What I miss about WWE.
This is a big topic, but one I felt like talking about for a couple reasons. First, WWE is obviously in a sub-par state right now, and it makes you miss previous years. The second reason is because I recently went on a little vacation where I had no internet access, so I decided to bring the first 5 or so pay-per-views of the year from 2005. Seeing these really made me realize how poor of a state WWE is truly in right now. There are a couple different points I would like to cover in this, so I'll split them up into different paragraphs.
The first point, is the wrestling. Of course this is a different era, where every match has to be a 4+ star match, and if it isn't then most likely people are quick to dismiss it. But yet, in the years of Ruthless Aggression, we were not getting the best wrestling on any of the pay-per-views. You'd have a great match here and another one there, but you could never expect anything consistent. This era is still considered one of the best ever though. This is because the matches could draw you in. An example here is Judgment Day 2005, one of the shows I watched. The first match I had 0 interest in before hand. MnM vs. Hardcore Holly and Charlie Haas. No promo package, no anything. What a random match to start off this event. But as they started, they drew me in. Holly and Haas were great faces and got the crowd behind them with little things like Holly getting the new blood (Mercury) into the corner and raising his hand. Holly knew that he has a reputation for putting the beatdown on new guys, and with as much heat as MnM were getting, he knew that the crowd would love some hard chops. Nitro and Mercury got the cheep win, which gave them even more heat because of the way the match drew the fans in. Even poor matches like Big Show vs. Carlito accomplished something, having Carlito gain massive heat by using his bodyguard (Matt Morgan) to pick up the win. The only truly bad part from this show was the Orlando Jordan vs. Heidenreich match, which leads me to my next point.
Bad people don't last long. In this time, if you weren't doing at least one thing right, you weren't going to last long. Of course there were people who were bad in the ring, but they made up for it with their character. Examples here are Heidenreich and Kenzo Suzuki. These two were bad no matter what role you put them in (how do you have a really bad match with Undertaker for the former, or just look bad in the ring with Eddie, Benoit, and Mysterio for the latter?) They both ended up gone. Then take someone like JBL. In-ring he wasn't the greatest ever, or anywhere near that. But can you name a better heel in that era? Cause I sure cannot. In this modern day of WWE, they have their most talented roster ever, but we still complain about in ring action. Now no one off the top of my head is particularly bad all-around, but if they are bad in one aspect, they aren't making up for it in another. Jinder Mahal is a good example in this case. His in-ring work is really bad, this is obvious. But usually you would make up for it in something like character. Now his character isn't bad, but it isn't something that makes up for how bad his wrestling is. But he is the WWE Champion. This hurts everyone, whether it be the other superstars on the roster, or the company itself. More users are turning off the channel, even though you have expanded your market. It seems to be a scenario of 1 step forward, 2 steps backwards. How can they help this? That leads into my third point.
Character. Man in Ruthless Aggression, these guys really took their character and rolled with it. Big superstars like Kurt Angle, John Cena, Eddie Guerrero, Brock Lesnar, etc. They all took their character to heart, and made the crowd love them or hate them just like they should. But what makes this stand out from modern day, is letting the lower card guys take a character and do what they want with it. Deuce and Domino are guys that were never going to make it to the top, but still were a reason to tune in to Smackdown cause you wanted to see the smug guys lose to London and Kendrick. Even Boogeyman who couldn't put on a great match, made you want to tune in to see what he would do next, and the crowd loved it. Nowadays WWE has put such a restraint on what guys can do with themselves, it's almost robotic. Let Roman Reigns work the crowd, cause he can do it. I strongly dislike him, but the post-Wrestlemania promo where he said 5 words is one of the best in modern day WWE. But he can't do anything more than that cause the company has his, and almost everyone else's written out word for word. It's simply boring. Look at the fashion files. They really let these guys do what they want, and they have one of the most over stories in the company right now. Then you take someone brilliant like Kevin Owens, who knows how to get heat in the best way, and you restrain him cause people get upset. It's not right, and it's something that I miss from WWE.
That's all for the first Random Topics. If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, I can leave a summed up portion in the conclusion. I miss letting guys put on their own matches, I miss not having sub-par people at the top of the company, and I miss letting guys run with their character. Hopefully you enjoyed this week, and be sure to look out for the next installment.
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