Professional Wrestling

[Timone]

JERICHO!! Still rocking that jacket.

[Timone]

RYDER IS STILL TRYING TO CHANGE THE TIRE LOL

[Timone]

Lol @ the crash pad. This is ridiculous.

[Timone]

I like Jericho, Punk, Ziggler and Laurinaitis, but I'm really not feelin' everything else... the Kane/Ryder/Cena stuff especially. Weird.

Will say that at least the product isn't so dull anymore.

[Glenn]

http://www.tmz.com/2012/01/12/mustac...r#.Tw8-sW9SSFk

[Pharaoh]

Surprised you guys haven't mentioned Funkasaurus yet... Brodias Clay gets his long awaited debut and it's Rikishi II

I have to say I enjoy reading the reactions of the internet fans. Some whine and complain while others think it's awesome.

What most don't realise is that you can't the entire company can't be all serious wrestling bullshit. Some stuff needs to be funny to break up the show. Who the fuck wants to watch a 2 hour wrestling show that treats it as a serious sport? If fans wanted to watch serious sport they'd watch the UFC (and they do lol)

WWE and wrestling in general is about over the top characters - always has been. Sure the "serious" guys can have their 30 minute matches and entertain in the ring but that alone won't make people care... fans have to buy into your character. You can be like CM Punk or Steve Austin. You can be like John Cena or Randy Orton (Hogan and Savage II) or you can be like Kane or The Undertaker.

But the show needs guys like Funkasaurus and Santino. It needs to have stupid segments inbetween the "serious" stuff. You can't just have each segment run into the next - cause if you do that you don't give the fans time to process what they've seen... it would be a never ending stream of "serious" consequences...

and when the show was over the fans wouldn't remember half of it! (TNA I'm looking at you)

But fans will remember Santino. And Funkasaurus. The same way they remember Rikishi or Too Cool or Kamala or Koko B Ware

As for Chris Jericho.... LMAO! He still hasn't explained his return or the videos that proceeded it! And the people love him anyway!

[Timone]

I actually agree with all of that.

I don't really have much of an opinion on the Funkasaurus stuff myself, but it most definitely has a place in wrasslin'.

[Pharaoh]

It's really not that hard to structure a 2 hour show and leave little breaks inbetween the serious shit.

In general what the WWE does on RAW is:

1st Quarter Hour = the main storyline at the time, or of the night
2nd Quarter Hour = some throw away shit + a match + an interview
3rd Quarter Hour = a match, some throw away shit + an interview
4th Quarter Hour = important angle and/or match that runs into the 5th Quarter Hour
5th Quarter Hour = 4th quarter ends and we then get throw away shit
6th Quarter Hour = throw away shit, a match + an interview
7th Quarter Hour = throw away shit, interviews/recap for main event
8th Quarter Hour = Main Storyline at the time or for the Night
Over-run = conclusion of 8th Quarter Hour

Sometimes you don't get the interview, instead you get a recap of other shit that either already happened that night or happened on Smackdown or happened in the recent past.

But the vast majority of the show is throw away shit because they really on focus on a few main stories at any one time.

Right now the focus is Punk v Johnny Ace (with Ziggler featured) and Cena v Kane (Ryder features here). Jericho returning is the only other main story but that doesn't mean you leave guys with nothing to do. Miz and R Truth are building their story in bits and pieces, Swagger just won the US Title, the tag belts just changed hands (because of Evan Bourne's 2nd Wellness violation) and Funkasaurus debuts...

Lots of "stuff" happened on RAW.... but not much of it means anything... depending on how they continue the story. But if you missed RAW then you didn's miss much... and that's how you continue to produce 50 weeks of RAW every year. Little bits and pieces of stories but very few bombshells or shocks...

Those should be saved for PPV

[Pharaoh]

And the reason WWE produces a show like that is because... they can

They have no competition. They have no reason to give away good stuff for free because if you currently watch RAW then you will likely continue to watch RAW regardless of what they produce or don't produce.

Is that good for their business? No it's not. But it's not bad for business either. They have their core audience and they cater to them.

Not every wrestler will get over to the extent that Hulk Hogan did with the kids or the way Austin did to those same kids who were then late teens/early 20's. Those people now are 30+ with a wife and kids of their own...

The wife doesn't want to turn on WWE and see a guy like Austin flipping the bird, drinking beer and beating up Authority figures. That wife wants to turn on WWE and see Captain America John Cena fight the good fight and defeat the evil villian...

But good ol' Dad? He wants to see guys like Punk talk shit, back it up and cause chaos! Dad wants to be reminded why he loves wrestling in the first place. Guys like Bryan, Jericho, Rhodes, Ziggler and even Orton to some extent help Daddy remember that he's been a fan for 20 years.

Mum? Other than Cena she has Rey Mysterio (Sin Cara was supposed to have next), Funkasaurus, Santino, Kofi Kingston etc

You keep Mum and Dad hooked for another 5-10 years and then BOOM! Miz becomes Austin II, Cena becomes The Rock II, Sheamus becomes HHH II and "WOW! It's the Attitude Era" lol

Unless something drastic changes in the next 5 years WWE will continue to produce the shit they produce now because it's smart business.

Better business would be to searching far and wide for the next big things. The guys who, like Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle, can adapt to pro wrestling very quickly and can change the game.

I'm sure there are quite a few MMA guys who aren't that great at it but who could become good wrestlers. I'm also sure there are some reasonable actors out there that know they will never make it big on TV or in movies but are or were wrestling fans and would love to join the WWE.

Take the actor that can talk, put him with the MMA guy you can't and BOOM! Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman II.

And if you've been paying attention today you'll notice a lot of [insert name here] II comments...

Which begs the question: Is the pro wrestling business cyclical because that's just the way it is...

or is pro wrestling cyclical because it recycles the same gimmicks time after time?

Wrestling as a business has been changed TWICE in the last 28 years... McMahon's national (international) expansion in 1984 and when Bischoff took over as WCW Executive Vice President AND put Nitro on the air in 1996.

The format WWE uses on RAW is Bischoff's format for Nitro. The format TNA uses on Impact is Bischoff's format from 1996!

Can you believe that shit? 16 years and the business hasn't changed! Even if you claim the Nitro/RAW/NWO/Attitude Era ended in 2001 that's still 11 years since significant change effected the pro wrestling business.

The fucking world has changed an awful lot in 11 years... maybe pro wrestling needs to change too?

[Pharaoh]

http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/columns/219681

I believe the first question is about who booked what company and when...

If you read it you'll see that the same names appear time after time after time outside WWE - therefore creating this situation where the same stories are told over and over again a few years apart because the booker is back in power and has a few trusty angles he knows will work - because they worked before!

And within WWE everyone answers to Stephanie and HHH. They answer to Vince. So reagrdless of which writer wrote which segment what you'll get in WWE is the official stamp of approval by Vince, HHH or Steph or all 3.

The big names in power in TNA = Bischoff, Hogan, Bruce Pritchard and Vince Russo.

Jim Cornette books Ring of Honor. Gabe Sapowsky books Evolve and DragonGate USA

Those guys have been booking wrestling for the past 20 fucking years!

Time for a change...