The Official UKFF RAW Thread...

[unfitfinlay]

WWE really needs to be more edgy as well and more controversial and stop trying to be so main stream, its like Eric Bischoff said controversy creates cash.

 

It doesn't though, does it? If it did then WCW wouldn't have lost something like $50 million in a single year.

 

If anything I'd say the fact that WWE is still incredibly profitable, despite how bland the product is, is evidence that Bischoff was talking bollocks.

 

 

I'd also put somebody with a wrestling background as head of the writing team like Paul Heyman or as already been mentioned Vince Russo, it certainly wouldn't harm to give it ago if WWE feels comfortable giving the Rock the main event at WrestleMania I'm sure they wouldn't have a problem kicking some snotty 20 year old out of the writing team and replacing them with somebody with actual creative talent.

 

The current Head of Creative is Triple H. Having a wrestling background doesn't mean anything.

 

Both Russo and Heyman have tried to fit into the way Creative department is structured and both failed. Russo didn't even last a day. It's not like WWE is just sticking anybody on the writing team. They've all got some creative talent, otherwise they wouldn't be there. The problem is that they won't allow them to BE creative.

[tiger_rick]

Do they even have enough of a roster to do that?

They could if they were more creative. Give mid-card feuds more focus with interviews, angles and big time matches and lessen the reliance on the real stars wrestling every week. Let them be present through promos and skits. 

 

sorry to be all generic PG LOLZ etc, but maybe they do have good writers but with PG maybe they simply cannot do their best ideas to the full capacity?

They're not good writers then.

[air_raid]

sorry to be all generic PG LOLZ etc, but maybe they do have good writers but with PG maybe they simply cannot do their best ideas to the full capacity?

 

It's not the PG environment that restricts the ability to make stars. Even the "TV every week, over-exposure" argument doesn't have that much impact considering WCW were throwing away their best matches every week on Nitro but still did great business from 96-97. It's about capturing the imagination of your core audience and doing something they like - the WWF did it in the Hulkamania glory days, WCW did it during the nWo peak years. Both were in under PG restrictions.

[Jackpot]

Is this current problem down to the reliance on Cena over the last decade or just bad luck? 

 

If they were able to keep Edge, Daniel Bryan, Batista, Punk, Jeff Hardy and Angle around for the past 5 years, then the transition into the "next era" would be a lot easier. As it is, they've all left (or as good as gone) for varying reasons. Health issues, wanting to go onto other ventures or just throwing a paddy. So the only standouts they've had is Cena and Orton. They then get cold feet whenever pulling the trigger on a real new star to go over Cena, while they've watered Orton down so far that beating him doesn't hold the same sort weight as it did. It's basically the same as beating Kane, Big Show, Mark Henry nowadays. 

 

There's no stars to get the rub off anymore because the stars they had have all, more or less, gone. 

[Benno]

Road Dogg is having an absolutely terrible time on Twitter right now trying to defend the company. He's wrong on a lot of things but have to respect him at least trying.

[air_raid]

Is this current problem down to the reliance on Cena over the last decade or just bad luck? 

 

Both. They've not used him correctly. They'll allow a heel to beat Cena once because they're smart enough to realize that he's such a big star that losing a match doesn't hurt him, but not smart enough to realize he's such a big star that dropping the big title or losing a feud-ending match to a new-ish guy doesn't hurt him.

[WWFChilli]

Road Dogg is having an absolutely terrible time on Twitter right now trying to defend the company. He's wrong on a lot of things but have to respect him at least trying.

I love B-Jizzle but fucking hell, state of him on Twitter, needs to wash the stains off his face.

[unfitfinlay]

sorry to be all generic PG LOLZ etc, but maybe they do have good writers but with PG maybe they simply cannot do their best ideas to the full capacity?

 

If this is the case, maybe hire a writer with a good, proven background in pg shows

 

Nah, PG isn't the issue. The problem is that the way Creative is run. They are trying to be "proper" TV show with a big team of writers, ignoring the fact that most TV shows don't have an eccentric 70 year old billionaire in the meetings with the writers. How are you supposed to brainstorm ideas when you've seen co-workers be ridiculed and even fired after making bad suggestions? Would you have the balls to say (for example) "Well Vince, Roman isn't getting over because the promos you wrote for him were shit"? Or would you just tell Vince what he wants to hear, laugh at his jokes and be content with keeping your job?

 

That isn't even getting into all the stories that have started, looked promising and then suddenly been stopped without a proper explanation. That's annoying for me, a fan, so I can only imagine what it must be like for the people who were writing it.

[Undefeated Steak]

The last few posts have made me realise something from SS - Del Rio, who was good enough to beat John Cena clean, isn't good enough to beat Roman Reigns. Kevin Owens isn't good enough to beat Dean Ambrose, who himself wasn't good enough to beat Roman Reigns. And Roman Reigns, who beat everybody, and is supposed to be the company's next hero, spent his first sub-5 minute World title reign crying before he got pinned by somebody who was in a losing mid-card match earlier in the evening. And the first episode of Raw under the new champion was the lowest rated show in 20 years.

[Chest Rockwell]

As is often noted on here the real constraint to creative is the fact that they've got a billion hours of TV to fill but have a policy against doing skits / any kind of talking segments. That's why you get bland win trading that gets no one over. PG isn't to blame. The cry of the internet should be International Audience sux.

[Onion123]

Am I the only one who thought on Raw they were starting to push new guys as legit stars, Neville being the main one, also guys you aint seen in a while getting in the mix again like Swagger and Henry, maybe they are just making the most of what they have, if they had any sense they would push Harper, Neville and Owens as main eventers from now on.

[boytoy]

To cut the creative team some slack it must be difficult to work with a group where only one or two are capable of cutting a decent promo. I would suggest that the biggest problem isn’t the long matches but that the roster is just not very good at making you want to see those matches.

 

Guys on the roster capable of talking up a match are Cena and Heyman than after that there is zip. Triple H is a terrible promo, Wyatt doesn’t get to the point, Ryback shoehorns catchphrases into places they don’t belong, they don’t dare give Neville a mic, Ambrose has presence but that’s about it and Reigns and Rollins are the two worst culprits for exposition. You could maybe make a case for Xavier Woods and Kevin Owens at a push but the latter did his best work so far in his feuds with Cena and Zayn.

 

The worst thing is that NXT is making this problem worse by selling itself on its ability to perpetually present fresh match ups which means that people like Finn Balor (who could be big money on the main roster from merch along) are just stagnating in this area and are not required to improve. I think Sami Zayn does a great job but short of that I am not sure if there is anyone else in NXT who you can really point to as being a potential game changer in this department.

[Snitsky's back acne]

They're at a point now though where things are so far gone, I don't even know how they could sort things out.

 

Not having fucking Sheamus as your World Champion is an obvious idea but obviously their problems run much deeper than that.

Is the issue that they will no doubt be seeing all this 'Get the belt off Sheamus' as GOOD heat - 'Wow, the fans REALLY want Sheamus to lose! Roman'll be a huge star when he beats him!' instead of 'No, really, this is utter gash. Fuck off'. heat.

[King Pitcos]

 

 

Is this current problem down to the reliance on Cena over the last decade or just bad luck?

Both. They've not used him correctly. They'll allow a heel to beat Cena once because they're smart enough to realize that he's such a big star that losing a match doesn't hurt him, but not smart enough to realize he's such a big star that dropping the big title or losing a feud-ending match to a new-ish guy doesn't hurt him.

If that were true, Cena wouldn't have been squashed at last year's SummerSlam. There's no sense in people beating John Cena just for Internet-creamings, it should only ever be done to drive something else. And for a heel, that means beating Cena to move up to the babyface above him (doesn't exist) or to become the baddie who makes the next big babyface (which they lost their bottle on). It's either that or just beating him to set up a rematch for him to win. The villain wins to make the hero's win bigger. Their problem is they've either happened upon possible replacements (Ryback) or engineered them (Reigns) but not gone all-out to make it happen. The whole thing is basically just status quo holding patterns and trying to disguise them by occasionally throwing in some Internet fan service booking for the #2 face slot at the time. But the status quo lineup has diminished significantly over the last five years or so.

[Big Benny HG]

Vince Russo?!

 

His only ever idea is to have some kind of heel 'authority' figure, surrounded by a stable of heel wrestlers, and have a shock/swerve title change where they win control of the championship.

 

Ah.