*Official* Pro-Wrestling Thread II

[sledger]

yeah exactly. They need to get a replacement....so they get Paige?

They promised a Tough Enough judge, apparently.

 

[sledger]

I don't even think that's necessary. The thing is, they have enough good wrestlers on the roster to actually have a decent 3 hour show. Instead of spreading the time a bit more evenly, they give 25 minute promos to Cena and the Authority, and give the lower card and the divas barely 5 minutes. Hell, divas usually get around 5 minutes on PPVs for ****'s sake. I'm not saying they should have Sandow and Axel and Ryder out there for 15 minutes each but why not spread the jam a little better?

This would definitely help and I'd like to see this, but I still think that 3 hours is just too long for a TV show. I mean, a lot of real sporting events don't even take that long, let alone weekly episodic programmes.

 

[Spikey]

I haven't yet. I don't doubt Paige can justify a hour long podcast with Austin. But it just seemed like a time to get a big, big hitter on the podcast to discuss the big news events, even for half the show. An odd #content choice imo.

Yeah, I quite agree.

It's one of those things where less would definitely be more for mine. RAW being 3 hours long really sucks - people with busy days will in many instances not have the time to sit through it every week, or will have better ways to spend that amount of time. And those who do watch it are subjected to a show which is usually 80% comprised of bull**** segments and promos that just go on forever (and let's face it, if you really were a huge wrestling fan but had a limited amount of time to dedicate to wrestling viewing would you really pick RAW over something like Lucha Underground of even NXT?).

Most of the PPVs are just glorified house shows as well these days, so cutting them down a bit would probably help. Don't get me wrong, there have always been shows that are very obviously of a B grade status (i.e. PPVs were always the top draw back in the day, and the TV shows, especially Smackdown and Heat were obvs the little leagues), but these days there's a very obvious second tier within the PPVs themselves which has kind of emerged over the course of the last 2 years or so. Similarly, Smackdown, which has always obvs been a B show, but for much of its lifetime was way better than RAW, is now basically an irrelevance. The downside of the emergence of the Network, perhaps.

Plus it seems like they're going to start showing more house shows on the Network anyway. So you can get rid of 3 PPVs, show the house shows instead, maybe have it so NXT takeovers happen during those months as well, so there's plenty of Network material to ensure numbers don't drop off. You've then got instances of 7-8 weeks of uninterrupted Raw, which hopefully generates excitement and unpredictability and whatnot.

As for Smackdown, I'm correct in saying that Smackdown because irrelevant as soon as the brand unification happened, right?

 

[Spikey]

This would definitely help and I'd like to see this, but I still think that 3 hours is just too long for a TV show. I mean, a lot of real sporting events don't even take that long, let alone weekly episodic programmes.

Plus with those sporting events, wins actually mean something. There's no tension beyond "I hope my favourite looks good!"

 

[GIMH]

Agree completely on three hours but it's probably worth more $$$ with the extra hour and the lower viewing figures that go with it

 

[sledger]

Agree completely on three hours but it's probably worth more $$$ with the extra hour and the lower viewing figures that go with it

Yeah, I am sure this is true. If it wasn't the case I suspect the third hour would be gone by now.

 

[Spikey]

Have they signed a new TV deal since they went to 3 hours?

 

[Agent TBY]

If only Heyman hadn't been stupid enough to spy on a conference call.

Also, Raw's third hour is too lucrative to go away anytime soon, let's face it. Hoping for a change that's just not going to happen is a waste of time. Better off hoping the E cuts out all the bull**** recaps and rewards viewers who actually watch the whole show.

I hardly ever catch Raw these days for that reason. It's too boring and tedious to go through without FF.

 

[Spikey]

anyway im gonna watch the 92 rumble now

 

[sledger]

Plus it seems like they're going to start showing more house shows on the Network anyway. So you can get rid of 3 PPVs, show the house shows instead, maybe have it so NXT takeovers happen during those months as well, so there's plenty of Network material to ensure numbers don't drop off. You've then got instances of 7-8 weeks of uninterrupted Raw, which hopefully generates excitement and unpredictability and whatnot.

As for Smackdown, I'm correct in saying that Smackdown because irrelevant as soon as the brand unification happened, right?

Yeah, a lot of the PPVs are just glorified house shows anyway these days, so if they really are going to show more actual house shows on the network then it would make sense for them to start rolling back some of the other content. I doubt they will though.

Smackdown has certainly been irrelevant since the end of the brand split, but it's mediocrity goes even further back really. I can't remember when it really became obvious that it was unimportant, but it's been years since I watched it with interest. Probably in the days when Edge, Jericho, Rey, Punk and Jeff Hardy were the main guys on the show.

 

[sledger]

If only Heyman hadn't been stupid enough to spy on a conference call.

Also, Raw's third hour is too lucrative to go away anytime soon, let's face it. Hoping for a change that's just not going to happen is a waste of time. Better off hoping the E cuts out all the bull**** recaps and rewards viewers who actually watch the whole show.

I hardly ever catch Raw these days for that reason. It's too boring and tedious to go through without FF.

To be fair I often found this about RAW when it was 2 hours long haha. I can remember after I had fast forwarded through all of the bull**** and adverts there'd be about 40 minutes of watchable content left.

 

[Agent TBY]

Yeah, but at least with two hours I'd more often than not make it to the end. It's proving nigh impossible with three.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Remember that one Raw a couple of years ago which was written by Heyman and it turned out to be incredibly good? Can't be a coincidence imo. They have the roster to make a 3 hour RAW interesting. All they need is good writing and as I said before, properly spreading time among the talents.

 

[sledger]

Yeha, just to be clear I'm not saying that a 3 hour RAW can't be any good, per se. It's just that on a regular basis it gets wearying, and imo at some point the quality will inevitably suffer even with good writers.

 

[GIMH]

If only Heyman hadn't been stupid enough to spy on a conference call.

Also, Raw's third hour is too lucrative to go away anytime soon, let's face it. Hoping for a change that's just not going to happen is a waste of time. Better off hoping the E cuts out all the bull**** recaps and rewards viewers who actually watch the whole show.

I hardly ever catch Raw these days for that reason. It's too boring and tedious to go through without FF.

plz explain

 

[GIMH]

anyway im gonna watch the 92 rumble now

it's a skirt

 

[sledger]

plz explain

Managed to get in on a conference call he wasn't meant to have access to re: the booking of RAW in 2004. Stephanie blew a gasket and fired him. The straw that broke the camel's back, apparently.

 

[Agent TBY]

Yeah, this was back when he was Smackdown's head writer and had a roster full of talented guys with a chip on their shoulders at being given the B-show treatment. It was by far the better show back then, too, but of course he let his competitiveness get the better of him, got caught, and got fired.

 

[King Pietersen]

- It looks like we may be getting a new WWE tag team in Adam Rose and Brad Maddox. They teamed up as "Beef Mode" at last night's WWE live event in Hidalgo, Texas and lost to the team of Damien Sandow and Curtis Axel.

Maddox and Rose wore matching gear and cut a promo on how they were in better shape than the fans. Rose also referred to he and Maddox as "BFFs" and then they hugged. They were also doing push-ups and jogging around in the ring. One fan in attendance referred to them as WWE's new "ambiguously gay duo" and said they were doing a "genetic heel fitness freak" gimmick.

Below is a photo from one of WWE's official Twitter accounts:

Are the people in #WWEHidalgo ready for @WWEAdamRose and @BradMaddoxIsWWE teaming up as "Beef Mode"? #BeefMode

Eugh.

 

[sledger]

Don't really have a problem with this tbh. Both guys are going nowhere as it is, so a change of gimmick can't hurt.