Shaking things up in wrestling
 

When it comes to the wrestling business today, these guys haven't done or tried to create anything groundbreaking with their product. The WWE has gone back to re doing Hulkamania with '80's style PG wrestling while TNA has done the Crash TV done during the Attitude Era. I stopped watching TNA once they started becoming a "sports entertainment" show in 2008, but wasn't interested in going back in because all I hear from blogs are 'it's okay' or 'it sucks' or something like that.
Ring of Honor is actually doing a good job now rounding out their card with mid-card angles as well as main event, but independent organizations like this are like trees that fall in the forest but don't make a sound, and I start to wonder what wrestling has to do to be groundbreaking or new and blow it out of the water the same way ECW did in the '90's.

Just get rid of indy wrestling. It's shit, and parents get tired of waiting to pick up their 30 year old 400 pound sons after the shows.

Also, push Heath Slater.

I thought Wrestling Society X was very innovative, but it lasted a mere season.

Because it was garbage.

I watched the first episode and tried my best to get into it. I thought the idea was good, and I wanted to like it, but what I saw of the show was horrendous.

I have always said that if tna signs a contract with playboy to feature the knockouts.. Their ratings would increase pretty well.. Worked well for the "E" back in the 90's. I know it wasn't the only thing, but it was nice!

One thing I would do is put EVERYBODY in a tag team.

You could either pick your own partner, or else one would be assigned to you via LETHAL LOTTERY.

Lethal lottery needs to come back for an episode of Raw, hilarity would ensue.

Most of the notable spreads came after WWF was already quite popular. I don't doubt it helped a little, but I doubt it helped much.

It'd be interesting to see if a T&A promotion could put A in the seats for TNA, but I doubt it'd have that much of an impact.

It's possible that wrestling doesn't ever really break out again. At least, in the way people want. By people, I mean the IWC.

We have reality TV, MMA and "shock" programs, all which tap into part of WWE's 90s market. It's hard to imagine something ECW-like or MNW-like drawing enough attention.

Sounds a bit like Chikara with their trios fetish. So I guess my suggestion is to push Dragon Dragon and let the rest fall into place.

I believe Lethal Lottery is now referred to as Strange Bedfellows, and it has never been entertaining as such.

that's because bedfellows is a term that only vampires from the 1920's say and it confuses people

Shake it up???
http://www.lethalwrestling.com/upload/tenta5.jpg

When wrestling REALLY booms is when it taps into the current landscape of pop culture just right. Right now, WWE does not have it's hand on the pulse of anyone. Like I've said before, WWE currently reminds me of when your dad tries to be really hip in front of your friends and it just comes off as embarrassing.

But the biggest star of this generation was in that mainstream crossover Fred movie. Everyone loves that annoying piece of shit youtube celeb Fred don't they?

I have come to term with the days of yesterday for wrestling not happening again. I'm just glad that I was a consistent follower of wcw wwf and ecw in the glory days. I just think a tna/playboy deal would possibly draw in new people to their brand. A lot of guys check out playboy and I could see someone going "oh she is a wrestler? I have to check this out" plus I really wanna see some of them naked lol

Do we want wrestling to be accepted by the mainstream again? Does it make a difference to the product? Does it make a difference to us as fans?

I'd like for them to at least strive for it because I think it would make the product better. Right now they seem content with that "out of touch old man" vibe. Or more likely just clueless about it.

I don't really see them as "out of touch", it is just that what is "mainstream pop culture" these days generally sucks.

Ok, I'll stop :'(

The Fandango thing is a good example. It became "cool" accidentally. Now look at everything WWE has done with it since. From the first promo the week after to the videos they produced. It's like they got really excited about being "hip" and then actually TRIED and it was awkward.

Also: See 99% of the comedy segments they've tried to do in recent years.

Wrestling will never hit the peak it did in the late 90s ever again. With DVR's lowering ratings, the extreme increase in the public seeing it as a massive cartoon and the lack of any meaningful crossover material (i.e. actually entertaining celebrities involved in more then just one craptastic backstage segment or doing a halfassed performance) there's just nothing there to entice someone who's not a wrestling fan to watch it.

As for "shaking things up", what is there really left to do? Seems like every "innovation" has been done before now. Hardcore? Done. Intro of high flying action? Done. More adult oriented material? Done. New forms of cage match? All done. Fact is there's nothing left to do that would make people suddenly say "HOLY SHIT!".

This x100. You end up with a bunch of teams with zero chemistry. The Lethal Lottery was awful.

Paul Titan is the future of the company. You should ride the coattails of Heath Slater.

I don't know why the IWC cares so much if wrestling becomes popular. The same thing happens in the NHL. Just enjoy it and who cares if it doesn't become huge again.

I'm enjoying WWE for what it is worth, not for what it should be. If I want to relive a certain part of an era, I YouTube it or just dig up old DVDs and shit.

ELBOW DROP

chokeslam

Mexican Surfboard

Exactly. If I get the craving to watch Goldust kick somebody in the balls then I go on youtube. There's tons of shit I haven't seen before in the WWF because I was a WCW fan so youtube is a constant watch.

Me and my friends in junior high/high school watched Nitro/Thunder and taped Raw. It was during the nWo glory days. Fuckin' tons of footage available these days.

Somebody had an NWO Anthorlogy on youtube. Most of the videos got removed but like 11 are up and they are almost 2 hours each

I have the nWo Back in Black DVD that I put on for when unwanted visitors come over and I don't want to listen to them.

Wrestling is a dying business and will never be as big as it was in the 90's early 2000's. 18-25 yr old males aren't interested in fake shit when they can watch UFC for the same price on PPV.

WWE will never die, however no other promotion will get big enough to challange them and make wrestling more entertaining.

It's cyclical, something will catch on again and we'll get a boom period then back to current ratings, which aren't terrible at all.

It all comes down to "right place at the right time". The next big boom period could already be kicking off right now and we wouldn't know about it until it's really in full swing.

WWE ruin potential break-out moments by over-exposing them.

Take Fandango's Raw reaction the night after Wrestlemania. They should have played it cool and just let Fandango continue to get over naturally, but no, they had a video package and a really awkward segment about Fandangoing' the following week.

They're like a dog with a bone when they think something is getting over, and end up ruining it and making it uncool.

It's even stranger from the folks who claim popular guy X is killing wrestling, or wrestling should be more like RoH or some indie promotion.

Desperation.

The people saying WWE always screw up by "trying to be cool" and over-exposing things that are becoming trendy outside of the WWE, would probably be the first ones to complain if WWE DIDN'T "over-expose" them, and "waste a perfect opportunity" etc. :-\