The General Wrestling Thread

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

They need to have Johnny Ace come out to the ring in his suit and tie, but with a skateboard, too.

[dave]

Before MITB, I was dying to buy the PPV (and did). Can't say the same about Summer Slam.
I thought The Miz and R-Truth were pretty damn good together tonight.
And ...
John Morrison simply needs to be an egotist heel. He looks so awkward as a face.

[Warner2BruceTD]

This angle is dead, finished, over, killed, done.

I shouldn't be surprised that they blew it, because they drop the ball on anything that is gift wrapped and easy to book.

-WCW invasion

-ECW revival

-NWO return

-Goldberg

-Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan

-Summer of Punk II

All paint-by-numbers, million dollar angles HANDED TO THEM ON A SILVER PLATTER, all blown to varying degrees because they tried to get too cute and put their personal stamp on every single one.

-WCW, booked to look like geeks, dominted by WWE side at every turn, burned through months of storylines in ONE NIGHT at the RAW where the "merged" with ECW. Oh, and Stephanie McMahon was involved, killing it for the demo the needed to capture to make it work. FAIL.

-ECW, monster DVD sales, monster PPV burate, ZERO follow up for nearly ONE YEAR because they did not want to admit the success. Then Vince declared that "only 1,000 east coast fans care about the old ECW", choosing to ignore that waaaay more than 1,000 people bought the DVD and the PPV. FAIL.

-NWO, no edge and booked in goofy storylines like hitting The Rock with a truck. FAIL.

-Goldberg, all they had to do was repeat the winning streak and leave him alone. The people wanted it. Instead, they changed his music, changed his tights, and had him doing comedy skits with Goldust on his first night. How the hell do you whiff on GOLDBERG? FAIL.

-Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan, the most anticipated match possibly ever. Easy to book, just have the heel Flair talk shit about Hogan until WrestleMania, keep them apart until then, and boom, one million buys minimum. Nope. Wrestled every night on a house show loop, killing the novelty of the first match. Flair's character WWE-ized by dropping the trash talking playboy act, and turning up the volume on the insane wildman act all the way up. Flair, imo, never recovered from this and was never the same.

-Summer of Punk II, another layup, just keep the guy away for a couple of months, let him do more "shoots" at random indy shows and public appearances, and have him tell the world that he is showing up at SummerSlam. NEVER MENTION HIS NAME ON TV. It's 2011, viral marketing does the work for you, especially for the hardcores who fell for the gimmick hook, line, and sinker. Instead, they keep him away ONE FUCKING WEEK, and all of the edge and "coolness" of the angle is sucked away when he walks out on RAW 8 days after MITB. Innovative, cutting edge angle dead, same old boring uninteresting shit alive and well. Punk went from breaking through to pop culture to latest McMahon family TV foil. It's over.

What connects it all? None of these things were created by Vince, so in his mind, they can't possibly be good ideas or work unless they manipulate them. What connects and doesnt connect with the audience is subtle. Ringmaster fails, Stone Cold is the biggest star ever. Tom Magee fails, Hogan is an icon. You change the dynamic, ever so slightly, you yield different results. By changing the dynamic of these simple stories, Vince McMahon has left millions on the table, and its why I always say he's the least successful sometimes billionaire ever. If it wasnt for Hogan, and then Stone Cold, Vince is likely out of business like everyone else.

[EmpireWF]

They changed the angle, sucks, but oh well.

Now it's about HHH vs. Punk.

Fuck Cena, his character is so stale it's crazy.

[dave]

W2BTD nailed it.
I so wanted the CM Punk angle to work. I will continue to watch RAW and hope for the best, but no f--king chance I pay for a PPV.

[Warner2BruceTD]

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[dave]

I don't blame Johnny Ace for this. He's just doing his job.

[s@ppisgod]

The Invasion should have been the biggest angle in wrestling history. WCW didn't have to go over, all they had to do was look credible. Of course, Vince wasn't gonna have any of that, and squandered sooooooo much money. Imagine if they made the WCW guys legitimate, then had a big showdown in Charlotte or Atlanta. Or the ECW guys in Philly or Jersey. They could have offered something for everyone and kept the whole market. Instead they pushed Vince's ego, and they lost fans that they still haven't gained back.

I actually tried to watch Raw this week. The open wasn't bad. I survived the Divas trash. Then Cena came on and said "admire", and I was out. Eventually came back to Santino getting double-teamed while the crowd chanted for Ryder, who quickly jobbed to the usual, shitty WWE thrown-together tag champs. Then I came back again just in time for Trips and Johnny Ace to have an argument that ABSOLUTELY no one wanted to see. And of course, a belt and music back and forth. Back to business as usual. Unwatchable garbage. Looks like I missed the one watchable month the WWE has had in over 5 years. Oh well...
SAMSUNG-SGH-A887/A887UCIJ1 SHP/VPP/R5 NetFront/3.5 SMM-MMS/1.2.0 profile/MIDP-2.1 configuration/CLDC-1.1

[EmpireWF]

The open wasn't bad. The Punk/HHH interplay was great.

The rest of the show was crap. From the use of Cole to sabotage commentary, to Ryder's burial (stop getting over!), to Morrison's return ending in him getting pinned (not to mention half of his aerial moves MISS, still), the ridiculous conclusion with more Punk and Cena posing, to Cena's silly character (who doesn't seem to care that Punk pinned him 1-2-3) to the insult of our intelligence in using 2 hours to end in a simple booking of Punk vs. Cena at SS. They should have had HHH lay that out at the start of the show and spend the rest hyping it up.

The only other things that were solid were the pre-match promo between Truth and Miz (whenever they can portray Killings as legit and not a cartoon, it's great)...and bringing Beth Phoenix back to TV as a dominant female.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

This angle is dead, finished, over, killed, done.

I shouldn't be surprised that they blew it, because they drop the ball on anything that is gift wrapped and easy to book.

-WCW invasion

-ECW revival

-NWO return

-Goldberg

-Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan

-Summer of Punk II

All paint-by-numbers, million dollar angles HANDED TO THEM ON A SILVER PLATTER, all blown to varying degrees because they tried to get too cute and put their personal stamp on every single one.

-WCW, booked to look like geeks, dominted by WWE side at every turn, burned through months of storylines in ONE NIGHT at the RAW where the "merged" with ECW. Oh, and Stephanie McMahon was involved, killing it for the demo the needed to capture to make it work. FAIL.

-ECW, monster DVD sales, monster PPV burate, ZERO follow up for nearly ONE YEAR because they did not want to admit the success. Then Vince declared that "only 1,000 east coast fans care about the old ECW", choosing to ignore that waaaay more than 1,000 people bought the DVD and the PPV. FAIL.

-NWO, no edge and booked in goofy storylines like hitting The Rock with a truck. FAIL.

-Goldberg, all they had to do was repeat the winning streak and leave him alone. The people wanted it. Instead, they changed his music, changed his tights, and had him doing comedy skits with Goldust on his first night. How the hell do you whiff on GOLDBERG? FAIL.

-Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan, the most anticipated match possibly ever. Easy to book, just have the heel Flair talk shit about Hogan until WrestleMania, keep them apart until then, and boom, one million buys minimum. Nope. Wrestled every night on a house show loop, killing the novelty of the first match. Flair's character WWE-ized by dropping the trash talking playboy act, and turning up the volume on the insane wildman act all the way up. Flair, imo, never recovered from this and was never the same.

-Summer of Punk II, another layup, just keep the guy away for a couple of months, let him do more "shoots" at random indy shows and public appearances, and have him tell the world that he is showing up at SummerSlam. NEVER MENTION HIS NAME ON TV. It's 2011, viral marketing does the work for you, especially for the hardcores who fell for the gimmick hook, line, and sinker. Instead, they keep him away ONE FUCKING WEEK, and all of the edge and "coolness" of the angle is sucked away when he walks out on RAW 8 days after MITB. Innovative, cutting edge angle dead, same old boring uninteresting shit alive and well. Punk went from breaking through to pop culture to latest McMahon family TV foil. It's over.

What connects it all? None of these things were created by Vince, so in his mind, they can't possibly be good ideas or work unless they manipulate them. What connects and doesnt connect with the audience is subtle. Ringmaster fails, Stone Cold is the biggest star ever. Tom Magee fails, Hogan is an icon. You change the dynamic, ever so slightly, you yield different results. By changing the dynamic of these simple stories, Vince McMahon has left millions on the table, and its why I always say he's the least successful sometimes billionaire ever. If it wasnt for Hogan, and then Stone Cold, Vince is likely out of business like everyone else.

Ether.

With that said, I'm now waiting for the impending doom that is Zack Ryder.

They'll force him down our throat, but half ass it because, much like all this...his manufactured love from the audience is not of the WWE's doing, its of his own doing, so, surely they won't actually get behind any push.

Fuck, they had him tagging with Santino and jobbing to WOATunga. Awful.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Otunga has the "it" factor.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Otunga has the "shit" factor.

FIFY

[Warner2BruceTD]

No, it's the IT factor, everyone says so. Did you know he is married to Jennifer Hudson? So does the tall stiff from Tough Enough. IT factor. Trish and Booker said so. IT FACTOR.

"It was a great show with a great finish! I don't give a fuck about CM Punk, it's all about Bobby Lashley! Now get with the fucking program!" - Vince to Heyman after December to Dismember

[manchild24]

fucking hate Otunga, dont they say he married Hudson to try and propel is career.

[Bigpapa42]

What a wonderful month for the WWE... They managed to take me from barely giving a shit anymore and feeling close to giving up on them again to getting me to actually buy a non-WM pay per view and having at least a bit of hope, and then back to not giving a shit. Wonderful roller coast ride, WWE! Now I'll just go back to not giving you any of my money and expecting absolutely nothing of quality from your product. Thanks.