[jlusk99]

I guess you can call me an old fogey (although I'm under 40), but I just can't with today's wrestling product. I have tried to watch several episodes of Raw recently, and watched my first Wrestlemania in years last week, and I remain unimpressed.

I started watching WWF in the late 80s throughout about 1992. I quit watching then and started back in the mid 90s before the NWO gimmick started in WCW.

There are several things that bother me.

For one, there is WAY TOO MUCH TALKING! Raw almost reminds me of a broadway play rather than a sporting event. The way they even show the staged confrontations backstage on the big screen so the audience doesn't miss anything. The acting is cringe worthy in these vignettes for the most part. The endless in-ring promos that just go on and on . Wrestlemania 30 was over 30 minutes in before an actual match started! It just doesn't feel like a sporting event anymore. I miss the celebrity national anthem and Gorilla Monsoon's introduction that just made the big events seem important and special.

THE CONSTANT CHANTS ---ughhh. I think Daniel Bryan is popular mainly because the fans enjoy the endless 'Yes' chants more than anything. I can't stand the fans chanting at EVERYTHING. I try to watch on TV to see the performers, not to listen to a bunch of obnoxious geek 'smarks' trying to comment on everything that happens.

True, maybe the athleticism is better today, but some of the matches have so many botches and look horribly fake with all the manufactured high spots. Give me the old style matches where the performers work the crowd and 'tell a story' in the ring any day.

I try to be objective. Is there something I'm missing? I would love to get into wrestling again, but I'm just not feeling the modern product. Am I alone?

 

[European Uppercut]

You're certainly not alone, but sometimes people just grow out of things. It happens - and I don't think that means that something is wrong with 'wrestling today' it's just ultimately not for you anymore.

I'm just getting into wrestling again (I'm always on and off, but Wrestlemania and the RAW that followed have lit a fire under my belly) and it's refreshing in so many ways to see that there are still thousands and thousands of smiling kids out there both young and old due to wrestling. Just wrestling. Not the wrestling that I grew up with or the wrestling that I got fanatic about, but wrestling none the less.

So yeah - sometimes people just grow out of stuff. I've gone through periods where all I wanted to watch was old NWA stuff, and that exists and it's out there so I could still enjoy it. Maybe somewhere down the line you'll be able to look at the stuff that's going on now in a new light - hell, there's stuff from the 'dark times' around 2003 that I swore I'd never enjoy and I love going back and watching now.

 

[dddsssccc]

I want to like today's product too but I can't. I'll always appreciate great in ring wrestling but I think I've just outgrown pro wrestling and can't tolerate the bad acting and bull shit gimmicks and storylines anymore.

There's been a ton of talking on Raw since the Attitude era. Difference back then was you had great talkers like Austin and Rock doing a lot of the talking.

The wrestling is a bit faker looking today but that is the most tolerable part of today's product, imo. I think the athletes are better than ever and the matches are good enough.

The only chant that gets on my nerves is the "This is Awesome" chant. Damn nerds in the crowd have to chant that over every stupid little thing today. I hate the "What?" chant too but that originates from around the Attitude era and one of my all time favs Stone Cold came up with it. The fans doing that has just gotten so old though.

 

[JoseDRiveraTCR7]

Bad booking and on average the there are less good talkers.

Guys do still stories in the ring. Botches and high spots don't equal there being no story.

 

[Cashmere]

Too much PG bullshit.

 

[yeahbaby!]

Horrible announcing: Please sound excited about the action guys. Please. Remember the main appeal? These guys are great athletes doing amazing moves. Talk about them and get us emotionally invested. (See: Ross, Jim)

The arena is too lit up, go back to just seeing the first few rows then the rest dark.

Book actual IC and US title feuds.

Bring back managers.

Bring back pre taped backstage promos.

 

[Stanford]

I guess you can call me an old fogey

Alright.

 

[CM Punk Is A God]

Honestly, RAW is more like a Broadway play than a sporting event anyways. It's more about story telling rather than wrestling.

 

[2K JAY]

:cena3 You called?

 

[ErickRowan_Fan]

WWE is a bit of a traveling circus, the travel schedule is harsh so wrestlers are forced to create comfortable "spots" that they can safely repeat in every match so they don't hurt each other too much.

It used to be different when you could afford to get a little more physical and go even 60 minutes because you weren't wrestling every day of the week (those who did go 100% every day can be found on the long list of dead wrestlers). The contests were presented as legitimate and the wrestlers needed to portray a sense of realism in the matches, otherwise they risked exposing the business to casual fans.

You have to be patient and wait for the matches where the competitors are willing to go 100%, only then you can see the brilliance of wrestlers such as Cesaro and Bryan. The average TV match speaks nothing of their true abilities as it is simply a rehearsal of spots or athletic maneuvers that both wrestlers are comfortable with. A story can't really be told when all of your moves have been scripted by a person who cannot listen to the reactions of the crowd.

RAW especially is horribly commercial and tries to shove every possible product down your throat until you have no choice but to throw up. But every now and then you see a great match and it can be all worth the effort. I've seen so damn many matches though that anything "average" is no longer appealing, understandably the standards of fans who haven't seen as much of the action are lower because it's more fresh.

 

[ByTor]

Nothing. Some of us (myself included) just got old and grumpy.

And now to comment on stuff people are bringing up.....

Too much talking- :lol You must have hated the Attitude Era then. I personally don't think "talking" is a bad thing, and I'm willing to bet there was far more talking in the Golden Age or AE.

Smark Chants- God, yes. The fans are my least favorite thing about current wrestling. I used to watch a lot of indy wrestling but I never identified with indy fans because....well...they were douchebags, by and large. Now the indy-type fan has made his way to WWE, and it sucks. "Boo" "Yay" "Let's Go ____" and stuff like that are fine but I'd be perfectly happy if I never heard another hipster douchebag smark chant ever again.

Fakeness- Wrestling is fake. I've known this since I was 8 or 9 years old. I never understood this obsession with pretending it's real when we all know it isn't.

JoseDRiveraTCR7 had my favorite post in this thread when he mentioned "bad booking" and "less good talkers" as his complaints. I'll throw in "lack of interesting characters" and agree with him. The booking does seem to be getting better though.

PG Bullshit- Fine if you hated the Golden Era or the New Generation. But I don't see how fans of those eras can bash "PG Bullshit."

Horrible Announcing- I see this one a lot online. I guess I'm unique in that I never cared that much about commentary. Sure, JR & King made good stuff great, but I never was one to get all apoplectic about about "horrible announcing." Except late WCW Tony Schiavone. Fuck him.

Too Bright- Another argument I never got. I like wrestling to look good with bright lights and fancy production. WWF graduated from poorly lit arenas back in the 80s. No reason to go back. Hell, the bright production was one of the reasons I was so WWF >>>> NWA/WCW as a kid.

Make the IC/US Titles Important Again- Yes, please! This is one common fan pet peeve that does annoy me.

Bring Back Managers- I was on this bandwagon for about a decade, but you know what, they HAVE brought back managers. Heyman, Zeb, now Steph. Not so bad....

Pre-Taped Backstage Promos- Would be cool but it's not something I'm dying to see.

For the record, I'm an old guy all the way. Hence why most of my posts are in the classic section. 87-03 is my golden age, with 95-03 being the best of the best, but the more current WWE I watch (I left entirely for a few years), the more I realize it's not that bad. I'm just older, grumpier, and much of my passion for this stuff is gone.

Oh, and you Cena haters have it easy compared to us Hogan haters from back in the day.

 

[SOR]

Nothing is really wrong with wrestling today in my opinion. It's just nostalgic to look back on what we liked as kids or teens and think "Ah, the good old days"

 

[SpocksEvilClone]

I've been watching a lot of older wrestling from the 1980s & early 1990s lately & the biggest problem I see with today's wrestling is the fact that it isn't presented as an athletic competition.
Yeah we all know that it is predetermined, but by operating within the rules of an athletic competition & keeping the shows operating under that logic, the storylines will flow more organically.

No more poop falling from the ceiling, no more power struggles & who's really in charge, no more camera's backstage that aren't seen by the wrestlers.
Bring back the 30 days to defend the title or you lose it. Bring back time limits, referee decisions are final, filler matches that don't have a storyline, talk about winners of matches receiving more money. Treat the show as if it is real when the cameras are on & storylines will flow & will make more sense.
Keep World Title matches to a minimum to make them more interesting again.

Watching the WWF from the early 1980s into the 1990s, yeah there are some flaws, but there was a logic there, they didn't insult the fans intelligence.

 

[ErickRowan_Fan]

Fakeness- Wrestling is fake. I've known this since I was 8 or 9 years old. I never understood this obsession with pretending it's real when we all know it isn't.

Let's say that you are watching an action movie, you don't really need the actors to constantly make references breaking the fourth wall about what you are watching being completely fake and that you should feel like a moron watching this instead of something that is actually real.

Everybody knows it's not "real" but nobody wants to feel like an idiot watching it. Insult your fans enough, and they might switch to something like the UFC or Japanese wrestling.

 

[funnyfaces1]

I actually think the in ring storytelling is better now in the WWE than it was before.

 

[WrayBryatt]

Fans hijacking shows. its cute post mania raw but after that its lame. very disrespectful for people to chsnt cm punk when undertaker is talking or shitting on a good match cause of a wrestler thats not even there.like batista said, if you want t get noticied go to wrestling school.

oherwise please stfu and enjoy the dam show.

2. authority booking dominates wrestling, it needs to go back to a sport. too much dixie, too much vince, vickie,teddy long, etc. we don't need that all the time.

 

[Perfectly Executed]

Lack of spontaneity is probably the worst thing about today's product in my opinion. Everything is so painfully scripted down to the smallest detail. Even things like run-ins are spoiled now by having to put on the entrance music before anyone comes out. Everything feels so formulaic that, if you have even a basic understanding of the business, you can pretty much predict exactly what's going to happen(for the most part).

The second biggest problem is that there is a real lack of unique characters. I look at guys like Punk, Orton, Batista, Rhodes, Ziggler, Christian, Cena, etc and they're all cut from the exact same cloth. They're all a slight variation of the same cool, cocky character. Actually, in truth, they aren't even really characters. They're just guys trying to look cool on camera. I guess the WWE feels that this makes things more "real", but that's the thing... wrestling isn't real and everyone already knows it. With mma and boxing out there, the WWE will never win over the people looking for "real" fighting. Wrestling fans watch the WWE for the drama and athleticism. In short, there needs to be a bigger focus on drama and characters and less on trying to be "real".

 

[yeahbaby!]

I don't think complaining about what the crowd do is a valid complaint. The crowd is there to be manipulated by the show.

The reason crowds were hotter and not so bored in eras past is wrestlers and bookers knew how to work them better.

 

[reilly]

nope you are not alone - im 29 and i struggle with it at times. There is no character development - there is no mystery anymore(undertaker, kane, mankind) - the stories are always chopping and changing - the lack of consistency is amazing - they have one international top guy, which is debatable as i have to look out for anything to do with wwe - its not like when Austin & Rock were everywhere.

i watched wrestlemania 30 to see steve austin and the undertaker absolutely nothing else appealed to me - im hoping one day something will spark to get the fire reignited (as someone else put it) and make me want to watch it again.

 

[DGenerationMC]

Everything.