Guys you like in current wrestling but are still fast forward material

[supremebve]

I think the Usos have singles potential. All you have to do is make sure they wear different color tights. Not that I think it should happen any time soon, but an amicable split that results them winning the IC and US titles around the same time seems like a pretty easy midcard angle to book. As much as people long for the good old days, tag team wrestling is a dead end in WWE, and both of those guys should at least get a shot at singles. I think the last team to be worth more as a unit than individuals for their entire careers was The Dudleys.

 

As for this question, ADR is the best answer. It feels like he's fought every midcarder like 1000 times already. And even though I love Cesaro, I often skip Real American tags. Swagger's every bit as boring as Cesaro is awesome.

Did you think the Villanos should have been broken up too?  I don't see any way they can get over as singles wrestlers based purely off the fact that I don't know anyone who can tell them apart.  They seem to be trying to push tag team wrestling and having a credible team to help get new teams over is a really good asset.  As long as they continue to push the tag team division keeping them together keeps them employed, keeps them on TV, and keeps the matches at a certain level of quality. 

 

The answer to this question is Del Rio. He always seems to be in quality matches, but sheesh his character is stale.  The biggest problem is he hasn't had a credible challenger.  Dolph is over, but they have shot him in the foot so many times no one buys into him as a champion.  RVD came out of nowhere, and is probably leaving soon, so no one buys into him either.  I think they should start doing training vignettes with Ricardo because that is the only fued they have built up.

[Spontaneous]

I'm glad others fast forward through Punk's promos. When Heyman is there I watch but if it is just Punk, I have to fast forward through them. If he had less time to speak, probably would help.

 

A lot of the mid card is just uninspiring due to dull, dead end feuds. Why should I care about a tag team when they'll inevitably split up in a year? In 2 weeks on TV/PPV we'll have seen Ziggler/Ambrose 4 times. Why? I feel like if ADR wrestled less on TV I'd enjoy him more. They have six hours+ of TV a week and yet none of the mid-card or low-card guys matter at all.

 

That and the total divas matches. Sorry, it just never is anything anyone really cares about. I thought AJ's promo a few weeks ago might have lead to a slight turnaround but in a matter of a week we slid back down into mediocrity.

[MORELOCK]

I think the Usos have singles potential. All you have to do is make sure they wear different color tights. Not that I think it should happen any time soon, but an amicable split that results them winning the IC and US titles around the same time seems like a pretty easy midcard angle to book. As much as people long for the good old days, tag team wrestling is a dead end in WWE, and both of those guys should at least get a shot at singles.

 

Just nonsense. The only reason either one should ever be pushed as a singles wrestler is if the other is injured or no longer with the company.

 

Why should I care about a tag team when they'll inevitably split up in a year?

 

This. Building up teams like the Usos or Los Matadores is the only way to get people to actually care about tag team wrestling. The prevailing attitude of "every team must split without exception" has had a detrimental effect on the business as a whole for two decades now, and I think Triple H is aware of that.

[RonL21]

I don't see why anyone is talking about splitting up the Usos, it's a terrible idea. I think the notion that every team has to split up at some point is what's killed tag team wrestling over the last 20 years.

 

 

 

 

This. Building up teams like the Usos or Los Matadores is the only way to get people to actually care about tag team wrestling. The prevailing attitude of "every team must split without exception" has had a detrimental effect on the business as a whole for two decades now, and I think Triple H is aware of that.

 

 

So, you are blaming Brutus Beefcake for the decimation of the tag team division, correct?

[cool arrow]

Splitting up the Usos or PTP would be a terrible idea.  The Real Americans, maybe not so much.

[piranesi]

 Dolph is over, but they have shot him in the foot so many times no one buys into him as a champion. 

 

 

I've taken the liberty of creating an infographic:

 

[piranesi]

Dolph!

 

Note: This infographic connects up to something going on in the Random TV thread.

[piranesi]

DOlph.  I miss you so much this posted three times!!!

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I agree on Del Rio. My dream booking for Del Rio now, ever since I heard about that fight they got into, is a Del Rio/McIntyre tag team.

[Biz Smarkie]

piranisi, you are a god amongst men.

 

My answer to this question is all of TNA. They have some guys I really want to see(Chris Daniels, Bully Ray)..but the storylines and matches on Impact are laughable at best,,horrible at worst. 20 minute Aces and Eights melodrama is not what I want to see when I turn on Impact. I want to see Chris Daniels drinking appletinis and doing the Curry Man.

[kafkonia]

 

I don't see why anyone is talking about splitting up the Usos, it's a terrible idea. I think the notion that every team has to split up at some point is what's killed tag team wrestling over the last 20 years.

 

 

 

 

This. Building up teams like the Usos or Los Matadores is the only way to get people to actually care about tag team wrestling. The prevailing attitude of "every team must split without exception" has had a detrimental effect on the business as a whole for two decades now, and I think Triple H is aware of that.

 

 

So, you are blaming Brutus Beefcake for the decimation of the tag team division, correct?

 

If it wasn't for him, there wouldn't have been a window.

[Go2Sleep]

 

I think the Usos have singles potential. All you have to do is make sure they wear different color tights. Not that I think it should happen any time soon, but an amicable split that results them winning the IC and US titles around the same time seems like a pretty easy midcard angle to book. As much as people long for the good old days, tag team wrestling is a dead end in WWE, and both of those guys should at least get a shot at singles.

 

Just nonsense. The only reason either one should ever be pushed as a singles wrestler is if the other is injured or no longer with the company.

 

Why should I care about a tag team when they'll inevitably split up in a year?

 

This. Building up teams like the Usos or Los Matadores is the only way to get people to actually care about tag team wrestling. The prevailing attitude of "every team must split without exception" has had a detrimental effect on the business as a whole for two decades now, and I think Triple H is aware of that.

 

 

If Los Matadores as currently advertised are an essential component for the future of tag team wrestling, we might as well just kill it now. The only way you could truly make tag team wrestling more important in WWE is to re-stock the division with proven main eventers kind of like they did during Jerishow's run. 

 

The whole "detrimental effect on the business for two decades" thing is ridiculous hyperbole. The attitude boom was devoid of a decent tag scene until the tail end, and there were great tag scenes during the brand split that didn't have any appreciable effect on business. The tag team division is a midcard gimmick for midcarders in WWE. It's very useful for rounding out shows and getting a lot of guys their first break, and getting value out of guys that can't hack it at the upper midcard/main event singles level, but it's not a place you want guys to stay in forever. Eventually you have to see if your most over midcarders can take the next step, which involves splitting teams up. I'd happily endure the NAO and Dudley flame-out singles runs to ensure The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, The Steiners, Harlem Heat, The Hardys, E/C, etc didn't have to stay together forever. I'm not saying the Usos need to split up anytime soon. I'm saying if they stay over for a long period, it might be because they have some real charisma and that might translate to more value in a singles work. If it doesn't, the tag division will always be there waiting for them just like it was for The Dudleys.

[MORELOCK]

 

If Los Matadores as currently advertised are an essential component for the future of tag team wrestling, we might as well just kill it now. The only way you could truly make tag team wrestling more important in WWE is to re-stock the division with proven main eventers kind of like they did during Jerishow's run. 

 

The whole "detrimental effect on the business for two decades" thing is ridiculous hyperbole. The attitude boom was devoid of a decent tag scene until the tail end, and there were great tag scenes during the brand split that didn't have any appreciable effect on business. The tag team division is a midcard gimmick for midcarders in WWE. It's very useful for rounding out shows and getting a lot of guys their first break, and getting value out of guys that can't hack it at the upper midcard/main event singles level, but it's not a place you want guys to stay in forever. Eventually you have to see if your most over midcarders can take the next step, which involves splitting teams up. I'd happily endure the NAO and Dudley flame-out singles runs to ensure The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, The Steiners, Harlem Heat, The Hardys, E/C, etc didn't have to stay together forever. I'm not saying the Usos need to split up anytime soon. I'm saying if they stay over for a long period, it might be because they have some real charisma and that might translate to more value in a singles work. If it doesn't, the tag division will always be there waiting for them just like it was for The Dudleys.

 

All of these ideas are derived from the booking of the last 20 years that has instructed you that tag teams are a midcard attraction used as a launching pad for main eventers, and only deserve attention when two random main eventers are paired to squash the entire tag team division (who are supposed to be specialists at the style). It's bad booking, and if you want more of it, fine. But it's still bad booking.

[goc]

I was just thinking about the Jeri-Show run the other day, that was a really good time for tag teams. I think they could benefit by doing something like that again, but there should really only be one "super team" going against the Usos, Prime Time Players, Los Matadores & Shield to put over the tag division as being capable of hanging with the top stars.

[supremebve]

I completely disagree that the tag team division needs some sort of super team of main eventers to be successful.  The most successful the tag team division has been in the last 15-20 years or so was when The Hardy Boys, The Dudley Boys, and Edge and Christian were putting on really good matches night after night.  None of those guys were anywhere close to the main event at the time, and they were all overwhelmingly over.  The best way to get the division over is to have good matches and basically nothing else.  I would argue that the superteams bring the division down by discounting how much the teamwork between partners is essential to making a good tag team.  I think that great tag teams should be greater than the sum of their parts.  Putting two main even level guys together shouldn't make them a credible tag team. They should put over the years of work and chemistry that the teams have put in that make them great, not just the fact that they are individually great wrestlers. 

[Go2Sleep]

All of these ideas are derived from the booking of the last 20 years that has instructed you that tag teams are a midcard attraction used as a launching pad for main eventers, and only deserve attention when two random main eventers are paired to squash the entire tag team division (who are supposed to be specialists at the style). It's bad booking, and if you want more of it, fine. But it's still bad booking.

 

Have you ever thought that booking changed roughly 20 years ago because that's when tv time started to increase dramatically? 

 

What would've lasted years in the 80s, struggled to last for more than one without getting stale by 2000. It's more practical to try to get mileage out of two over guys in singles instead of devoting double the resources to try to keep the tag division fresh while maintaining several established teams. This is just a case of people wanting wrestling to be like it was when they were kids, but it just doesn't work in the current setup. The only solutions are cutting down tv/ppv hours (not going to happen) and spending considerably more money on talent that cycles in and out of major tv time to ensure a consistent stream of fresh tag team programs (more plausible than the first scenario, but still not very likely). 

[SovietShooter]

Go2sleep, I see your argument, and I agree with a bit of it, but not all of it. 

 

Wrestling is definitely booked differently now because of television, but I do not think that the correlation is strong to the decline of tag teams.  I think tag teams were originally a way they could package together two guys that were stronger together than separate.  At one time being a team was an "act" and you could take that act from territory to territory.  When the territories fell though, the major promotions could just cherry pick the strong singles guys - so tag teams somewhat became where top talent ended up when the office had nothing for them.

 

When the Monday Night Wars came along, and more & longer shows started being broadcast, it made sense financially to push members of a popular tag team as singles.  This, coupled with the well-known hatred of tag team wrestling by Bischoff, led to many teams with promise being broken up. 

 

A big reason that tag wrestling went to shit was when the Outsiders gained a deathgrip on the WCW tag titles.  At some point someone (Hogan, Bischoff, Nash, whomever) decided that sine Hall & Nash were well-paid main event stars, they couldn't be beat by anyone that wasn't a well-paid main event star.  Thus, the only team that was ever pushed as a credible threat were the Steiners.  Someone decided somewhere along the lines that if the Steiners could beat Hall & Nash, and a team like Harlem Heat or the Faces of Fear could beat the Steiners, that would send the message that HH/FoF could beat the Outsiders... and that was unacceptable because those guys were not paid like the Outsiders. 

 

WWE kinda went the opposite route, by often putting the belts on two main event level guys thrown together, or two guys feuding but booked in a title match together.  Bulldog/Owen, Austin/Michaels, Austin/Undertaker, Undertaker/Kane, Foley/Kane...

 

For whatever reason, EVERYONE got away from stable long term tag teams as an ACT, and with all the tv time they had to fill, it would have made more sense to invest in making tag team titles a bigger deal (on par with the World Heavyweight Title), and thus producing more main-eventers for the tv shows.  Instead, they cannibalized the tag division to feed the singles.  They could have chosen a different path, they just didn't. 

[HumanChessgame]

Nikita (and any others in the business), did you find guys were reluctant to get into long term tag teams for fear of being typecast as a package deal with their partner or in fear of achieving any long term success?

[Library Dude]

I don't particularly enjoy Kofi (aarrgh, why does he have to jump on everything) but I've always been interested in the possibility of a heel turn by him since I saw this promo. Ragging on a town or state or whatever is pretty standard practice, but cutting a promo on the built environment of an entire nation is a step up.

 

 

ADR is definitely my top answer though. He's really good in ring, but I rarely watch any of his matches. He needs a good face to be interesting, especially since they killed off the most fun stuff of his gimmick (the cars, Ricardo, him basically being the bad guy from El Mariachi)

[username]

For whatever reason, EVERYONE got away from stable long term tag teams as an ACT, and with all the tv time they had to fill, it would have made more sense to invest in making tag team titles a bigger deal (on par with the World Heavyweight Title), and thus producing more main-eventers for the tv shows.  Instead, they cannibalized the tag division to feed the singles.  They could have chosen a different path, they just didn't. 

 

While it technically involves 50% too many people... doesn't the Shield kinda answer all of the tag team criticisms that've come up over the past page or so?  They get main events above their singles' stature, are booked to beat seemingly stronger adversaries due to how well they work together along with the benefit of producing some rather snazzy matches, they're basically delivering on just about everything desired here.