Quote:
Originally Posted by Heyman
I don't think it had as much to do with WCW not mowing what to do, as it did with the politics and glass ceiling.
Since 2002, the WWE has had many of the same problems on very frequent occassions.
There is just too much fear to give the ball to the new guy(s) while deviating from what is an established "sure" thing.
The only reason why the WWE went this route during the mid 90's with Austin, Rocky, Hunter, Mankind, etc., was because they had no choice.
After the Attitude era, the WWE had numerous chances to give the ball to the likes of RVD, Orton, Lesnar, CM Punk, etc. and push them the right way but failed miserably each time (for various reasons.....although some of it was brought Pom the wrestlers themselves)
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This post is dead on.
Over the years, there have been some opportunities to cash-in and create some massive stars. Maybe they would not have been massively long-term draws, but few rarely are.
RVD was so super-over in 2001 that being aligned with the Alliance couldn't really damage him. Even if they gave him the WWE Title for a month before Austin turned on RVD, then you still could have made a lot of money off RVD merchandising sales. RVD's botch at the top of the company only came in 2006 -- five years later. There really wasn't another reported incident past that, either.
In 2004, Randy Orton was white-hot, and fucking Canada was happy to see him take the World Title off Chris Benoit. For some reason, though, the WWE found the need to have Triple H win the belt off Orton at Unforgiven just a month later. Was Orton ready to be a top face? Probably not. But they could have done many other things instead of putting Triple H over Orton. They could have had Orton hand the title over to Triple H, and resume being "the future" instead of "the present" he had proven he could be. They could have had Evolution turn on Triple H, and given him the role of being the top babyface on the RAW brand against the young lion that has replaced him. They could have had Evolution secretly take out Randy Orton, and have the World Title vacated, with Orton returning and revealing that it was Triple H behind the attack. The main event of WrestleMania 21 really should have been Orton facing Triple H in some sort of match, though.
2005 saw Christian and Matt Hardy swell up as two of the potentially most profitable stars in professional wrestling, and the WWE refused to follow it with either guy. Christian's charisma led to him getting smarky ovations all over the world. How did the WWE react to this? Well, they gave Christian one title match against Cena as part of a Triple Threat with Chris Jericho, and then they moved Christian to SmackDown where he worked with Booker T in what seemed like a purposely one-sided and under-developed feud.
Now, would Christian have been a breakthrough mega-star on the level of Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock? Probably not. But the WWE were so stubborn and didn't even give Christian a lick near the main event when so many people were calling for it.
Matt Hardy has proven to be an utter nutbag in recent years, but in 2005, he was the hottest thing in wrestling once the Edge/Lita/Matt stuff spread. They do a segment where Vince brings back Hardy, and what does Matt do? No, he doesn't drop Vince McMahon with a Twist of Fate for firing him in the first. He shakes Vince hand, meekly announces that it is great to be back, and then got his ass kicked at SummerSlam. The perfect result to Hardy vs. Edge at SummerSlam 2005 would have been Hardy getting disqualified against Edge -- looking to hurt his rival instead of just beating him.
Lots of moments have been avoided by the WWE to "stick to the plan," which clearly isn't always a long-term plan anyway. Fuck, this almost makes me want to see Ryback win the WWE Title at Survivor Series, just to try the guy near the top.