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Originally Posted by Wishbone
On Charlotte we'll have to agree to disagree. I thought her entire face run in NXT came off as forced and just... meh. I mean it was better than the PCB nonsense, but that's not saying much. Sasha I'd also agree has been pretty bleh as a face in general. Her gimmick and character are just better suited to being a heel. Bayley's been about as fine as you can be as a face on Monday Night RAW though. I mean, yeah, she's sucked, but that's a show-wide issue. All things considered she's doing relatively well thus far. Could have used with waaay more build before her title feud though, but that was never gonna happen anyway.
Um, you're the one that pointed those two out as replacements. I never said anything about replacing Charlotte, and in fact I think the idea of replacing her is silly. She's the perfect top heel for the division hands down. Why mess with a good thing? Nia isn't ready, and even when she is ready she's got a built in ceiling because quite frankly monsters are always just obstacles for heroes. She'll never be the top heel in the company. She'll be that monster that the triumphant face overcomes, or the bruiser the real top heel like Charlotte hires as muscle.
On the topic of Emma. She's got no momentum. You act like people are just gonna forget about all the previous stuff she's done. You act like she'll just be starting with a new slate and that's just not true. She's still gonna be Emma to the masses and no amount of fake model nonsense is gonna change that. Bray Wyatt managed to do it but that's because he is just a genius at his craft. How many others have been repackaged in this way after such a mediocre career and actually succeeded? Remember Tensai? That was years of absence and it still didn't work. People aren't that forgetful despite what the WWE seems to believe these days. I will agree that that sort of gimmick could work pretty well, but Emma isn't the one to do it though. Also I think you're giving way too much credit to Eva Marie's heat. She wasn't getting heel heat, dude, she was getting "get the hell off my tv" heat.
Finally on the last topic. Um, it doesn't really matter if there are more grown men watching (though I'd like to see some actual evidence of this statement.) The fact of the matter is kids are the ones buying the merchandise and making WWE their money. The smarks and dirty old men like us aren't where the money's at. If we were WWE would abandoned PG and start listening to our misguided cries for a return to the attitude era. I've seen countless guys on this forum say how embarassed they'd be to wear a wrestling shirt in public. Meanwhile I've seen dozens of kids rocking backpacks, shirts, and god knows what else without batting an eyelash. While WWE is slipping it's not because they're marketing to the wrong demographic, it's because they're just inept at making their product. Also I'm a bit insulted that you'd accuse me of thinking kids can't handle nuance and depth when I've been a major proponent and defender of the ability of children in the past on this very forum. Saying that Bayley's gimmick or any other gimmick isn't capable of having depth is the truly insulting statement, especially when your alternative is a model gimmick and turning the prototypical "I was born better than you" character into a good guy. All of these gimmicks are capable of depth, but not the way WWE is handling them. It has nothing to do with the gimmick and everything to do with presentation and writing. Both of which WWE is completely inept at.
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I'm not going to touch the Charlotte stuff. That's a purely subjective discussion.
I don't think Nia is ready, and personally I don't know if she ever will be, but you have to make the concession that as The Rock's cousin she's going to get the chance. This is why Sasha is being fed to her and she is being penciled into WrestleMania plans. You just have to deal with that.
As for Emma -- I don't really get your point there. It seems a little all over the place. You're comparing her to Tensai? Well, what about Umaga? Big Show may have never changed his name, but he went from being basically a dude that they wouldn't even use on television in late 2000 and again in late 2001 to being the WWE Champion in 2002. The point of Emmalina
is the repackaging. You bring her back, she's got a different presentation, wins her first match, then her second match and she's automatically got more momentum than any other woman in the division not named Charlotte. I don't even think fans were down on her previous runs. Her heel work was actually really good -- she was just a working heel. Now she gets the chance to be the top heel. This argument is just silly.
The evidence is out there, go find it. Also, fewer kids are watching now than used to, even proportionately, in the Attitude era. Yes, WWE markets towards kids and chases those merchandise sales, but no, they are not as good at it as you are making out. It's very easy to see stupid shit and assume that "Kids would love this." It doesn't work that way. Ask a kid what they think of Roman Reigns. Chances are they'll tell you that he's the shits.
I can't believe you just made the point "It doesn't matter who is watching," by the way. Um, yes it does.