Jump to content

For those of you that have stopped watching RAW,


Stealingsilver

Recommended Posts

I can just about get through a 2 hour Impact each week in between everything else I do, there's no way I could watch Raw and Smackdown on a regular basis.

 

There's just way too much wrestling content these days for a normal person to keep up.

 

 

I don't know how some of the lad's on here can watch RAW, Smackdown!, iMPACT, NXT etc every week as well as post on here, listen to Podcasts, read books etc... I think it's nigh on impossible if you are in a relationship with a non wrestling fan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 96
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I think once you get out of the habit of watching several hours of wrestling a week, it seems incredibly hard to find any incentive to start doing it again. I still catch Impact most weeks because it's on free TV, easy to dip in and out of, and on at a time (tuesday or sunday nights) when there's not that much else on telly and I've got fuck all else to do, but even then the remote is always close at hand when somebody/something that doesn't grab my attention comes on (at the moment, those fucking British Bootcamp adverts get zapped quicker than a Go Compare advert).

 

The time concerns that people have brought up would be a major one for me. In order to make me go out of my way to watch wrestling (as opposed to just flicking over if there's nowt else on), it would have to get that 'must-see' feel back, and that means a lot more content in a much smaller timeframe. Most times when I've consistently enjoyed wresting programming, it's had that explosive, slightly chaotic 'anything can happen' tone about it. In real terms, something like sacking off Smackdown and making the whole roster compete (in kayfabe terms and otherwise) for a spot on RAW might be an advantage. Use your 5 minutes wisely and make it memorable, or you might not get on TV next week - that sort of thing.

 

Being honest as well, I've been out of the WWE habit for so long now that I really don't a fuck about most of the current wrestlers, so it'd probably take an extended Rock/Austin comeback or something to get me started again regularly - of the current lot, about the only plot development they could do that would make me tune in with a real intrigue as to what happens next is the Cena heel turn. None of these things are probably great ideas business/sponsorship-wise, but those are the only things I could think of that would make me want to watch regularly again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still catch Impact most weeks because it's on free TV

There hasn't been anything I could say that about in years. Anything I get into now, I've checked out because of a recommendation, never by channel flicking. I don't even switch the television on here except to play the PlayStation or if my girlfriend's here. I watch everything on my Mac, which was bought ostensibly for work but is most used as a box of ill-gotten media. "Just because it's on" -- which was responsible for probably the majority of stuff I watched in my teens -- is completely foreign to me now, unless I'm at someone else's house. Everything that I watch, I've had to make the effort to find online. Piracy has turned me into a totally spoilt viewer. I even dirty-torrent Channel 4 shows, because the 4OD website is the worst experience in the world. I've got nobody to blame but myself if I watch something and hate it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
I still catch Impact most weeks because it's on free TV

There hasn't been anything I could say that about in years. Anything I get into now, I've checked out because of a recommendation, never by channel flicking. I don't even switch the television on here except to play the PlayStation or if my girlfriend's here. I watch everything on my Mac, which was bought ostensibly for work but is most used as a box of ill-gotten media. "Just because it's on" -- which was responsible for probably the majority of stuff I watched in my teens -- is completely foreign to me now, unless I'm at someone else's house. Everything that I watch, I've had to make the effort to find online. Piracy has turned me into a totally spoilt viewer. I even dirty-torrent Channel 4 shows, because the 4OD website is the worst experience in the world. I've got nobody to blame but myself if I watch something and hate it.

 

A thousand times this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

As an addendum to my earlier point, I find it utterly bizarre that in amongst Raw's epic length, they've seen fit to eliminate entrances for one or both participants in most matches. Do we really need to squeeze that much time out?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think once you get out of the habit of watching several hours of wrestling a week, it seems incredibly hard to find any incentive to start doing it again. I still catch Impact most weeks because it's on free TV, easy to dip in and out of, and on at a time (tuesday or sunday nights) when there's not that much else on telly and I've got fuck all else to do, but even then the remote is always close at hand when somebody/something that doesn't grab my attention comes on (at the moment, those fucking British Bootcamp adverts get zapped quicker than a Go Compare advert).

 

I can deffinately relate to this. Back in 2006 I would religiously watch anything to do do with wrestling and would happily watch Raw, Smackdown, Heat, Velocity, Afterburn, ECW, Bottomline, Raw-am plus there was a stack load of indys and shoots on TWC around this time that was getting my interest.

 

WWE alone I was watching 10 hours a week and thats not including the PPVs. TWC I would say on average I was watching 5 or so hours a day of it. Used to love the japan and indy stuff like MLW as well as shoots alough why they used to air the same part instead of part 2 ive no idea.

 

Then around mid 2006 I moved out of my parents home to start a family with the missus so had to put wrestling on the back burner alough occasionally checking out the odd show. Come 2009 came and I hadent seen it in years I tried to watch WWE but just couldnt get back into it. I would say its really hard to get back into the swing of watching it on a regular basis as too much has happenned and I generally am just simming through the results on the net on a tuesday or friday to see if anything interesting has happenned. The current roster just doesnt interest me what so ever and well if Bret hart came back of DX then I would scour youtube just to see the segment they appeared on. But even so its not the same as being a regular viewer.

 

The last show I watched in full was the Raw anniversary show as I heard the original DX would be back but once I heard that Punk and Miz had become WWE Champions I just felt like facepalming my forehead in disbelief. While I did enjoy bits of the anniversary show tried to watch the following week and just turned the channel onto something else I found more entertaining.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As an addendum to my earlier point, I find it utterly bizarre that in amongst Raw's epic length, they've seen fit to eliminate entrances for one or both participants in most matches. Do we really need to squeeze that much time out?

I am flabbergasted by that as well. At first it seemed to be teething problems with the new show length, but by now it has to be deliberate. It can only be to placate the people who moaned that too much time was given to entrances and not enough to MATCH TIME~ but it's done the likes of Justin Gabriel no favours. If nobody can even place his entrance music, they're not going to keep watching USA through the break just because he's just done a suicide dive onto Cesaro.

 

The things WWE should always establish with a wrestler: Entrance, gimmick, taunts/poses, finishing moves. If someone doesn't warrant their entrance or finishing move being shown (because they always lose), then they're not worth ten minutes in a competitive match against someone who is important. Jobber entrances should go to jobbers, so the new midcarder you're pushing should beat them with ease.

 

And the times when they skip entrances for both wrestlers and then have them go five or ten minutes is just mental. Music and funny walking is a much better filler of TV time than someone grabbing a rear chinlock.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess for me it has to be the fact that 90% of wrestlers/entertainers/clowns don't actually look like they're wrestlers any more, at least not in the sense that they did when I started watching the WWF in 1992. To quote Nash, most of them look like swimmers with prison tattoos. Guys like Ryback and Big Show are obviously not part of this, but I just wish some of the other guys buffed up a bit and looked more convincing beating each other up. I just find it hard to believe someone like CM Punk could beat a guy like Show or even Trippers, as much as I really like Punk. It was incredible to see years ago - guys like Kofi or Cody Rhodes beating mid-carders who were twice his size with their flimsy kicks and punches. It just takes me out of the show and makes me switch off.

 

The match that really got me into the product this year, for a very short time - was Brock Lesnar vs Cena - two guys who LOOKED the part beating the crap out of each other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got hold of the Survivor Series anthology, and watching that made me realise one of the major current problems with the WWE product. Survivor Series 96, Rocky Maivia debuted. Two years later, The Rock is the face of the company. Compare that to someone like Kofi Kingston, who has stayed at that IC title level for about 4-5 years now. Trish Stratus started as a valet in early 2000, and at Survivor Series 2001, she won the Women's title and became the face of the division. Kelly Kelly had a WWE run equal in length to Trish, and it came and went with minimal impact.

 

I'm not suggesting that Kofi and Kelly are at the same level as Rock and Trish, but the issue is that WWE keep these wrestlers in holding patterns, the proverbial glass ceiling, and I think that could contribute to fans losing interest. People could watch Raw in 08, then again in 2013 and see Kofi doing the exact same stuff. For the record, I think he proved himself capable of more in the Orton feud, but they reeled him back. Maybe the current crop don't have the same level of ability as past all time greats, but it's hard to know when opportunity isn't given to advance. It's well and good to say, "the talent should make their own opportunities", but long gone are the days when HBK stormed into Vince's office. Ziggler has been busting his ass for 5 years (as the Ziggler character only) and is only just now getting the push. If WWE were willing to break patterns and get behind various stars, WWE programming would seem less monotonous and more unpredictable, which, to their credit, they are starting to undo with Ryback and The Shield, but we've had about a decade of the same guys on top, with one or two nudging their way through, so it'll take a while to make it all really fresh again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it goes back to Brock suddenly ditching them in 04 when they suddenly got in the habit of putting a halt to pushes when they got an idea that the person's heart might not be in it, or they're suddenly disrespectful or something. You're completely right about the whole watching a guy in 2008 and seeing them exactly same position 5 years later. You really don't see that kind of progression where a product develops or evolves in tone or faces of the company. They get into a groove too easily of bringing in and relying on big guns for Mania; trudging along with rematches till Summerslam where they have a kinda-big match topping off an ok card; and then trudge along until the Rumble when the Road to Mania kicks in and the fans come back for three months for the spectacle and pomp. Just as young guys get some traction, the carpet gets pulled from them around Survivor Series time. I think this year they've done a great job of pushing new talent but I'm not holding my breath as to whether it will stick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...