Will there ever be another icon like the Rock, Stone Cold etc.

[Dirty Eddie]

To be fair, The Miz had the advantage over virtually every one of his peers (considering wrestling background/experience means very little to WWE) as he had spent a lot of time in the public eye on TV shows, getting to do nothing but get his personality over and lean how to work for the camera.

 

He was far more TV trained than your average developmental talent. Plus, the dude is just very charismatic, he is a standout who has gotten a lot of success in spite of the bland WWE writing. The problem is, the idea is for the writing to HELP the talent, not be an obstacle for them to overcome.

 

It's a vicious circle; you can't 'break out of the mold' too much because you'll be seen as someone who won't do what they are told by the office, yet if you stick to the script you get called dull by the fans. It's no wonder people get pissed off and want to leave. Where is the incentive?

[tiger_rick]

To an extent I agree, but wrestlers need to do something for themselves to get noticed. I doubt Vince McMahon had a grand plan for The Miz to be WWE champion at WrestleMania 27, but Miz has improved and improved the entire time and made himself stand out. A lot of the roster now don't seem to show any initiative at all. They just turn up to work, go through the bland routine as written and hope that they get the random call-up rather than the random P45. Blaming the writers as the sole reason for why nobody gives a fuck about a certain wrestler is like blaming steroids as the sole reason why that robot fella killed his wife and son. Not everybody on steroids has a kill frenzy. Not every midcarder in writer-monkey WWE stays boring.

Funny how the Miz's career has followed almost the exact path that Kenny pointed out earlier. He got lucky that they didn't just can him after his first awful run but then they put him into a tag team, let him learn his craft and then let him slowly move up the card without getting over-exposed. They also paid attention to him so he didn't ever end up in the wilderness like the Smackdown mid-card.

 

It has to be a partnership. No-one can get over in a company where everything is scripted without the support of those who who do the scripting. What they have to do is hone their craft and work on expressing themselves in the various ways. That isn't always enough though. The writers have to fancy them to give them decent material.

[The Total Package]

If you read what I wrote a few posts back in this thread, you'll see that what you've just said completely summed up what I was saying; you're not meant to care about the individual performers now in the same way as what you once were.

 

I dont get you, why am I watching it then, what is WWE without its talent? just two hours of an empty ring? 2 bland wrestlers cutting a 10mintue promo I have no interest in? to answer my own question at the mintue the only reason Im still vaguely watching is because wrestling is something ive been watching for 20plus years, its kind of hard to let go, but WWE are doing their very best to make me turn away at the moment, very sad indeed because I never envisioned that I would ever quit watching wrestling, its like me not watching football anymore, that just wouldnt happen.

 

I have hung around the last couple of years hoping it would get better, but all WWE seem to do is pull out the nostalgia act every now and again, my views are mine, I'm sure theirs other people loving it right now, like you, but I dont feel the same way.

 

If im going to continue watching and only caring about old legends, then I might as well just watch old WWF/WCW events, where these guys were in their primes.

 

I dunno something big needs to happen in wrestling, its a crazy idea, but I think someone like Ted Turner, not him but someone just as rich, needs to go after Vince, I dunno someone buys TNA and pumps a shitload of money into it, however keep shit under control and dont let it end up like WCW.

 

Something like that could be the catalyst for another big boom and big stars.

 

At the mintue Vince has no threat and can just do what he wants, I guess you could say UFC is a threat kind of, but alot of wrestlings fans dont like MMA, so I wouldnt say it is exactly.

 

Ian already said it somewhere else, but the over exposure does not help either, I cant imagine Hogans 80s run lasting as long if he was on RAW every monday, then sometimes on SD! and then a PPV everymonth, doing the good old leg drop, all before he faces Andre at WM3.

 

Whatever the case in the next few years something will have to give.

[Kenny McBride]

The WCW Nitro explosion was only possible because 1. WCW already had a decent sized core TV audience, 2. there were BIG name talents still available to play with, and 3. there were plenty of talented wrestlers all over the world just beneath that level who were itching for their day in the sun. As things stand, the talent pool of "great guys no-one's seen before" is almost nil (certainly ones with the experience and skills to perform at the highest level) and the pool of "big names who can still make an impact at the top level and aren't busy with Hollywood or having chronic neck pain until they die" is nil.

 

The only way things are going to change in the long term is if someone (or realistically, at least about five or six people) makes a start on radically rebuilding the industry from the very ground up.

[The Total Package]

I certainly agree with all that you said, however my focus would be going forward, not backwards or stale like WWE.

 

I think what really hurts TNA is the look of it, compared to WWE, if I gave lets say The Pope a massive Pyro, loads of fireworks, a masssive screen behind him and plus showing up in lamborghini's, and then fake money falling out the sky, without evening opening his mouth you see that this guy is a superstar.

 

I bet more people would give TNA a chance if it looked like WWE and they werent in the imapct zone.

 

Of course the first year would mean massive loss of money and no guarantee it would be successful, but thats business, I actually think TNA's younger talent is better than WWE's, with the right writing, creative ideas and big production they should get over.

 

Rebuilding the Industry is a good idea too, its just too bad WWE own 90-95percent of the Industry, its like if Microsoft put Sony and Nintendo out of business tomorrow, its not good just have one company ruling the whole thing.