CJ The Pirate
Schwing
From the birth of pro wrestling to now there has been one constant: The Top Babyface. Whether it was Dusty Rhodes, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Sting, The Rock or, finally, John Cena. This will continue on and on until the sport ends if that ever happens.
Something changed in the 90's. The rules were bent so that there was lots more variety to choose from in our face characters. The Anti hero like Stone Cold or Sting and others were created.
Before then people either did good acts or bad acts and were cheered accordingly. That's the black and white of it anyway. If, however, the crowd were to cheer on a heel then their character was rapidly changed to stay that way.
When Stone Cold Steve Austin delivered his victory speech at King of the Ring. He was cheered for it. Austin 3:16 signs were in every arena but due to the fact that it was his attitude being cheered, they just left it alone and let it happen naturally. Like a young child moving up into high school, they find what works with their classmates and they stick with it. If not, they're buried and ignored by everyone except the guys who beat them up every week. In wrestling terms, thats a choice between superstar or jobber.
The reason behind this change was what the crowd wanted. But that seems to have gone now which, in my mind, makes the littlest possible sense.
The internet is florishing. They way to vocalise ourselves now is amazingly simple. Think how our parents used to do things at our age. Phones, Letters, Actually getting face to face to talk about it. Hunting down places who discussed things like this if none of their friends did. That's my situation, I'm one of a few people in my social circle who watch wrestling so I use forums to counter that. I can talk football or movies in the local pub with anyone but wrestling? Not so easy. How do I find a forum? I googled it. It was a two minute job and I get all of you to listen to what I have to say whether you like it or not.
John Cena has been getting mixed reviews for years. This isn't one of those threads. I don't really want it to happen as they'd do it wrong anyway. Or he would. WWE didn't listen. Instead things were done based on merchandise sales. Which is possibly the worst thing to listen to for the sport.
Cena sells lots of orange shit.
Orton Sells lots of Viper shit.
Mysterio sells Masks.
Jeff Hardy sold T-Shirts.
DX sold pretty much anything endorsable.
All of them were faces... huge faces. I'd call that a tie between right and wrong for business. Cena, Mysterio and Hardy are all perfect faces and work it very well. Cena's Never Give Up thing is encouraging for everyone. Mysterio is brilliant for children as he's a little man making it big. Jeff fit the misfit hero very well making people feel ok to be a little different. I know he's no longer in the WWE but he fits perfectly for this.
Orton, Triple H and Shawn Michaels were all great heels. Sure, Michaels did both roles fantastic but another heel run would have been exciting to watch.
But because of sales, they turned them all face, in Triple H's case and I'm sure others, against their wills too.
So the arguement I'm making is that they should listen to the crowds reaction and decide from there. Well, what about Randy Orton? That was fan decided wasn't it? Well, yes and no. Yes, they did cheer him a lot but that was during a feud against Legacy who the fans just hadn't seen anything good from. Orton himself was cheered for when he was leaving Evolution but this time, the crowd were backing the young lion. He was cheered, his T-Shirts were purchased more than before and they didn't do anything to stop what was happening. They didn't even try to keep one of the most perfect heels in years instead they watched the dollar signs roll.
They should have had him do dispicable acts again after Wrestlemania. They should have let him punt a few faces and listened to how the crowd reacted. If, and only if, they chanted his name even after that. Put him in a feud similar to the one he had with Kofi Kingston and see if the reaction was any different and if then he T-Shirt sales still soared and his name was chanted around all arenas. Then turn him face. The way it was done is poor and unbelievable.
I really cannot find any reason to believe rumours that Cena is going to turn with the whole Nexus thing. The storyline on Smackdown that Rey is the one who put down The Undertaker will most definitely not be the case (My money is on Kane himself) and the simple reason is that the kids wearing orange and multicoloured lucha masks will just stop buying it.
It's almost as if the writers just can't be arsed building up another face to get those sales. It would be easy. They just cant see past the hear and now. Say Cena did go heel. Turn Chris Jericho. He's being cheered recently. He's quick to put a stop to it each week but it's definitely heard. A couple of Raw is Jericho's and Ayatollah's and the kid's would be putty in his hand. There would be Jerichoholics in every corner of the world... if that word is still acceptable that is.
This is the rocky foundation the WWE is built upon and it's creating quite the paradox. Despite the WWE being nowhere near collapse, it's losing fans and not gaining new ones. I've said a fair few times before that as a kid watching todays product, it wouldn't have hooked me the same as it did in 1998. Sure some kids will watch what their dads or older brothers are watching but that wasn't me. I got into this all by myself. That market is certainly missing right now in my eyes. Also missing are the none internet fans of my age or older. I watch for many different reasons since becoming part of the IWC. before, it was still real. I didn't know who other feds had or who was currently in developmental. Debuts were a huge deal and storylines were just brilliant... perhaps that last part is still true for back then. Now I watch for workrate and mic skills and I spot mistakes and improvisations from a mile away. I have watched plenty of old school matches and matches from other countries. Friends from school who watched back then no longer watch because they never logged onto forums and learnt all this. Because of those missing fans, the WWE will keep on letting the merch sales dictate who is the top baby face and who isn't. The money it's losing on those missing fans who'd fill the shows which regularly don't sell out it's gaining in the shops.
I personally believe that if they dropped this plan and went back to letting us have a fair say in what we want to see the product would improve naturally.
Something changed in the 90's. The rules were bent so that there was lots more variety to choose from in our face characters. The Anti hero like Stone Cold or Sting and others were created.
Before then people either did good acts or bad acts and were cheered accordingly. That's the black and white of it anyway. If, however, the crowd were to cheer on a heel then their character was rapidly changed to stay that way.
When Stone Cold Steve Austin delivered his victory speech at King of the Ring. He was cheered for it. Austin 3:16 signs were in every arena but due to the fact that it was his attitude being cheered, they just left it alone and let it happen naturally. Like a young child moving up into high school, they find what works with their classmates and they stick with it. If not, they're buried and ignored by everyone except the guys who beat them up every week. In wrestling terms, thats a choice between superstar or jobber.
The reason behind this change was what the crowd wanted. But that seems to have gone now which, in my mind, makes the littlest possible sense.
The internet is florishing. They way to vocalise ourselves now is amazingly simple. Think how our parents used to do things at our age. Phones, Letters, Actually getting face to face to talk about it. Hunting down places who discussed things like this if none of their friends did. That's my situation, I'm one of a few people in my social circle who watch wrestling so I use forums to counter that. I can talk football or movies in the local pub with anyone but wrestling? Not so easy. How do I find a forum? I googled it. It was a two minute job and I get all of you to listen to what I have to say whether you like it or not.
John Cena has been getting mixed reviews for years. This isn't one of those threads. I don't really want it to happen as they'd do it wrong anyway. Or he would. WWE didn't listen. Instead things were done based on merchandise sales. Which is possibly the worst thing to listen to for the sport.
Cena sells lots of orange shit.
Orton Sells lots of Viper shit.
Mysterio sells Masks.
Jeff Hardy sold T-Shirts.
DX sold pretty much anything endorsable.
All of them were faces... huge faces. I'd call that a tie between right and wrong for business. Cena, Mysterio and Hardy are all perfect faces and work it very well. Cena's Never Give Up thing is encouraging for everyone. Mysterio is brilliant for children as he's a little man making it big. Jeff fit the misfit hero very well making people feel ok to be a little different. I know he's no longer in the WWE but he fits perfectly for this.
Orton, Triple H and Shawn Michaels were all great heels. Sure, Michaels did both roles fantastic but another heel run would have been exciting to watch.
But because of sales, they turned them all face, in Triple H's case and I'm sure others, against their wills too.
So the arguement I'm making is that they should listen to the crowds reaction and decide from there. Well, what about Randy Orton? That was fan decided wasn't it? Well, yes and no. Yes, they did cheer him a lot but that was during a feud against Legacy who the fans just hadn't seen anything good from. Orton himself was cheered for when he was leaving Evolution but this time, the crowd were backing the young lion. He was cheered, his T-Shirts were purchased more than before and they didn't do anything to stop what was happening. They didn't even try to keep one of the most perfect heels in years instead they watched the dollar signs roll.
They should have had him do dispicable acts again after Wrestlemania. They should have let him punt a few faces and listened to how the crowd reacted. If, and only if, they chanted his name even after that. Put him in a feud similar to the one he had with Kofi Kingston and see if the reaction was any different and if then he T-Shirt sales still soared and his name was chanted around all arenas. Then turn him face. The way it was done is poor and unbelievable.
I really cannot find any reason to believe rumours that Cena is going to turn with the whole Nexus thing. The storyline on Smackdown that Rey is the one who put down The Undertaker will most definitely not be the case (My money is on Kane himself) and the simple reason is that the kids wearing orange and multicoloured lucha masks will just stop buying it.
It's almost as if the writers just can't be arsed building up another face to get those sales. It would be easy. They just cant see past the hear and now. Say Cena did go heel. Turn Chris Jericho. He's being cheered recently. He's quick to put a stop to it each week but it's definitely heard. A couple of Raw is Jericho's and Ayatollah's and the kid's would be putty in his hand. There would be Jerichoholics in every corner of the world... if that word is still acceptable that is.
This is the rocky foundation the WWE is built upon and it's creating quite the paradox. Despite the WWE being nowhere near collapse, it's losing fans and not gaining new ones. I've said a fair few times before that as a kid watching todays product, it wouldn't have hooked me the same as it did in 1998. Sure some kids will watch what their dads or older brothers are watching but that wasn't me. I got into this all by myself. That market is certainly missing right now in my eyes. Also missing are the none internet fans of my age or older. I watch for many different reasons since becoming part of the IWC. before, it was still real. I didn't know who other feds had or who was currently in developmental. Debuts were a huge deal and storylines were just brilliant... perhaps that last part is still true for back then. Now I watch for workrate and mic skills and I spot mistakes and improvisations from a mile away. I have watched plenty of old school matches and matches from other countries. Friends from school who watched back then no longer watch because they never logged onto forums and learnt all this. Because of those missing fans, the WWE will keep on letting the merch sales dictate who is the top baby face and who isn't. The money it's losing on those missing fans who'd fill the shows which regularly don't sell out it's gaining in the shops.
I personally believe that if they dropped this plan and went back to letting us have a fair say in what we want to see the product would improve naturally.
. Getting back to the point I think WWE is following a formula that they have followed since the 80's. The golden age was all about the kids and the muscle men, action figurery, larger than life characters. Then came Attitude where the kids grew up and came in the era of Stone Cold, then toned it down and went back to PG with Cena. It's a pattern. Pardon the pun but it's like a viper shedding his skin. WWE does that in order to garner new fans when the fuel is running out. Attidude era was over so what did they do? They said fuck you to Attitude and went to teletubbies. The merch sales in my opinion is what SHOULD decide who is the top face because merch sales essentially means that the people are interested in the wrestler to the point that they wanna buy his T-shirts. I have another opinion of why Randy was turned face. To shut "smarks" up. They HATED Cena (Face) and LOVED Orton (Heel) and so they turned Orton face to maintain the Heel-Face status quo. Now, eventually Cena will be out of style. Not today, not tommorow but eventually kids will be like "Meh..." about Cena as they will grow up and lose interest in cartoons and sillines. When that happens they will do the unthinkable and turn him heel like they did with Hogan except MAYBE people will still cheer. When the kids grow up, the forumal will be the same. PG will turn Attitude, Money will still roll in. That's how WWE shits on every other wrestling corporation today.