WWE in 2018 is the worst it's been since....?

[MartyMcFly]

That’s always worse than a disgusted and angry crowd. Apathy is the worst feeling a promotion can generate, and they’ve create a product so dull, uninspired, lacking in consequence, and repetitive that people just don’t care anymore. I don’t see how long term this is a sustainable business model, actively chasing away viewers. Will networks keep giving big deals to a promotion that makes a point to alienate its customers?

Yeah because networks aren’t worried about fans who complain online but still watch the show every week. Bottom line matters and no matter how much we complain as long as we still watch, we’re talking in the wind. WWE knows this. Any business knows this. And even then, those of us who do complain pale when compared to the number of people who don’t.

The product is boring and stale and lazy now. But as long as it continues to make money hand over fists, it’ll continue to coast

 

[Rell84shots]

the difference between the product now and in past eras is that now it's safer than it's ever been and it seems like Vince & Co are terrified of taking risks to add some entertainment value to the program

the scripts are completely sterilized with absolutely no envelope pushing content, i know they market mostly towards kids nowdays but the smash mouth promos of AE/Ruthless Aggression and even some of the late 2000s is apart of what made the show great TV

the feuds lack compelling storylines and the characters are missing the proper development to get the viewer interested and engaged in what's going on, they often do things with little to no explanation and just be like regarding plot devices when if they would just take a small amount of time to provide an explanation it would do wonders for the overall story

Ellsworth comes back to help Carmella beat Asuka....but why? they are that lazy that they can't even come up with a worked reason for his absence, he's just back and on top of that nobody even knows the reason behind the Mella/Ellsworth relationship to begin with because that hasn't been explained either

The Bludgeons debut and go directly after tag teams for 3 months, whoop all their asses and take the titles, then all of a sudden they go after a singles competitor in Daniel Bryan outta nowhere just cause

then Kane comes back to help Bryan after they damn near tried to kill each other last time they were on TV together, why you ask? just cause

really it just comes down to creative laziness and an unwillingness to do anything that would add some excitement to the shows, like @Cobratron said this shyt is "can miss" TV to the fullest and that's a big part of why it's so shytty right now

Smackdown has actually been pretty good the past few weeks, it's Raw that get it's head out of its ass. Cass got fired after he took a risk but at least he had the balls to do something, it wasn't a great promo but it wasn't any worse than the stuff they subject people to every week. At some point the wrestlers who truly believe that they have "it" are going to have to tell creative to fukk off and break out already. They need to get the belts off of Lesnar, Bliss, and Carmella(good character, mediocre wrestler) and put them on people who are legit and will be there every week. Tournaments along with title matches on Raw & SD would also help make things interesting, when SCSA was scheduled to defend his title on Raw people were always hype the week before.

 

[woof]

This is why I'll never understand why people look at the product from 10-11 years ago like it was that much worse than it is now. I said this in the other thread, but they still knew how to book competently back then. There were still stakes to what was going on. If two guys hated each other, they would be put in a feud for multiple months. Simple as that. They actually knew what long-term booking was.

This point has been made over and over, but it just makes me sick how Sasha and Bayley are forced to wait for months to get their feud going, then it stalls for some weird reason, then they remember they were supposed to feud, then they get put in therapy or risk getting fired. But if it was ten years ago, they would have been guaranteed a WrestleMania match just off that fight in the locker room.

Women were still filler eye candy back then, but on the rare occasion when they actually cared about them, they delivered the Mickie/Trish feud -- something any program during this Women's Revolution has yet to creatively come close to.

Forget Sasha/Bayley -- they can’t even effectively shamelessly rip off their own blueprint (Austin/Vince) with Ronda and Stephanie, they’re so bad/lazy at this right now.

 

[Da King]

 

[Rell84shots]

Women were still filler eye candy back then, but on the rare occasion when they actually cared about them, they delivered the Mickie/Trish feud -- something any program during this Women's Revolution has yet to creatively come close to.

Forget Sasha/Bayley -- they can’t even effectively shamelessly rip off their own blueprint (Austin/Vince) with Ronda and Stephanie, they’re so bad/lazy at this right now.

It wasn't that rare though, during the 02-05 years they actually cared about women's wrestling, after that it became sporadic until Beth & Milena became the focal point.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

Women were still filler eye candy back then, but on the rare occasion when they actually cared about them, they delivered the Mickie/Trish feud -- something any program during this Women's Revolution has yet to creatively come close to.

Forget Sasha/Bayley -- they can’t even effectively shamelessly rip off their own blueprint (Austin/Vince) with Ronda and Stephanie, they’re so bad/lazy at this right now.

They’ve spent 20 years trying to recreate Austin vs McMahon. They’ve failed worse every time too. The reason for this is the why for the feud. Austin feuded with Vince because Vince told him take your foot off the gas and rest while recovering from neck surgery and caught a stunner for it. Vince then says he thinks Austin would be a poor representation of the company as champion. Austin says I don’t give a fukk and gives Vince a stunner. Austin wins the title, and Vince is mad now. He tries to remake Austin into his own image and gets punched in the balls for it in the middle of the ring. At this point Vince wants the belt off Austin even though it’s making him money because he wants his champ to look and act a certain way. Austin won’t play ball because he’s fed up doing shyt anyone’s way by his own.

Every Vince feud since then has basically been him putting the screws to a face essentially because the crowd likes them and no other real reason. Motivation matters.

 

[AquaCityBoy]

WWE Comics>>>>>>>>>WWE TV.

They actually booked Seth Rollins' face turn properly and have crazy fukkery like New Day fighting actual unicorns. :_RVD_:

 

[AquaCityBoy]

The 2003 HHH reign of terror is the worst WWE ever been in my life by a mile.

No because Smackdown was fire back then.

Now both shows are mediocre at best.

 

[AquaCityBoy]

I’m actually baffled that people don’t recognize how truly bad this product. You don’t have to go back too far to remember when the company actually exerted some effort: it was only a few years ago when the WWE had Bryan’s ascension, the Authority, the Shield and Wyatt Family booked credibly, Punk’s feud with Heyman, the Rhodes family vs. the Authority, Ziggler vs. ADR, all happening simultaneously during football season.

All of these were awful.

 

[Osmosis]

All of these were awful.

Rhodes vs. Shield was awful? Punk vs. Lesnar was awful? I wonder what that makes the shyt on tv nowadays because those angles were leagues above whatever they’re doing with Reigns, Lesnar, Rollins, AJ and company.

 

[AquaCityBoy]

Rhodes vs. Shield was awful? Punk vs. Lesnar was awful? I wonder what that makes the shyt on tv nowadays because those angles were leagues above whatever they’re doing with Reigns, Lesnar, Rollins, AJ and company.

Punk vs Lesnar was great, but you said, "Punk's feud with Heyman," which included all the stuff with Ryback and Curtis Axel, which went on way too long and was unwatchable.

Same thing with Rhodes and The Authority. The feud itself was fine, but ultimately led nowhere (which was one of the biggest problems with the Authority angle), and that's probably one of the things that led to Cody quitting.

 

[hayesc0]

 

[Max.]

Bad enough that theres only a few men for the job

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

There was a lot of shyt those years, but they also featured creative peaks that absolutely destroy anything going now.

There's not even a chance of them hitting on something on par with Punk/Jeff, Flair-Batista-Jericho/Michaels, Jericho/Rey, Michaels/Undertaker (both Mania builds), Rey/Punk, etc. Hell, even Edge's 2006 run, from the Foley stuff and his Cena feud, blows away what's being booked these days.

edge was so garbage.

 

[Osmosis]

Punk vs Lesnar was great, but you said, "Punk's feud with Heyman," which included all the stuff with Ryback and Curtis Axel, which went on way too long and was unwatchable.

Same thing with Rhodes and The Authority. The feud itself was fine, but ultimately led nowhere (which was one of the biggest problems with the Authority angle), and that's probably one of the things that led to Cody quitting.

I’ll concede the first point but the first few months up to Summerslam was handled wonderfully.

The second feud had moments of brilliance and some great matches. I honestly don’t remember a feud in the last year that was more enjoyable. Yeah it didn’t end up leading to anything but that’s been a complaint for the last 15 years. Atleast the angle was fun.