OCTOBER 2019 WRESTLING CHAT.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

28 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

Roshfrans can jump directly to the WWE once the CMLL schism occurs.

Yeah, and Vince gets the two hostages... I mean the Roshfrans models.

[Cobra Commander]

i'm surprised we didn't end up with regular WWE/WWF ring girls at any point before it went PG.

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

6 hours ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

 

 

6 hours ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

 

 

6 hours ago, Edwin said:

 

I saw all these tapes under the blue tarp behind the table of rusty tools at the Mexican flea market. If Uncle Dave wants, I'll gladly pick them up for him on Sunday - $5 each, 3 for $10.

- RAF

Edited October 19, 2019 by thee Reverend Axl Future
l'esprit de l'escalier

[LoneWolf&Subs]

27 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

i'm surprised we didn't end up with regular WWE/WWF ring girls at any point before it went PG.

Sort of...

[BobbyWhioux]

2 hours ago, Matt D said:

I suddenly know who they should push instead of Rollins.

OOOH Yeah, hold that cup of coffee for the Macho Man, there ya go Mea-[CATHY KELLY] just like that yeah, UNJUSTIFIABLY IN A POSITION THAT I'D RATHER NOT BE IN!  THAT BEING THE GRAVE!  OOOH YEAH, DIG IT, call up The Undertaker, yeah, BUT LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING [Seth Rollins] COMPARATIVELY SPEAKING TO THE MACHO MAN RANDY SAVAGE YOU ARE NOTHING BUT GARBAGE that's what you are, yeah, and I'm gonna do the thing in the ring, TOO HOT TO HANDLE, TOO COLD TO HOLD, TOO DEAD TO BEHEAD, CADAVEROUS MADNESS, the best thing going in the [WWE UNIVERSE] and you just can't measure up [Seth Rollins], if you want to brawl the Macho Man can brawl, if you want to fly of the ropes the Macho Man can do that too, yeah, and if you want get on the mat and [SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT] the Macho Man can out-[SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT] you too, ooh yeah, the Macho Man Randy Savage is going to make the most of his [Title Opportunity] in front of all these peop-[WWE UNIVERSE] and ONCE AGAIIIIIN, dig it, be the World Wrestling [ENTERTAINMENT] [TITLE HOLDER]

OOOOOOH

YEAH

 

FREAKOUT, YEAH

[John from Cincinnati]

He really wants to be my favourite wrestler. Well done.

 

[JohnnyJ]

Without going through the laundry list of reasons, I put a lot of thought into whether or not WWE has effectively killed the town. Whether a series of band aids have disguised just how bad it is and what, if anything, would engage the audience. 

Putting blame on Vince is certainly valid, but simply getting rid of him wont magically make good television. So, what needs to happen? 

 

[SirSmUgly]

Disney needs to buy the company and let Kevin Feige book it. 

[LoneWolf&Subs]

3 minutes ago, Smelly McUgly said:

Disney needs to buy the company and let Kevin Feige book it. 

Put it in front of Hollywood Studios to create foot traffic for the park since Star Wars isn’t cutting it as anticipated.

Edited October 19, 2019 by LoneWolf&Subs

[SturmCRF]

16 minutes ago, JohnnyJ said:

Without going through the laundry list of reasons, I put a lot of thought into whether or not WWE has effectively killed the town. Whether a series of band aids have disguised just how bad it is and what, if anything, would engage the audience. 

Putting blame on Vince is certainly valid, but simply getting rid of him wont magically make good television. So, what needs to happen? 

 

Convince us that the WWE and Universal Titles aren't only the concern of whoever currently holds those belts and their number one contenders. Break the cycle of three month programmes where you can predict the outcome after month one. Don't have your champion lose a huge title match in five seconds and go back to pancake nonsense the next week like nothing's happened. Call up Matt Riddle, Keith Lee, Dominik Dijackovic, Shayna Baszler, Toni Storm, Tyler Bate, Bianca Belair and Pete Dunne and strap the rocket to them. Stop working with Tyson Fury because he's a hateful anti semite and misogynist who has used his comeback from depression to deflect from backwards views that he's never convincingly disavowed. That'd be a start.

[Cobra Commander]

I suspect the “ways to make the Wrestling industry like 1998” again would involve a few ideas that would go directly against the conventional wisdom of Internet hardcores.

[John from Cincinnati]

8 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

I suspect the “ways to make the Wrestling industry like 1998” again would involve a few ideas that would go directly against the conventional wisdom of Internet hardcores.

HLA? Necrophilia? Pole matches? 

Edited October 19, 2019 by West Newbury Bad Boy

[nate]

18 hours ago, joseph2112 said:

From SI:

McMahon offloaded 3,204,427 shares in the company at $84.87 each, meaning the sale netted him just under $272 million. The SEC filing says McMahon plans to invest the money in another company, Alpha Entertainment, which he created in 2017 when he began planning the relaunch of the XFL.Mar 28, 2019

The discount DVD company?

(Where my movie board peeps at?)

[Cobra Commander]

20 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

HLA? Necrophilia? Pole matches? 

Let’s just say that matches long enough that they go through multiple breaks probably isn’t a crowd-growing experience if it’s done every show.

No live sport goes to commercial during action. If you’re a predetermined live sport, then you have the power to not have to deal with that as a regular thing.

[SorceressKnight]

31 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

I suspect the “ways to make the Wrestling industry like 1998” again would involve a few ideas that would go directly against the conventional wisdom of Internet hardcores.

Honestly, I think that it's possible to do both of those things- please Internet hardcores and make the Wrestling industry like 1998 again....because wrestling in 1998 was basically an updated version of what worked in the 1980s boom.

All you have to do is remember every wrestler is someone's favorite and simply give everyone on the roster something to do, make sure that if they're doing something, it's seen as important to them...and then give it a little time to gestate and work people into a frenzy for it. Tyler Breeze's career is a good example of this: People may have whined he deserved some big push before and after the Fashion Files...but during the Fashion Files, no one was whining, because Breeze was doing something, and they gave it the time to make it clear it mattered to the show. 

That's really all you need. Just give everyone something to feast on, and people will be happy, and when they're happy, they'll watch. 

[Cobra Commander]

I remember the internet complaint in 1998, while both shows were popping massive ratings, was about how little wrestling there was and how short the matches were.

now, the “fun” part of everybody being somebody’s favorite is that also means somebody will be annoyed online when anybody gets squashed (either really squashed or just something seen as a squash). So, your options to get somebody over means annoying somebody else. For the complaints over 50/50 booking, I suspect if then veered away from that, there’d be some sudden nostalgia for 50/50 booking.

maybe the WWE found a way to do Indy supermatch style matches in a way that doesn’t appeal to casuals or hardcores.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

Vince has about 25 years left in charge so buckle up. Shit, with how tired HHH sounds, I think Vince might out live him.

Edited October 19, 2019 by LoneWolf&Subs

[JonnyLaw]

1 hour ago, Cobra Commander said:

I remember the internet complaint in 1998, while both shows were popping massive ratings, was about how little wrestling there was and how short the matches were.

I could completely be misremembering, but I feel like there was one Raw where there was only 20 something minutes of actual bell to bell action. TV matches were constantly only 2-3 minutes long, and fans would start chanting boring at the first sign of a headlock. There was a period in the early 00s where they basically had to re-educate fans to accept longer matches. 

[Matt D]

Stakes, Surprises, Serialized Storytelling. 

Even one of the three would be nice.

[John from Cincinnati]

 

[Brian Fowler]

How to get back to 1998 or 1985: find a Steve Austin or Hulk Hogan.

That's it, that's the whole game. When you have the guy at the top that draws new viewers, and is red hot, everything gets hot.

The longer time goes, the more convinced I get that you can't book a company to a boom, you just need that guy. And WWE is specifically set up to not let anyone become bigger than the company ever again.

1999 might be the single worst booked year in WWF history, and it didn't matter because Austin and then The Rock drew people. This year is giving it a serious run for worst booked, and it matters because, I mean, Seth Rollins is no major star whether or not you like him.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Brian Fowler

[Niners Fan in CT]

I don't think 4 minute matches fixes much.  The crowds would have to be so invested in the characters that they are okay with the in-ring action being short and secondary to whatever story you are telling. Most matches these days begin with the crowd sitting silently,  these men and women have to work their ass off to get a reaction out there and if they're good they usually can get the crowd going but it takes more than a couple minutes.  

So if the plan is to shorten matches okay that means more time for story telling and you know what WWE is really really really bad at?   Story telling. 

[John from Cincinnati]

Everything should be shorter. Nobody has time for multiple-segment Seth Rollins matches.

The longest matches should be 15 minute Ironman bouts. And they should be rare. 

[Cobra Commander]

in the most generic way possible: being compelling in some form is gonna be the key here, and I suspect that a lot of the ways to become compelling are gonna take place outside of the regular TV matches.

Of course, for that to work... you'd need a mix of people who are good at talking and knowing which guys to lean on for that.

But right now, it's almost like a certain amount of Raw/Smackdown is booked by the Battlebowl machine to generate 10/15 minute matches that don't exactly tie into any specific thing going on.

[Niners Fan in CT]

The problem with WWE doing a "real sports" presentation is that it comes off like a joke in comparison to New Japan where it is presented as a real sport down to the trophy presentations and press conferences.   But that's also something that Japanese fans accept and expect from the promotion.  

I don't know if that would even work for an American audience. I might like it but will a teenager think it's cool or will 40+ year old WWE fan who grew up in the Hogan era want to see it? I think it only works for a niche audience. 

I think what AEW is doing is closer to what main roster WWE should be in terms of booking and presentation and doing away with scripted promos but it remains to be seen how far AEW can go with it. For a startup company they are doing amazing.