JohnnyJ

I looked at all of the signings over the past few years as an acknowledgment that no one really knows what works. The creation of draws are largely random. If you sign a whole bunch of people, something is bound to click. It was an acceptance that a five-foot nothing underdog may take the wrestling world by storm and they wanted to be there when it happened. The mass releases of the last year are a rejection of this approach. WWE will now go back to Vince's pet projects and attempt to create draws out of people who look the part. From a business perspective, the question is, is he wrong? I'm sure it eats Vince up that there are A-listers in Hollywood who came out of his system. If he was ever able to line up the timing right, there is the potential for an A-list performer to be headlining his shows and a business bonanza. On the other hand, it has been two decades since a John Cena came through that door and the type of performer Vince is probably picturing doesn't come around too often.

We've reached a point where there isn't much shame in being open about watching WWE or AEW. It's relatively mainstream. Now how do you explain to people that most nights you wait until your wife goes to sleep to turn on midnight express matches?

It's pretty bad right now. Even when interest was low, there was always some kind of draw. Maybe they werent selling out arenas, but there was someone people actually wanted to see. And the endless stream of bad pr certainly isn't helping. With respect to Morrison, who remembers the Chronicle the network put together of his return. It was an hour of him getting jerked around and realizing that none of the big plans for him were actually going to materialize. What's interesting about those network documentaries (the Liv Morgan is another one like this) is that was the usable footage. Just imagine what was left on the cutting room floor. Morrison was only signed in the first place to keep him away from AEW.

WALTER coming in is probably confusing for Vince. How do you shorten someones name when it is already just a first name. How many weeks before he's WALT?

Part of the issue is WWE is almost comically tone-deaf. Unlike most companies, HR decisions are very pubic. If you bring some kid out to Florida for $50k-$75k a year and an opportunity, you can give him/her six months severance on the way out so he/she has a soft landing. It's good for the kid and good PR. The other issue is WWE seems to think they have a personnel problem, when they have a creative problem. So what you end up with is this revolving door of talents who are losing their livelihoods because WWE doesn't know what they are doing.

Isn't this what SNL essentially does now? They don't hire funny people. They hire people with a talent for improv and impersonations. This is how someone like Pete Davidson became such a standout. He's a marginally funny person amongst a group of people who can't deliver a joke.

Ronda put all of the pieces together ridiculously quickly.

The move the needle argument is nonsense. It's WWE-speak for whenever someone they werent behind gets themselves over and doesn't sellout stadiums overnight. Roman has had how many mania main events? Does he move the needle?

Acts that are over are such an anomaly that WWE doesn't know what to do with it. Do they push them? Do they punish them? Do they ignore it? Do they try to use their overness to get over a less over act? I think part of the signing sprees of the last few years was an acknowledgment that they have absolutely no idea what works. All they know is 95% of what they do is not working and every so often someone catches fire. (Punk, Bryan, Lynch) The theory was if you take a bunch of flyers on the cheap, something is bound to work.

The logical reason is that for awhile they were signing anyone and everyone. At the same time people werent getting fired. The result was a bloated roster which seemed to exist to keep talents away from the competition and give a whole bunch of unused wrestlers a paycheck. Because of crummy talent development there are less than a handful of draws in the entire company making just about everyone except dolph ziggler expendable.

I see a comparison between peak NXT and peak American Idol. What made American Idol a pop culture phenomenon is it completely delivered on what it was promising. The viewers were told they were deciding on who was going to be the next pop sensation and the winners went on to be some of the biggest names in the industry. Today there are still a bunch of music competition shows but they are no longer producing stars. Similarly, during peak NXT, not only were you getting quality matches, you felt like you were watching a bunch of talents who were going to get called up and run the place. Initially, some of the talents did big things right out of the gate. However, after years of call ups faltering and not doing much of anything combined with talents overstaying their welcome, NXT is just another wrestling show.

My understanding of the thought process behind the house show loop is there is a lot of value to the company in running these B, C, and D towns which are light on major sports and live entertainment. House shows are extremely kid heavy and you’re creating new fans. At least in theory this is supposed increase ratings, bump up merch/sub numbers, etc. Whether this is actually true or the best use of company resources is debatable.

My wrestling hot take is that over the last few years WWE effectively killed the town. They were positioned absolutely perfectly. All of those attitude era wrestling fans were now entering their prime earning years with disposable income and young children. The indies/performance center had produced a talent surplus. The tv/streaming wars would give them more money for programming than they could imagine. Yet between endless bad press, boring/bad tv and ignoring the audience they managed to turn off most of their fan base.

I think about someone like Wesley Blake. Two years in the business he gets signed. Probably thinks he's on the verge of stardom. This is the beginning of Obamas second term. He then toils in nxt through the entire second half of his 20s and beginning of his 30s. Almost a decade playing grabass in Florida during his prime wrestling years waiting for his break. WWE doesn't owe him money or an opportunity but what an indictment of the developmental system.

Perhaps, but what about the rise of the underfaker? And Kane getting the rub by storyline killing his brother.

What's interesting about Sid is how many stints he had in each company over a decade. (3 WCW, 2 WWF) If he debuted for the 15-20 year period where WWE was the only major promotion he probably flames out in 6 months to a year and is never heard from again.

Ziggler (pre-Florida) Liv Lana

The way I see this all playing out is Peacock likes the idea of WWE running monthly ppvs and pushing that they are exclusive to the streaming service. I don't see any reason why they would have real interest in any of the other content. Perhaps some of the originals. All of it kind of bums me out. I remember the promise of what I thought the Network was going to be. Idealistically, I thought WWE would finally provide a home for the most diehard of fans that had been brushed off in pursuit of ratings success.

We're talking about 1986 in Florida. I picture him putting on karate demonstrations in middle of nowhere dive bars on the regular. It's not much of a surprise if you think about it. Don't forget... he was the only wrestler trained by Ric Flair.

What I both love/hate about wrestling is there is a hierarchy of how much a move hurts that has no relationship with reality. 5-10 unprotected punches to the head are just a transition to the real move which is a safe looking throw. Or how it must be accepted as a given that a heels foreign object will knock out the face.

What hit me while watching the mens rumble is we're experiencing a change in how WWE does business. In the past, as much as WWE wanted to rely on old-timers with name recognition, they were hampered by the fact that they were running 200 house shows per year and needed performers on top who could actually bump/work. No broken down "legend" could keep up with that kind of schedule. That's why the legends would only come around for the big shows. They couldn't handle the road. It's also really difficult in front of a live audience to hide that a wrestler can't go. Now we're in this weird age of old timers which bares some resemblance to late-90s WCW with better hype packages/smoke and mirrors.

Whether it's movies, tv, music, sports, etc., there's this constant promotion and hype of everything that is new. One day you realize it's far more entertaining to throw on a random WCW ppv or superstars versus trying to sit through a boring Raw you have no investment in. Which brings me to my next point. While Greg Valentine may have a visually unsettling bodytype, what a fun wrestler to watch.

I look at Rollins as a recipient of the HHH push. He has had a sustained push from the moment he was on the roster. He is always featured prominently whether or not the fans are entertained by what he is doing. It doesn't matter if he is a ratings black hole or if the house show business is in the toilet, you can count on Rollins getting a featured spot.

I've been thinking a lot about this point the past few days and how it applies to the issues we as a society are coming to terms with right now. If it's an open secret in your organization, industry or social circle that someone is human garbage and you have chosen to remain silent because it doesn't effect you, the silence benefits you or the silence protects the strength/cohesion of the unit, are you any better? I understand that in some ways it is human nature to turn a blind eye and if you pointed the finger at anyone who had a whiff that something was afoul and did nothing there may not be anyone left. (For example, there have been jokes about Lawler being inappropriate with underage girls for as long as I can remember) I think its crucial as a society that the observers of the types of conduct that have come out over the past few days view it as a duty to protect the vulnerable, be diligent in reporting crimes and removing the perpetrators from any industry.

Steiner is a case of someone who didn't nail his character until he was half broken down. So I think people fantasize of what it would of looked like if he put all the pieces together five or six years before. I was trying to think of other examples of wrestlers who fell into this category. Mark Henry?