PixelKing said:
How could WWE get out of the downward spiral they are in right now? Same question for TNA.
I mean really, Cena squashes the roster, They don't let people work (Imagine CM Punk V Bryan Danielson, 40/60 minute match), The angles don't appeal to sense (Zack ryder wins, US title shot. Cena wins, WWE title shot. Wouldn't zack say 'Wait, can I have a WWE title shot, not a US?'), The new talent is wasted mostly (The entire nexus V Cena, I'm sure Cena won.)
As for TNA, its fucked all over.
In both cases, it's by pushing young talent, ie people that can work.
In TNA's case, they've been relying on being WCW 2.0 for way too long, when they COULD have been like a big budget ROH.
In WWE's case, it's that they keep picking guys with good "looks" to be the stars, rather than push people that know how to wrestle. That plan may have worked in the 80's, but nowadays, people want substance over aesthetic. Sure, you should LOOK like a wrestler, but at the end of the day you still have to be an athlete. Not just look like one.
That, and the booking style needs to change. The idea of wrestling as a "soap opera" just doesn't work anymore. If anything, it's one of the things people make fun of the most. Companies like ROH and Chikara have it right, with their more modern and meaningful booking style. With the WWE, nothing feels like it really matters. There's no suspense anymore.
With TNA, nothing makes any sense.
-Samurai- said:
Anyway, OT:
Should the WWE pull out the the PG rating and move back into its original form?
I feel that from an entertainment view, it'd be the right move to go back to how it was. There's very little that can be done with the PG rating. The matches are getting pretty stale without the occasional chair shot, the promos and microphone work is appalling(it's like they don't know what to say), and even some of the moves had to be renamed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for blood and guts all over the place, but the show just feels lacking right now. It's getting hard to watch.
WWE was built on violent entertainment, balsy moves and foul language. The show is basically a kids show now.
Maybe, or perhaps a PG-13 light approach. Remember, around the end of the attitude era in the early 2000's, they got really REALLY burned out on that stuff. Once they got over reliant on shock and awe, they started doing really embarrassing things, like that Mae West incident, and even the public got tired of it.
If they were to give the program just a little more edge, maybe make the stakes feel a little higher, or make things a little more dangerous and unpredictable, it would go a ways to helping their stale/safe product.
AbyssalSanhedrin said:
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the deathmatch style both in the US and Japan.
I'm aware that the style attracts a lot of negative opinion on dedicated wrestling forums but I'm of the feeling that if these lunatics are stupid enough to do that stuff to themselves then I'm sure as hell ghoulish and voyeuristic enough to watch it, as stomach-churning as it can get.
Conversely I think CZW have been on a roll since they pared down the amount "ultraviolent" matches they hold. It has made the gimmick matches that much more special when on a card of straight-up wrestling matches, even if this year's Cage of Death was pretty lacklustre.
What's your opinion?
The real difference between Japanese and American deathmatch wrestlers comes down to crutch vs. attribute. A lot of CZW/IWA MS probably couldn't work at any style other than death matches. Sure, some of them can be good High flyers or brawlers, but can you really imagine necro butcher doing lucha libre? Compare to the BJW lockeroom. Ryuji Ito, Jun Kasai, Jaki Numazawa, could all probably do decent strong style, WITHOUT the use of weapons.
Just look at how BJW trains people:
But yeah, I like it better now that CZW is changing to be more like BJW. It'll be better in the long run. A lot's been done to hurt the image of Death match wrestling in the US, almost all of it the fault of Ian Rotten and the ICP, but it definitely has a place in the world of wrestling. I'm a big BJW myself, so yeah.
On an unrelated note, has anyone seen Emeraldrafael? he's usually on page 1 whenever I make a wrestling thread...
While we're at it, where's Mr. Prickly?