There is no happy medium?
 

Hi team,

Just a thought after reading a post the other day where someone wasn't thrilled with the upcoming battle royale on Smackdown. The reason for this was because they perceived that Randy Orton was losing his title shot at Wrestlemania. Almost as if they were losing control of how television was playing out.

On the flip side to this, there has also been a bunch of predictable storylines due to dirt sheets that people were not happy about. One of the reasons being predictability. An example of this would be Goldberg vs Kevin Owens with Goldberg winning and facing Lesnar at Wrestlemania for the championship.

Is there a happy medium? Or are we predisposed to complain regardless of how things play out on TV? Do we want to be in control and know where things are going ahead of time? Or do we want to be surprised as television unfolds weekly?

I find it curious that the majority of viewers are happy to see shows like the Walking Dead unfold in ways they hadn't thought of. However when it comes to wrestling, if a storyline begins to veer off what they assumed was going to happen, people begin to bash the product.

Thoughts?

Personally, and this is true for all forms of my media consumption, i do not try and get ahead of the narrative. My judgements are based off the stories im given so there isnt a need for a medium for me as an individual.

The happy medium is James Ellsworth

I think when people see the strings and they don't like the puppet show, it's hard to put your frustrations as a fan aside. I don't think it's a problem with things being "predictable," as I think people want things they want, even if it's predictable. I think it's a problem with the company being tone deaf to its fan base a lot of the time.

We all knew Bray would win the WWE Title but it didn't take anything away from it. Except for we thought that he'd have to drop it to Orton and it would just be a transitional reign.

I knew that Bray was winning and it kind of bugged me, because his program feels like a mid-card program. The way they went about it was good though.

Happy medium is do not read the dirt sheets of you want to be suprised.

Hard with this place full of Meltzer Sheep

A happy medium is impossible because everyone has differing opinions. I'm fine with whats going on with booking.

I think this sums up being a wrasslin fan

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I'd say no at least in regards to a real happy medium. Not going to be able to please everyone while WWE's Creative has done a poor job over the years keeping people interested in their shows.

Wouldn't really matter if you knew or didn't know the plans ahead of time if the WWE still struggles to make a coherent story out of it. For example, WWE has done a pretty terrible job with the storytelling of RAW's women's division because every feel good moment never lasts or they just keep reverting back to the same story in the end with Charlotte as champ.

In regards to the Walking Dead stuff, that show has been getting complaints almost from day 1 because of how split the fandom is for the series. Even ignoring comic fans, the tv fanbase itself is very split and shows whenever something big happens in story or direction for the show.

I'm actually loving the direction for Smackdown. Hoping Randy gets his title shot back because Harper wins the battle royal and makes it a triple threat.

I don't read them and still find almost everything easily predictable and boring storyline wise. I don't and haven't watched Raw or SD in years (outside of maybe checking out a segment maybe 2-3 times), but watched the Rumble and Elimination Chamber. I pretty much called all the Rumble results. Elimination Chamber was better and less predictable but I was still able to call quite a bit. Everything is just so formulaic and the same.

I will say that the Attitude era was far from perfect but it was never boring.

Wife and I were actually binge watching some old 1999 Raws yesterday. She distinctly commented, "Why can't WWE be this good again? It's not the greatest thing I've ever watched but at least I'm entertained and hooked. I'm invested and want to watch more to see what's going to happen next."

Orton winning the Rumble would have surprised me if I had not known he was going to win before hand, but I don't think it would have left me satisfied.

Going back and watching stuff from the Attitude era, everything had this "kinetic" feel to it. It felt grittier (I'm not talking about swearing or it being a "sexier" or more violent product -- there's something more real about it. But that's because it was closer to wrestling. It's a bunch of dudes shit-talking each other, then they fight and they try to make it look as real as possible. Promos were authentic, with purpose and to the point -- instead of dialogue exchanges. Guys got to be stars if they were really good, because they were allowed to project their star qualities and carry themselves as big deals.

It has now "evolved" into "artistic combat." Everyone is scripted to be the same, and everybody has the same match. It's the same routine for every single match on a show. And that structure is all well and good. Everybody loves a bit of vanilla ice-cream every now and then. But sometimes you do want strawberry or chocolate. Everybody is doing vanilla shit and then no one is over because it's all vanilla. Every dude does a dive now. Every guy sells everything the same way and kicks out of everybody's finisher a million times each. Every match is trying to be HBK/Taker.

That's why Luke Harper gets so many points with me. If you go back and watch Harper vs. Orton, it is something that could have taken place in the Attitude era. The back suplex and the receipt spot made it feel like there were actual stakes in the fight. Harper was endearing as hell and Orton was great in his role as the veteran on a roll schooling the veteran monster. It felt like the match told its own story as opposed to being the same story.

And Harper went down to one RKO. And he sold it differently to other people. It made me think "Damn, if he didn't get hit with that RKO, he might have won the match." And I find Harper interesting to watch because he does things his own way instead of a universally decided "correct" way. Different doesn't always mean better, but you're never going to stand out by blending in.

Dudes fucking worked back then too. They listened to the crowd and just went out and did shit and they were pros and it went well and looked less glossy and rehearsed. I heard a clip of a promo Bayley was instructed to give on RAW a few weeks ago. She was reading poetry to Charlotte and the crowd fucking hated it -- but because she is scripted she had to stay on this sinking ship and it was brutal.

If people went out there and actually called matches in the ring and their promos weren't scripted by people who are trying to be cute and witty all the time and honestly aren't good enough to stifle that voice and invoke true bad-assery, I think the product would just feel more "alive."

Honestly I think the biggest issue is the dirt sheets and the fact that, as Noid stated, we all see the strings now. Becoming a "smart fan" was honestly the worst thing that ever happened to me in terms of my enjoyment of wrestling.

Even up until I was 16 or so I could enjoy WWE well enough. Hell, that would have been right around 2006-07 when WWE was at its worst yet I still tuned in weekly.

Then I found this place and y'all tainted me to the point that I treated watching wrestling as a chore for a while there, and I even stopped watching something that had been a massive part of my life since I was a little kid for nearly 4 months.

It took a lot to get to where I could actually enjoy wrestling in any form for what it is, and a big part of that was just letting go and laughing at it. I basically have to look at wrestling in a "so bad it's good" light because otherwise I just can't stand it.

So, the TL;DR version is, no, there really isn't a happy medium. Once you've had your eyes opened and seen just how bad something actually is it's damn near impossible to unsee it.

The thing is our fandom drives us here. We want more and want to learn more. To enjoy wrestling sincerely, you almost have to not enjoy it enough.

Yeah, it's pretty paradoxical. I mean the only reason I came to TPWW in the first place was because I was seeking out a place to read dirt sheets and "behind the scenes stuff." Then I started listening to everyone around here and it sorta made me change my own tastes. John Cena and Triple H used to be among my favorites during that era of wrestling, but within a year of lurking around here I saw through everything and was shitting on them like the rest of the smarks.

I guess it sorta sounds like I caved to peer pressure, and I guess that's sorta true, but I mean they were legit pretty bad at that point in their careers (though everything was bad then.) Nowadays I like to think I've mellowed out and can see things far more clearly such as acknowledging that there's more to wrestling than just workrate, but there was a time where this place and the internet as a whole had me playing the part of the full on IWC moron. Looking at the man behind the curtain is definitely a big part of being in the fandom, but it's also one of the biggest hazards as well.