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Originally Posted by Damian Rey 2.0
Or the Khan family runs Ann assume rasslin promotion and Vince realizes his productis shit and finally allows the wrestlers to have more of say in their characters, promos and gimmicks, and they just go with who gets hot as opposed to forcing his handpicked champion to a chorus of weekly jeering.
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Unfortunately that's only half of the equation.
They handcuffed themselves with trying to be "family friendly entertainment" for television execs AND please shareholders with "guaranteed" hot product, and Vince also needing "his stamp" on everything. They're trying to serve too many masters, when the main masters should be the fans.
And I don't mean in a hijacking the show kind of way, I mean are the people paying to see you actually going to follow your product and want it to remain on their TVs or pay you for live shows?
A couple of years back, I remember there was a giant billboard near my house with Roman Reigns on it. Forgot what it was *actually* advertising for, but basically they were trying to market the man as... well... "the man" and he wasn't any kinds of over to be getting that treatment.
They act like they can just plug anyone in anywhere it it will work because the talent is interhangeable like an actor playing a part and they are not. Wrestling is not. It is unique.
Sometimes, a gimmick is too much for a person. Sometimes, a specific person has that one thing that makes the gimmick work (like Undertaker). Sometimes, the best character the person can be is "themselves up to 11". Sometimes, the best gimmick a guy can have is to be 100% opposite of what he really is. Sometimes, good shit is born out of the right timing and opportunity taken (there were
so many moving parts that led to the "Austin 3:16" promo that could have stopped that from even being a thing, from the MSG curtain call all the way down to Steve getting poor secondhand info on something that Jake Roberts supposedly said that pissed him off enough to say that).
I have sung the praises of NXT for the last few years, because NXT is putting on a better wrestling product than the supposed "professional level" roster. The so-called rookies are more entertaining than the so-called vets. The matches are far and wide more captivating, the angles make more sense and aren't overproduced and overexposed, and it will always suck that the inevitablity is that whoever gets over will just be "ruined" by a call up. They'll be a "big deal" just long enough to see if one or two appearances will spike ratings, and then they'll be relegated to being just another face in the crowd.
As easy as it is to dump all of that on solely being a Vinnie Mac problem (because the buck stops with him), he probably wouldn't be as bad if he didn't also have to consider the other business shit he does anymore. He's not in the same saddle he was 30-some years ago. If something like the steroid trial were happening today, there would be stock hits and sponsors jumping ship and possible TV deals being backed out of. Remember when Daniel Bryan was "fired" because Justin Roberts sold a tie choke like a goddamn champ? With zero sarcasm, I pretty much guarantee Vince thought that was "good shit!" and was prob'ly the one who asked for that close-up camera angle. But some suits elsewhere got pissy because it was "too violent" or whatever, and they had to be appeased.