Is anyone else shocked at the state of the WWE? This past RAW

Normies don't like it, hence the falling ratings and it no longer being cool to watch wrestling. I'm not shocked. What shocks me is that people out there actually believe the brand split won't be a disaster. Tonight is proof enough that the writing isn't going to get better.

>>1343072
Man I was just thinking about 2002-2004 today at work, and I almost broke into tears. I was born in 1990 and wrestling was such an important part of my childhood. And I think back to some of the meaningful events that happened. Everything was personal. Remember when kevin Nash came back to feud with triple h? That shit was real. And then no way out that had bring me to life as the theme song. Fuck that was sick. Watching wrestling now just reminds me about how growing up sucks.

>>1343182
Have sex

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>>1343072
Some people like it, others stick around hoping it will get better, then there's others that hate watch just to bitch.

I just catch the PPV events on the Network and not much else. Dunno if the return of the brand split will help much either.

>>1343182
>Remember when kevin Nash came back to feud with triple h? That shit was real

lol mark

>>1343182
Yeah dude I hear ya, childhood wrestling was pretty cool.

>>1343224
It's all the stupid fucks that insult ppl on here actually trying to have a good conversation that like wrestling the way it is now lmao

>new era
>the only guys that get cheered are people who have been in the business over 10 years like cena, aj, and Jericho

>>1343236
Lol ya and Cesaro. Buddy is alright but he needs a new theme. Or his original theme back. That shit was legit.

>>1343249
Not even. Cesaro was getting way more cheers after the John Cena us open challenge. Holy shit was Cesaro over. I remember that hiac pre show I think where he was over as fuck. He's not even close to that now.

>>1343829

>I remember that hiac pre show I think where he was over as fuck. He's not even close to that now.

Exactly. This company ruins all of their talent. No one on earth is good enough to get and stay over when you're being fed a shit sandwich by Creative, buried by Vince, and losing shitty 5 minute long matches via distraction every goddamn week because apparently you're just REALLY fucking stupid and will fall for the same trick until Creative forgets the entire angle.

It's goddamn amazing how much talent is on the WWE roster, not even considering NXT, that is absolutely fucking wasted. Ryback was mediocre in the ring, but he actually had charisma and the crowd behind him before they fucked that up. Cody was goddamn good, and they ignored him out of the company. Cesaro has been the best in ring worker on earth for at least 5 years, getting over multiple times just through work rate, and they refuse to do anything with it until they just drop him off TV. Neville is pure entertainment, and while maybe the 5'7'' flippyshitter isn't a main eventer, someone that goddamn fast and crisp, who is pretty smart in the ring, you'd think a GOOD company would be able to make him a great midcarder with a decent gimmick instead of an utterly irrelevant jobber.

Hell, NXT managed to give Neville a character that fit story lines and got a reaction. The dipshits on the main roster think his fucking nickname is all a character needs. GRAVITY FORGOT HIM (and so did Creative). This shit is not that fucking hard. Just have him cut a couple short promos about being an adrenaline junky, who loves the thrill of competition and keeping the pace fast (find a less kayfabe ruining way to say that though), and turn him loose.

Literally any jackass on /asp/, /sp/, /a/, /v/, /tv,/ or /tg/ could book this shit better than the cretins who do it currently.

>>1343875
>Literally any jackass on /asp/, /sp/, /a/, /v/, /tv,/ or /tg/ could book this shit better than the cretins who do it currently.

Half of the people on here who made fantasy drafts put Cena & Reigns on the same brand. That's all the proof you need that WWE would tank under them

>>1343878
Are you a stupid fuck. Smackdown doesn't need to be successful. Having 1 show be successful is better than 2 unsuccessful shows.

>>1343890
>Ok guys let's do a brand split. This brand split is gonna be huge and the real start for our "new era". This is gonna be a big fucking deal. But, let's draft all the draws to RAW and give Smackdown all the geeks. Let's still make a big deal about Smackdown though every week and put it over.

Yeah you'd definitely get the stock up if you took over from Vince

>>1343896
The brand split shit is literally a meme to create buzz from the shows faltering ratings. The fact that you don't see that is disturbing. They did the same shit during the first brand split. 18+ btw

>>1343906
Yeah and Smackdown eventually started to get higher ratings than RAW when it never did before the brand split.

With your genius idea RAW would get even lower ratings and Smackdown would be in TNA territory

>>1343896

You fool, the sort of guys who are geeks in WWE largely have the talent to get over, or at least be useful in getting others over, if the booker isn't pants-on-head retarded.

>>1343875
>crisp
Stopped reading right there

>>1343917
Nobody is denying that but putting Reigns & Cena on the same show would be a disaster regardless.

>>1343914
Smackdown had better writing. They don't have heyman or anyone qualifies to write either show right now. Haitch is also a black hole of boring which is what Roman is. Leaving Roman alone would be retarded and Roman isn't going to leave raw.

>>1343930
Reigns will probably have Orton, (god knows nobody wants to see Orton/Cena again) Seth, Dean and some others with him on Raw. I fully believe that Cena could carry SD with other people who aren't currently "draws" but they're great like AJ/KO/Cesaro etc

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pic related is why I'm watching it at all. He's literally WWE's MVP. He made a feud with Reigns watchable and had great matches with him. And he's probably going to have an even better feud and matches with Cena.

In my time watching their programming again upon them bringing in AJ, I enjoy these extras but wouldn't be compelled to continue watching if it weren't for AJ

-Becky
-Sasha
-Golden Truth
-New Day

New Day is really stale now, though, so I'd probably cross them off.

>>1343942
>Roman
>orton
>Seth
>dean

RIP IN PIECE RAW

>>1343945
Marks will eat up le shield triple threat xdd

As for Orton just keep him and Cena as far away from each other as possible

>>1343942

>I fully believe that Cena could carry SD with other people who aren't currently "draws" but they're great like AJ/KO/Cesaro etc

ONLY if you book it well. While Cena can be champ and win the vast majority of his matches, you can't have goddamn Super Cena taking DDTs onto concrete only to bounce up and pin TWO (2) men or some such shit.

And if you've got guys like AJ, Cesaro, and KO, they can carry Cena to great matches like that sort did in the US Open challenge.

Still, any reign gets stale after too many feuds and you start running out of roster to feud with, and he has to drop the title and do something else for a little while.

>>1343949
No marks care about any of the shield single runs. And aj and cena on smackdown? Raw is supposed to be the A show my man. Those are probably the 2 biggest draws right now

>>1343952
Are you kidding? Just go on twitter and search "Shield triple threat", they have wanted that match to main event Mania since the day they broke up

And no it isn't with the brand split, they'll try to present the two shows as equal. What better way for people to turn into Smackdown then to see Cena/AJ? And people will continue watching RAW due to habit

>>1343951
They can bring up some NXT guys that Cena can feud with (Joe comes to mind immediately). He started getting liked again by the IWC the moment he was out of the title picture, give AJ the SD belt or some shit for awhile.

>>1343957
No. Raw is always supposed to be the A show that is the point. That's why they took Jericho away kek

>>1343943
I agree. AJ is the man. I like Becky also but she's lucky to get 5 minutes a week. That's not worth the effort to seek out. All about da farmer strenf

>>1343960
It won't be the moment they draft Cena, and he's 100% going there because they need a draw to get people to give a shit about Smackdown

>>1343964
No you nigger they do not need anyone to give a shit about smackdown. Smackdown will be the new main event/superstars where they might try for a month then give up. They aren't drafting cena to fucking smackdown.

>>1343970
If they didn't need anyone to give a shit about Smackdown they would have just kept doing what they've been doing for 3-4 years now instead of trying to make the brand split seem like a big deal on RAW

>>1343973
Because the past 3-4 years hasn't bee. Working and their ratings are dropping. The split is just to create buzz and attention. They're not going to actively try and make smackdown the show.

>>1343989
>They're not going to actively try and make smackdown the show.
They were advertising smackdown stuff on Raw these past 2 weeks. And are clearly putting in more effort to make it seem important.

>>1343989
They won't, but they're gonna try and present the shows as being equal level which is why Cena will be drafted there.

>>1343072
it's not about the talent dude, it's more about creative just being shit and roman still being around.

>implying Cena isn't the reason the downturn started

fun fact, Cena not booked as superman is actually entertaining

His feud with Owens (yeah that fatass) was good.

And yes, fatass Owens right now is probably the guy with the most potential, while manlet AJ is the biggest draw.

How to fix this crap? As long as Roman is the face of the company and has to look really really strong with the entire roster set to feed him, there's nothing that can be done.
PG era is horrendous.

>>1343896
>implying reigns is a draw

>>1343942
>AJ styles
>Not a draw
are you kidding me? AJ has made the company so much fucking money since he joined.

>>1343072
theyve come to point where if you dont actively watch wwe you hardly know anyone on the roster and thats not good for business but its inevitable. the real question is how are they handling it? id say fairly well but they need to start listening to the fans for the very issue listed above

>>1344027
HHHs 2003 run was the reason not Cena

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>>1344049
Not really.
Pic related. In 2003 ratings didn't really drop that much, especially compared to the huge drops in 2001, 2002.
2004 and 5 ratings went actually up. Cena won the title at WM 21 in 2005. By 2006 he started getting booked as superman and ratings never recovered since that.

Good thing i watched wrestling from 96 to 99. Good times.

Also Cena in 2005 was on Smackdown. He moved to Raw in the last months and guess what ratings started the downward path.

Though again, he was never that bad to justify it, his booking was horrendous.

>>1344061
http://www.twnpnews.com/information/wweraw2006.shtml
http://www.twnpnews.com/information/wweraw2003.shtml

They got in the 5's multiple times in 02 then by 03 their highest was a 4.5 (which they hit three times in 06, more than 03). 07s ratings are comparable to 03s as well (but have lower lows). 08 is where it drops again and I'd blame that more on the product than just Cena

>>1343182
So you were born in 1990 but your best memories of wrestling come from the Ruthless Aggression era? You started late.

>>1343875
>crisp

>>1343123
Brand split will make for a better main tittle scene.

>>1344085
Didn't say best memories, just remembered it the other day. However, I consider the attitude era to have gone until the end of 2003. Even somewhat into 2004. When Austin and the rock left for good

>>1344695
>raw ring
>royal rumble

>>1344695
XD Le epic wwe meme XD because undertaker winning the rumble is really realistic, Also >Royal Rumble at Raw

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Don't worry, outlaw kings are here to save us

>>1344761
>>1344855
>Being this boring

>>1343959

Exactly. This shit isn't that hard.

They'll still screw it up, but they really shouldn't.

>>1344081

>08 is where it drops again and I'd blame that more on the product than just Cena

Cena was the cornerstone of the product at that point, AND between then and 2012 was at his absolute IWINLOL worst, and probably the lamest in the ring he had been since being called up, AND the most one dimensional, stale character since early 90s Hogan.

Couldn't say how much of that was John Cena The Person's fault, but John Cena The Character was utter cancer.

>>1345080
>not blaming Chris Benoit

M A R K S

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>>1345091

>Not blaming Kevin Sullivan

>>1344855
>Nitpicking a meme
>Thinking you're the less retarded one.

>>1344068
Was was lame though.

It wasnt till recently that he began to get booked as someone beatable and he updated his repertoire.

>>1344695
More like
>About to win RR
>Popular superstar back from injury or from leaving the company enters.
>mfw

>>1343072
>>1343072
>Punk drew
Punk sold merchandise, thats about it. Rating were noticeably smaller with him as champ and when Cena was injured

>>1343182
The only thing real was Nash's quad tearing

Whats pathetic is that the low mid-carders of the attitude era get louder pops outside of Cena and Orton. People like The Godfather and X-pac or whoever the European Champion was. Todays roster gets Funaki pops

>>1344049
What was wrong with HHHs run? I liked evolution

>>1345247
He was a heel champ that everyone hated, rarely won clean over many babyfaces the fans were behind like Booker T, RVD, Chris Jericho, and Scott Steiner(even though he didn't deserve it after their matches). Triple H was a massive heel that held the title longer than most babyfaces and there was never a payoff of him losing the belt

>>1345247
Reign of Terror. He refused to put anybody over no matter how much the crowd wanted it. It was bad story telling, it got to the point where you knew that if somebody was going against Haitch at the time there was a 95% chance he'd be buried for it. He was basically reverse late 2000s Cena. Completely unstoppable, making everybody on Raw look weak in comparison an never dropping his title with the added bonus of being a heel so he was getting more than professional heat for it.

The guy even made thinly veiled racist remarks at Booker kayfabe, making it seem like it'd be a set up for like a redemption win for Booker, but alas they buried the fuck out of him and he didn't really recover until King Booker.

He basically just stuck around too long, getting staler and staler with each victory and with no real challenge to his reigns. Every time he dropped the belt he almost easily recovered it.