AegonTargaryen
Championship Contender
Remember a time when a Backlash, Judgement Day or Vengeance felt like a must-see show, much more than even Summerslam feels today, and Summerslam was obviously huge ? When we'd see Taker vs Angle vs Rock at Vengeance, or an Unforgiven in 2002 which was a better show than most Summerslams or Survivor Series's from the last many years.
It's undeniable that most PPVs like Fastlane and Payback feel like an episode of Sunday Night Raw, and as far back as 2014, Mark Madden would call that year's HIAC featuring Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Orton and Cena a "Sunday Night Raw" and he was right. And that wasn't even an year with the brand split in effect.
Last year's Smackdown PPVs too, although better than Raw, didn't really have a whole lot to offer, based on their thin roster.
My main complaints for the PPVs not feeling special are threefold:-
1)The Sets all look alike.
I want the good old Unforgiven, Judgement Day, and Armageddon sets back, which were picturesque as fuck, and if you're a fan of WCW, they could have been awesome Halloween Havoc or Bash at the Beach sets as well.
I cannot differentiate between the Payback set from last night and the usual Raw set. It just felt like an episode of Raw. For Example, you had a lot of filler at Unforgiven 2003, but the show on the whole at least had a special vibe to it because of the set. Kane vs Shane McMahon and Goldberg vs HHH is memorable to this day, and I can't say the same for a single match on last night's show. I just can't. Which brings me to
2)Combine the rosters for every PPV, giving 4 quality matches from Raw and 4 from Smackdown, and a Pre-show match if you even have to.
Even back then, if you see the line-up of Judgement Day, Great American Bash and No Mercy on Wikipedia, you'd see that necessarily FOUR out of 8 of the matches don't even seem to belong on a Smackdown, let alone on a PPV. I'm talking about matches like:-
Mordecai squashing Scotty 2 hotty
Chavo vs Jacqueline (how could you put this on a PPV for chrissakes)
Any combination of matches involving Kenzo Suzuki, Luther Reigns, Heidenreich, Spike Dudley, Nunzio, Charlie Hass, Bob Holly and the like.
RAW wasn't doing that great either with pretty much half the PPVs being undeserved filler matches. If you were smart, you'd rather have a joint PPV like Unforgiven where the card would be:-
HHH vs Randy Orton(Raw)
Chris Jericho vs Christian(Raw)
Shawn Michaels vs Kane(Raw)
Taker vs JBL(SD)
Cena vs Booker T(SD)
Kurt Angle vs Big Show or Eddie Guerrero(SD)
and any combination of Tag Team or Women's matches in a single unified division for each.
The main argument brand split supporters use in favour of a Single brand PPV is that "everyone should get to be on the show, that's how you make stars" .
I'll simply ask you one thing:- Since Bob Holly, Billy Gunn, Charlie Hass, Rico, La Resistance, Tajiri, Kenzo Suzuki, Luther Reigns, Heidenreich, Rhyno, Tyson Tomko, Stevie Richards, among others all got to be on PPVs in those years, ....how come they never became stars?
Because they were never worthy of being on so many PPVs to begin with, and I haven't even included Nunzio and Spike Dudley and many others in that list.
3)Reduce the number of PPVs to 12, and if you absolutely must, 13. Quality is to be preferred over Quantity.
Let's face it, Half of every Raw and Smackdown PPV will be either trash, or just the same match you've seen dozens of times on free TV. So why not reduce the number of PPVs, let each feud feel special, and battle in matches and rematches ONLY and only on PPVs.
That way, AJ Styles doesn't have to kill time in meaningless subplots featuring James Ellsworth or something, and each month, he can give an awesome match.
I'd much rather see 10 or 12 solid Dual branded PPVs a year than 12 very diluted Single brand ones and the Big Four.
It's undeniable that most PPVs like Fastlane and Payback feel like an episode of Sunday Night Raw, and as far back as 2014, Mark Madden would call that year's HIAC featuring Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Orton and Cena a "Sunday Night Raw" and he was right. And that wasn't even an year with the brand split in effect.
Last year's Smackdown PPVs too, although better than Raw, didn't really have a whole lot to offer, based on their thin roster.
My main complaints for the PPVs not feeling special are threefold:-
1)The Sets all look alike.
I want the good old Unforgiven, Judgement Day, and Armageddon sets back, which were picturesque as fuck, and if you're a fan of WCW, they could have been awesome Halloween Havoc or Bash at the Beach sets as well.
I cannot differentiate between the Payback set from last night and the usual Raw set. It just felt like an episode of Raw. For Example, you had a lot of filler at Unforgiven 2003, but the show on the whole at least had a special vibe to it because of the set. Kane vs Shane McMahon and Goldberg vs HHH is memorable to this day, and I can't say the same for a single match on last night's show. I just can't. Which brings me to
2)Combine the rosters for every PPV, giving 4 quality matches from Raw and 4 from Smackdown, and a Pre-show match if you even have to.
Even back then, if you see the line-up of Judgement Day, Great American Bash and No Mercy on Wikipedia, you'd see that necessarily FOUR out of 8 of the matches don't even seem to belong on a Smackdown, let alone on a PPV. I'm talking about matches like:-
Mordecai squashing Scotty 2 hotty
Chavo vs Jacqueline (how could you put this on a PPV for chrissakes)
Any combination of matches involving Kenzo Suzuki, Luther Reigns, Heidenreich, Spike Dudley, Nunzio, Charlie Hass, Bob Holly and the like.
RAW wasn't doing that great either with pretty much half the PPVs being undeserved filler matches. If you were smart, you'd rather have a joint PPV like Unforgiven where the card would be:-
HHH vs Randy Orton(Raw)
Chris Jericho vs Christian(Raw)
Shawn Michaels vs Kane(Raw)
Taker vs JBL(SD)
Cena vs Booker T(SD)
Kurt Angle vs Big Show or Eddie Guerrero(SD)
and any combination of Tag Team or Women's matches in a single unified division for each.
The main argument brand split supporters use in favour of a Single brand PPV is that "everyone should get to be on the show, that's how you make stars" .
I'll simply ask you one thing:- Since Bob Holly, Billy Gunn, Charlie Hass, Rico, La Resistance, Tajiri, Kenzo Suzuki, Luther Reigns, Heidenreich, Rhyno, Tyson Tomko, Stevie Richards, among others all got to be on PPVs in those years, ....how come they never became stars?
Because they were never worthy of being on so many PPVs to begin with, and I haven't even included Nunzio and Spike Dudley and many others in that list.
3)Reduce the number of PPVs to 12, and if you absolutely must, 13. Quality is to be preferred over Quantity.
Let's face it, Half of every Raw and Smackdown PPV will be either trash, or just the same match you've seen dozens of times on free TV. So why not reduce the number of PPVs, let each feud feel special, and battle in matches and rematches ONLY and only on PPVs.
That way, AJ Styles doesn't have to kill time in meaningless subplots featuring James Ellsworth or something, and each month, he can give an awesome match.
I'd much rather see 10 or 12 solid Dual branded PPVs a year than 12 very diluted Single brand ones and the Big Four.