Quote:
Originally Posted by James Steele
It all boils down to a couple of core issues: everything is overproduced and nothing seems organic, but if something does happen organically they generally stifle it instead of building off of it. There is a major lack of grit for a product that is supposed to be based around pre-scripted violence.
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This is part of it. I completely agree with that. A big reason behind that is Vince McMahon permeating through everything. He needs to go.
They've also been adverse to making stars outside the Vince vision. People mentioned Cesaro and and Shinsuke Nakamura. It's hard to imagine them being stars in Vince McMahon's WWE, but that's exactly the issue. Sure, Cesaro isn't the most captivating on-air promo in the world, but his booking in 2014 (it's been over four years, wow) didn't help matters. Losing to Sheamus? Being an extra in Money in the Bank? You're trying to build a world-beater, let him beat the world. Nakamura's strengths were never played to. He adapted well to "sports entertainment," but he was never allowed to bring his own DNA in, because you've got to fit the circus. The promotion no longer builds itself around what it has.
And people have lost faith. I'm not the biggest fan of the Becky or Kofi pushes, but even if you adored them both as performers, what is your first instinct? "They're gonna fuck this up." So, as a result, you don't tune in, and they don't gain any real traction. They've conditioned even their more sincere attempts to fail.
And now you've got so many people across the board. You've almost got a shadow roster of guys with amazing potential that are being largely neglected. Cesaro and Luke Harper weren't drafted. Chad Gable wasn't drafted on the night he was supposed to be. It's not just that fans get annoyed by this, but it dislocates the product from itself, like when Jinder Mahal was WWE Champion and Owens and Styles were slumming it in the mid-card. It doesn't "feel right" when you've got a roster that full and too much collecting dust. They'd be better off just letting go of those people and having something a lot more streamlined.
Because they are trying to push too many people through, in a sense. It feels like they aren't really trying with anybody, but you can't push eight different undefeated future mega-stars at once. You only
need one star, but they've created an environment where they need two, so you need to create two stars, so you're splitting attention at least as much those ways.
This company is so fucking ludicrious. I was thinking the other day that the best thing that can happen is that Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Shane McMahon, Paul Heyman, Michael Cole, Michael Hayes, Road Dogg, Ryan Ward and whoever else has shares or stakes in this company need to go to Vince and say "It's time." Either Vince steps back and lets certain things be run differently and autonomously from his vision, or they're going to start selling stock and advising investors that they do the same, because they've lost faith in him. They've got to a hold a blowtorch to this guy to get him out. But that won't happen, because no one that company is really "in touch" nor do they have the balls. They also probably like their dividends too much, and that isn't going down while Vince is getting money from the networks and despots.