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WWE and AEW weekly ratings discussion
- Thread starter TheAvatar
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- Entertainment OT
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So you don't like wrestling because it's scripted or because it's WWE?
I like wrestling, been watching since the attitude era. But the product has been horrendously bad the last decade or so.
But I think the storytelling in wrestling in general is still bad overall. When I hear defenders of pro wrestling say that it's unique in the sense of its storytelling theater aspect, i think that's a load of bullshit - because boxing and MMA are both far more theatrical and real than pro wrestling. Professional fighting is a metaphor to life, seeing pro fighters who come from different walks of life/circumstances make it on the big stage makes for far more compelling entertainment than wrestling - add the icing on the cake that the intentions are real, and how a pro fighter deals with that adversity and challenge is part of the drama that makes it more compelling than wrestling.
Legit sports and real fighting is great and that kind of legit drama can't be matched when it's on point.
But I also fucking love sports movies and that's what wrestling can be and is to me. A monthly live on going sports movie.
But I also fucking love sports movies and that's what wrestling can be and is to me. A monthly live on going sports movie.
Problem with WWE is the lack of creativity and poorly told stories and matches that generally all follow the same predictable formula and story with little variation that doesn't actually matter with a commentary team more interested in advertising something else and pushing the brand instead of actively working to enhance whatever story is supposed to be told in the ring while taking ques from the senile old man in the back. NXT is generally much better.
Pro-wrestling and MMA share their roots in the old, true carny days of catch wrestlers going around stretching unsuspecting "tough guys" at carnivals in rigged contests. Just one end saw a better business opportunity in make a show of it and evolved one way while the other side eventually went the other way.
Pro-wrestling and MMA share their roots in the old, true carny days of catch wrestlers going around stretching unsuspecting "tough guys" at carnivals in rigged contests. Just one end saw a better business opportunity in make a show of it and evolved one way while the other side eventually went the other way.
Not taking anything away from boxing or MMA, but the real-life people behind the characters also come from different walks of life and circumstances, deal with adversity and make it on the big stage. Recent example: Roman Reigns having to take a break because of a life-long battle with leukemia previously unknown to the public with Seth Rollins in actual tears followed up months later with his return to the adoration of the crowd.
I like most of the roster still but they can put together literally any pairing and I don't find it interesting. I honestly don't know where they go from here without a significant overhaul of presentation or ... something. "Better" or "more" wrestling isn't gonna do it.
Never got the Becky obsession and I'm one of the few that wasn't really on board with it....it was really bizarre and creepy to see how far some people were taking it.
Also: Isn't her calling herself "The Man" kind of... counterproductive to the women's revolution? She can literally have any nickname or moniker, and that's what she goes with?
Yeahhhh I never got it...I thought it was weird and really against the grain for the first WM Women's Main Event to be won by "The Man"....
Fuck outta here. Not to say the medium is perfect and that the WWE gets things right even 10% of the time, ROH's dire output this weekend can further attest to that perfectly.
But watching Kofi/Okada/Ibushi/Becky win live this weekend, and being invested/aware of their respective characters/personal arcs was as legit fucking good as any storytelling you'll find anywhere, period. Wrestling at its best is fucking fantastic and diminishing it so readily because its scripted or whatever is fucking idiotic. It's performative art.
But watching Kofi/Okada/Ibushi/Becky win live this weekend, and being invested/aware of their respective characters/personal arcs was as legit fucking good as any storytelling you'll find anywhere, period. Wrestling at its best is fucking fantastic and diminishing it so readily because its scripted or whatever is fucking idiotic. It's performative art.
Like, I get the Instagram post--she chose the name for the lulz and to upset the MRA. Which is great, I'm down with pissing those clowns off. But it still just doesn't seem flattering to the women's division.
It's live content and it's for their Friday night lineup (which historically isn't a ratings juggernaut anyway). I think they know what to expect.
I want to like wrestling but the overall daytime soap mixed with the fakeness is really bad. The acting is even worse. I don't know anyone who watches it anymore. I think all my friends just know of the big names like The Rock because our parents watched RAW or whatever when we were kids. Wrestling would probably fare better as a TV show.
The other problem is that every main roster feud is like some blood feud where you want to end the other guy's career. It's exhausting. Wrestlers should just want to be the best and be recognized as the best. People were hotter for Gargano/Cole than any match at Mania because it was just two talented guys wanting to be champion and it had no real build.
Part of what makes the G1 tournament so great is that two random guys can fight and be motivated by something other than getting revenge or settling some score with their opponent. You build good wrestlers and the matches build themselves. In the WWE they have this "moment" or "payoff" they're looking for and they just try to fill in the blanks on the way and it ends up this disjointed contradicting mess.
I'm hoping that every ratings drop makes it more and more likely that they will start to book the main roster like NXT.
Realistically, Vince is probably channeling his inner Principal Skinner and saying "No, it's the children who are wrong."
Maybe Fox management is the best hope.
Realistically, Vince is probably channeling his inner Principal Skinner and saying "No, it's the children who are wrong."
Maybe Fox management is the best hope.
I think the best hope is that Vince shifts his focus to the XFL.
Oh look, another drive by shitposter.
I mean, they're already pushing Vince to get out of TV-PG and to go back to PG-13. We can only hope.
This was the first time I could remember that I didn't follow WrestleMania. I wouldn't have even noticed it happened if I didn't get a YouTube recommendation for Becky's post match interview.
New episodes of Last Man Standing on Fox draw like five million viewers on Friday night. Reruns do over three million.
I've not watched WWE for about 20 years. I like pro wrestling but the whole soap opera nonsense doesn't appeal to me plus they work too light in the WWE. Work light and they ban all kinds of moves.
What moves aside from chairshots to the head and the piledriver are banned?
But... "The Man" refers to being "the top one" in the business. I think it's great the Becky calls herself "The Man" cause it's not in the "men-man" sense, and it fucks some people off
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't any move which could see a wrestler dropped on their head/neck banned?
Brainbuster for example.
Well, you have dumbass Lars Sullivan who just debuted doing diving headbutts off the top rope, so who knows?
Joe's muscle buster, Curb stomp was banned for a bit.
I saw at least 2 wwe brainbusters this past weekend.
I would argue that these sorts of moves shouldn't be as frequent as they are in NJPW, for instance. They have their time and place, but so many of these moves are transitional instead of the the finish. Takes away the impact.
I don't know. I mean I could watch Misawa v Kawada from 94 and seeing them beat the shit out of each other and drop each other on there heads/necks multiple times is still just as enjoyable today.
I would say the frequency should me more determined by the magnitude of the actual bout.
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Trying to think if there is anything more pretentious than going into a professional wrestling thread with no interest in professional wrestling and replying to a 5 month old post to announce how what people enjoy should not be enjoyed by anyone over the age of 18 because you personally found a different media which fulfils your personal interests...
Nope... can't think of anything...
Nope... can't think of anything...
Becky's rise to the top is associated with beating Charlotte Flair, daughter of Ric Flair, whose famous catchphrase was: "To be the Man You Gotta Beat the Man." It's a fuck you to the Flairs.
The sad thing is Becky's character is one that modern WWE would only allow a woman to have. They'd never allow a man to be booked that strongly, because men make more money and are they are desperate to not have any wrestler become bigger than "the brand" (aka they never want another CM Punk)
Hoping AEW makes women's wrestling a priority/more marketable. Given how Kenny feels about women's wrestling, and how progressive the AEW audience should be, I think there's hope.
As for the brainbusters, usually a move in WWE only gets banned after it is botched. The only exception I can think of is the vertebreaker, and that can be done safely. (Black Mephisto is a very safe version of it)
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