Re: Topic: Wrestling?

by Tatyina Thu Dec 05, 2013 7:27 pm

so then where's the disconnect?

The live audience loves him, the IWC loves him. Why don't the people who buy PPVs love him?

by kerflubble Thu Dec 05, 2013 7:54 pm

The booking.
Plain and simple, the build reaaally fucking sucked for Battleground and the booking despite the initial interest that it was going to be a retread of Austin/Vince with Bryan/HHH. The Main Event was a rematch of a match that had a clean finish overturned, so there was no reason for anyone to think that everything was going to be okay. That and he was constantly being called a "B+" and not getting to do much about it. And lo and behold, a non-finish ending to a show.

Summerslam was better but it just seemed like Bryan was going to be another one of Cena's villains of the week. Nothing special, good match but little drama behind it. That and the Special Referee stip pretty much guarenteed that there wouldn't be a happy ending. SS 2012 did better because Lesnar still had a viel of mistique from his match with Cena. Yeah he had lost via rapadoo but during and after it looked like Cena had gotten the absolute shit kicked out of him. In 2013 after the HHH matches which pretty much made him just another guy, his match with Punk: despite being the best match Lesnar's had since coming back, wasn't a special attraction.

If this seems like I'm going on a big "Fuck HHH" rant it's because I fucking am and it's totally justified. His masturbatory feud with Lesnar and Heyman killed Brock as a special attraction, his presence as on-screen authority figure has cut short the major pushes of both Punk and Bryan, and both times when he's been special referee for shows that while did pretty well for the year, were still pretty disappointing and foreshadowed the bullshit to follow (KEVIN NASH IN A LADDER MATCH). Bryan's not the only loser in this scenario, Orton's been booked like utter tripe as well, merely a background figure to HHH's schemes.

by Tatyina Thu Dec 05, 2013 7:59 pm

Maybe they knew Cena was coming back sooner than they thought and just wrapped up that plot thread quickly to make room for THE CHAMP IN PERPETUUM.

Cause that's what it feels like to me. That they just ended a plot thread because of Cena. I actually didn't mind what they were doing, sometimes it blew but sometimes it didn't and then it just got shoved off to the side.

by Harrier Thu Dec 05, 2013 8:28 pm

I think that Cena as a main eventer thing is old. Not just to me, to basically everyone. Cena will hog the belt after it is unified, and people will be thankful that their guys(like Ziggler, Mark Henry, Bryan or Christian) got their (thank you) runs with the WHC before we maybe even re-enter Bruno Sammartino territory again.

If history teaches us anything it will probably be like this:
Cena has the belt
Cena looses belt to AdR, has meaningless feud with guys like Kane but still mainevents(rise above hate, yadda yadda).
AdR looses to Sheamus.
Sheamus turns into Chickenshit heel.
Cena rsises above gingers and wins belt again.
CM Punk wins it from Cena after some shit ending.
Randy Orton gets the belt.
Some random contender.
Cena wins, lol...

Title unification will be utterly disastrous and result in a drop of the viewers that are important to advertisers cause the large majority of wrestling fansd that are not children watches WWE for the faint hope that they can just ignore stuff like Cena vs. Orton and enjoy seeing their guys fight for the scraps. But if the next best scrap is the IC belt, who wants to really see that? What was once a reward for the next big wrestler is the prop of the best jobber today...

by **Old_Man_Tai** Fri Dec 06, 2013 10:09 am

[quote="Tatyina":a8ps7lou]Maybe they knew Cena was coming back sooner than they thought and just wrapped up that plot thread quickly to make room for THE CHAMP IN PERPETUUM.

Cause that's what it feels like to me. That they just ended a plot thread because of Cena. I actually didn't mind what they were doing, sometimes it blew but sometimes it didn't and then it just got shoved off to the side.

I'd say it was more like they weren't prepared for Cena to come back so soon and suddenly had to scramble to find a way to shoehorn their biggest star into their biggest storyline. It's not working out well.

As for Daniel Bryan and the PPV stuff...Yeah, its the booking. If you aren't going to really make it look like the guys going to take the belt, nobody is going to order it. Factor in WWE's stupid fall PPV schedule, and that Bryan's biggest "supporters", the IWC, don't actually order PPV's, and it all leads into low buyrates.

Then again, Invasion 2001 had terrible booking, like the entire Invasion did, but still made 10 million dollars in PPV buys. Though that was very special circumstances.

by kerflubble Fri Dec 06, 2013 10:41 am

The Invasion was a once in a lifetime WWE vs WCW bonanza, even if you were only tangentially related to wrestling, this was a big fucking deal. Ya they shit the bed with it, badly, but the mere idea was enough to draw people in.

by **Old_Man_Tai** Fri Dec 06, 2013 6:09 pm

Yeah, for about 2 PPVs. About 8-12 weeks after the Invasion PPV, ratings dropped like, 30 percent.

Maybe if they hadn't ended like 4 shows in a row with Daniel Bryan laid out, maybe people would have thought he actually had a shot.

by Bluemouse Fri Dec 06, 2013 6:15 pm

IIRC, they did that 10 out of 10 times with him on NXT. WWE has always been known for it's keen eye for talent, and it's cunning usage of it once acquired.

by **Old_Man_Tai** Sun Dec 08, 2013 9:05 am

Just got home from a WWE live event in Sacramento. Was freaking awesome.

Turns out that when you watch whats basically Raw without any announcers, story lines, promo's, or soap opera drama....Its REALLY FUN.

Biggest reaction of the night was The Shield. Their music hit in the middle of a match, and blew the fucking roof off the place. My buddy and I were row 8 in the 10 rows of chairs around each side of the ring, and The Shield walked right past us, so we each poked Roman Reigns. He growled. XD.

by Tatyina Sun Dec 08, 2013 9:13 am

That's awesome. I do like The Shield. I would have have Dean Ambrose a pat to see if he shanked me in an alley later. I bet he would ^ ^

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