grade the WWE today
 

sort a state of the union gauge vote as to where you think the product is right now. not the company , the product on TV, but justify your grade.

standard American A-F grading, no weird euro shit

Lack of Tatanka: C-

C+

Better than recent memory

A-

It is as exciting and entertaining as it's ever been. Undercard needs more storylines.

With A+ being the Attitude Era and an F being around mid 90's when ratings were at its lowest,

I would give the current rating a B-.

The storylines are getting pretty decent and the WWE are developing solid characters for the future.

Once they get a little better at understanding the 'ebb' and 'flow' of their show as they did during the Attitude Era, while knowing whom and whom not to give more TV time, along with knowing which characters to push in a certain way, I think they'll get back into the 'A' category for the first time since 2001.

A-. Haven't enjoyed the show this much in a long time.

As a televised product, I'm going to say C+. They have a lot of time to fill that they don't fill well. Raw is not always that hot (but still enjoyable for the most part), SmackDown seems like a filler show quite often, Main Event is just a skirmish... They just have so little going on to fill 6 hours on TV.

As a company, A+. The network is amazing, the production values are always through the roof, and what they're doing in Florida with NXT and their training center is fantastic. They are investing a lot in the future of the company.

F

Only seen the Royal Rumble in the past year and it was pretty gash. New Age Outlaws were the most charismatic guys on the whole show, and while they're obviously amazing, they probably shouldn't be the stars of the show in 2014.

Can anyone tell me what storylines are actually ongoing other than guy a wants to fight guy b, so they fight or generic "I want that title for no reason because the titles are a bit pointless" storyline.

Grammar all over the place there.

She seems kind of "nice girl who you'd have a bit of a laugh with and then have drunk sex with on more than one occasion and it'd eventually turn into a relationship without anyone having any intention of that happening and everyone would be like "oh you two are together? Cool I guess" but nobody would be particularly jealous" attractive, rather than "Internet drooling over her" attractive. Or is that the whole appeal?

Sounds like a soundly developing storyline. I increase my grade to a D-

<font color=goldenrod>I would quite happily partake in consensual sexual relations with Renee Young.</font>

I would totally hold a boombox up over my head playing some Peter Gabriel outside Renee's house.

Real American?

I'd kick Renee's ass out of my bed and welcome Maryse in with open arms.

I'd kick Renee's ass out of my bed.









There's more room on the floor anyway.

Have to wait to WrestleMania to give it a full grade but its passing right now in the pass/fail scale.

C-

A lot of good characters in the main event picture like Bray Wyatt and heel Batista. Cena, Lesnar with Heyman and currently Hogan and Taker are there to keep the "big time" feel to the show that has lacked outside of Cena in recent years. That all brings the level up.

Tons of TV time and absolute shit for storylines outside of the main event and titles/champions being treated like meaningless props that aren't worth watching anyone fight for brings it down though. Basically what Iggy said. The storylines could be put together by a 3rd grader and there's no continuity with any of the characters outside a handful of main eventers.

B+

Would have gone A- but I feel like while the main event is probably the best it's been in a decade, the midcard is suffering. It's not that hard to make multiple storylines that work. I mean hell, even TNA manages to actually have midcard stories going on (even if they're not all particularly good). There are plenty of midcarders just sitting around doing nothing that could easily put on some interesting stories and matches, and it's not like WWE doesn't have the time to do it. Just cut back on all the recaps and instructional videos on how to download the App/WWE Network.

Not good. Still not many legit tag teams (that aren't just random singles guy match ups), mid-card titles don't mean anything, very rarely are their mid-card storlines at lead anywhere, and not much holds the interest of the audience outside of a couple of main guys. Add that to the Royal Rumble absolute abortion that happened and Punk leaving, it's just not all that great right now. That isn't to say that there isn't a silver lining because there are a few storylines that are saving everything. The Shield vs Wyatts is absolutely fucking incredible and they are finally trying to salvage the Bryan fiasco. There is hope, I just feel so broken from all of the hot garbage they've served us this year, I'm afraid to look forward to anything.

They don't even need to do that per se. Just cut back on the meaningless matches that get no one any closer to being over and were probably booked 5 minutes before the show by the writers closing their eyes and pointing to a list of the roster and give guys some stories to be involved in to build them up as characters.

Solid b. women's division is best it's been in a while,tag teams are starting to surface and the main event is stacked with potential

True enough, but I'm still freaking sick of hearing Michael Cole explain for the 1,000,000 time how to download a god damn app. Even children aren't that stupid. Hell my nephew can work an iphone better than I can.

B- It's been pretty inconsistent. However, the WWE Network is pretty good. I anticipate other companies to follow what they are doing with that.

For the first time in a long time, there are several talents that actually mean something. Bryan, Shield, Wyatts, Cesaro, and the Usos have all stepped up recently and have connections with the crowd. Back in 2011 when Punk was going to leave, I was going to stop watching because there was nothing to be excited about. Now, I can sit through RAW and not miss Punk.

Also WWE finally got it right with the right people having heat on the show. Crowd support and storylines are actually intertwined instead of heels being cheered over the hero of the story. They even listened to the crowd and turned Batista.

In the fall, there were a lot of legit tag teams: Shield, Rhodes, Wyatts, PTP, Usos, Real Americans, then Los Matadores and 3MB if you count them as contenders. Some of these teams broke up but the Ascension is all but ready to come to RAW (and leave my NXT forever). Contrast this to TNA, where the jokiest jokes of all jokes who were losing to ODB all of the sudden won the tag titles and are supposed to be serious guys, and the best tag team on the roster won't have their contracts renewed.

I'll go with the Authority special B+. Fantastic wrestling, good main story going into Mania, but undercard can use some direction.

The Shield is breaking up, The Rhodes are either breaking up or falling into obscurity, The Real Americans are breaking up, Los Matadores aren't relevant, and 3MB are perennial jobbers. Oh, and I don't know if you watch NXT much but the Ascension is really bad. There is never a plan with the tag team division, it is kind of a joke. I really miss the days of there being teams that were just lifetime tag teams. Every 4 months you hear about WWE wanting to rejuvenate the tag division. That last for 3 months and then it is awful again.

I haven't enjoyed any of The Authority stuff really at all. It is another rehashed authority angle and I hate how that is just a staple of wrestling now.

And there was absolutely no choice in them turning Batista and adding a big face to WM unless they wanted their main event booed out of the building. That wasn't really a creative decision. It was one they had to make because they messed up so incredibly at the Royal Rumble that large amounts of damage control were necessary.

I don't think the Shield is breaking up anytime soon. Seems like they will unite against Kane and the authority.

I give it a A. Only thing I dislike is Brock/Undertaker because it has been done for the past 4 years. Big E and The Real Americans will have a nice match at Mania. It is a little more than a 'I want the belt' match because of The Real Americans breakup due to jealousy. Shield and Wyatt's have characters. The mid card may be lacking some faces but The Shield may become faces or stay as tweeners. Shield vs Kane and the other 2 Wyatt's at Mania maybe?

3MB are gonna breakthrough and hold every belt. Even the womens. They are that good.

There is a terrible abundance of wasted talent. Barely two actual angles to scrape between 100 wrestlers. Ziggler remains the perfect example of this. Break up his group so that he can come out and wrestle meaningless matches, Big E can wrestle meaningless matches and AJ can wrestle meaningless matches. They may have had no storylines going on when they were together, but at least they had each other. They had something. They have a handful of gimmicks but very little conviction to stick to them. If you just started watching, what the hell are the Real Americans?

We need a little more Vince Russo. Why is any of this happening.

Would you rather have them ignore the crowd completely and power thrust Batista as a world beating babyface?

And I know the Ascension suck, they suck and blow more than Batista after his entrance. That's why I want them called up and away from my NXT, which is the best wrestling show.

I think they'd rather not be so moronic as to think people have any interest in Batista walking in and winning the rumble because he's such a big hotshot Hollywood guy who's gonna be such hot property one day when his film comes out that he's signed a two year wrestling contract.

All these "A"s make me wish I had some of you as teachers in high school. I wouldn't have had to do shit.