Are we all out of pop?

[Mr. C]

I’ve been a fan for 15 years, and pops were at one time something special, usually something unexpected, but it seems as if we’ve run out of these moments. With Bret Hart now back, that would appear to be the icing on the cake.

[The Pope]

:'(

[HBPunk]

I’ve been a fan for 15 years, and pops were at one time something special, usually something unexpected, but it seems as if we’ve run out of these moments. With Bret Hart now back, that would appear to be the icing on the cake.

Yeah thats it now, Vince said he's gonna pull the plug on the WWE, he said ''wrestling fans are such negative cunts'' :roll:

[The Pope]

Yeah thats it now, Vince said he's gonna pull the plug on the WWE, he said ''wrestling fans are such negative cunts'' :roll:

That's what I heard too. that's why I did this :'(

[Triple Naitch]

I call it soda.

[Beth Phoenix Fan]

Could Shane McMahon buy tna wrestling or would a talent exchange between wwe and tna work out well?

[HBPunk]

Could Shane McMahon buy tna wrestling or would a talent exchange between wwe and tna work out well?

why do u keep coming to a thread and immediately change the question??

Shane has money so ya he could and there was a thread last week on your second Q, there, done

[kareru]

they should try and make an effort to keep things a secret, i mean if they kept bret hart coming back a secret, and then one day on raw he walks out into the area totally unexpected the pop would have been huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge

[St. Jimmy]

What are you talking about, don't you hear the announcers every week? Every time John Cena comes out the fans are standing and cheering so much that if it wasn't for the roof on the building they would defy gravity and float to the fucking moon!

You are a fucking internet mark. You don't know anything.

[viO]

The lack of crowd reaction over the past few years makes me believe that even the fans who pay to see live shows are just "going through the motions", so to speak. The shows have probably become so stale and predictable that people simply pay to see the stars live and really expect nothing else.

[Dark One]

It's kind of tangential, but I miss the old flashbulb cameras. All of the flashbulbs going off during a Rock entrance or the Rock/Hogan face-off really added to the "pops" those moments got. Cell phones and digital cameras kind of take away from that, and I wonder how much that contributes.

Certainly, things seem "deader" nowadays compared to say the attitude era, but I also wonder how much of that is just the demographic shift and the types of people going to the shows.

[tjmidnight420]

Best thread title ever...

[The Gold Standard]

they should try and make an effort to keep things a secret, i mean if they kept bret hart coming back a secret, and then one day on raw he walks out into the area totally unexpected the pop would have been huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge

The problem is the internet. As much as we love it, the internet is something that has now hurt the Wrestling business. News is leaked every week and it ruins the surprises. Everyone seems to read it, even if you try and avoid it.

The Bret Hart thing the a prime example. We found out Bret Hart was going to be coming back to WWE almost a month in advance. When he came back, he had a big pop, but if no one knew about it, the pop in the arena would have possibly been so loud that we wouldn't be able to hear the announcers.

[Lock Jaw]

This made me think of those old TNN commercials where they'd say "We've got pop!".

[Innovator]

Jesus if we're out of pop go to the store

[Providence Peep]

I've got plenty of pop - coke, diet coke, sprite, root beer, take your pick

[Volare]

Mountain Dew is the greatest drink on earth.

[tjmidnight420]

wow

[Anybody Thrilla]

I think the next huge moment will be Cena's eventual heel turn. It may be five years down the road or so, but let's hold our breath until then.

[Volare]

To hell with holding breath Thrilla, we need to be chronologicaly frozen and brought back before Cena turns heel.

[screech]

they should try and make an effort to keep things a secret, i mean if they kept bret hart coming back a secret, and then one day on raw he walks out into the area totally unexpected the pop would have been huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge

WWE is seems to be trying to do that recently (example: Rehearsing last year's EC under a tarp), but nowadays it is quite difficult to leave spoilers...well unspoiled.

The problem is the internet. As much as we love it, the internet is something that has now hurt the Wrestling business. News is leaked every week and it ruins the surprises. Everyone seems to read it, even if you try and avoid it.

The Bret Hart thing the a prime example. We found out Bret Hart was going to be coming back to WWE almost a month in advance. When he came back, he had a big pop, but if no one knew about it, the pop in the arena would have possibly been so loud that we wouldn't be able to hear the announcers.

:y:

You're not the best color man in the business for nothing.

[screech]

I totally used the Multi-Quote feature on that one. It was awesome.

[Wishbone]

I hate to see crowds not really cheer or boo like they once did sure we do here pops for guys like Cena but they are kinda halfassed you know like the people cheering are just kinda following the crowd

[Emperor Smeat]

Forgot who said it in the past about every 10-15 years wrestling tends to recycle old storyline ideas since the turnover in wrestling fans is huge after 10+ years. So if someone has been a fan for a very long time, they would start to notice more than a "newer" fan certain storyline plots have been done before.

The internet also impacted wrestling a lot since leaks and spoilers can be read by almost anyone and could make a match or feud lose some of its "pop" with the crowd. Wrestlemania seems to be the only event where the crowd still pops crazy regardless of spoilers or not.

[St. Jimmy]

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[Tazz Dan]

Pop died when Michael Jackson did.

[Rammsteinmad]

It's insane that ten years ago someone like the Rock would get a pop every night just by coming out.

[Outsider]

I think one of the issues is that when someone is returning, they tend to announce it in advance these days to try and bolster the ratings that night.

And without a viable competition, there is no 'Oh my god, what is he doing here?' debuts and stuff.

[Mr. C]

Ten come to mind:

- Edge beating John Cena for the title

- Goldberg beating Hollywood Hulk Hogan for the title on Nitro at the Georgia Dome

- Kevin Nash beating Goldberg at Starrcade to end his streak

- Stone Cold Steve Austin regaining the title from Kane on RAW in June 1998

- The atmosphere for The Undertaker at WrestleMania XX

- The moment when “JERICHO” hit the titantron

- The night after WrestleMania XVIII when the crowd was going crazy for Hogan

- The Rock winning the title at Backlash 2000

- The Sandman returning to ECW

- Triple-H returning to RAW in 2002

Can’t think of a pop to rival any of those.

[Xero]

Mankind winning the title.

[dronepool]

What about RVD beating Cena? I think that was pretty big. The entire place was rooting for RVD.

[The Franchise]

- The Rock winning the title at Backlash 2000

Absolutely fucking insane crowd from Austins music playing to The Rock winning the title.

[Afterlife]

I think part of the problem is a lack of good characters. Hearing The Rock insult people, or having Austin attack everyone on the roster -- even Angle bragging about his legitimate greatness ALL the time... They weren't just characters, but they were phenomenal at it. I hate to say it, but the last few months, every time I hear Cena attempt a promo, I find myself thinking "You are incredibly not The Rock". Our main events just aren't boiling with the same aggressiveness and intensity that they once were; it's hard to stay "into it" after Batista's last promo, when it gets followed by the near-whimpering dullness that was John Cena.

[The Franchise]

Agreed Afterlife. The worst part is that we know Cena is capable of much better promos. He was phenomenal in 2003.