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I Haven't Watched Wrestling in Over Ten Years


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I would pose that the more difficult question right now would be, "What do I have to not be happy about?"  I think you have to actually make a conscious effort at this point to be really negative about the WWE family of shows and the direction of the company like a Miami Heat fan who thinks Labron passes too much or something. I would ask why wouldn't you want to follow WWE at this point?  What are you missing from the broadcast?  Blood?

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Do you need to know more than that they took the face of Dean Wormer from ANIMAL HOUSE, attached it to the body of Kenikie from GREASE and installed into it the brain of Joe Pesci from EASY MONEY...and made him the United States Champion and let him run wild in interviews?

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I would pose that the more difficult question right now would be, "What do I have to not be happy about?"  I think you have to actually make a conscious effort at this point to be really negative about the WWE family of shows and the direction of the company like a Miami Heat fan who thinks Labron passes too much or something. I would ask why wouldn't you want to follow WWE at this point?  What are you missing from the broadcast?  Blood?

 

"PG totes sucks!  Bring back ECW!" -- many tools on Facebook

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I would pose that the more difficult question right now would be, "What do I have to not be happy about?"  I think you have to actually make a conscious effort at this point to be really negative about the WWE family of shows and the direction of the company like a Miami Heat fan who thinks Labron passes too much or something. I would ask why wouldn't you want to follow WWE at this point?  What are you missing from the broadcast?  Blood?

 

He said it's been more than ten years so it's got to be at least a few on this list:

 

  • Pointing at your dick
  • Jerry Lawler talking about tits every 14 seconds
  • The nWo spray painting someone

And to keep enough ground covered...

  • John Tenta dressed as a shark
  • Aldo Montoya

If the last time you enjoyed wrestling was the New Generation, I have fantastic news for you: WWE has perfected the formula of 'cool characters working great matches' they began in '94 with Bret Hart leading a pack of guys like 123 Kid and Hakushi with workhorses like The Wyatt Family and the Shield. 

 

I could easily see The Real Americans in a feud with the Brainbusters, or champion Daniel Bryan feuding with The Horsemen. If a cool meld of the Wild Samoans and The Rockers doesn't do it for you, the Network also has the libraries of every promotion you could possibly want. You can dive into the old days like Scrooge McDuck into a money bin.

 

If Bruno Sammartino likes today's product...

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I would pose that the more difficult question right now would be, "What do I have to not be happy about?"  I think you have to actually make a conscious effort at this point to be really negative about the WWE family of shows and the direction of the company like a Miami Heat fan who thinks Labron passes too much or something. I would ask why wouldn't you want to follow WWE at this point?  What are you missing from the broadcast?  Blood?

For me currently, it's tough to put my finger on why I'm not enjoying it.  The work is definitely fine, but something just isnn't connecting with me.  It could be my complete lack of free time, or my lack of motivation to seek things out.  3 hours of Raw is something I refuse to sit through, and unless something is put over strongly, I won't seek anything out.  That goes back into the whole "not being invested" thing.  The only way I am able to watch things is in a vacuum.  I make an effort to watch NJPW, so that pretty much exhausts my time budget for wrestling.

 

I'll very often make an effort to watch Raw if there isn't a basketball game on, but usually won't last past hour one. Hell, I watched Mania on a delay because the Mavericks were playing the Jazz that night at 6.  That is my level of investment.

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The Network actually embraces kayfabe, with the pre-show stuff. I don't sit through all of that because I can't devote all that time to the WWE, but they're at that point of "Okay we told you wrestling is fake, but let's pretend it's real again." It's not perfect, but the Daniel Bryan doc really walks that line in the best way.

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I haven't watched a full episode of Raw or Smackdown since I don't know when.  The only show I usually watch from top to bottom is NXT.  Like people have said, you can pick and chose really easy nowadays.  I keep up with the basics of the show through the website and pay attention to here to see if there is anything I really need to go out of my way to see in its entirety.  Its not hard to keep an eye on things this way.  

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I would pose that the more difficult question right now would be, "What do I have to not be happy about?" I think you have to actually make a conscious effort at this point to be really negative about the WWE family of shows and the direction of the company like a Miami Heat fan who thinks Labron passes too much or something. I would ask why wouldn't you want to follow WWE at this point? What are you missing from the broadcast? Blood?

I agree with this but let's not pretend that, barring NXT, the announcing doesn't suck.

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I've often wondered how a lapsed fan coming back to wrestling after 10+ years would judge it. I'd imagine it's somewhat similar (albeit on a much, much smaller level) to that guy who went into the jungle during WW2 and didn't come out until 40 years later because he thought the war was still going on.

 

Imagine, you hadn't watched wrestling since the year 2000, and all the surprises that would await you. WCW no longer exists. ECW no longer exists. Eddie Guerrero is dead. Chris Benoit is dead (and "holy fuck, he did what...?"). Lots of other guys are dead. Bret Hart is on good terms with WWE. Wait, WWE!? How did that happen? Guerrero, Benoit, Jericho and Mysterio are all former world champions. So is Bradshaw from the Acolytes. So are a bunch of guys you may have seen on the indy circuit. HHH practically runs the talent side of the company. And holy shit, what's happened to Ric Flair?

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I've often wondered how a lapsed fan coming back to wrestling after 10+ years would judge it. I'd imagine it's somewhat similar (albeit on a much, much smaller level) to that guy who went into the jungle during WW2 and didn't come out until 40 years later because he thought the war was still going on.

 

 

 

From what I know from studying history.  He will build a mini-submarine and imprison everyone from NXT inside of it.

 

And he will be Vito Scotti and horrifically offensive.

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The announcing is the turds. Just awful. But I just keep telling myself "Daniel Bryan and Cesaro are being pushed" and I can get over it.

 

I've been watching a lot of older stuff lately, and the difference in announcing is incredible. Say what you will about a Jesse Ventura, Bobby Heenan, Gorilla Monsoon, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross, or whomever, but they didn't make it a point of trying to bury the most over guys. You did something good and they recognized it, they would get their heel and face stuff in, but they never seemed to work against whatever the company wanted put forth. Watching a Daniel Bryan match is harsh these days, as far as announcing goes. When the company is pushing him to the moon there's no reason the announcers should still be making fun of his height, discounting his accomplishments or ignoring when he does something great, etc.

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Uhm, JBL is a heel who constantly touts his agreement with The Authority. He's even the NXT Commissioner, which they gave to him as a means to humiliate Dusty during that angle. He SHOULD be running down D-Bry. And he has said stuff like "The fairy tale continues" and the like. Cole hasn't been burying him at all but has harped up his accomplishments. 

The only really bad part of the announce team is Lawler and that's just because he doesn't add anything except a few awful jokes and creepy comments about the divas.

I mean, these guys aren't JR or Bobby Heenan or Gordon Solie or anything. But they're not Schiavonne/Zbysco or Crockett anything truly awful. More just eh.

As far as the complaints about them plugging stuff constantly -- well, the WWE is a business. If they weren't trying to sell people on the App or the Network there would be a major problem. There's no difference between that and whatever 80s announcer saying "Be there at the Norfolk Scope this Saturday night!" They're salespeople, first and foremost.

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I think the announcers can do a better job filling in those dots to explain things away. I don't hate the announce team nearly as much as everyone else (aside from Jerry Lawler, who is beyond useless) but they need to tell the stories in a better fashion to explain what's going on to newer fans.

 

 

 

 

This. I actually think Cole can be decent/good at times but really the commentary team as a whole has been lacking and I think it really showed at Wrestlemania. The team failed to really relay both the storyline leading into the Wyatt/Cena match and the story of the match itself.

 

Lawler brings absolutely nothing to the commentary team. I think I may have said this before on the old board but he reminds me of Pierce Hawthorn from Community.  He makes inappropriate unfunny jokes at the expense of women/minorities while the cool kids at the study table (Jeff/Brita. Cole/JBL) are too busy with their own witty banter to acknowledge his existence or on the odd occasion when they do tend to notice he is there, they just belittle him while he just smiles, thinking he is now one of young hip cool kids.

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My main problem with all of the WWE commentary teams is that someone up high needs to hand down an official note: No more sniping at each other. No one cares about you guys 'totally burning' each other left and right. Focus on what's in the ring. NXT is just as bad when it comes to that. It's my second biggest announcer pet peeve. The biggest is Jerry Lawler not having been forced into retirement. 

 

Otherwise...

  • Michael Cole has developed into a solid face storyteller over the years.
  • JBL does a good job as a the grizzled heel that knows enough about wrestling holds and guys from Mexico that it covers for Cole not knowing anything.
  • Renee Young is a great talker with tons of knowledge and enthusiasm
  • Alex Riley is doing a good job channeling the Varsity Villain into a heel commentator
  • Jason Albert has been really fun
  • William Regal is incredible
  • There are some other guys too and they are also fine

All of them, however, Regal included, need to take their attention off the announce table and turn it all to the ring. I never want to hear three minutes on 'hahaha you flubbed a word' or 'no maybe you are the one that sucks let's discuss it' ever again.

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I'm fine with JBL being a bitch about Daniel Bryan. He's an Authority brown noser and a heel. So much better than Michael Cole doing it. Heenan would make fun of dudes all the time, but when they came through he'd lose his shit and be all incredulous, and it made you even happier the face came out. Heenan's better at doing these little things when running down a guy while at the same time building them up than JBL - but JBL is still the least problematic in my book. 

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You need to watch the Shield (particularly Roman Reigns) and the Wyatt Family (both the matches and the promos). Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns are the future of the business. Bray Wyatt has already reached Flair/Cornette/Supst*r Graham levels on the stick and he's just getting better. Oh yeah, the team of the Rhodes brothers are always a joy to watch as is Cesaro. I'm sure you've already seen Brian Danielson tearing it up in WWE, oh, I mean "Daniel Bryan"; stupid WWE.

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Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon made a career out of sniping at each other. Jesse Ventura did a ton of that, too. It's just that these guys aren't nearly as good as those guys (no one is) and it's passe. They're just following a trope that maybe should be forgotten.

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The difference is Monsoon and Heenan's  sniping had to do with their opinions on the wrestling. Cole can blast JBL for being a doofus for not backing Daniel Bryan. That's "supporting the story". They shouldn't be farting around going, "We're terrible and can't talk. Let's draw more attention to Jerry being dated and/or racist."

 

Good announcers are hard to find, man. It's not like it's any better on the indies. How many good play by play dudes are actually out there? 

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Uhm, JBL is a heel who constantly touts his agreement with The Authority. He's even the NXT Commissioner, which they gave to him as a means to humiliate Dusty during that angle. He SHOULD be running down D-Bry. And he has said stuff like "The fairy tale continues" and the like. Cole hasn't been burying him at all but has harped up his accomplishments. 

 

 

Calling it a fairy tale is about the same as burying him,. Eventually they will run into trouble if they don't recognize Bryan's accomplishments as legit and not just blind luck, a miracle, or some sort of fairy tale run. On that front, there's a difference between being a heel and burying someone to the point where you're doing him a disservice. That's what JBL does with Bryan, where even when he does win he really doesn't acknowledge his win and instead keeps taking shots at his height and the like. That's not what a good heel announcer does.

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