When's the last time you actually felt you "couldn't wait" for Raw/SDL?

[AegonTargaryen]

Wrestling is enjoyable for different reasons for different fans. Some like the drama aspect of it, others are content watching some good high-flying moves, still others want technical awesomeness such as that exemplified by a Chris Benoit, Bret Hart, or Kurt Angle.

Most of us today know everything about the booking and the show, which means there's not even 5% of the element of Kayfabe and genuine thrill based on suspense. Thus, we're deprived of that enjoyment which those who still buy into wrestling as "real" derive. To them, Kane is actually what Glenn Jacobs portrayed back in '98.

When you watch wrestling believing in Kane, Taker or any other wrestler, even John Cena, without really being acquainted with the scripted nature of wrestling, you're going to be surprised and shocked far more than most of us today are.

With that being said, there's still scope for us to genuinely have the feeling of "I can't wait for next week's Raw or Smackdown".

As for me, once I was acquainted with the scripted nature of Wrestling and considering how there's only so many interesting characters or personas in Wrestling, there was a dramatic shift in the way I watched it.

Also, most of us are so used to seeing the same old same old, there's very little to feel thrilled about, week after week, month after month. Two things make pro wrestling a really limited and rigid form of entertainment:-

1)From HHH to John Cena to Randy Orton, a few wrestlers are always the ones you know you'll see being given the spotlight and mainevent, with clear demarcations between them, the midcard, and the enhancement talent.

2)There are far less intriguing, amazing "personas" in wrestling now than there used to be. Bray Wyatt is nowhere near as original, interesting or awe-inspiring as Mankind, Kane and Taker, and is quite frankly, overrated. Dean Ambrose as the "Lunatic fringe" is laughable. Most other wrestlers today don't even have a character, except for "I'm an underdog. I bust my ass everyday", a la Sami Zayn, Dean Ambrose, and Dolph Ziggler.

The most profoundly unique and original characters in wrestling in the previous decade happen to be Chris Jericho's run between 2008-2010, and CM Punk as the Straightedge Messiah and Anti-Establishment rebel.

I'm a Roman Reigns fan and a Seth Rollins fan, but as I've been saying, Wrestling hasn't shocked me or left me with the feeling of "I can't wait" for ages.

May be because other than Jericho, Punk and Bryan, no one really ever became a huge star in decades?

The formula the WWE has lazily used to create stars clearly didn't work, in an age of generic performers. So far, it has been this:-

1)Some random wrestler like Del Rio, Sheamus, Miz, or Ziggler wins the MITB.
2)Wins the title. Drops the title.
3)We get back to Cena, Orton, HHH, or Lesnar as champion.

There's no character that stands out. There's no moment that is "shocking". It's just the same thing over and over again.

With that being said, for the first time in years, or God knows since when, I genuinely felt like "I can't wait to see this", "I can't wait to see what happens next" concerning Smackdown Live this past week after Jinder Mahal won the 6-pack challenge, cut a belligerent post-match promo, got massive heat, and pretty much felt like something fresh, new and welcome.

Us wrestling fans can be really rigid in what we're given, and what we say we want. It's always either the same old prototypical champion in a Orton, Cena, Rock or some flavour-of-the-month heel like Miz/Sheamus/Del Rio, or it's some Indy guy who's suddenly given the title as Finn Balor or Kevin Owens..

Even when a Del Rio is pushed, it doesn't feel organic and the said wrestler never clicked with most of us.

For the first time in years, I experienced palpable frustration, belligerence and aggression personified in one Jinder Mahal, something RAW, something far better than any of the random pushes of your Dolph Zigglers, Dean Ambroses, Bray Wyatts, Kevin Owens' and Finn Balors.

It has simply left me with a lingering feeling of "I can't wait to see what happens on Smackdown Live next week", for the first time in years.

When's the last time you felt that?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Wrestling is enjoyable for different reasons for different fans. Some like the drama aspect of it, others are content watching some good high-flying moves, still others want technical awesomeness such as that exemplified by a Chris Benoit, Bret Hart, or Kurt Angle.

Most of us today know everything about the booking and the show, which means there's not even 5% of the element of Kayfabe and genuine thrill based on suspense. Thus, we're deprived of that enjoyment which those who still buy into wrestling as "real" derive. To them, Kane is actually what Glenn Jacobs portrayed back in '98.

When you watch wrestling believing in Kane, Taker or any other wrestler, even John Cena, without really being acquainted with the scripted nature of wrestling, you're going to be surprised and shocked far more than most of us today are.

With that being said, there's still scope for us to genuinely have the feeling of "I can't wait for next week's Raw or Smackdown".

As for me, once I was acquainted with the scripted nature of Wrestling and considering how there's only so many interesting characters or personas in Wrestling, there was a dramatic shift in the way I watched it.

Also, most of us are so used to seeing the same old same old, there's very little to feel thrilled about, week after week, month after month. Two things make pro wrestling a really limited and rigid form of entertainment:-

1)From HHH to John Cena to Randy Orton, a few wrestlers are always the ones you know you'll see being given the spotlight and mainevent, with clear demarcations between them, the midcard, and the enhancement talent.

2)There are far less intriguing, amazing "personas" in wrestling now than there used to be. Bray Wyatt is nowhere near as original, interesting or awe-inspiring as Mankind, Kane and Taker, and is quite frankly, overrated. Dean Ambrose as the "Lunatic fringe" is laughable. Most other wrestlers today don't even have a character, except for "I'm an underdog. I bust my ass everyday", a la Sami Zayn, Dean Ambrose, and Dolph Ziggler.

The most profoundly unique and original characters in wrestling in the previous decade happen to be Chris Jericho's run between 2008-2010, and CM Punk as the Straightedge Messiah and Anti-Establishment rebel.

I'm a Roman Reigns fan and a Seth Rollins fan, but as I've been saying, Wrestling hasn't shocked me or left me with the feeling of "I can't wait" for ages.

May be because other than Jericho, Punk and Bryan, no one really ever became a huge star in decades?

The formula the WWE has lazily used to create stars clearly didn't work, in an age of generic performers. So far, it has been this:-

1)Some random wrestler like Del Rio, Sheamus, Miz, or Ziggler wins the MITB.
2)Wins the title. Drops the title.
3)We get back to Cena, Orton, HHH, or Lesnar as champion.

There's no character that stands out. There's no moment that is "shocking". It's just the same thing over and over again.

With that being said, for the first time in years, or God knows since when, I genuinely felt like "I can't wait to see this", "I can't wait to see what happens next" concerning Smackdown Live this past week after Jinder Mahal won the 6-pack challenge, cut a belligerent post-match promo, got massive heat, and pretty much felt like something fresh, new and welcome.

Us wrestling fans can be really rigid in what we're given, and what we say we want. It's always either the same old prototypical champion in a Orton, Cena, Rock or some flavour-of-the-month heel like Miz/Sheamus/Del Rio, or it's some Indy guy who's suddenly given the title as Finn Balor or Kevin Owens..

Even when a Del Rio is pushed, it doesn't feel organic and the said wrestler never clicked with most of us.

For the first time in years, I experienced palpable frustration, belligerence and aggression personified in one Jinder Mahal, something RAW, something far better than any of the random pushes of your Dolph Zigglers, Dean Ambroses, Bray Wyatts, Kevin Owens' and Finn Balors.

It has simply left me with a lingering feeling of "I can't wait to see what happens on Smackdown Live next week", for the first time in years.

When's the last time you felt that?

The source of the vast majority of our dissatisfaction is us. That's not to say that we're not sometimes right for criticizing something that goes on, or stating that we don't like it, but we can go overboard with it. We know what we know, we have our familiarity about the goings on of pro wrestling, who's likely getting pushed, who has heat backstage, upcoming storylines & angles, etc. all because we read the dirt sheets. We've never had to read them, but the temptation to peak behind the curtain was too much and the vast majority of us continue to do it. Don't you see how ironic and all but impossible it is to want to be "surprised" or for something "shocking" to happen when you purposely try to find out what's going to happen ahead of time? We can't blame WWE, or any other wrestling company, for that when we're the ones who go out of our way to spoil it for ourselves. It's like jerking off just before you're about to have sex For example, I could've read the spoilers for the next round of tapings for NXT that took place this week, but I didn't. As a result, I don't know what's going on next week, I don't know what the matches are, I don't know what matches, if any, have been announced for the next TakeOver event because it's simply more fun not knowing those things ahead of time.

Perhaps the most difficult fans in the world to please are modern wrestling fans, especially when it pertains to WWE. So many fans are so flat out pessimistic, negative and hard to please that I can't help but wonder why they bother watching at all if they're legitimately as unhappy as they claim. Many fans claim to want to edgier storylines, yet take to social media to blast WWE whenever something relatively controversial happens. People accused WWE of promoting racial tensions during the initial weeks of Jack Swagger & Zeb Coulter's "Real American" characters, they blasted WWE for CM Punk and Paul Heyman "mocking" Jerry Lawler's heart attack or "disrespecting" the memory of Paul Bearer during Taker & Punk's WrestleMania feud, Paige briefly mentions, and when I say briefly I mean mere seconds, Reid Flair's death and people, including Dave Meltzer, act as though she slapped a Make A Wish kid, etc.

You mention Jinder Mahal, well Jinder's push is getting mixed results at best in the minds of fans. Some fans who constantly harp on wanting to see something new, someone different getting a shot often bitch when and if such a thing happens, especially if that someone isn't an indy darling that's spent a good decade or so out there on the indy scene before hitting WWE as though it's somehow should give them dibs or something. Right now, some have already made up their minds to crap all over Mahal's push to face Randy Orton for the WWE Championship and won't change their minds no matter what. They've made their choice, they've decided that it sucks and that they don't want to give it a chance before any build has even happened. Even if the build was to generate an interesting storyline and a great match between the two that all results in Jinder's stock going up, some of those fans will stand by their negative feelings due to some warped principle that makes sense only to them.

If you're a grown up and have been watching wrestling since you were a kid, you're almost never going to recapture that sense of awe and wonder at age 30, or whatever, that you had at age 10. Why? Because I'll bet nearly all of us had no clue that pro wrestling wasn't real at the age of 10. We weren't concerned with the intricacies of storylines at age 10, we weren't thinking about whether or not it made sense for a wrestler to win, we weren't thinking about whether or not someone drew money; we just sat, we watched and we enjoyed without trying to think about it too much. Some of the earliest memories I have involve watching wrestling and I've pretty much seen it all; I also sometimes fall into the same traps as most internet fans in that I sometimes feel some should be pushed and some shouldn't, that it's a mistake to do this instead of doing that, getting frustrated if a feud doesn't come out the way I think it should. That's okay, however, to a degree but you're setting yourself up for disappointment if/when you allow yourself to get to the point where only the ideas you think should go down in exactly the way you think they should please you.

I've enjoyed Raw and SDL quite a bit since the brand split. From an overall perspective, I think SDL is the better show when it comes to booking, storytelling and making the most out of the talent on the roster. Raw is the show where most of the big moments take place, though I believe that Raw has been more consistently and strongly booked this year, so far, than last year as last year was often a mess. There are things wrong with both of them but the thing is there'll ALWAYS be something wrong; there's no such thing as perfection and what works for some fans won't work for others. I could nitpick to my heart's content and if that ever becomes what I wind up doing more than trying to enjoy myself, I'll just stop watching because there are other things in which my time is better spent.

To be honest, I think the dislike and general discontent expressed on the forums is exaggerated. Negativity runs rampant via the internet and, for whatever reason, we just seem to prefer making negative comments or generally wallowing in negativity much of the time. Sometimes, a poster will come to the forums and just blast WWE over this or that, saying how much they hate what's going on with this guy or with that guy, how lazy the company is, etc. yet they continue to watch each and every week. If they keep watching, then it's extremely difficult to believe they dislike it as much as they claim and that their like far outweighs their dislike. It's sort of like the boos that John Cena has gotten for over a decade in that while live crowds seem to "hate" the guy, his matches & segments are consistent draws, his merchandise has been WWE's biggest seller for many a year, he's generated a lot of ppv buys and WWE Network subscriptions and the "hate" seems to go away whenever he goes out that and puts on one very strong match after another. Jeering John Cena is basically the thing that live audiences do just like constantly bitching about WWE is the thing that smarks do, yet the jeering and bitching don't come off as all that genuine when fans tune in week after week or spend their money to attend house shows, TV tapings and ppv events.

 

[Navi]

As a wrestling fan who's been watching for a long, long time, I look forward to every RAW and SD Live. Well maybe not RAW some weeks, I'll admit. It can be a grind to sit through.

First to admit I know nothing about booking or running a show, but I don't care and don't want to know about it. Just watch to be entertained, maybe I'm different than most. And like most wrestling fans I have guy or gals that I like better than others, doesn't mean the product is crap if someone I don't particularly care for is getting a push, just go do something else while their match is on.

Some fans seem to think that the WWE should cater to them and them alone, and they are the ones who bitch the most. Yes if it's a bad or boring show then because of forums like this one I'll say so. If there was no internet wrestling forums would just complain to my son and husband. But to answer the OP's question, look forward to every show. Not every show delivers but hey there is always next week right.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

I'm pretty much agreeing with everything that's been written n the other posts. That's kinda my biggest problem with wrestling is the fans.

In wwe's world their damn if they do or they damn if they don't. If they push somebody new that's not an indy guy then the internet fans will crap all over it because he's not their guy.

Personally, while I still like to read some of the news on wrestling websites, I don't let it affect my enjoyment of the product. I still watch it like I did when I was 10 years old and I've been watching it for almost 30 years now.

I guess that why I get in so much arguments about top guys like reigns and wyatt and the way they are push, because I look at them like how a 10 years old fan would look at them.

But to respond to this thread, I've still love watching smackdown every week and can wait to see the next episode. In fact, I really hated the fact that because of hockey, I had to watch it on wednesday this week instead of the regular tuesday.

Raw I've kinda being bored with it for a while now and nxt as well, I still watch them mostly because it's there and there really nothing on tv but I could skip them if something else was playing.

 

[Snugglebites]

There's two times I couldn't wait for RAW that instantly come to mind.

The RAW after Sting showed up at Survivor Series and the RAW after CM Punk won at MiTB and "left". Maybe Goldberg beating Lesnar as well.

The WWE of today is definitely lacking them big moments that get everyone talking (for the right reasons).

 

[nwojeff]

It's probably been since about March of 2003, maybe the night after Wrestlemania 19, that I was even a little bit excited for the next Raw or Smackdown. The last time I had that true "can't wait" feeling for either show would be when things were actually exciting and each show felt like it was can't miss, which to me, was during the Monday Night Wars. But even the last 18 months or so of the Monday Night Wars wasn't too great in my opinion because WCW fell so fast in terms of quality content and their ratings/popularity, and I didn't like WWF in 2000/2001 as much as 98/99.

So the last time I was truly excited and couldn't wait for next week's Raw was probably in the spring or summer of 1999. To me, there's been very little excitement, and very little enjoyment in watching WWE, with a few exceptions, from 2004-present. I've been a casual fan the past 14 years, watching a combined maybe 30 minutes of Raw each week, maybe 30 minutes of Smackdown, and maybe a little bit of NXT or 205 Live or whatever else happens to be on the Network on a given night. But I still love watching 80s and 90s wrestling on the Network. Unfortunately you just can't recreate that same excitement that was present during the Attitude Era and Monday Night Wars by watching it again current day. But it still beats watching modern wrestling in my opinion.

 

[DIReviews]

I was hyped for the first RAW and Smackdown Live after the draft last year, but that was probably due to it being a big reset. Apart from that, I'd probably go as far as the RAW after Summerslam 2013. That Triple H heel turn and Daniel Bryan being robbed of the WWE Championship had me excited for what was next.

 

[Dagger Dias]

The last time I actually felt I "couldn't wait" for Raw or Smackdown, as the thread asks, was.... April 18th, 2017.

Yes. I did indeed just say that this past week. Look, the brand split's return has made both shows not only more watchable but you have to watch a certain night to see most wrestlers. Some are only on mondays on the red brand and some are only on tuesdays on the blue brand. I've defended the brand split a lot and there is a reason for that. It improved the product both for the WWE to make more money and for us fans to have more enjoyment stretched across the two brands. I've genuinely looked forward to EVERY Smackdown since the brand split came back and the majority of the Raw's. The booking on the red brand is a bit of a headscratcher most of the time, even compared to pushing Jinder Mahal of all people to a World Heavyweight Championship shot on Smackdown, but I'm enjoying watching both brands. If you want to throw NXT in there too then I have looked forward to it on a weekly basis ever since the spring semester of 2014.

If we have to go back before the brand split's return, then I'll admit my interest was dying down. From the end of the first brand split up until the start of the second one, my interest in the product decreased. I liked the Cena/Rock feud, the Punk push in 2011 up until Trips and Nash ruined it, Bryan's push against The Authority, finally getting Divas Champions who could actually wrestle (Kaitlyn/Paige/AJ), and The Shield. Other than that, there wasn't much that made Raw "must-see" for me and Smackdown was all but pointless from August 2011 to July 2016.

I've had my ups and downs as a fan. As a kid I "couldn't wait" to see Raw and Nitro back in the day during the entirety of the Monday Night Wars. Then my interest dropped in late 2001 up until August of 2004, when my fandom reached its strongest point. From August 2004 up through Summerslam of 2010 every week was one where I genuinely HAD to see what would happen once again. Now once again my fandom has reached another high point. Much like my younger self anticipating Raw after class on mondays, I now anticipate it after work on mondays. Same goes for Smackdown on tuesdays. I doubt that changes anytime soon.

 

[ISkye]

I started watching WWE or attempting to for the first time consistently during the build to Wrestlemania 30. Some time around the build to that was the last time I actually was looking forward to a RAW or Smackdown at the can't wait level. I recognized Danielson, Lesnar, Tyler Back, Moxley, Cesaro, and it was awesome to see the legends that I may have not grown up with, but still love. Steve Austin, Hogan, Taker, HHH, Cena, Batista, Orton, Taker. Then I'm like "Oh hey this actually isn't horrific as every other time I've tried it prior". Then I had seen NXT, but didn't realize they had a lot of guys I recognized and loved in the main event feuds with actual time to wrestle and cut promos. So it was just a newfound place I could watch great pro-wrestling, and it was on a high end of production and weekly.

Then Mania 30 happened and I could die happy. I loved everything on that show the day I watched it. It's still my favorite WWE PPV possibly to date. Then I watched weekly, but it wasn't really a "Can't wait". Raw progressively reminded me of why I didn't watch sports entertainment and watched pro-wrestling. Smackdown was a recap of that, and then Bryan got injured. Stopped watching weekly, and just watched PPV's. NXT was great basically before Balor became a main eventer and Sasha banks was winning the title. Then things from talent to fans to the feel of the shows went down hill very, very fast. It was nice while it lasted though, and it was cool watching it before it became the *thing*.

Then now I honestly just follow pro-wrestlers regardless of promotion. It's easier to follow a guy capable of putting on good matches instead of wasting 2-3 hours watching a show that is 1/5th as good as a NJPW random PPV. Besides Stardom, PWG, and what I knew growing up about 1930's-60's / Classic Japanese/ North American territories I don't care to follow or look at anything else consistently. It's kind of like "Why watch this when AJPW in the 90's has timeless matches that are often 15-20+ minutes with actual wrestling that also happen to be entertaining". There is endless old school great pro-wrestling and stuff outside of WWE. It just isn't worth the time for me. No nostalgia, Lackluster pro-wrestler 50% of the show, Awful segments, Brain dead fans, redundant repetition. You can basically watch the segments on WWE's YouTube channel and make a 30/45 minute 5 Star show of Raw or even 1-2 minutes into skimming spoilers piece it all together.

 

[JoeMallard]

Ive been loving Smackdown the last few months, especially now with Styles, Owens and Nakamura at the forefront. With the Owens vs Styles feud looming, as both guys in my opinion are the best overall performers in the WWE, I absolutely cannot wait for it to begin! If it wasn't for Braun, Balor, Club and Joe, I wouldn't even bother watching Raw anymore. Now if The Club(Balor, Gallows and Anderson) finally formed and started cleaning house the way they should have been since Balor's main roster call up, Raw might actually be enjoyable outside the dominance of Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

When I was kid.

I still really like professional wrestling (why else would I be here?), but I don't get excited for it anymore.

And honestly it's not because I've grown up, it's because they don't have stars anymore.

Cena, HHH, HBK, Edge, Orton, Flair, and those wrestlers were stars.

Reigns, Ambrose, Rollins, Wyatt, Owens, and today's wrestlers are not.

It's a combination of bad booking and lazy writing.

 

[Bookerkingston]

I feel that way whenever they announce that Lesnar will be on the show, other than that i can't really remember....

 

[rmp0012002]

Religiously, not since the Monday night wars but I'll check on here every once in a while to see what's going on. I grew up on studio wrestling so the big production and long monologues don't do much for me.

 

[mkw1962]

I love WWE and I always will, I just love Wrestling. I look forward to it every week even lately. I know that the writing is terrible and the Wrestlers are not quite like the old days (hbk,hhh,mankind,undertaker,rock,stonecold). I guess this is the new crop of stars, mostly I think it is the writing. The actual Wrestling is just as good but they don't use the Wrestlers correctly. We also know a little to much with the internet we get leaked stories, and as someone else said it is always the same when they don't know what to do give the Title back to John or Randy and now here we go again with a part timer Brock holding the Title hostage. I think the new stars like Kevin,A.J.,Seth,Dean and Roman are just fine but they need to have better storylines for them. I still don.t know what the deal is with the hatred towards Roman he is a lot better than he used to be in the ring and on the mic. I heard someone even say it should have been Roman that died and not Rosey, that is just terrible how could someone hate one of the guys that much. They all are just actors and that is there role that they are playing, even if the scripts are bad. I still look forward to it every week.

 

[ShinChan]

Looks like I'm in minority here.

Nonetheless, every freakin' week. You know what? Professional Wrestling is the only programming I watch on TV religiously. Other things like serials, or whatever, Nope. I can't wait to see what happens at next week. Be it Raw, Smackdown or NXT. I'm even more interested to see what happens with my favorites ones. I'll try to read results of NJPW, ROH and IMPACT as well. Too much in love in wrestling to be not intrigued to see what happens next. That's it, I guess.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

You mean where I've felt compelled to watch an entire show from start to finish? Probably 2002. I've sat through several full episodes of Raw or Smackdown since but always wondered why.

 

[robinkom]

For having watched WWF/E since about 1990, and even back then renting every old WWF tape from the 80s I could find, large portions of eras start to blur together and not all my memories are as accurate as I think they are after I go back and check out old episodes on the WWE Network.

For at least any RAW or Smackdown! within the last 5 years, I'd have to say it was the week after CM Punk delivered the infamous "pipe bomb" promo. He became my new "guy," the guy that put my butt in front of the TV. The thing is, up until that point, there hadn't really been a guy that I'd consider "my guy" since Bret Hart in the early to mid-90s.

As a youngster, Bret stood for the things I believed in. Even when he turned heel at the dawn of the Attitude Era, he was morally right in principle, but pop culture was diving headfirst into rebellion and anti-heroes so it made him the heel. While Austin was entertaining to watch, I never gravitated to him like I did Bret. Same for The Rock.

As an adult, CM Punk appealed to my discontent with the overall product. I was discontent because I cared, because I had been a fan for so long I knew they could do better. The things he was saying struck a cord with me and nearly everyone else except the old man that called the shots and his son-in-law. I hung in there as long as Punk was becoming this new top guy and he made me look forward to every RAW for that brief stint.

Then he was squashed and we all heard the stories of what happened between then and him leaving and, honestly, I don't care to hear WWE's side of it because they'll never tell it and they'd twist it to favor them anyway if they did. Bottom line for me was they f*cked my guy over. The only guy who outsold Cena in merch sales, who generated new buzz for their stagnant product, who closer matched the image and attitude that the average 30+ Joe like me could relate to as the top babyface.

It soured me on the product and really kept me from watching the product at all for more than half of 2015 and 2016. Every time I felt that I was getting into again, the thought resurfaced again: "They f*cked over Punk." He says he's over it, he's moved on to new things, I'm happy for him, it shouldn't have continued to bother me but it still did.

However, as of January this year, I've learned to let that go more because I've tuned in for some of the new things they've been trying and it's made both shows pretty interesting again. I wouldn't say I look forward to them every week, but I'm at least back to making it a weekly habit.

As for being "smart" to wrestling, I know everything we can possibly know from this side of the curtain. I used to nitpick and rip them to shreds for their terrible booking and writing but I became so consumed by it that I burned myself out caring and kind of went full circle back to being a kid again in some capacity. Like I know how this and that are done but I'm putting that aside and just allowing myself to be entertained by the wrestling. Instead of going online and writing out how I would have done this or that, I just look at what they ARE doing and try to analyze and predict where they're trying to take it. If I "mark out" for anything, it's well told stories in and out of the ring. I like seeing that live crowd blow the roof off the joint when it's time for a big payoff.

(sorry for the length of this reply, I tried to split it into small paragraphs) ^^;