2009 Running Pro Wrestling Thread

Taker is still going strong, IMO.

And at least SD hasn't had its title change every three weeks a la Raw.

 

Long as the strap's on Orton, I'm good. RAW's just more fun that way...

 

SD has had the same amount of title switches as Raw has had since the belts switched brands earlier this year.

 

In answer to question 1: Because most of the guest hosts are C list celebrities who are reading the WWE's generally crappy scripts instead of acting naturally.

Question 2: Because the WWE doesn't have any real competition (TNA doesn't count) so they don't have to use any sex or sleaze. If a new competitor ever comes forward, it's back to Ho's and HLA.

 

A blast from the past here. From SI's vault, a quick and somewhat humorous tongue-in-cheek review of Tuesday Night Titans:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1122591/index.htm?eref=sircrc&eref=sisf

 

Where I was going with Question 1 is why they have C-list celebrities as the hosts, besides the fact that every single one has a charity/organization to plug.

 

Probably because of David Arquette Syndrome. The WWE is trying to get publicity, any way they can.

It wouldn't be so bad an idea if they had A List, or even an occasional B List celebrity hosting. But each week, seeing mediocre celebs play GM is pretty lame (I'm not counting former wrestlers, like Dusty and Sgt. Slaughter, who are already part of the business.)

The only one that I enjoyed was Bob Barker, although I missed Shaq's performance. I heard he was pretty good, though. Barker was the only one that seemed like the WWE was being really creative for. The others have followed a pattern: 1. Get a Cena/Orton/Legacy/DX match announced. 2. Joke with Santino. 3. Do something with the Divas.

I'd like to see one of the celebs play a real heel role (Jeremy Piven sucked). Maybe something like (after season ends) A-Rod going to Boston and smacks Cena with a bat or something like that.

 

As much as I hate Cena, I'd almost want him swinging the lumber in that confrontation...

 

Roethlisberger wasn't terrible, even if he did follow the pattern you mentioned. They did miss an opportunity for an easy and great spot with him, though. Whenever his linemen got in their stance against Big Show, they should have rushed him and knocked him out of the ring. Big Show does a big flip over the top rope, crowd goes nuts, you get a shitload of the mainstream publicity you desire, and it requires minimal training on the part of the football players. Just make sure they don't actually clothesline Big Show. All they'd have had to do was take two steps forward and push. Big Show is good enough to do the rest.

 

Yeah, I thought that's what they were going to do, but instead, Big Show just left the ring. That seemed silly to me - Jericho is the coward heel of their pair, whereas Big Show doesn't really back down from anything.

I don't really think the guest host thing has been a failure, but more of a symptom of the larger booking failures on Raw. The title chase between Cena and Orton has been boring, and the 80th revival of DX hasn't been super special, so why should the guest hosts be any different?

Heck, Santino has been dynamite on the mic for almost two years now, and they still haven't managed to get him past jobber status. Get the guy some wins, pair him with a cheesy veteran to "train" him to wrestle, and suddenly you have a crowd favorite who can wrestle instead of a two minute comedy act. Even if the WWE wants to stay crowd friendly, they're doing a bad job of doing the best they can with the talent at hand, and giving rubs to guys further down the card. Kofi Kingston has been getting a great crowd response and has good matches - Why not have a rare face vs. face match as a main event or at a PPV to elevate him even further as a series contender to the title?

 

Because, like a lot of things, that makes too much sense.

 

Only thing is, they already did something similiar like that with Shaq.

I definitely agree on the building up the midcard. Have Kofi face off with Cena and match him move for move until Cena gets a lucky win. That's similar to how Flair got Sting (and many others) over.