Is It Really So Difficult?

[Hem]

Shinsuke Nakamura:
Once regarded as NXTs biggest japanese signings, a legend from NJPW, tremendous wrestler with a unique style.

Rusev:
Once slated as the next big foreign villain. Talented in the ring and on the mic with both a serious and humourous attitude. Also has a gorgeous and well spoken manager/wife by his side.

Buddy Murphy:
Once thought of as just a tag team wrestler in NXT who managed to fumble onto 205 Live. Quickly earned stardom there and made his mark and reigned supreme as the champion before being drafted to Smackdown.

Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins:
One sidelined for years seemingly and the other, made the greatest losing streak I have ever seen. Somehow banded together after years of being separated and even won the tag team championships. Since then, they have been MIA.

Mustafa Ali:
The breakout star of early 2019 and the former heart of 205 Live made it to the main roster and fans immediately responded in a way that he was pushed tremendously. Hit with an injury at the wrong time, he has yet to regain his momentum, or even start a feud.

The War Raiders:
The only NXT tag team champions I believe to have been called up, whilst being champions. Ruined with a dumb name soon lost all credibility once built in NXT. Impressive is an understatement while regarding their talent.

Shelton Benjamin:
The gold standard of professional wrestling, never considered world champion material but definitely a strong midcard hand and guy to get young guys over.

For a company with two different shows, 5 hours of weekly airtime, unlimited network and youtube time, how is it possible to mess up with so many talents once poised for success?

Nakamura could have had a championship reign as the valiant Japanese WWE champion who will kick anyones behind, and it will hurt! Rather, he has done nothing. Given a make shift tag team with Rusev which has been forgotten seemingly, much like both members of the team.

Rusev has been on a rampant downfall since losing to Cena but there seems to be a saving moment for him every now and then but its not capitalised on.

Buddy Murphy has not been seen once since the draft. Is he hurt? Is he on a vacation? Is there heat? No one knows. At least give him Vignettes like Black and Wyatt have been getting. Let people remember him.

Ryder and Hawkings are the freaking tag team champions right now. Should they not have a feud? Shouldn't the championships be something people want to fight for? What is the point of having them hold them? Simply to spite the Revival?

Mustafa Ali will probably be in the 50 man battle royal but why does a young and hot prospect not have weekly or at least bi weekly television time? How do you go from being slated for Kofi Kingstons spot to just sitting in catering?

The War Raiders were ruined by creative and Vince and that is astounding.

Shelton may just have come back for the run with Chad Gable, who know. He stuck around, he is a great wrestler. He is constantly wasting his days by sitting in this company. A close friend of Lesnar, recently attacked the Universal Champion on Heymans behalf and after a single television match, back to the sidelines for you!



Is this the wild card rules booking? Is that why I see Shane McMahon at least 4 times a week on my TV? Was Shane the one who needed it? Is he the future? Poor booking like this leads to Goldberg Vs. Undertaker being the prominent matches. They have no new stars. The new stars are given up on after a poorly booked feud fails to get a great reaction. The WWE has been freefalling and its been obvious for years but how do you disregard such major talents week in and week out? I'm not saying everyone makes it to the top because no matter how good EC3, Bobby Roode, Apollo Crews, etc may be, they aren't on the level of those I mentioned earlier.

You'd think maybe AEW would light s fire under them but they would rather give the revival itchy segments, Roman countless beatdowns - how dumb is he that he goes without backup everytime, Lesnar is Mr. Money in the bank, HHH vs. Orton XV is going to happen.

They have given Kofi a great run, Bray has been great, even Truth has carried the 24/7 championship and knocked the ball out of the park, Lacey Evans has somewhat impressed me since she has been doing more than just a rampwalk, but is that enough to carry 5 hours every single week?

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The problem is mostly over exposure. It can make or break a guy quickly. I look at nakamura as the perfect example of a guy that over exposure killed. In NXT, the guy was red hot, the thing was that he wasn't on tv every week so he was keep special for the audience that loved watching him in njpw and for fans that didn't know who he was. Then they called him up to the main roster and they put him on the tv every week and his act got stail very fact to the point were only the nxt fans where still behind him. So in his case, overexposure killed any momentum he had.


The other problem is this damn wildcard rules thing they started, they think that by having only the upper tier of the roster on tv every week, the ratings will go up and they will create new megastars. By thinking that way things like the tag team division both on the male and female side of thing doesn't have time on tv anymore. When your raw tag team champion have to wrestled on main event because they don't have time for you on the main show, you know you have a problem

Let's hope that when smackdown goes to fox that they will give up the wildcard rules and the overexposure of guys and actually give the midcard a chance to shine.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

This is what happens when they (essentially) end the brand split. Top, full time, stars fill up segments on both shows. You can debate who's a full time star all you want, but it's WWE's choice. Even then, when you have times when part time talent are around, Smackdown gets filled with Raw rewind segments that you wouldn't get on Smackdown otherwise. Frankly, I'm surprised they put Goldberg on Smackdown this week. If this trend continues, Smackdown will become pointless to watch.

But the new Fox deal does bring an interesting dynamic to the situation. Let's hope this downward trend towards the worst days of Smackdown is altered when they start airing on Fox. Because what's going on now is not going to impress any new executives.

But maybe this is all from the wrong perspective. Ratings, I believe, actually have been going up since the Wild Card Rule took effect.

 

[d_henderson1810]

The problem is mostly over exposure. It can make or break a guy quickly. I look at nakamura as the perfect example of a guy that over exposure killed. In NXT, the guy was red hot, the thing was that he wasn't on tv every week so he was keep special for the audience that loved watching him in njpw and for fans that didn't know who he was. Then they called him up to the main roster and they put him on the tv every week and his act got stail very fact to the point were only the nxt fans where still behind him. So in his case, overexposure killed any momentum he had.


The other problem is this damn wildcard rules thing they started, they think that by having only the upper tier of the roster on tv every week, the ratings will go up and they will create new megastars. By thinking that way things like the tag team division both on the male and female side of thing doesn't have time on tv anymore. When your raw tag team champion have to wrestled on main event because they don't have time for you on the main show, you know you have a problem

Let's hope that when smackdown goes to fox that they will give up the wildcard rules and the overexposure of guys and actually give the midcard a chance to shine.

The bad news is, I have heard that the Fox deal is partly why they are doing the Wildcard rule. '

Apparently Fox want the top stars on SD Live, and wanted Vince to end the brand extension, so that Roman and co are on their show every week. Vince and Triple H didn't want to do this, so the wildcard rule is the compromise.

Also, I think the wildcard rule is a misguided attempt to boost the ratings, especially of RAW, by getting people to tune in to see which stars from the other brand will pop up this week. So, I don't see things like the wildcard rule ending anytime soon, unfortunately.

As for Shinsuke Nakamura, I predicted that the early overexposure and title shots would hurt him in the long run, and called for the slow burn, but at least one of the mods on this site called me a racist for suggesting it.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

A big part of this is the timing as we build toward another Saudi show. We must honor the prince and provide his majesty with what he wants.

But yeah, talent falls short of expectation in wrestling just like anything else. Best to curb your expectations because some talent will always fall short.

#9/11weforgot

#undertakerSaudistreak

 

[Hem]

I agree to an extent with over exposure here in the case of Nakamura. I believe if he was kept as a face for a longer period with some *creative direction* he could have been a much bigger deal.

I get it, he might have had issues with english but there have been countless guys who speak volumes in the ring.

Stretching out a great heel turn with repeated failed title shots did not help him out a bit.


I don't see Fox changing things. They will want all the starpower they can get and I genuinely have a feeling Lesnar will cash in on Kofi so he can be champ when the Fox debut happens. Also big returning stars will probably show up around that time like John Cena.



If I'm going to be honest, the best way I think WWE can run two different brands is if two different people control them. Why not let HHH have Smackdown or Raw and Vince have the other? At least there will be difference in the feel of the show.

 

[Rossinater]

I came to the realization that WWE does not do pro wrestling anymore. WWE has become all about family entertainment. Monday Night Raw comes across as a 3 hour tv sitcom. There were 5 matches on Raw the other night in the span of 3 hours. Nothing makes sense and its not supposed to. this is just how it is. I mean,cmon, Brock Lesnar literally pulled up in a SUV and it happened to be mid segment with Seth Rollins, Seth mentions Brock and then all of a sudden he pulls up. Made absolutely 0 sense . They just gave the US championship to Samoa Joe. It just reinforces the fact that its fake and since its fake and all entertainment they hammer it home that this is all pointless. Are there any feuds going on besides Charlotte and Lacy and Seth/Kofi and Brock. This is nonsensical programming. We just have to accept that WWE has abandoned "us". If you are on this forum, you love pro wrestling, and you probably been around since the attitude era- they cut us out of their TV. We are no longer part of the WWE universe. The company is filled with people that are embarrassed by us and the attitude era fan.They dont want us doing cool chants,making cool signs,booing and cheering the people that are over. The days of the WWE being watercooler talk is long over. This is why i support AEW as much as I do. I try to get people to support and watch AEW because they are our only hope. I was 10 back when Stone Cold came out and I liked wrestling bc it was awesome back then so WWE cant sell me that they are doing a pg product because thats what the kids want to see...no no no, thats not true at all. When I was growing up EVERY kid watched wrestling bc it was the cool thing,all the adults were watching it too, todays Kids think wrestling is so lame after 11 years old.