Wake me up when december ends

[Damian Rey]

The product could still thrive without the crash tv approach. The problem lies in not investing in anyone not named Cena. Your top champion shouldn't be losing at all unless he's being a scum bag getting disqualified.

Giving away matches for free, like Cena Rollins. Maybe the televised matches aren't as good as the Network special bouts, but it's still the two same guys going at it on free tv. Kills any hype. Lesnar only wrestling on ppv made him a legit prize fighter attraction. Of course Rollins being featured weekly and defending the belt monthly will water that down, but he shouldn't be getting pinned or submitted cleanly on tv.

The other issue is direction. CyNick joked about Rusev being a contender for Brock and he's right in doing so, citing the currently lame direction they have him going. He went from having a great debut run, through a solid program with Cena, to feuding with a now kinda creepy Dolph Ziggler. Lana goes from being a strong, intelligent woman to arm candy scorned by a seemingly unfaithful man. It was needless and only diminished the characters they spent nearly a year building.

And of course Bray Wyatt should be a, if not the top heel in the company, but he's never been pushed to that level despite consistently delivering on the micand in the ring. He's been over guys like Ambrose, Reigns and Bryan, but they haven't given him that one signature win and I don't understand why.

[The CyNick]

Originally Posted by Damian Rey The product could still thrive without the crash tv approach. The problem lies in not investing in anyone not named Cena. Your top champion shouldn't be losing at all unless he's being a scum bag getting disqualified. Giving away matches for free, like Cena Rollins. Maybe the televised matches aren't as good as the Network special bouts, but it's still the two same guys going at it on free tv. Kills any hype. Lesnar only wrestling on ppv made him a legit prize fighter attraction. Of course Rollins being featured weekly and defending the belt monthly will water that down, but he shouldn't be getting pinned or submitted cleanly on tv. The other issue is direction. CyNick joked about Rusev being a contender for Brock and he's right in doing so, citing the currently lame direction they have him going. He went from having a great debut run, through a solid program with Cena, to feuding with a now kinda creepy Dolph Ziggler. Lana goes from being a strong, intelligent woman to arm candy scorned by a seemingly unfaithful man. It was needless and only diminished the characters they spent nearly a year building. And of course Bray Wyatt should be a, if not the top heel in the company, but he's never been pushed to that level despite consistently delivering on the micand in the ring. He's been over guys like Ambrose, Reigns and Bryan, but they haven't given him that one signature win and I don't understand why.

If a heel never loses, he becomes a babyface real quick. Its human nature to root for the team that wins all the time. When they want to turn Rollins, he will start to accumulate wins.

As for Cena, he should be protected, he's far and away the biggest star in the company. However, for a star of his magnitude, he puts over TONS of people.

Im not a huge fan of PPV rematches on TV the night after the Special. However, in some cases they are okay, and serve to move along storylines. There's never going to be a rule that covers all scenarios. TV is important, you need to keep people watching. If no big matches ever happened on RAW, people would likely tune out.

I think they missed the target with the Rusev-Lana thing. I think they thought moving Lana away from Rusev would turn her into a Sable type character after she left Mero. IMO the mistake was making it a love foursome, instead of just having Lana leave Rusev and do her own thing. Now I think they just need to bring them back together.

Wyatt to me is a strange one. I love his gimmick, I love the way he's portrayed, but I just dont think the average fan digs him. I think people like his intro, and all the bells and whistles around the gimmick. I hear a lot of BORING and WHAT chants when Bray is doing longer promos. Thats not conducive to being a #1 type heel.

[Damian Rey]

Originally Posted by The CyNick If a heel never loses, he becomes a babyface real quick. Its human nature to root for the team that wins all the time. When they want to turn Rollins, he will start to accumulate wins. As for Cena, he should be protected, he's far and away the biggest star in the company. However, for a star of his magnitude, he puts over TONS of people. Im not a huge fan of PPV rematches on TV the night after the Special. However, in some cases they are okay, and serve to move along storylines. There's never going to be a rule that covers all scenarios. TV is important, you need to keep people watching. If no big matches ever happened on RAW, people would likely tune out. I think they missed the target with the Rusev-Lana thing. I think they thought moving Lana away from Rusev would turn her into a Sable type character after she left Mero. IMO the mistake was making it a love foursome, instead of just having Lana leave Rusev and do her own thing. Now I think they just need to bring them back together. Wyatt to me is a strange one. I love his gimmick, I love the way he's portrayed, but I just dont think the average fan digs him. I think people like his intro, and all the bells and whistles around the gimmick. I hear a lot of BORING and WHAT chants when Bray is doing longer promos. Thats not conducive to being a #1 type heel.

I don't recall Triple H losing all that much during his bastard heel run in the Attitude era. He won constantly. It wasn't until he got hurt and came back that he was cheered. And even then, that didn't even last a year. He became the top heel in Raw, won a fuck ton, and the crowd never turned, sans his Mania match with Cena.

They don't need to book Rollins cleanly over every opponent. I'm all for cheap wins because his character fits the slime ball type. Giving a guy like Ryback a roll up victory via distraction every now and again is fine. However, your top champion should in no way lose constantly, on television no less, by being pinned or submitted. By hook or crook a heel champion should be trying to gain heat by going through the back door for victories.

Cena has lost, sure. But other than Punk, who has gone on to be billed as an equal star? I guess you could try top argue Bryan, but injuries will likely leave us never knowing what the outcome of a title run would be. Even when Punk was on top, he wasn't the man like Cena has been the man. That's not Cena's fault, however, using him to elevate younger guys into more prominent positions within the company has been a massive failure on the company's end. Owens, Wyatt, Rusev should all be bigger deals. Thankfully, Owens is being given a go as intercontinental champion in a soft reboot. Those other two went nowhere fast.

I typically watch Raw weekly, and I've never hear a boring chant at Wyatt. Not saying it hasn't happened, but I've yet to experience it. Also, his cadence in his promos does not lend itself to getting the what chant. He's one of the few people other than Cena who can actually promo like he's conversing instead of regurgitating lines.

I still believe he can be a big deal. Everything is in place to make him a top star. It's whether or not they pull the trigger and give him the right direction that's the pending issue for him.

[Big Vic]

Originally Posted by The CyNick If a heel never loses, he becomes a babyface real quick. Its human nature to root for the team that wins all the time. When they want to turn Rollins, he will start to accumulate wins.

I don't remember people cheering Rusev last year.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Originally Posted by Big Vic I don't remember people cheering Rusev last year.

When he was faced Cena he got a good pop for passing Cena out.

[The CyNick]

Explain this to me.

If WWE had no intention of featuring Bryan at Mania, why did he go over Cena at Summerslam? Why take the top star in the company and have him JOB to a guy you don't see much in? Why not let them have a competitive match where Cena goes over? Then have Orton cash in MITB and proceed to the Batista v Orton payoff.

Why have Bryan get completely screwed out of the title by The Authority in the Fall? Isn't that usually a time where Mania programs start to take shape? Odd how that worked.

It possible WWE thought Batista v Orton would be a bigger attraction because Batista had been away from TV and then payoff Bryan winning back the title after Mania. But that's not how WWE usually caps off long running storylines. I think someone mentioned the rumour was Bryan vs Sheamus. And maybe that was true. But maybe the rumoured Punk v HHH match was to get Bryan into the main event. Maybe Sheamus was going to be there to just lay a beating on Bryan "in case" HHH lost to Punk.

Just seems like they blew a lot of TV time on Bryan v The Authority to just have it pay off with absolutely nothing. Interesting how the story that actually played out led into a Bats heel turn, which led to Shield v Evolution, which led to Rollins turning heel and setting up the next 18-24 months of storylines. For on the fly that's pretty good.