A Moment Of Clarity
 

I was reading Shawn Michaels book last night, and after what he said, everything is clear.

"There are two 'best' guys in the buisness, One is someone who draws money from merchandise (Hulk Hogan) and the other is the best athlete (Ric Flair)"

He said something else too, but now its all clear, It makes perfect sense for vince to keep Cena as champ, or high in the card, likewise with Batista, obviously thats no reason to keep good athletes down, but Batista and Cena draw the fans and money: the two main factors that keep the buisness alive, if there was a fan favorite that could wrestle too (Bret Hart?) People would be getting the best of both worlds. But then again, the succeeding process is too perfect, and someone else must take the gold.

Thanks to this I'm never going to insult a mark again, we may love wrestlers for what they really are, but marks kinda keep it alive.

This may be obvious to most, but I just hope people that aren't so aware see how things work.

Well no shit. You think if Cena was selling one shirt a day that he'd be champion? He'd lose the title in a phantom title change.

Cena's merch is going downhill though.

Maybe the WWE should actually work on making one guy sell well.

Yeah, but everything just make more sense now to me, I just thought I'd share it.

Without marks there is no wrestling. Thats why the constant breaking of Kayfabe really gets to me. :rant:

Yeah, thats why the whole Eugene gimmick was a really bad idea, you can just have him go without any notice, people are gonna wonder where he's gone. And if he goes heel, and it was all a trick, people aren't gonna take it well, saying that real retarded people are like that, either way WWE are up crap creek.

To me the problems began when they started the whole sports-entertainment ideal. How can a business based on perception stand when you tell them their perceptions are wrong? (I'm really trying my damnedest not to give a speech here; it's too early.)

And yet they all eat it up, its kinda amazing really.

I believe that the occasional breaking of Kayfabe is okay. WWE is going too far, but if they tone it down it'd be fine. (Hopefully) All marks know wrestling is fake, so just throw a bit of real life into there to mix things up.

Do you really think the fans want KAYFABE?

Want it? No. Now needing it, thats another story altogether.

Marks like being treated like morons

Which is why the Attitude Era, when they brought folks behind the scenes, sold so well, right?

Attitude Era = Greatness

They had the perfect oppotunity on more than one occassion to make the "two best guys" into one and didn't. Davey Boy Smith never got the title and he did a scary amount of merch. Chris Jericho got the undisputed belt without a push and his merch was always right up there with The Rock's and Steve Austin's (by then, not including the 3:16 shirts). Eddie Guerrero too.

I WAS gonna rip, but then I realized how young you are. PROFESSIONAL Wrestling is and always has been about making money.

Yeah, I knw that, but only recently it hit me like a slippery fish

Well, realistically, speaking....

Domestic business in the WWE has been falling for years, and is continuing to fall in terms of PPV buyrates (domestically, international buys are higher than ever as more markets are available now), so them drawing money and fans is hugely arguable, as business has continued to fall.

True, but you cant say that making Hulk Hogan champ decreased sales, to be honest the fall in sales is because people are getting sick of batsita and Cena, you've heard the boos in his match against Angle, another problem is WWE not coming up with original material.

Right now, the Rock could be champ and qwrestling full-time and sales cwould continue to fall. Wouldn't be his fault. There are about a dozen different reasons wrestling is going down, and Cena really isn't one of them.

No, but from being the champ, ratings are on his shoulders.

They really aren't

Im basically saying that being the fan favorite, most marks tune in to see him, which means he gets alot of pressure if ratings start slipping.



I bet he doesn't though, just because we dont like him.

It's mainly been because of the WWE being the #1 and only major promotion in the U.S. for a couple of years until TNA came around but TNA for the moment can not be considered major until they can seriously compete with WWE which at the rate they are going isn't very well.... but even WCW had a slow start but emerged as a legitimate competitor so time will tell...