Your most "Against The Grain" opinion on wrestling

[Tom Guycott]

Originally Posted by The Condor It's not about matches being better, because the athleticism of today's guys is exponentially better. However, the entertainment value is not there, the emotional ties to wrestlers is almost non-existent, save for a handful of guys. I just prefer stories and characters that enhance great matches. Case in point: Cena/Punk was stellar because we cared, there was so much involved. Roman Reigns is boring, has an undefined character, is competent in-ring-wise, and his story lines suck. Tag lines and buzzwords like "I'm not a good guy...", Underdog from the Underground, and the lone wolf are not characters nor do they incite excitement.

Originally Posted by Maluco Agree with above. The art of psychology and storytelling is gone. Guys like HBK and Bret Hart were not just technically good, but they knew how and when to sell, they dragged you into the match and emotionally involved you in it. Nowadays you get hit with chair, a DDT and a big finisher and you pop up within 10 seconds to go into the next sequence. That's obviously just a small part of what's going on, but nobody seems to know/or is allowed, to bring emotion into matches. HBK/Flair is still one of my favourite matches to this day. Flair was all but done and HBK was in his latter years, but what a story. I am no mark, but was on my feet at the end an explaining the whole story to my then girlfriend who was watching. Then HBK/Taker, again, the story sucked you in. It wasn't a one off. Even back in the day, a Benoit/Jericho clinic was great to watch...but give me a Mankind title win any day of the week. Technical wrestling is such a small part of it. Matches like Zayn/Nakamura and the likes are fantastic to watch, but they are soon forgotten. It's the stories that leave a legacy and are remembered forever. That's whats missing from today's product I think. Nobody tells stories anymore, and I don't think anyone knows how to. The likes of Hart/HBK/Flair/Steamboat should be down in NXT teaching that!

Not exactly so much that nobody knows how to tell a story, but the focus is not there anymore for WWE. Announcers spend more time with one-liners and dumbass conversations and talking about how someone's valet looks than PUTTING OVER THE IN-RING TALENT. Matches are being put together with this beginning/middle/end mentality that makes them less exciting to the fans, but that's what the company wants, so what are you gonna do?

To requite Maluco again "Matches like Zayn/Nakamura and the likes are fantastic to watch, but they are soon forgotten." But, is that really their fault? I mean, the only "feud" of any kind they have seen fit to keep any thread to are the "history" between Zayn and Owens. Neither Sami or Kevin have really had another feud to pad their respective resumes, unless you count Stee- uh, Owens' clash with Cena. But even then, nobody really has a memorable COLLECTION of feuds anymore. If WWE can be assed to do it, someone might get *one*, usually where one person is clearly supposed to get the rub, and then... nothing. People are somehow supposed to get over by osmosis or after being buried verbally from the booth or being jobbed out repeatedly (or some combination of the three), and when they don't, it's their fault.

Zayn can't be seen as anything more than an "internet appealing spot monkey" if they don't give him any substance to help him be perceived as more than that. Why should I give a fuck about Rusev when he keeps beating Jack Swagger, Zack Ryder, and Mark Henry repeatedly in rotation? There's nothing to him other than "barrel chested foreign heel". What has Baron Corbin done on the main roster besides beat on Dolph Ziggler for a minute and win the Macguffin Trophy of the Year? What makes him a heel besides being tall and having badass music? And even people they are supposed to be "taking care" of, like Roman, aren't exactly exempt. He wasn't exactly transitioning from feud to feud as much as he was getting fed people progressively up the card so he can become champion and new top guy in a very transparent bid to create a new money machine. There wasn't really any kind of ride to be taken with him, outside of that feud with Bray Wyatt, and even THAT was very forced. If they had just taken 5 year approach instead of a 3 year one, and let him breathe and get over on his own... or salvage the shit he was taking by just making the man the company's "hand picked heel" and just rolling with it, they still tried to make him Cena lite.

No, the "stories" they want to tell are the ones that are screamed in the ear of the announce team. Things that should be taking place most of the time aren't, because that's the WWE style anymore. People who can put together good matches are just told to go out there and do so. Writers only have time for about 3 company wide feuds at a time, because scripting shit that should really speak for itself is hard work for two teams of writers. Matches come and go with no follow-through. Nothing is hardly ever at stake. People are just supposed to go "ooh, aah" at someone who "looks the shit", and that is supposed to parlay into a multiple title reign-slash-movie/tv career that Vince can say he had had an integral role in creating.