Please entertain me. That is all that I can think of every Monday night. Wrestling has to be in the biggest slump that I can ever remember in my lifetime. Most notably in WWE.
Chris Jericho a couple of years ago made a comment in an interview that is big time ringing true right now. He said that WWE has to get these younger guys ready cause guys like he, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Edge, and others were not going to be around in the company much longer. He talked of how the company was not ready with the next wave of stars. This has become so true. I have no interest in any of these younger guys. It is very likely that this isn’t the fault of the talent. It very well may fall on the creative end of the company and likely does. What reason has WWE given us to care about these younger guys? They have these guys on a yo yo so much that you never know what is going to happen. How many times have we seen where WWE pushes someone to the moon and then suddenly they are in a downward free fall? Then, they decide they’re going to push that talent again. However, the damage is does. Why should we believe that this talent that has been told to us over and over on TV is a loser is suddenly a winner again? How many big monsters have we seen pushed only to end up in a downward spiral. Tensai. Pushed as a monster heel and couldn’t be beaten. Suddenly starts losing to everyone. Now is an afterthought on TV. Next example after that was Brodus Clay. Pushed big time as undefeated. After his feud with the Big Show, he has been in a downward spiral. Now, we have Ryback. My first thought is how long till he is the latest one for this pattern. However, has he pushed through that level where the crowd reaction to him will keep that from happening? That is the question that has yet to be answered. A couple of weeks ago, Kofi Kingston was wrestling and Michael Cole made sure to point out his big moment at MSG a few years ago which was his “breakthrough” moment where he crashed through the table on Randy Orton. Yes, it was a huge breakthrough moment but the problem with that statement was that he didn’t breakthrough. Within a couple of months, he was pushed right back down and was just another guy again. That is how the whole company feels right now. Everyone is just another wrestler. Nobody stands out. I am completely bored of everyone. This goes with talent that I love too. They have found a way to make my favorites boring to me. Let’s look at the three man rock band or whatever they are calling them. We have Heath Slater whose gimmick a few months ago was getting embarrassed by legends every week. Drew McIntyre who was being pushed as a big time player a couple of years ago and then got destroyed by everyone. Suddenly, we are supposed to take these guys seriously as major players. This is the problem. They think that they can yo yo wrestlers and there won’t be any consequences. I have actually heard this discussed that they don’t see themselves as damaging talent and that they can choose to push someone again whenever they see fit. Remember Miz a couple of years ago? He was the hottest heel that they had a couple of years ago and was doing great. Then, they pushed him down the card. Miz had been a favorite of mine at the time and I was enjoying watching his work on TV. Now, I just do not care and he is just another guy too. Raw was in Nashville last month and I had no desire to go. Why am I going to go make a drive to watch a show that is boring me on TV much less driving to go see? After the show aired, my first thought was not anything worthwhile on it to go to see on TV, much less in person.
Currently airing on WWE Classics On Demand is a new roundtable show with Gene Okerlund, Jim Ross, Pat Patterson, Michael Hayes, and Road Dogg looking back at the history of Monday Night Raw. Telling stories from the complete run of the show. Showing footage. Showing footage is what got to me. Watching this footage made me think, remember when this show used to be fun? This show that I’m watching now is not fun. It never is. Raw used to be must watch TV. You planned your night around it. Making sure to be parked in front of the TV as it started. The excitement of seeing your favorites. The sound of the theme music cueing those stars to the ring. Watching that crowd pop. Raw for me now has become just something that runs on TV. Most Monday nights, I just have Raw on and end up playing on my phone most of the time with the hope that something decent will happen and get my attention. It doesn’t happen. I watched that roundtable show seeing clips from the early 90’s, attitude era, and beyond. When they would mix footage in of the last couple of years, it just didn’t look like it belonged. Like we are watching a completely different show than what it used to be. I started thinking back over the last couple of years. How many memorable moments have there been on Raw? To go with that question, how many memorable moments have there been that have not involved bringing someone back? I can think of one. CM Punk’s big promo on him leaving and voicing his real opinion on the politics of the company. It had people talking and it was incredible. Within a month, WWE had already started taking the hottest thing they had going in ages and sending it back down. I love CM Punk. He is fantastic. Now, he’s boring. Not his fault. The heel turn made no sense to me. None. He was one of the most popular in the company. Even as a face, they had turned him from the cutting edge talent that had gotten people talking and breaking him through the glass ceiling that he had long deserved to get through and turned him into just another baby face wrestler like all the others. With him as the top heel, we are now left with John Cena as the top baby face. Again. Instead of there being someone new up there, we have what we’ve had for the last several years. That is more John Cena. I like John Cena. He does everything he is asked to do. Class act and does so much charity work that it would make your head spin. I’m bored of him. He doesn’t even draw the fun mixed reaction like he used to. Like I said though, I’m bored of everyone.
Going to the past. WWE has been bringing lots of talent back in the last year whether it is cameos or for longer extended periods of time. That is even bigger now and there is a strategy of it with getting fans back to see stars from the past but also check out the current product. Rock has been back and will be back again. Bret Hart has been in and out. Same with Shawn. Triple H has off and on matches. Brock Lesnar was brought back and that was huge news back earlier this year. Huge pop for him from the die hard fans that had stuck around for Raw on WrestleMania weekend. Not long after, the buzz on him was gone. This has become the pattern for WWE. They’ll create a big buzz of excitement among fans. Then, the followup is terrible and it fizzes out.
Raw going to three hours was met with a lot of people thinking this will not go well. I was one of those as well. Remember when WCW Monday Nitro went to three hours? Eric Bischoff says that was the start of the downturn for WCW. It overexposed the product. Too much TV to produce. Running through story lines too fast. Let’s make it clear that TNT asked WCW for three hours. Bischoff didn’t want three hours. WWE was asked by USA to go to three hours. I’m sure WWE has to be getting paid a pretty good amount to do it. Going to three hours was bad timing. I said at the time that Raw is so stale right now that it is hard to get through two hours. Much less three hours. The ratings have gone down since the move to three hours. The initial three hour Raw 1000 did strong numbers with fans checking into the very nostalgic night and very fun night. Since then, the ratings have been falling. The pattern has been strange. If you remember, Raw would always have a pattern when they would do three hour specials. The first hour would not be good with people not tuning in till its normal start time. The second hour would get to normal and then the third hour would be the highest. The third hour is now their lowest rating. The first hour does really well surprisingly. Ratings will go up in the second hour. Then, they drop the third hour. The reaction has to be that fans are tuning out cause they don’t see anything to stay around for and I can’t blame them. I don’t see anything to stay around for. USA has been on WWE about getting those ratings up. WWE knows they need to get the ratings up and I’m just not sure they know how to do it at this point. About a month ago, there was major shake up in creative. Gerwitz was let go and it was seen as a deal of letting him take the blame putting everyone else on notice that their job was in jeopardy if they didn’t turn the boat around. Vince let everyone know that this needed to be turned around but what has changed in that amount of time? Nothing. I have seen nothing different. This is also including the Fandango promo videos of a new wrestler that screams bad mid 90’s gimmick. WWE changed course in the last couple of weeks just with the Survivor Series main event. Team Punk vs. Team Foley was set to take place but Vince was said to have changed his mind on the flight over to the UK and decided to scrap it for the triple threat main event. John Cena was thrown into the mix almost as a security type of drawing power. I am fairly sure that I heard that Triple H had pitched making the whole show an elimination match show just like the old days to make it different but was overruled. Who wants to have a PPV actually be unique when we can another PPV main event headlined by a triple threat title match?
I was asked lately about if this was worse than the mid 90’s. Yes! I believe it is. This is the worst that I can ever remember wrestling being. Yes, we had some bad years in WWE. Most notably 1995. The difference in 1995 and now? Then, we had Bret Hart. We had Shawn Michaels. We had a lot of bad to get through to get to the good but we knew we were going to get something good with those guys. There was something to look forward to. There is nothing to look forward to right now. Nothing. The product is stale from top to bottom. The problem that we also have right now compared to 1995 is that there isn’t competition. WCW forced WWE to change things. Monday NItro was taking off huge and got even bigger in 1996 with the launch of the nWo. Vince had his back against a wall and had no choice but to change things or go out of business. We aren’t going to get competition now. TNA is never going to get strong enough to put pressure on WWE. The only hope that we have of things changing is what is happening now. The ratings falling and the network putting pressure on Vince to do something to get the ratings up.
What about the current talent? It is that yo yo thing like I said. I love Punk. I don’t like him as a cowardly heel. Why does every heel that WWE has suddenly have to run from everything? Why can’t he be that heel that runs his mouth and says what got him over in the first place? Why does he have to run from everything? Why can there not be a monster heel anymore? That heel that just destroys everyone. Then, you have a baby face stand up to him and try to take him down. Instead, every wrestler that turns heel is suddenly a complete coward. AJ. I love AJ. She has been my favorite thing on Raw this year. She got over huge and then they put her in the GM role which was likely going to water down her character. Since then, they have watered her completely down in this John Cena storyline. I can’t see what this is supposed to do for her and I don’t see why Cena has to be involved anyway. What does this do for his storyline with being involved in this but also in the triple threat for the title? I want them to keep using AJ cause I am a big fan of hers. Daniel Bryan. Big fan of his. The “yes” chants were fun. Really fun. The fans loved chanting along with him even as a heel. So, WWE doesn’t like fans chanting along with a heel so they make him go to where he takes it as fans mocking him. WWE got laughs with his comedy sketches with Kane and I knew when they got laughs that they were going to go with that until it was completely over with and done. Bryan is now stuck in this tag team with Kane and I am so tired of it. Bryan has been a big thing this year including a near riot at WreslteMania when WWE squashed him in just a few seconds in his title match. People were furious and so was I. I could not even tell you who the champs are most of the time other than Punk. That is a problem. The divas division is done as far as having attention on it. They have three divas right now that are in full action which is Layla, Eve, and Kaitlyn. Beth Phoenix has just departed the company wanting to take a break and spend time with her family. The big personalities are gone. Overall, the problem is that no one stands out in WWE. Everyone is generic. They don’t give you any reason to care about the superstars and what you are watching. It feels like a problem where you have the same people writing for each character. It all feels the same. There has always been this talk from WWE of “do what you can to get yourself over”. Well, case and point Zack Ryder. The guy wasn’t getting anywhere. He got himself over with his internet show online. Fans were chanting for him in the buildings and he was getting pops the equivalent of the main eventers. WWE was forced to push him. Then, they spiraled him putting him in the storyline with Cena and Eve. Now, he gets no reaction and is just mixed into the show wherever. There was a guy that fans were really into and many see it as WWE holding it against Ryder for going into business for himself. So, this guy got himself over and was the hottest thing going this time last year. Now, look at where he is. Just sad.
So, what about the future? I do think things will pick up soon as Rock will be back for the Rumble and likely will be facing Punk for the WWE title. That will be good but I can see that as the only thing worthwhile in watching. Again, that is going to the past with Rock. Punk is ready for this challenge and the two will have some amazing back and forth segments. I just hope they let Punk stand toe to toe with him and not let him be the cowardly heel again. If they let Punk go, he will make magic on TV. That is the only optimism that I have at this point of anything good in the near future.
It should be pointed out that I don’t know what the answer is. I really don’t. I just keep hoping that they will get things turned around into the right direction. I have never been as bored of wrestling as I am right now. That roundtable show was definitely a memory of just how fun things used to be every week. The clips seemed like they were from a land far far away. Was it all good from the early 90’s into the early 2000’s? Of course not. It was fun though. Most of it was good. The excitement level was there. You couldn’t wait to tune in on Monday nights to see what was going to happen. I just want to be entertained on Monday nights. I have never been this less interested in wrestling in my life as I am now. I want to care about what I am watching. I just hope that I care again soon. Like I said, please entertain me.
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