I actually unsubscribed from the last wrestling thread and passed Diva posting duty to Sage, however I did end up posting the Gail Christmas shoot.
A movie franchise and pro wrestling are not comparable. If you don't like the new direction of Bond then that's 2 hours you might as well skip as it's all one story centered on one character, now Cena jokes aside WWE's shows feature multiple wrestlers and multiple angles, so it's quite possible to tune in and enjoy the wrestler's you like while complaining about the booking of them and other parts of the show.
If you reach the point I have where you hate everything it's best not to post on the current product I agree, especially if you're not actually watching it, but most of the guys here are still enjoying parts and in turn are well within their rights to critique the rest of the show.
Stick around. We need you to contribute. Theres a lot of wrestling history to talk about even if the current product is mediocre.
Mmmm...yes! A shame the playboy days are over.
about the divas not geting them I blame the life crowd They are always dead during a diva match And, of course, people in the back will see that and decide divas do not deserve More time
Its silly to blame the crowd. The crowd doesn't care because the womens matches usually suck, or are too short, or don't get treated seriously by WWE. THATS why they sit on their hands or go take a piss. Theres a REASON for their lack of interest. The people didn't just give up one day.
When Kharma arrived in WWE she was HUGELY over with the crowds during her diva division storyline. AJ was also insanely over compared to most other women at her peak but WWE blew it by taking her out of the spotlight and putting her in a lesser position. Those women blow a hole in your theory. Give the fans something to get invested in and care about and they will get interested.
The Divas division is suffering because Vince McMahon doesn't see it as something worthy of time and effort. His interest has been steadily eroding since Trish Stratus retired. He saw her as a star to build the division around. That galvanized the whole division and his interest in it. But much like he was with Hogan for a long time he's never been AS interested in building the division around a new but different kind of top star once his ideal image of a top star left.
Sure he's pushed other women to the top but he's never put as much effort into getting the WWE machine to make them look as good as possible. He even tried to recreate the conditions that gave him Stratus by hiring models and thinking they could learn to be wrestlers but the effort wasn't put in by all parties like it was before. Kelly Kelly, Michelle McCool, etc. halfassedly pushed after being cut from that Stratus mold. Its no coincidence that when they got elevated to the top they were both a blonds with wholesome all american girl appeal.
It was a wise move to place her at numer one on the most beautiful list. I still can't believe she's gone.
She wasn't a wrestler but there has NEVER been another women in WWE with as much class. She didn't even have to do a lot. Something in her shone through. She was magnetic.
I remember a comment Triple H directed at Punk where he says "some people don't want change". There's a section of the audience who just go with the flow and don't see a problem. I think the WWE is catering to them , but then you see glimpses of progress. Like the somewhat revived tag team division. I want to have faith it's going to get better , but who knows if it ever will at this point.
Some of the people who watch no matter what and don't really care about the quality are part of the problem. Vince knows those people are hard to drive away and as long as they are around he'll make money. He and WWE are comfortable and compacent right now.
He's conditioned whole chunks of the viewing audience to accept what he feeds them and believe what he tells them. Its always been like that since the day he took over but now very little effort goes into the quality of the product. Its why WWE write their own history and tout their own propoganda. When WWE influences the fans when they are young they've created little consumer trainees who will pay off for them for years. Rinse and repeat. They did it with everyone here in this thread at one point 30/20/10 years ago.
Even I see the problems but I still watch out of nothing but habbit most of the time. McMahon knows this is true of a lot of viewers and even counts on it.
How can you start fresh and clean in an industry that has been around for 70 years?
Storylines get recycled, CSI was doing the same **** as Law & Order. At the end of the day the WWE is a soap opera, and I hate to break it to you, but there are only so many storylines in any story told.
You start fresh with FRESH FACES. Get behind building new stars at the right time instead of waiting until the last minute like WWE has done for over five years. You start fresh by bringing in fresh but talented minds to take those old storylines and adding new twists and creative ideas and NOT booking the show for yourself (Vince McMahon). Things would freshen up a lot if creative weren't slaves to every complaint of an aging out of touch egomaniac. Its not fresh when they are booking at the whim and for ther taste of an OLD MAN who is past his prime. Bring in good creative minds and take the proverbial cuffs off them.
Storylines getting recycled is nothing new but WWE doesn't seem to want to understand WHY those old storylines worked or how to implement them in todays product.
Ryback is the perfect example. Its Warrior and Goldberg all over again but the execution shows they don't know why those two previous characters took off the way they did. Punk is another one. He's a rebel, an anti hero in the vein of a Savage or Roberts or Austin but WWE clearly aren't even students of their own history or sucesses. Punk could be more than he is now.
This AJ/Cena nonsense is an example too. Learn from the good storylines of the past and learn from the mistakes that were the bad ones. They aren't doing that.
The way Punk/Bryan/AJ and Punk/Cena and Cena/AJ turned out show they didn't study the Hogan/Savage/Elizabeth or Roberts/Rude or Savage/Roberts stories of the past and use those as GOOD examles of how to book good "soap opera" as you put it. I don't mean carbon copy those storylines but understand how they accentuated and led to a satisfying end result.
) was a real low blow and really discredited a division that could make for some exciting matches and even storylines.
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