tv now