Quote:
Originally Posted by Stickman
I think I get what you are saying, but WWE has roles for guys. You bring up Zach Ryder, he works hard, fills a role, makes good money doing it, what's wrong with that? You need guys to fill Main Event or whatever other jobber show is going. There are house shows daily all over the US and the world, they need talent to fill those shows as the stars aren't going to be there every night. A lot of these guys the wwe signs aren't stars, they are role players. Could they be stars in other companies that nobody watches, maybe. But you go where the money is when you're trying to pay bills.
It's not like Mike Kanelis matters at all so he fills a role. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan weren't exactly amazing when they first got to WWE because their style is different. They were able to grab the brass ring and become relevant but that is so rare. Not every one can be the world champ.
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Couple of problems here:
Firstly, the false equivalence of "Not every one can be the world champ". That's fine and all, but that isn't what people are asking for. Signing talent with no discernable plan for them - even in supposedly "filling a role" - is something WWE is apt to do.
Also, they have a wealth of talent, but they get fixated on elevating and pushing only a handful of people, and staying focused on that same handful. It isn't like back in the day, where they tier off talent, and have semi discernable jobbers, lower card, midcard, and upper crust of folks... they instead go "here's this new person", and then they generally fuck off of tv or do nothing important after about 3 months. It looks even goofier when you have NXT and structure that to both train and build talent, then "promote" them to the main roster and treat them like dickheads.
Ryder was easy, since when the whole "Ryder Revolution" thing was going on, WWE seemed pretty keen on ignoring it. He got himself over in his own way, and WWE didn't know what to do with that. Now imagine the big fat nothing he got in that time period, and imagine if there were another potentially viable company that would offer him competitive money and an opportunity to do something besides make catering table cameos backstage. I always point to that tragedy and make the comparison to "Austin 3:16", and look at is as a big "what if" scenario, where Vince still didn't take the chance on Steve Austin there because
he didn't see it. He wasn't too high on John Cena, either. Two of his biggest workhorses and cash cows, and he didn't really like them too much. Was Ryder potentially a new one? What if he passed on those two like with Zack? Again, not saying Zack was guaranteed to be company carrying material, but he was one of the most over people on the roster for a time, and he was squandered about as badly as MCMG in TNA (most over tag team, and during that period of time they had like one canned promo and two matches in like a three month period).
The roster is simply full of bodies who aren't going to amount to much of anything unless and until there is another round of people who walk and compounded injuries. They always seem to go into some sort of "panic mode" every so often because they weren't assed to make many people look like credible threats with upward momentum. Top people from NXT become yet another face inside of two PPVs on their main roster arrivals. Laser focus on the search for the new Hogan, they are willing to look past all the Pipers, Savages, and Rick Rudes. Hell, I'd go so far as to say if you took the 80s roster and booked them like they would today, Hulk Hogan and Andre would be on every show in both a promo AND a match, and just about everyone else would barely be on TV.
Yeah, people generally go where the money is, but it isn't always just about money. If an AEW can actually offer guys competitive pay
and and opportunity to become something other than just a body on the roster, it is a chance for a refreshing change of sorts - anyone who leaves the WWE machine has the chance to flourish elsewhere, and anyone who stays has x number less people in front of them for their potential push.