2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

What if Nash helps Punk win and it turns into some sort of newfangled nWo type of thing?

Not saying that's what should happen but isn't it a possibility that they could swerve that way.

 

Or Nash interferes, ref sees it and the match ends in a DQ.

But I could see Nash and Punk joining forces and bringing the nWo back with a few twists -- the theme song being one of them.

 

I dunno. This angle just isn't as red-hot as Punk-Cena was two months ago. Those two were bringing out the best in each other. Now, all Punk has to work against is Triple H, who is still reciting a script.

 

That's one of the things that pisses me off about WWE. They either show the same match over and over again, or they end a red-hot program before they should. They never time it right.

Plenty of times, they'll have guys in a program for three PPVs. And it's so predictable. Bad guy wins one. Good guy wins another, then the third one goes to who they want to push further. Either that, or we see the three PPVs and each guy against each other on TV that ends in a heel cheating win, or in a tag match, or a six-man, to the point where we get sick of it.

 

I definitely agree with this. And also, because the other guy in the angle is the future head of the company, I imagine Punk is going to get shit on for the low ratings, instead of Triple H and Nash. While the angle isn't completely dead, it's on life support, and Cena vs. Del Rio isn't all that hot either, given how weakly they've booked Del Rio.

 

MNF started up again. That's going to hurt their ratings obviously

 

Yeah, but a few years back, they were doing double that rating, consistently, even with MNF.

Even though times have changed, I'd argue that they need to not have the same guys on week after week, like 25 years ago. They have to make it more special to see main event guys, and it would push the mid-card more. Not to say that they should go back to squash matches every time, but they need more variety.

 

Part of the problem is that people just aren't into wrestling that much anymore. It's easy to say that WWE is either stale or blows through big angles too quickly, and that TNA is lolTNA, but it's not like ROH or DGUSA is at ECW levels of popularity either. Sure, WWE could have done better with the Nexus angle and it certainly appears that the Punk angle is cratering, but I don't know that either would have long-distance legs even with Paul Heyman or Jim Cornette booking.

Maybe this is just a dark time for wrestling, not unlike the early 90s when the WWF had Duke the Dumpster Droese and WCW countered with those mini movies starring Cheatum the Evil Midget.

 

I don't want to be that internet fan that comes on here and says "See? This PG shit sucks!" but ...

With UFC blowing up, and doing so exclusively because of the increased young male audience that's just finding the sport, it's hard not to argue there's a connection.

I would be willing to be a good chunk of the fans the UFC has gotten in the past five-six years have been former wrestling fans who left from the Attitude Era.

I understand why the WWE doesn't want to go back to the bare breast/f-bombs of the 90s but even if you take all that away, the matches were sick and, now, not only do we not have the breasts and the swear words ... for the most part the matches are blah.

Instead of having one "holy shit" moment per night, you're lucky to get on every third PPV.

It's definitely a down time for wrestling and it's a shame because I think there is a lot of talent there. It's just not being used right.

 

Attitude Era didn't work simply because it straddled the 14/MA line. It worked because of the personalities involved. Austin and Rock were and are good enough to make their stuff work in the PG Era. TNA crosses the line and it doesn't help them a bit. Cena could go back to anti-gay raps and it wouldn't make him any less irritating than he is now.

The violence isn't being toned down by PG, because you can get away with a lot. I think it's as much to do with the health concerns that have sprouted in the last few years. Foley-esque high spots and neck/head-endangering moves are being phased out or discouraged. You probably averaged 10 chairshots to the head per Raw in the Attitude Era; this year we've had one planned one that got Triple H and Undertaker fined. When was the last time you saw a piledriver in a major wrestling organization? A flying headbutt?

WWE's big problem is they're either too reliant on what they've been doing (Cena, the never-ending Orton-Christian feud) or they try to cram too much stuff into a feud too quickly (there's no way Punk-HHH should be a stip-loaded match on an off-date PPV this soon, especially with minimal buildup that seems more focused on insider references than advancing an issue). They give people chances, then pull them if they don't click right away and send them to mid-card purgatory.

It's a complicated issue, and there's no magic formula that's going to bring the teens and 20-somethings of the late 90s back to the fold within six months.

 

This is spot-on.

And I agree with the safety concerns. McMahon kinda had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing so, but he's made things a little more safer, relatively-speaking, after Benoit, and pressure from Chris Nowinski.

Meat is also correct in how they react to anyone getting a push. There's so many guys who you think are about to get pushed (Swagger, Kofi), then they get de-pushed for little reason. It becomes hard to get excited about a wrestler who you think is the next big thing (no pun intended).