How happy are you with WWE right now?

[MORELOCK]

I don't understand why they won't just air the several backstage interviews they shoot a week. They're almost always well done and a great way to add some depth to people who never get to talk otherwise. Replacing the insane amount of recaps with interviews alone would vastly improve the product.

[Vincey Greene]

I think the best thing they could do is a complete change of format. Fire Dunn and get a younger producer that isn't his disciple and clear out some of the writers room.

The kids who were watching when they last changed the basic presentation can drink now. That's not good. And ditch Cole and JBL.

[Dirty J.]

Unhappy. The show is too damn long and predictable for me to watch in one sitting. I usually turn to WWE's YouTube channel to see the highlights. 

[Craig H]

Very unhappy. And as much as I like NXT, the best talent gets moved up to the main roster where they do next to nothing. That's disappointing as well.

[JohnnyJ]

With the main roster I would describe myself as apathetic. Let's not pretend that Raw has been historically great. It hasn't. But there was typically a split, perhaps 60% crap, 30% average, 10% gold. Today the split feels more like 30 % crap, 67% average, 3% gold.

The rise in quality of work has led to probably a record number of three star matches.

But the gold if few and far between and that's why we're all watching.

The few times there is the magic WWE finds a way to stomp it out.

Leading to a weekly product where I could care less what happens outside of a New Day prematch segment and an Owens match.

What makes this even more frustrating is NXT makes the magic look easy. If a developmental territory is getting me emotionally invested whenever it damn well pleases, why can't WWE figure out how to pull me into to caring about the world title?

[John from Cincinnati]

Come on, guys! We got a Mark Henry squash on Raw! What more do you want?!

[JCM]

What makes this even more frustrating is NXT makes the magic look easy. If a developmental territory is getting me emotionally invested whenever it damn well pleases, why can't WWE figure out how to pull me into to caring about the world title?

NXT has baby faces that are over. No pro wrestling angle works without faces the fans give a shit about. Years of turning a blind eye or trying to minimize guys the fans love has led to the current state where almost no one is over. The few that are have remained over in spite of the booking. They've had opportunities to make Ryback, Cesaro, Ambrose, Bray, Reigns, Rusev, Owens, Ziggler etc etc over the past few years and have shit the bed every time. It's at the point where I'm not sure they want anyone getting too over, and making too much money so they can pull a Punk and say fuck it.

[Brysynner]

I went with happy. Overall yeah the top of card could be better...I still think Vince will change his mind again and actually put the belt on Roman at TLC to end 2015 correctly. The quicker the belt is on Roman the quicker everyone can move on and we can find out if Reigns can turn around the business and get eyes on the company or if he's gonna fail and Vince can find a new top guy

[Overly Critical Man]

I'm slightly offended people don't think John Cena is a megastar. He's part of the cultural consciousness...aka my mom knows who he is.

[SirSmUgly]

I did think about Cena, but I wasn't convinced. WWE is doing a great job of forging relationships with other media companies for increased coverage in general, but I'm still think that Cena's closer to CM Punk-level popularity than Hogan/Austin/Rock level popularity. But that's gut-feeling bullshit, not quantified in numbers or ratings or brand awareness studies or anything, so I wouldn't quibble if you disagreed with me. 

[Burgundy LaRue]

I went with happy. Overall yeah the top of card could be better...I still think Vince will change his mind again and actually put the belt on Roman at TLC to end 2015 correctly. The quicker the belt is on Roman the quicker everyone can move on and we can find out if Reigns can turn around the business and get eyes on the company or if he's gonna fail and Vince can find a new top guy

 

I don't see Reigns getting the belt back at TLC, but I agree with the baseline of your statement.  Just do something already.  Even if Reigns isn't getting the full reaction they want, crowds are reacting to him.  That can be worked with and turned into something, unlike poor Bray who gets the firefly treatment and then zero response from the crowd.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I would take Bray out of the ring for a while. He could still do the house show circuit but make him more of a special attraction on RAW.  I'd instead have him do interviews on-location from some backwoods swamp in Louisiana. Have him interview some people like a Ryder or R-Truth. They can show up to Bray's location in the swamp and be all spooked out and shit. Have Bray say crazy things. Have R-Truth be looking around the whole time like "what the fuck?".  Have spooky shit going on in the background like Luke Harper carrying what appears to be a body bag over his shoulder.

 

It'll get over these guys are legit freaks. Then you can finally use it as a way for a big angle. Don't have R-Truth or Ryder get attacked. Just have them think that anything could happen.  But then have someone on a higher level actually get attacked. Like an Ambrose level guy. Have them hauled off to the barn or some shit like a horror film.  From there you can have this person either become brainwashed or just setup a series of matches on PPV.

[Godfrey]

Come on, guys! We got a Mark Henry squash on Raw! What more do you want?!

Mark Henry is exactly the kind of guy who would benefit from more squashes. Feed some schmuks to him so that when someone like Kevin Owens beats him it means something.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

I would take Bray out of the ring for a while. He could still do the house show circuit but make him more of a special attraction on RAW.  I'd instead have him do interviews on-location from some backwoods swamp in Louisiana. Have him interview some people like a Ryder or R-Truth. They can show up to Bray's location in the swamp and be all spooked out and shit. Have Bray say crazy things. Have R-Truth be looking around the whole time like "what the fuck?".  Have spooky shit going on in the background like Luke Harper carrying what appears to be a body bag over his shoulder.

 

It'll get over these guys are legit freaks. Then you can finally use it as a way for a big angle. Don't have R-Truth or Ryder get attacked. Just have them think that anything could happen.  But then have someone on a higher level actually get attacked. Like an Ambrose level guy. Have them hauled off to the barn or some shit like a horror film.  From there you can have this person either become brainwashed or just setup a series of matches on PPV.

 

I could not agree more about Bray Wyatt. So many missed opportunities for vignettes. If this were the 80s, it would've been 12 weeks of him in the swamp before he even had a TV match.

 

When he was feuding with Cena a couple years ago, it was around the time the first True Detective was on, and I thought there was so much potential stuff there to rip off for Wyatt to really put him over the top.

[bink_winkleman]

The problem is that he's a Florida swamp guy and not a Louisiana swamp guy. You can't make a Swamp Thing out of a Man-Thing.

But yes, damn did they blow so much opportunity to rip off True Detective. It's almost worse than not making the Cesaro the Most Interesting Man in the World.

[Niners Fan in CT]

Cesaro would be a great James Bond type. Put him in a suit in a fancy restaurant sitting at the bar chatting with models and then someone gets jealous or spills his drink and he has to uppercut them to hell.

[odessasteps]

Cesaro would be a great James Bond type. Put him in a suit in a fancy restaurant sitting at the bar chatting with models and then someone gets jealous or spills his drink and he has to uppercut them to hell.

I said a few weeks ago, give him the old 00 Malenko theme.

[Raziel]

Funny thing is, right before joins Swagger, he actually *had* the 00 Malenko theme.

[The Nature Boy]

Why not replace some of these terrible promos with some vignettes showing us who these people are outside of the ring? Things like "At Home with Dr. D" worked because they fleshed out the characters. Characters like Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose and even Seth Rollins would benefit from this. Imagine if we got vignettes that showed Seth living it up outside of the ring. 

 

No one has a real character anymore so it's hard to root for anyone. 

[Zheroen]

What do you mean?  They're all WWE Superstars who enjoy having fun and putting smiles on faces for the WWE Universe!  They're trending on Twitter!  Does nothing please you?

[Phantom Lord]

I would give anything to see Luke Harper at home. I want to believe he's the guy who bought the janitor from Scrubs squirell army.

[The Nature Boy]

What do you mean?  They're all WWE Superstars who enjoy having fun and putting smiles on faces for the WWE Universe!  They're trending on Twitter!  Does nothing please you?

 

God 

 

Current WWE is so bad at character development

[JRV]

It is corporate commercial shilling with some very simplified formulaic wrestling sprinkled in that has to adhere to the sponsors' wishes. NXT is a flashy, watered down, formulaic idea of indy wrestling appropriated by a giant corporation in order to make money, that waits for people to get super dope outside of WWE then buys them, limits them and puts them in wacky backstage promos where you have a former GHC champion doing slapstick interviews after his 4 minute match. I don't get the attention it gets. I try to get into WWE/NXT from time to time but it's so much easier and satisfying to like, watch some Hashimoto matches on Youtube.

[The Nature Boy]

It is corporate commercial shilling with some very simplified formulaic wrestling sprinkled in that has to adhere to the sponsors' wishes. NXT is a flashy, watered down, formulaic idea of indy wrestling appropriated by a giant corporation in order to make money, that waits for people to get super dope outside of WWE then buys them, limits them and puts them in wacky backstage promos where you have a former GHC champion doing slapstick interviews after his 4 minute match. I don't get the attention it gets. I try to get into WWE/NXT from time to time but it's so much easier and satisfying to like, watch some Hashimoto matches on Youtube.

 

I think NXT does a great job of pulling all elements of wrestling together. I can't just watch random Hashimoto matches on YouTube because as a fan, I care about the characters and want to have an emotional investment in what I'm watching. It's the same reason that I can't watch early ROH or any other SUPERINDY where they just throw two indy darlings into a match together. If I wanted to watch random matches with characters that I have no investment in, I'd just watch RAW.

 

My idea of a perfect wrestling company is probably 1980s Jim Crockett Promotions, they had good in-ring action and characters that I could invest in. NXT is probably the closest we have to doing that right now. 

[Jiji]

Good wrestlers can establish strong characters in the ring alone. If you watch a Hashimoto match and don't get an idea of who he was, you got multiple sensory issues.