Wwe needs a change

[GD]

I really miss the brand split era right now. There was a time back in 02 and 03 where Smackdown was arguably the flagship show for the wwe with new and young superstars paving their way to wwe stardom. Where we saw new concepts like the Elimination Chamber and the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship ( the richest prize in sports entertainment: JR ). Where all the talents go their fair deal of chance with brand exclusive pay per views. Where we witnessed the rise of Super Cena , Batista, The Legend Killer Randy Orton, The Human Highlight Real Rey Mysterio, Latino Heat Eddie Guerrero and a guy from Alberta who isn't Lance Storm. My point is even though we are having 3 brands right now, a lot of talent is being misused. Maybe it's the backstage political environment or the wwe's current profit policy...discuss.

[Londoner]

The only change it needs is to end the brand split altogether.

[GD]

The only change it needs is to end the brand split altogether.

:y::y:

[The Optimist]

Yeah, no one knew who Eddie Guerrdita and Ray Musterio were before Smackdown.

[The Optimist]

I've said it before. There's not a new level of main event rising to the top this very second because they just haven't gotten there yet, they haven't reached the Cena/Batista magic point of overness/ability/charisma. If you really need idols to latch on to at this point Matt Hardy, MVP, CM Punk and John Morrison all have very fresh bandwagons.

[GD]

I watched the Dirt Sheet for the first time two minutes ago and it was awesome. Morrison rocks.

[Impeccable]

I would like the brand split to end...but...

look at the huge pool of talent they have...some talent wouldn't get air time.

CM Punk, MVP, Kennedy, Jeff Hardy, Kane, Chavo, Big Show, Umaga, Regal, Jericho, would get even more lost in the shuffle.

[Londoner]

No they wouldn't. That's such a tired excuse, it worked fine before the brand split, it could work well after. All those guys would get used as they do now, the really useless shit like khali wouldn't be needed.

[The Optimist]

Lol. Khali is prime territory to the WWE. They'd have to decide which superstar is valuable enough to keep and give air time and which one is worthless, which they haven't had a good track record with lately.

Either way. They wouldn't end it. The eased work load makes the wrestlers happier and they get to employ twice as many contracts as they would otherwise while acting like they have a self-regulating competition.

[thedamndest]

The brand split is fine, if they could manage booking two let alone three shows a week all year.

[GD]

Frankly, I think the interpromotional warfare should be only for huge main event platforms like WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and Survivor Series.

[thedamndest]

That would be ideal, but it seems like their solution to weak booking is "More of Established Superstar on Multiple Shows." I'm okay with it on Smackdown and ECW though.

[KingofKings]

I would like the brand split to end...but...

look at the huge pool of talent they have...some talent wouldn't get air time.

CM Punk, MVP, Kennedy, Jeff Hardy, Kane, Chavo, Big Show, Umaga, Regal, Jericho, would get even more lost in the shuffle.

All you would have to do is put more people in stables, thats the easiest way to manage a large roster.

I wish the brand extention would end, but its just the way to end it which would be pretty difficult to do IMO, as i think if they just slowly stopped it without any significant end i dnt think it would work., but then wot significant end could end the brand extention?? and also wot would happen to the general managers, well jus teddy long really.

[Kane Knight]

I've said it before. There's not a new level of main event rising to the top this very second because they just haven't gotten there yet, they haven't reached the Cena/Batista magic point of overness/ability/charisma. If you really need idols to latch on to at this point Matt Hardy, MVP, CM Punk and John Morrison all have very fresh bandwagons.

Part of the problem is WWE has no new ideas.

The Brand Split ended as a good idea because WWE couldn't bargain for a new contract with Spike while Smackdown was the better show getting better ratings. Raw HAS TO BE the flagship show, and so the idea of competitive brands died out rather fast after that.

This means farming out anyone who's remotely talented or over to Raw, which leaves the "B and C" shows kind of hurting. Most of the big names they have on the other shows don't want to tour as heavily (Undertaker, for example) or are punished/feel like they're being punished (Batista's been in the ME of Smackdown like 90% of the time, and he feels punished).

Then, you have Raw. All sorts of talent, but it's sitting under Trips, Michaels, etc. I mean, it's not always a bad thing: Shawn Michaels is probably the best in the fucking business right now, but it doesn't change the fact that a lot of guys are playing second fiddle to him, Cena, or Trips. And they don't know what to do with them, anyway. You can see that in the way these people are booked.

But one of the biggest problems is that there's a void. "They're Not There Yet" is true, but in part because the Attitude Era ended with nobody being put over to be the next big thing. Instead of working on new people, they clung to their remaining big names, who should be slowly phased out. After all, Triple H, the Undertaker, Michaels, and so on are getting on in years, are more injury prone, and can't wrestle forever.

They've worked on a few people. Kurt Angle got over but good. The problem with that is that Angle is more the guy who makes the big stars look good. He's like Chris Jericho with more title reigns and a broken freaking neck. He was also injured when he came in (His neck problems didn't end at the Olympics). Brock Lesnar, even if he stayed around, worked great as a monster heel, but not only did he need a mouthpiece, he still needed someone important to fight. Shannon Moore was not it.

Past that, they've put a few established guys in the main event. Benoit and Eddie are no longer with us, which is part of the problem. Chris was slated for a major push, and Eddie may have been (Though again, the evidence is kinda dodgy, given it was said after he was dead and was probably nothing more than a platitude). WWE had to scramble to replace Chris, at the very least.

And that's what most of the MEers are. They're replacements that were rushed up. Batista is massively over, but he's old and injury prone and probably getting boring. Cena was rushed and his character killed, and Orton's a legacy who was rushed. Which brings me to "guys Vince likes."

Edge. Punk. JBL.

All three are the "Whether we like it or not" type, which also more or less describes Triple H. Trips tanked his segments in terms of ratings, but was pushed like a motherfucker. JBL's being put in big feuds again, despite being among the worst drawing champs in recent history. Edge can get a reaction...Provided he's recently beaten John Cena (In which case, he gets more boos than cheers) or has recently fucked a friend's girlfriend. When he was originally pushed, it was to a virtually nonexistant crowd response. Sure, he got strong responses after the Hardy/Lita bit came out, but once the Hardy/Edge feud died down, so did the response. But Vince likes him, so he keeps his push. Punk hasn't really done anything negative, but the reports are that he is in this category. He could get dead air, and still be pushed. He hasn't, and he probably never will. Though his crowd responses are often overinflated, I doubt he's ever going to be in quite the sitch some of the other "favorites" have been, but he's there due to favoritism and an imagine convenient to WWE's current drug issues.

Finally, I'll just give a brief shout out to guys like Christian. Christian was not only out-popping Cena, which isn't saying much, but he was also getting legitimately good responses. VERY few guys in WWE have gotten that in the last couple of years. The only other example of real response I can think of right now is Jeff Hardy, and if he weren't a deadbeat druggy who can't get his shit together, I'd say he should be at the top.

[Kane Knight]

Holy shit. Noid rage. If anyone thinks that's a tl;dr sort of post, lemme know. I'll sum it up.

[thedamndest]

I know it's been said to death, but the mid-card titles are failing. When you have 3 world titles and a Women's title that get defended on almost every PPV, that's 4 out of your 6/7 matches right there. Throw in a tag match then a random grudge match and there you go. Either the IC or US title is left off the card or the champ is involved in another feud.

[Mooияakeя™]

I like that film in ur sig. Was the only white boy watching it. But thankfully, in Wolves, it was only a few people whispering and pointing saying "Gora" (or however u spell it)

[The Optimist]

I really don't think the US Title is "failing". Maybe I'm crazy, but when I watched a half a segment of Smackdown yesterday and Matt Hardy was there with the belt on his shoulder I was . . . what's the word . . . proud? It's not failing, is the point.

Consequently, he was standing next to Shelton Benjamin. If those two put up a fued as long and numberous as Matt and MVP did I'll be fucking ecstatic.

[thedamndest]

I will give you that the US Title looks better now after MVP/Hardy. Of the two mid-card titles it has been a lot less inconsistent than the IC belt.

[Kane Knight]

I really don't think the US Title is "failing". Maybe I'm crazy, but when I watched a half a segment of Smackdown yesterday and Matt Hardy was there with the belt on his shoulder I was . . . what's the word . . . proud? It's not failing, is the point.

Consequently, he was standing next to Shelton Benjamin. If those two put up a fued as long and numberous as Matt and MVP did I'll be fucking ecstatic.

Yeah, but you're kinda one person talking about the secondary belt on a show nobody watches. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but I'm not sure that you're right, either. I mean, I'm happy for Matt having the US title, but it seems like the three BIG titles (I'm pretending the ECW title is worth a shit) are barely propped up as-is, so it's hard to really say the second string titles aren't failing.

I mean, I suppose you have a point, since the value of the belts and the prestige behind them only matters to the <s>Trekkies</s> Smarks anyway. So this feud, which was a Smark dream, probably added some credibility to them, but I doubt it's made the average fan give any more of a shit.

[GD]

The wwe either needs to unify the brand Championships or have tv supershows every weekend. It's highly impossible for ECW to organize an exclusive ppv following the immense popularity of December to Dismember. They can have 1 hour pay per views feat. the current ecw roster and special appearances by former ecw talents with a bit of extreme rules...like the ONS.

[El Fangel]

It sort of seems over the past few years, that the titles are just that titles, they dont really seem to have much meaning anymore.

For example, when Kurt beat Rock at NWO, he looked like a champ, and the title seemed to be on a pedestal that whole match, given the title history leading up to that match, it had alot going for it.

Nowadays, it seems like some trinket the champion forefeits when he loses.

Trying to say, that the titles seemed to have lost their aura, that they somehow seem like that dont matter at all.

When I was watching years ago, you knew how the title rungs went

WWF/Intercontinental/Tag Team/Light Heavyweight/Womans/European/Hardcore

Now it seems to be a clusterfuck,

the WWE and IC seem on par, Tag Titles because of how crappy the division is look like accessories, Light Heavyweight/Crusierweight?, Womans is usually consisting of some 10 person tag team cluster fuck, or the same 4 woman, European is gone, and the only title that still had spontaneity was the Hardcore because of the 24/7 rule, the WHC is about the only seemingly different title, the US seems like a watered down IC, and the ECW title? It hasnt been ECW for 10 years.

[Indifferent Clox]

Do you think if we got everyone on this forum and a few other forums to not watch Raw one week (kinda like the don't buy gas thing) WWE would even give a shit?

[Kane Knight]

Do you think if we got everyone on this forum and a few other forums to not watch Raw one week (kinda like the don't buy gas thing) WWE would even give a shit?

It doesn't work for the "don't buy gas thing" and it wouild work worse for WWE.

First off, WWE primarily cares about Nielsens. Are you a Nielsen family? No? Then you won't affect ratings. How many Nielsen families do you think are on this forum? Ten similar ones? How much impact do you think it will have? My bet? None.