Things ain't what they used to be!

Hi,

Long time reader, first time poster.

I've been a fan & viewer of the WWF/E product since the 80's. As a guy of nearly 40yrs of age, I'm well aware that I'm not exactly the target audience but I enjoy the wrestling in the same way as others may enjoy soap operas I guess!

I've decided to post now as I feel the current WWE product is one of the weakest I can remember.

There are a few reasons I can think of for this.

Firstly, the element of surprise has largely disappeared. A few years ago, it was possible to look forward to a PPV as in certain match ups you genuinely didn't know what was going to happen. Odds are now available on most PPV matches and the Bookies are usually heavily odds-on about the eventual winner. At the recent Royal Rumble, the Bookies favourite won every match. They were even odds-on about the person to get the most eliminations in the Rumble.

Perhaps the growth of so called "dirt sheets" & websites has impacted on this. It's easy to find out what is planned, although even without reading these it's often easy to see what they're building to as the storylines are pretty poorly constructed.

People talk about the daft ending to Wrestlemania IX, personally I thought it was great! Never saw it coming. The Undertaker coming up through the ring at In Your House, brilliant. Such things just don't seem to happen these days.

I believe this leads us to another factor that is undermining the product, blandness. There are too many "Superstars" who are generally bland. The current top "face" is Daniel Bryan. Personally I don't mind Bryan, he is a great technical wrestler. He doesn't have the larger than life build. In my opinion he's pretty ordinary on the microphone. His tag-line(s)/catchphrase(s) are decidedly weak, but this is the best we seem to have. Clearly Cena should be the face of the company. He has the build, the wrestling ability & is able to ad-lib with the mic depending on crowd reaction. Orton & Batista may as well be the same person.

Think of how blessed we've been in years gone by. HHH, The Rock, Austin, Undertaker, ticked every box, build, ability, promo's. Those of a lesser build, for example Michaels, Punk, Bret Hart, made up for it with great promo's, catchphrases or general ring presence.

There are more reasons I could expand on, but these will do for now.

I find myself torn over Wrestlemania. Do I buy in the hope that there is a twist or surprise? I can't help but feel Bryan walks away as Champ. Nothing wrong with this other than the storyline has been so weak that it seems so obvious. The finish to the Bryan/HHH match is unlikely to be a clean one. They wouldn't risk HHH beating Bryan cleanly, the crowd would riot & Bryan's character would be destroyed. At the same time, I'm not convinced HHH's ego will allow him to be beaten clean.

I think Wyatt beats Cena. Does nothing for Cena's character whether he wins or loses.

Undertaker wins. This I have no issue with. Undertaker is a great character & has been a trouble free asset to the company throughout his career. Wrestles another part-timer (again with no microphone skills but at least they had the sense to team him with Hayman)

The current talk of Punk or Vince returning is probably more hope than anything else, but either one would be fine with me. It has to be someone of that profile.

Anyway, I've said enough for now. Welcome any thoughts.

Cheers
Doc.

I'm going to touch upon your comment of Wrestlemania IX.

The ending is something that has twisted through time. We know more about backstage politics and wrestlers attitudes these days. And with hindsight and fewer and fewer fans about that saw it first hand, it looks like a shoddy result. Hogan pulling a stunt. But I'm with you, it was pretty cool.

The roster had taken one hell of a beating throughout 1992 and into early 1993. Warrior, Sid, LOD, British Bulldog, Jake Roberts, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Kerry Von Erich, Natural Disasters, Nasty Boys, The Mountie, Big Boss Man, Warlord, Barbarian, Haku, Jimmy Snuka, Sgt Slaughter and even more were all gone within the space of a year.

Hogan coming back was both brilliant and needed. And after the disappointment of Bret Hart losing, for Hogan to walk out champion I thought was great. It's an unfairly remembered event.

But what if Hart had just won and they'd pushed him?

Surprise and nostalgia can cloud things in the opposite way.

And the bookies favourites win because there is information out there that is giving them results currently (and that's why I won't open the paddy power wrestlemania thread)

With all due respect, when your example of things being better in the old days is Wrestlemania 9, you start to look a bit silly.

It's like saying there aren't any great footballers any more, like Carlton Palmer.

WrestleMania IX sucked, I remember watching it on Easter Monday after taping it and even as a 10 year old I remember feeling totally mystified by it and instantly compared it to WM5 through to 8 and feeling like it was a complete let down.

I don't know if it was the action in the ring, the lack of stars involved or the fact that it was such a shoddy setting, which was a new concept in fairness to the WWF but whatever it was it felt underwhelming

crippledtart wrote:With all due respect, when your example of things being better in the old days is Wrestlemania 9, you start to look a bit silly.

It's like saying there aren't any great footballers any more, like Carlton Palmer.

18 caps for England is not to be sniffed at

It wasn't Hogan's fault that WWF missed a trick in giving either Macho Man or Mr Perfect the win at The Royal Rumble. Neither necessarily would've needed to beat Bret Hart and it would've been a better finale to what was a weak, but not the weakest, Wrestlemania. WWF decided to put everything behind Yokozuna to create a new star amongst the exodus of others. To cement that they give him the win over Hart and follow it by a win over Hogan at King of the Ring. Not many guys can say they've beaten both. Insta-star! The booking decision to give Hogan the belt after only a 2 minute reign may well have annoyed the late 20-somethings of the time, them feeling exactly as most on here do about it now. But at the time, for young Kid V at least, it was a welcome decision. It doesn't make it a stand out Wrestlemania, but it did leave you with a feel good factor at the end of the show rather than being totally disappointed.

By that point though, every Super-Cena win has been great too

It probably is if you're 11...

And as slowly becomes the answer to everything, we just aint as young as we used to be

Sometimes I wish I could be 8 years old, just for a day. Wrestling would be awesome again, and the missus wouldn't give me that weird look when the ol' Hasbro's come out "for a clean.."

Thanks for the thoughts all.

I'm not sure the Hogan Wrestlemania IX example was the most sensible thing on my part! Not "better" as such but it was unexpected, at least by me anyway.

I think they're forgetting the "entertainment" part of "Sports Entertainment".

Cheers
Doc.

I said on last years wrestlemania special it was my fave mania so don't feel so bad!

A poll suggests most TNA fans favourite WrestleMania was WrestleMania 9.

One fan who took the survey told us "It didn't make any sense, he was just suddenly the champion lolz. I LOVED IT!"

Whilst another said "Logic is so dull, I just want to be confused and cheering"

Maybe I should move my attention to TNA?

I look forward to Wrestlemania. Last years I felt was poor. All match ups went as we all expected. The Cena v Rock main event was only ever going to go one way. Everyone knew Rock wasn't around for long so the idea of putting the title on him long term was a non starter.

It seems obvious again this year that one way or the other Bryan will walk away as champion. Much as I like Bryan, I hope he doesn't.

Cheers
Doc.

I think WWE are never going to win if after a year struggle in which they've teased and tormented the fanbase with Bryan's meteoric rise to the top and him becoming the most over star since Austin that whatever the result of the main event it still has people moaning over it.
If Batista wins then people moan about people coming back and getting pushed over decent talent.
If Orton wins he'll still be regarded as a weak champ.
If HHH well then he's using his backstage power he only ever got from marrying Steph.
And if Bryan wins then everyone saw it coming and it's now too obvious.

I might just watch it and enjoy it.

Doubt it you smarky git

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:A poll suggests most TNA fans favourite WrestleMania was WrestleMania 9.

One fan who took the survey told us "It didn't make any sense, he was just suddenly the champion lolz. I LOVED IT!"

Whilst another said "Logic is so dull, I just want to be confused and cheering"

  

Kid Vicious wrote:Sometimes I wish I could be 8 years old, just for a day. Wrestling would be awesome again, and the missus wouldn't give me that weird look when the ol' Hasbro's come out "for a clean.."

I felt like a kid watching Punk vs Lesnar at Summerslam! I totally forgot about contracts and pushes and all of that stuff...I just watched a brilliant match and I just couldn't tell who would get the win!