Hi Joe, I used to actively post in the forums on your website here (would’ve been around 2005-2006 I think). I had the screen name “Big Dogg” I think. I can’t seem to find that the forums still exist… Anyways I wrote a LONG dissertation (sp?) on my thoughts on the state of wrestling (basically: WWE still the same boring, unwatchable stuff for longtime wrestling fans, TNA more interesting and definitely worth watching) and would like to post it somewhere, if you have a place for that on your website. Thank you very much and I hope all has been well for you the past few years.

Here it is:

From “BigDogg” AKA Jon

Subject: “WWE: Same S*#t Different Year”

My thoughts on the state of wrestling with the two major brands: WWE and TNA. Another “Subject” for this post would be: what the hell happened to the edgy and always entertaining WWE I knew and loved?

Intro:

I have not written on here in years now. I used to frequently write on here back around the time “Fake Kane” (he came back from his long absence seeming MUCH shorter and smaller) when he “unmasked” which ruined the character completely. I’m watching the Saturday repeat of RAW. I liked the HHH stuff with Randy Orton stuck outside the steel cage (which I will never consider being a “true” steel cage when compared to the old style that was like two times higher). It’s sad it’s come to that: the HHH part was my favorite.

I first really began watching wrestling on what could be considered a “regular basis” as a kid around 1992 – when I would’ve been 11 years old. I have fond memories of the days of early Raw – Undertaker, Brett Hart & the Hart Foundation, the British Bulldog, Sunny, The Smoking Guns, Psycho Sid, Diesel and HBK, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Razor Ramon, the 123 Kid (yes “The Clique”), amongst countless others. All legendary in their own rights. All truly entertaining characters. They went out there, everything was great and always entertaining.

WWE:

In all fairness I may sound grossly ignorant here, because I frankly stopped watching WWE on a regular basis about two years ago. I watch an episode of Raw every month or so, but to my dismay IT’S ALWAYS STILL THE SAME THING!!! EVERY TIME I ever turn on Raw, I’m hoping and even assuming things will be different, that some new guy is the champion, and there are some noticeable changes. From the last time I turned it on. Nope. Same stuff, different month. I am not nor ever have been a fan of John Cena’s character. He has always felt two-dimensional. He still feels like a white-rapper-wannabe cheap knock-off attempt of Stone Cold’s attitude character. First he’s a crapper rapper guy, then he’s a cool rapper guy, then he’s wannabe military dressed in camo garb to hock his movie The Marine, then now he’s always the fan favorite wearing the local sports team’s jersey or hat. Cena needs and needed to turn truly heel a long time ago. He’s as stale as bread from five years ago. And Randy Orton needs to turn face here soon the way The Rock switched sides every so often. Finally, Edge needs to turn face. It keeps a wrestler from becoming “type cast” and thus boring. But boring, for mature adults who also happen to love watching wrestling, is what WWE is good at now. It really began in the later days of Trish Stratus and Stone Cold. I remember, still to my horror yet happiness, when Stone Cold introduced the “BOOOOOORRRRRING” chant with some lame wrestler, and the fans began to do it for seemingly EVERY match. This was apropos for the brand of WWE.

I think the simple problem I have is it literally is “same s*%t, different year.” McMahon & Co. find a gimmick/storyline, and beat it to death. Then even though it is dead they prop it up so it can continue to be thrown out there. Same feuds, same people, same weak-ass storylines. The Edge-being-married-to-Vicky-Guerrero thing is AWFUL. Thank God I haven’t watched a full show of Smackdown in years. I said it back shortly after the initial brand break (different guys on Raw & Smackdown, then ECW) and I’ll say it again: with PERHAPS the exception of ECW, they should combine the rosters of Smackdown and Raw again. Then they wouldn’t have to worry about weakness more on one show then the other. Then people wouldn’t have to wait a week (& thus get bored if the storyline is clearly not panning out) between seeing their brand wrestle. OR they could get back to what Smackdown basically became for awhile, which I hated at first but now see the wisdom, and make it basically training grounds/advertising for newer talented guys. DiBiase & Rhodes? Talented guys. Unfortunately they were squashed before they could make a hell of a lot of dents so then Randy Orton was brought in to save the day. I like the idea of having a stable of younger guys to finally end some of these old fart’s careers.

That’s another thing: McMahon apparently thinks longtime fans have short memories. There have been AWFUL continuity problems I have noticed in the past half-decade or so, but simple things like the old WWF commercials making fun of WCW for employing and going with a bunch of old, old, OLD wrestlers. WWE SEEMS to have quit doing this as much, but for awhile there I couldn’t believe how ridiculously hypocritical it was to be having them on the show.

And in recent times when I’ve tried to watch WWE it feels like a circus geared towards families… and to be blunt, they’d have to be families of stupid people. It seems as though that’s what McMahon is trying to do (and perhaps succeeded, to my dismay) – sell out (in the bad way) the integrity of Professional Wrestling, which let’s face it: it is supposed to be geared towards “guys”!!! He is going for “Gumpish”-type jokes, has a giant, fat old women, a midget, and people making “WHYIOUTTA…”-type jokes… all that’s missing is a bearded lady. Remember how they KILLED wrestlers such as Matt Morgan with his stutter, Gold Dust with HIS stutter, and Raven by basically having him fight in his embarrassingly-almost-naked attire? (And again, though this doesn’t have much to do with my “circus point”, they killed slowly Kane by having him unmask and eventually get rid of his shirt and full gloves). I no longer refer to WWE as such. I refer to it with my friends as “The McMahon Circus.” There have been countless moments, countless wrestlers who have really turned me off of the WWE brand after having been so die-hard for a good decade or so. Really it’s the smaller moments though that have done it. One such one I remember lately was when HBK and HHH were talking on a video segment (which there are a TON of video segments and talking, which I’m always thinking: “blah blah blah, how about some WRESTLING!!!). HBK and HHH start reminiscing until HHH says something about HBK’s receding hairline and HBK actually (I believe his exact words were) “Why you little…” and he proceeds to comically throttle HHH. I’m thinking on the one hand “ha ha” because I know the fans are SUPPOSED to laugh, as if there’s a big “APPLAUSE/LAUGH” sign blinking for the audience, but on the other hand I’m thinking “this is elementary school humor”…

I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but before the “Attitude Era” of the late 90’s which redefined wrestling, they still weren’t pussies. Yes, I do remember the footage of Andre the Giant throttling the tv host (blanking on his name), but just the way “DX” seemed to be catering towards either idiots or children; it was sad and didn’t feel right with their characters. Even with Doink the Clown back in the early days of Raw his intro music was ominous and he seemed more like the creepy clown from “It” then a fat ass jokester. I guess this is the point: back in the day all of the players were well defined, because whether they were part of a stable or just impressive by themselves, they all had their chance at glory and attained it (as far as belts). They were who they were. JBL I don’t think anyone will give a damn about in 30 years, but I guarantee they will still remember the “Million Dollar Man”. So as I’m writing I’m changing my original conclusion (WWE sucks now, TNA is way better) to WWE just needs to STOP GIVING THE TITLE MATCHES/BELT TO THE SAME DAMN PEOPLE EVERY YEAR!!! I guess that is a good enough bottom line for me. I get Hulk Hogan might be getting the same reaction from me if he were in wrestling today, but the point is not that – the point is back in the heyday of Hulk Hogan I think he would have seemed so cool since wrestling was not a respected industry at all that I would’ve just been pumped to shout him out. Now though, is a different era. I see all these talented young guys in WWE who still are bitched-down to jackasses like John Cena. And yes TNA has done this a lot lately as well. With Mick Foley as “Executive Shareholder” as WWE has tiredly done the same sort of thing for years. I like to think though as TNA being a true passing the torch-kind of show right now, and basically it is more of REUNION then anything, since Jeff Jarrett is likely buddies with all of them. I’m hoping it’s a “let’s go for one more run” type of thing. Now in a year if they’re doing the SAME stuff with the same older guys then I will sound like an idiot because they are clearly doing the same crap now that WWE does and TNA did NOT do (they pushed younger talent which defined them as a true great alternative to WWE). My assumption though is one only need LOOK at some of these guys: Sting, Kevin Nash (my personal all time favorite wrestler), Big Poppa Pump, and a few others to know they are at the end of their careers. My hope is that after the Main Event Mafia storyline is finished so will a few of them be in graceful retirement speeches. Like I said, we’ll see, I may be wrong, and if I am then I assume TNA may be nearing bankruptcy in a year.

TNA:

With TNA I will admit that with the “Main Event Mafia”/”TNA Frontline” it is essentially the same formula as NWO/WCW. In fact it is perhaps a sure sign TNA is struggling. But I STILL LOVE IT!!! TNA still feels like ECW used to in that it feels like an indie brand. It feels like there’s a lot more ability for the wrestlers to be who they want to be. I have read as of late a few of them (with talent) are being canned, and I don’t know what goes on as far as the “higher-ups” being hardcore about controlling things. But what I like about TNA and have always liked MUCH MORE then WWE the past five or so years is: in TNA THEY WRESTLE!!! It feels like a WRESTLING show. The backstage B.S. is kept to a minimum and no matter what, when you watch TNA you know you’ll see plenty of wrestling. Rarely do you see guys coming out to the ring to make stupid “pump the fans up” speeches. That’s half of any Raw show. But like I basically said before, if TNA is going to cut anyone because of budget reasons it should be the older guys who aren’t MAJOR draws like Scott Steiner (who I don’t believe can function as a wrestler anymore without being part of a stable). However, it still generally does feel innovative enough to keep me intrigued. The main thing is TNA needs to NOT become their own worst enemy and repeat same old crap from previous brands and storylines. I know with Professional Wrestling it can only go so far, and thus always will be limited in the options for storylines, so there will always be many similar storylines, but the dangers I think for TNA is to figure out a good transition for the brand once the Main Event Mafia is finished (that is one thing I DO like about TNA – they seem to get rid of stale storylines relatively quickly & efficiently) and go back to pushing guys like Samoan Joe and others who I am blanking on. To me it’s like why I liked TNA more then WWE when I first started watching it is it didn’t have many major stars, and when they were there they weren’t for too long. Imagine RAW with literally ALL of the guys who have been at the top for frankly too long no matter how much we like them (Cena, HHH, HBK, Batista, JBL, etc. etc. etc.) all gone – and the younger guys allowed to go off script and actually not have to play the part of “The Dumb Ass” or “The Angry Guy” or “The Silly Goofball”.

Maybe, again as I’m writing I’m realizing things, this is the core problem of WWE – they squash people who are talented into the niches. I for one would never like a “dumb ass”. And guess what: when they try to reinvent the character/wrestler when they realize that it’s time for him to stop playing the part of a dumb ass, I’M NOT GOING TO MAGICALLY FORGET that the guy was a dumb ass!!! I hope that makes sense. That’s what I was referring to when I said WWE has major continuity problems. They’ll have someone playing some terrible gimmick and then they’ll bring the guy out again later & he’s completely different. For no reason given.

Stables Make Good Entertainment:

This may indeed be a personal flavor, but I have always been a fan of “stables.” They create the perfect formula for drama. Dominance, betrayal, abuse of power. WWE has killed their stables. When they did the unthinkable-but-always-dreamed-of-and-rumored and brought back DeGeneration-X (DX) they did so in typical NEW WWE way: they brought back TWO PEOPLE. A stable is not, nor should ever BE TWO PEOPLE. Even FOUR people is a stretch (DeEvolution). TWO people though is NOT a stable: it is a TAG TEAM. I was very happy around this time and kept watching, week after week thinking “DX” (Shawn Michaels & HHH) were going to do the always typical but always AWESOME process of initiating more wrestlers into their stable. Oh they had supporters, and various people you THOUGHT would join, but alas in the end it was still just two older wrestlers. Imagine if they had “passed the torch” at that point as they have appeared to do countless times but always have to stay because a lot of the younger talent are so squashed so often these days. They could’ve had Randy Orton take the reins of the stable. Or SOMETHING. Now (again since I have not watched much of WWE lately I may be ignorant on this) it does not appear there is ANY real stable. And besides DeEvolution, the last one I remember was when McMahon had with him Big Show, Matt Morgan, Brock Lesner, and I think there was some other HUGE guy in it. It was cool on the one hand, but on the other it reminded me of the stupid/ridiculous/intelligence-insulting Big Show vs Rey Mysterio matches, where there was no way people could beat them, and if it happened it was unbelievable (NOT the good kind of unbelievable). Of course if there were a stable these days, since a good deal of the wrestlers now in WWE are forced to play stupid goofball-types (again catering to kids, I guess) it’d probably be something stupid like Doink, Dink, Hoffenagle or whatever the hell the damn irish midget’s name is, Vicky Guerrero, a cat named Bert, Shane McMahon, and John Cena. And they’d be fan favorites.

Does anyone remember the Iron Man matches with Shawn Michaels and Brett Hart? Long, long, long, but yet entertaining the whole time. Epic. I remember back when I regularly posted here saying how WWE needed to bring back gimmick-type matches and gimmick-type wrestlers. They did and they went completely bat-s**t nuts with it. Way overboard. Now I’m saying the opposite. I think WWE should:

–Recombine the brands into one again;
–STOP having the same people in the same championship matches at the same pay per views (Cena, HHH, HBK, JBL) – IT’S SO GOD AWFULLY OLD now – there have been like the SAME matches/feuds for the past five years at least;
–TRY bringing back an actual legitimate stable or two and seeing what happens;
–STOP with the goofy S**T (wrestlers being stupid, clumsy, bitchy; having Jim Dugan EVER appear again), gimmicks are to be used in moderation;
–STOP with so much talking (in the ring especially – wrestling rings are for WRESTLING, they aren’t stages for speeches) that has dominated WWE the past decade;
–STOP killing off younger, less known, unproven wrestlers immediately because you want to continue pushing the top guys – we KNOW they’re the top guys! You don’t have to shove the point down our throats by embarrassing younger talent;
–Actually have an occasional match WITHOUT interference;
–Remember and respect the core fans – they’re generally guys I’d guess from teens to probably 40’s. Don’t have stupid Disney-type jokes!!! The problems with movies for awhile was the started making too many PG-13 movies. These were movies that should clearly have been either PG or G (for Kids) or R (for adults). The reasoning for why so many PG-13 movies were made is because they appealed to the broadest audience. That’s great, but they sold out their integrity. What could’ve been good horror movies, good action movies became mediocre bland crap because the studios wanted more people to attend. I mean Die Hard 4 being originally released as a PG-13 movie?!?! I see it as being the same sort of thing with WWE – they’re trying too hard to appeal to a wider audience at the sacrifice of their product.

With TNA:

I really do prefer it now since it’s a simple wrestling show with wrestling all the time in it. Like I said, I only hope they do not shoot themselves in the foot by having the ex-WWE guys and the older guys squashing the original, still-young, still extremely talented, and still deep as characters, talent of TNA. I hope we’ll see Sting and a couple of the other older guys (I will be very sad to see him go, but definitely Kevin Nash as well) retire soon. Let TNA be TNA. Not a repository for WWE guys who quit or got fired. And dear god DON’T EVER change the Beautiful People’s ring entrance!!!

That’s my epic rant on what I see with the current state of Professional Wrestling (the two main companies). I just think WWE needs to stop having the same people all the time in the same matches. That’s really what it comes down to for me. It became very boring years ago, and it still is the same. TNA still offers more variety and more wrestling, but they need to close this chapter on having the older guys and ex-WWE guys dominate the time on the show.

Thanks,
Jon

I agree 100%. I used to write a Raw report on here when I was in college (2002-2004ish). I haven’t had this little interest in wrestling in my life. I find it disheartening that we get 1 or 2 matches that are worthwhile on tv and they expect that to fuel a storyline. I’ve ranted for quite a while that you need to put more matches on tv to sell more pay-per-views. It’s not a talk show. It’s a wrestling show. I don’t have a lot of time to expound, but needless to say I agree. Nice post!

HAHAHAHAHA. Wow it’s been a really, REALLY long time since I wrote that. Junior in college back then. Brings back good memories though. Thanks for throwing that up there.

It’s funny how things change, but they always stay the same. WWE tries to create competition within itself with the multiple brand identities, but without an outside company forcing the hand and pushing innovation, there is little room for improvement.

I also think that part of the problem is who they’re pushing to the top. It’s back to the 80′s style of wrestling with everything character based. It’s great if you have charisma because you’re going to go far, but it doesn’t enhance the athletic aspect. That’s why you see sub-5 minute matches on tv and over an hour of a two hour show devoted to interviews, vignettes, and corny drama.

Looking back, the one thing you have to give WCW credit for up til pretty much the end was they didn’t waste a whole lot of time with junk promos or skits. They had a BUNCH of wrestling matches on each episode and they furthered feuds around matches, not talking someone to death for 4 weeks (or more in the case of Wrestlemania this year) and expecting someone to shell out 50+ dollars for a couple hours’ entertainment.

Now I honestly haven’t watched a full episode of any show in years. I still go every once in a while to live events, but it’s more for the atmosphere and to be part of a show. Even Mania, the biggest show of the year I really could care less about. Why is Michaels fighting Taker? REALLY? What’s the big deal? I know they’re great workers and I don’t think it’d be a bad match, but I don’t understand the psychology. Orton vs. HHH I get, but I’d like to see HHH start to go by the wayside. He’s a good worker, but being Vince’s son-in-law can’t hurt the chances of staying in the main event. Isn’t Jericho vs the Legends basically Orton’s Legend Killer redone?

To be honest with you the last show of any kind that I was really excited about was the first One Night Stand. RVD’s interview in the middle was great and he said it best when he said they didn’t even need a storyline to put on a good show. They just went in and wrestled. I guess you can probably figure out what I thought of the invaders and crusaders being there……..Crappy wrestlers being forced down our throat, when they shouldn’t have even been in the building. I know it was a story, but it was so thrown together and shabby and there was so little interest (yes there was heat, but that was more because they weren’t ECW than actual heat on the Bisch and JBL crews) you knew what was going to happen when they went down to the ring and were beaten up by the valiant ECW wrestlers capturing one more moment of glory. Now fade out with dramatic music in the background…..(slight sarcasm )

It’d be great to see TNA really start to push the envelope of Vince and the WWE. That may help to bring to the fore some of the changes that have been lacking for so long.

The thing that really sucks is I still the news and staying up on the happenings, I just can’t get excited about the product that’s being run out on TV.

Guess I still like to babble. Seeing the old post got the juices going. Thanks!!!!!

Hey Luce,

I think guys in our age range are typically of the same mindset in that we like to keep up with the news, but we rarely care enough about the product to go out of our way to watch it. Case in point – last night – the final RAW before WrestleMania XXV. I knew it was on, but I preferred to watch 24 and the news before I went to bed. Wrestling just isn’t “must see TV” any more. And while I DVR TNA, most of their stuff is forgettable at this point.

Much of my disgust with WWE comes from Triple H being consistently in the main event picture, whether he’s the champion or not. Related to that is how he’s getting a ridiculous number of title reigns (what is he up to now? 13?). It took Ric Flair – who is a better entertainer than that hack Triple H could ever dream to be – decades to get all of his championships! Meanwhile, Triple H sleeps his way into Vince’s family and good favor, Vince builds a monopoly so no other world titles really matter, and Vince’s daughter keeps giving her husband the title.

It’s disgusting and really not worth watching at all.