Why Today's Wrestling Stinks

[sniperniles]

I posted this in a thread on the Virtual forum, but wanted to get the opinions on this from other posters here. What do you think

They don't give a damn with house shows and all, as long as they get the advertising money from their big sponsors.

They're PPV ratings are down for 2 main reasons.

1) There are too many of them.

2) Why pay $35 + for a Monday Night Raw or Smackdown show. They give everything for free, then complain that nobody buys their PPV's.

I miss the days of 4 to 5 PPV's a year. Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Survivor Series. Possibly throw in the King of the ring PPV with Tournament matches and all.

They would 1 draw more viewers to their TV shows by building up characters and storyline angles.

EX: Wrestlemania 2 years ago, then slowly build and teased the Batista face turn on HHH, and it was a great draw for Wrestlemania.

Last year, belive it or not the one match I wanted to watch during Wrestlemania was Trish Vs. Micki James, why because they did the great slow storyline built.

That's why I like Fantasy Wrestling and I like reading shows of the NWA Classics: Because we know how wrestling should be done.

If you really want to relive the old days, I recommend reading the Virtual Fantasy Wrestling section here, and you'd be surprise how good it is.

[bobbyryates]

pushing ANYONE, men or women, based on their looks is a killer.
not developing charaters and stroylines...big storylines are not instigated, done, and finished in 20 minutes or one show. or not even three shows. it takes time to create interest. that interest is what draws fans to watch and buy tickets.

[Bradshaw0012]

- No psychology
- No selling
- No believability
- No credibility
- No talent
- No wrestling

[jblcenafan]

Yeah , but "the good ol' days" were Dusty killing everyone and Flair getting pinned ever night and then getting the Dusty finish. Dusty was made NWA Superman and Hogan was WWF Superman. People get mad when Jarrett and HHH kill everyone in sight , but this has always being happening...

[Bradshaw0012]

jblcenafan said:

Yeah , but "the good ol' days" were Dusty killing everyone and Flair getting pinned ever night and then getting the Dusty finish.

Not sure if I agree with your definition of "the good 'ol days".

[stylin61]

Most everything mentioned has been on target, especially too many PPV's - nothing is special anymore. But #1 to me was the loss of "willing suspension of disbelief". Sure most people over a certain age level knew it was a work, but kayfabe let you want to believe. The slow build-up's to the big payoff match was what made it exciting. Now we know too much of what is behind the scenes and say "oh, they'll never let this guy get a win over that guy" or "so and so never loses". It takes the fun out of it. What really kills it for me today is the over-scripted backstage skits, give me the old ringside interview any day. We know what we see in movies and tv sitcoms isn't "real" and it is no big problem just play it believable. I will never understand why people think wrestling fans are stupid any more than viewers of any tv shows. Does anyone, even kids, still think those backstage skits are real?

[bobbyryates]

bradshaw0012 said:

jblcenafan said:

Yeah , but "the good ol' days" were Dusty killing everyone and Flair getting pinned ever night and then getting the Dusty finish.

Not sure if I agree with your definition of "the good 'ol days".

that's what i was about to say...the good ole days for me (in MACW) were PD...Pre Dusty

[GarvinStomp]

Well, I think everyone has been right on target with the points that have been made so far. But I think another part of the problem is that the guys nowadays are not good workers (most of them). The entire WWE show is about high spots during the match. It isn't as much fun now because the wrestlers cannot tell a story inside the ring. The wrestlers are better athletes now, but the old school guys were better "wrestlers." I mean I have never been a big fan of Jeff Jarrett, but by gollee Jeff Jarrett can tell a story inside that ring and take the fan on a 20-minute or so ride where belief is temporarily suspended. Sting no longer has the same in-ring capabilities at 47 years old, but he still can work a match. You look at Flair, Steamboat, Savage, Malenko, Race, Rhodes, Dibiase, even Hogan they all knew how to tell you a story and a match that developed and evolved. The current crop can't do it and if they can, not nearly on the same level. You have Benoit, HBK, HHH in WWE, but that's about it. The rest are sterroided based characters or high spots galore. What wrestling needs is Jake the Snake and some other old timers to work with the youngsters on how to properly work a 20 minute or so match.