Quote:
Originally Posted by Dastardly Dale Newstead
The problem is you have about 7 million guys on a roster.... and a 3 hour Monday Night Raw. That should work just fine. But the problem is, the only people who are treated as serious characters are Roman, Brock, HHH, Steph, Braun, and Ronda. Everyone else for the most part is treated as a prop. There's no urgency in any storyline.
There's no reason why the Miztourage can't have their own proper feud--that's actually compelling, while also helping Miz win matches. There's no reason why every single Bar match means literally zilch.
Why does Finn Balor have to wrestle Seth Rollins every week? Why does Bayley have to wrestle Sascha every week? You've got a bloated roster, with the potential for serious storylines that could mean something, but 90% of your segments are afterthoughts. I look back to WWF in 2000 where, yes, it wasn't perfect, but you had Too Cool teaming up with the Rock to take on HHH and the Radicalz in one of the hottest RAW main events of all time. You had a red hot tag division taking part in memorable segments--inlcuding TEST AND ALBERT for fuck sake.
Wrestling is just depressing now.
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There are so many things wrong with modern WWE, and this encapsulates some of them.
People see roster cuts as a cruel thing, and like people just being employed by the WWE is automatically a good thing, but by slimming down your roster you ensure a few things:
1) The guys and gals getting focus are getting proper focus. When you try and jam everything through the door and make everyone a champion, it's like what Dr. Hibbert called "Three Stooges Syndrome" in The Simpsons. Nothing works.
2) The talent sitting in catering every week can go and get a chance to develop their skills which makes them more appealing talent in the future. I actually really enjoy Bo Dallas. I think he's got a lot of personality in there and just hasn't had a gimmick where he can seriously push it out. In the ring, I think he does basic stuff really well and he's got good "aggression" and uses the ring really well when he's on offense. For whatever that's worth. But what does he really get to do on Raw? He's a heater for The Miz. Maybe on house shows teaming with Curtis Axel has been beneficial to him; but what does Curtis Axel get to do? They're repeating the same basic stuff every week. Going to the indies would allow them to try new things, work on promos their own way, develop their own gimmicks and work different styles. Bo Dallas is 27 years old. Send him away and don't look at him again until he's 30. Maybe he'll have had a run as IWGP United States Champion or something, and he'll come back with some cache.
3) It's good for the industry as a whole. Pushing the talent you aren't using out allows them to take up dates other places and contribute to products that they are currently not. I'm not saying it would change in the industry or anything, but The Colons are such talented guys with lots of experience that could really help younger guys and be good presences in the locker-room. Maybe they could even help a place get a television deal in Puerto Rico or something. Fuck, I dunno -- that's a reach, but if there's enough talent out there in the world and it's not a one-way street to WWE, then you might get other companies trying to invest a bit more, and build a bit more momentum.
4) It's good for WWE. When Cody Rhodes gets back to the WWE, he's going to be fresher, slightly better and have respect with that fan-base you have left. It can be part of the work. If he's just hovering around being Stardust, what are you really getting out of it? What has Zack Ryder really done for you these last seven years? The best developmental system for the WWE in recent years has been TNA. If you don't think Cesaro has a personality, send him there. Sitting on the talent isn't anything but an expenditure on salary.
The WWE really needs competition. Not faux-competition in the sense that Kurt Angle and Paige are fighting with each other...grrr. Real competition that backs Vince against a wall and makes him work out the talent that can make him money and the ones that will save him money. If those talents are any good, they will find work somewhere else. And they will get better and more appealing to the point they find their way back.
I'm hoping that the WWE loses their USA Network deal and does land the thing with FOX, and that Raw does go back to two hours, and something philosophically in the WWE just changes, and they use the losing of that hour as an excuse to massively downsize. Maybe FOX puts a requisite on them to re-unify the rosters too. I don't know, something that just means a lot of the extras can go elsewhere and make wrestling, in general, more exciting. Maybe then NBC Universal decides that they want their own wrestling for what they think WWE is worth, and creates and exciting #2. Or FOX decides to do that instead of jumping into bed with WWE. Whatever.
I don't know. I definitely agree with the statement that wrestling is depressing.