What Happened To All The Jobbers?

[ECW Sandman]

If a thread has already been done about this I'm sorry.

While watching Prime Time Wrestling and Tuesday Night Titans on WWE Classics On Demand I noticed all the top stars of WWF taking on ''local wrestlers'' guys like Dusty Wolfe, Barry Horowitz, and The Brooklyn Brawler now it's top star vs mid carder and you know who the mid carders are.


So my question is Should WWE have Local jobbers on Raw and SD like they did in the 80's and early 90's and keep the big stars and mid carders for the last match of the night and for the PPV'S like they were so many years ago.



Your Thoughts.

 

[mlp420]

There's just no time for them man. WCW and they're 15 syndicated programs are gone, and USA Network ain't having it. WWE has to deliver ratings and I'm pretty sure that Jobbers =/= Ratings

 

[TheWrestlo]

i used to see them during these years, last one i recall was a guy named the Carolina Panther jobbing to the great khali 2 years ago, but with Alberts re-debut on right now we could see the return of the local jobber

 

[The Extract]

They made a comeback around 2009 ECW. They were used to promote the 'new talent inniciative' to promote people like Swagger, Bourne, Paul Burchill, Kofi, etc. But IMO, they should only be used for the monster heels to seem more powerful.

 

[trashboy]

They're still around, you just don't see as many as you did back in the day. Right now you're main jobber is Heath Slater. Every once in a while you will see a local wrestler job to someone like Mark Henry or whoever to show how "tough" he is.

 

[Pedigree1]

Different time different place its a shame really. I enjoy some dude named bob white getting squashed by mark henry!! Its just no time for that anymore WWE is under massive pressure to deliver ratings night in and night out!! I really don't think USA would stand for that anyways!!

The wrestling audience is different now!! Its not like when i was a kid i enjoyed the jobbers the audience today IMO wouldn't have the patience for that kind of program!! We wanna see Cena v brock right away not Brock vs local town jobber to warm up to Cena! But again i do miss the jobbers they add to the program and the wrestlers credibility. But thats my two cents

 

[TempestH]

We need local jobbers. The reason our midcarders are getting crapped on is because there are no real jobbers. Why not let the FCW guys fill that role? They'd get a nice payday out of it.

 

[Peoples_Champ]

I'm really split on the use of jobbers in today's WWE. It seems like such a waste of a segment, but it would be great to see someone like Brodus Clay or Lord Tensai be dominant for weeks against guys whose momentum really doesn't matter. Seeing JDG put over wrestler after wrestler doesn't make sense to me, it's like UFC keeping a crappy fighter for no reason (*cough*... Tank Abbott...).

Still, I would love to see the occasional jobber. I think it would add something new to the program. I'd have to see how it turns out whether I can truly like / hate it.

 

[Reflection]

Bringing in local jobbers would mean bad business my friend. Be it RAW or be it Smack Down, There are actually many guys under contract that are waiting for a chance to perform on TV. Plus those 2-min squash matches are disliked by one and all. There is no point in hiring people from outside.

 

[Azane]

They job lower carders now, the rosters large enough to do it, and they can still give them a chance to show themselves before moving up the card possibly.

 

[TempestH]

Bringing in local jobbers would mean bad business my friend. Be it RAW or be it Smack Down, There are actually many guys under contract that are waiting for a chance to perform on TV. Plus those 2-min squash matches are disliked by one and all. There is no point in hiring people from outside.

I'm torn between this. For outside guys getting squashed, it is an opportunity to perform on the big stage. For the guys on the main roster, it means they're getting crapped on by management. This is why we need jobbers, so that the main roster guys aren't treated like crap.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

No dude. Back then, they didn't know how to write a TV program. Hell, in the 80s MOST matches seemed to be jobber matches. That's why you had these "year long feuds" that so may people think they want (you don't).

Jobbers kill ratings. No one thinks wrestling is real so beating up a scrawny nobody does nothing other than kill the entertainment value.

 

[Defekt]

I doubt anyone would be happy if the WWE started having jobber matches again.

When I started watching wrestling in the early/mid 90's, most televised WWE matches were superstar vs jobber. It was boring as hell at times, and a match between any two real wrestlers was something to look forward to.

Read some of the old results for RAW or god forbid WWF Challenge, and tell me it sounds like something you'd be interested in watching every week.

 

[RRPounder]

If I'm not mistaken, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels AND Bryan Danielson all did jobs on WWE programming. I think at least three of them did the job for Essa Rios. They're all on You Tube if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Snixon]

I think jobbers added something back in the day. They allowed fans to see what superstars (esp new superstars)can do in the ring and allowed momentum to build in anticapation of seeing them against the stars of the day. Unfortunately, todays pursuit of ratings does not allow for that luxury. I think its terrible today when guys who are depended on to help draw money are used as jobbers (Chris Masters, Mark Henry and Alex Riley come to mind). WWE backs themselves into a corner later when those guys are needed. Daniel Bryan was getting killed for how long then they put the belt on him. Thats not good business.

 

[Ithil]

They don't really need local jobbers any more, since they have a good dozen jobbers on the roster already, maybe more.

They usually have 1-2 wrestlers in need to jobbers at any one time, so it's big enough to service them (though they kept the Funkasaurus squashes going so long he started to repeat jobbers)

 

[TheHeartbreakPunk]

Theres a lot of jobbers already on the roster right now, heath slater, jtg, curt hawkins, some of those people come to mind. The wwe need jobbers to make bigger stars look dominant. Brodus clay redebuted as the funkasaurus and destroyed jobbers, and now the crowd likes him. I think they did lord tensais debut nicely, and that a jobber/squash match. Jobbers are just an essential part of the modern wwe.

 

[TLK]

As others have said, the WWE still has jobbers, but they're just recongnizable jobbers. There just isn't enough time/room/need for them, especially during a point in time when Vince is struggling to boost ratings.

 

[DirtyD79]

There's a reason for that. It's because every show being nothing but jobber squashes and a main event ending in bullshit like a disqualification or "oops we're outta time" was boring and nobody wanted to watch it. Just because that's the way they did it back in the day doesn't always mean it was great.

 

[Arsenal]

Apparently Alex Riley is a jobber now. I hope that doesn't continue, because he has a lot of talent and star potential with the right gimmick and push.

Although, I like that they made Lord Tensai look dominating right off the bat. Let him squash a few more guys, then put him in a high profile feud and it'll be totally believable. I'd love to see him be the next person to destroy John Cena. Great character and gimmick, and it comes across completely believable that he can just destroy people like a "Tensai" (look it up).

 

[Workrate]

I think this is a case of "when I was a kid, I loved wrestling! And they had local jobbers back then, so I must have loved that too!" Or, sure, you can flip on a YouTube match or two. But try watching program after program, week after week, and then see how you feel about it.

At this point, the talent pool is too big. The WWE is regularly cutting guys because there's just nothing for them to do. Bringing in local jobbers might be cheaper, but it just doesn't make sense otherwise. Sure, people are flipping the channel when Jinder Mahal walks out, but even more would flip if you brought out Bob Johnson from Chicago. And at least with Mahal, there's a slim chance that something might tilt in his favor and he can become useful for more than just putting guys over. Better to get him that live crowd, television experience ahead of time.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

It's quite as simple as WWE having a harder time building any legitimate stars. They have two shows, and maybe ONE show's worth of sell-able talent - there are simply too many wrestlers, and not enough relevant ones to permit the use of local jobbers. Even guys like Funaki have fallen by the wayside... If the WWE needs to have somebody do a "job" against somebody like Brodus Clay, they'll use a guy they normally showcase on NXT or Superstars. Maybe a lower-midcard guy from Smackdown if necessary. That way they get the jobber a bit of exposure (that is ultimately hurting them...) and get the jobbie over in the process.

The flaw here is that we end up with a bunch of talents nobody cares about - the jobbers aren't getting over, the guys that are SUPPOSED to be getting over aren't getting over... It's a giant circle of WWE pushing the flavor of the month until they're dry, and throwing them back in line when they're not drawing any reaction.

 

[destruct-o-tron]

Well, there are dudes like Yoshi Tatsu who are basically jobbers that stay on the roster, but guys like that are few and far between.

The obvious downside to having such a slim roster is now we have to watch Albert squash supposed "up and coming stars" like Alex Riley.