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Back in the Attitude Era (Yes, I'm bringing the Attitude Era up, but for a different reason that 'PG SUX' or 'We need blood'), the storylines were much, much more complex than we get today. You'd have people often times in more than one feud or getting involved in another storyline. For example, at all times, Austin was Vince's main target, but at times the Corporation would get involved in mid card matches, such as when Bossman was feuding with Mankind over the Hardcore title, or when they were fighting DX.
In general it was quite frequent that people would find themselves in more than one feud, sometimes one would die down for a while only to eventually be rekindled, and you might see the same wrestler multiple times on the show even if they were a midcarder. WWE seemed to have good roles for everyone.
Fast forward to today's product.
Now WWE can't seem to write worth a crap. Every story arc seems completely self contained and there's rarely any overarching storylines, and when there's multiple people in a feud, the feud suffers as a whole.
Examples:
1. The Survivor Series where Cena, HBK, and HHH were feuding. It was a complete joke, and the wrestlers knew ahead of time they were going to betray each other anyway, which was laughed off after the fact. There was absolutely no reason to watch this match because WWE had no idea what to do with three men.
2. Wrestlemania 25 that saw Cena, Edge, and The Big Show put in a triple threat. The Big Show had no business being in this match, and it resulted in a strange 'love triangle' feud that ended up going nowhere, had Cena act REALLY out of character (blackmailing Vickie, and he's supposed to be the FACE?!) and turned out to be a massive letdown.
3. See: Any tag team feud. The most action we get is the wrestlers cutting a mildly threatening promo against each other and mostly pointless and random tag title matches, and the occasional break-up angle which lasts maybe a month.
And now for the current example which is the reason I've made this thread...
4. Wade Barrett vs Randy Orton with Cena as the special guest referee. It's not a triple threat, but there's a HUGE problem here. The focus is mostly on Wade Barrett and Cena, and if Cena will help him win the match or not. They make it seem like the result entirely hinges on Cena screwing Orton or not, as if there was no question Orton could beat him clean. This takes out a lot of suspense in the wrestling itself if it all comes down to Cena anyway and it makes Barrett look like shit by default. Plus, Orton is left out to dry, with no real story arc here. He seems like a background character -because- we aren't asking if Orton can beat Barrett. WWE is missing a huge opportunity by keeping it between Cena and Barrett, and having little to no Orton and Barrett interaction. It's disgraceful, and the WWE writers are gimping Orton's title run by making it seem as if Cena is the only thing that matters, if he's fired or not, blah blah blah. I want to see Orton be more active in this feud and focus on his rivalry with Barrett! How hard is that to write?!
It's like they get these feuds out of a template book or something and just don't seem to care. Why can't WWE have overarching storylines or angles that seem fed-wide? Why can't they even focus on more than 2 people in a storyline? I wanna know what happened to their writers from the Attitude Era. Because beneath all of the blood and shock angles they actually had stories with imagination and thought that made their 'wrestling world' feel somewhat real.
In general it was quite frequent that people would find themselves in more than one feud, sometimes one would die down for a while only to eventually be rekindled, and you might see the same wrestler multiple times on the show even if they were a midcarder. WWE seemed to have good roles for everyone.
Fast forward to today's product.
Now WWE can't seem to write worth a crap. Every story arc seems completely self contained and there's rarely any overarching storylines, and when there's multiple people in a feud, the feud suffers as a whole.
Examples:
1. The Survivor Series where Cena, HBK, and HHH were feuding. It was a complete joke, and the wrestlers knew ahead of time they were going to betray each other anyway, which was laughed off after the fact. There was absolutely no reason to watch this match because WWE had no idea what to do with three men.
2. Wrestlemania 25 that saw Cena, Edge, and The Big Show put in a triple threat. The Big Show had no business being in this match, and it resulted in a strange 'love triangle' feud that ended up going nowhere, had Cena act REALLY out of character (blackmailing Vickie, and he's supposed to be the FACE?!) and turned out to be a massive letdown.
3. See: Any tag team feud. The most action we get is the wrestlers cutting a mildly threatening promo against each other and mostly pointless and random tag title matches, and the occasional break-up angle which lasts maybe a month.
And now for the current example which is the reason I've made this thread...
4. Wade Barrett vs Randy Orton with Cena as the special guest referee. It's not a triple threat, but there's a HUGE problem here. The focus is mostly on Wade Barrett and Cena, and if Cena will help him win the match or not. They make it seem like the result entirely hinges on Cena screwing Orton or not, as if there was no question Orton could beat him clean. This takes out a lot of suspense in the wrestling itself if it all comes down to Cena anyway and it makes Barrett look like shit by default. Plus, Orton is left out to dry, with no real story arc here. He seems like a background character -because- we aren't asking if Orton can beat Barrett. WWE is missing a huge opportunity by keeping it between Cena and Barrett, and having little to no Orton and Barrett interaction. It's disgraceful, and the WWE writers are gimping Orton's title run by making it seem as if Cena is the only thing that matters, if he's fired or not, blah blah blah. I want to see Orton be more active in this feud and focus on his rivalry with Barrett! How hard is that to write?!
It's like they get these feuds out of a template book or something and just don't seem to care. Why can't WWE have overarching storylines or angles that seem fed-wide? Why can't they even focus on more than 2 people in a storyline? I wanna know what happened to their writers from the Attitude Era. Because beneath all of the blood and shock angles they actually had stories with imagination and thought that made their 'wrestling world' feel somewhat real.
