Yes, but you're only happy with "edgy" storylines. Quality, at least for you, is basically the Attitude Era and you won't be happy with anything other than the Attitude Era in general. The Attitude Era is gone and I highly doubt it's going to be recreated in TNA.
I never stated that I would "ONLY" be happy with an Attitude Era product. If that is what you think, than you have grossly misconstrued my position. Hell, I've only had my signature up for a couple months so you could see what I actually advocate.
The Attitude Era is gone in WWE, however that doesn't mean that an Attitude Era like product can never be created again. And it will be. The wrestling business goes in cycles. If you think it's going to stay the way that it is forever, then I don't know what to tell you.
Yes, I'm sure you've heard those words tossed around by people on this site, but the IWC doesn't make up nearly as much of wrestling's audience as some try to hype it up to be. You can't please everyone. And yes, I agree that the WWE hasn't concentrated on the mid-card or tag team scenes much in the past few years. There has been a change in that, however, to some degree. More needs to be done on Raw regarding the mid-card division, but some progress has been made overall.
I'm curious how many casual fans you have actually surveyed that are actually thrilled with the WWE product? Listening to crowd ovations in arenas across the country and their overall enthusiasm level, I've been less than impressed.
Why? Because he doesn't have Mickie James or Melina walk down to the ring with nothing more to cover them than a few Ritz crackers tied to a string? Because the middle finger isn't flipped seventeen times a night? Please, the WWE has had to change with the times and you can see that mostly by switching on television in general.
WWE didn't have to change with the times. WWE changed because they had no competition and wanted a safer product that would be more attractive to advertisers. That was a conscious decision on their part. Nobody held a gun to their head and forced them to do anything.
At the same time, tell me when Women's Wrestling has ever been a proven draw? You want to see Women not treated like sex objects, however in a business dominated by Men. It is what it is. It may not be your cup of tea, but you can't hold a gun to people's heads and expect them to necessarily like what you like ... or in this case, be thrilled with Women's Wrestling.
I have no problem with a Women's Division, however I also have no problem catering the product to the interests of the primary target audience of Men Aged 18-34, as well as the interests that suits them. If you aren't interested in attractive women, than you certainly don't fit the normal interests of the primary demographic.
Where are all the controversial shows that pushed all the buttons 5 to 10 years ago? Shows like Ally McBeal, The Practice, Sex and the City, The Shield, Nip/Tuck, etc. stirred up controversy, sometimes made people angry or uncomfortable. They "thought outside the box" and all that and they were fashionable. These were shows that got nominated for oodles of Emmys and Golden Globes and were hailed by critics yadda yadda yadda. Shows that did what they did, however, aren't really there anymore. They're not around because the audience has changed, television has changed.
I would like you to support that claim that the "audience has changed" across television across the board. Cite something concrete that proves this claim, because it is a pretty bold one.
Like everything else on tv, the WWE has changed with the times. The general wrestling audience simply doesn't want smut wrestling these days.
You speaking for the entire wrestling audience is laughable. What this is, is nothing more than a pathetic attempt on your part to make a psychological ploy. And it isn't working.
If that is the case, then you tell me why the most controversial segments on WWE programming always produce the highest ratings. Stephanie McMahon getting abused by Orton did a 4.1.
Edge and Lita in the Live Sex Celebration scored above a 5.0 segment rating.
If the sexuality is there, it will sell. However, we have a case of WWE not catering to its target audience, but rather advertisers .... and therefore since there is no serious competition, simply expecting their audience to go along for the ride.
It wouldn't bother me in the least if the Attitude Era came back, but it's not.
Well, it's kind of hard for the actual Attitude Era to return, but don't be surprised to see an Attitude-Era like product return at some point. Which is exactly why people should be thrilled to see Russo and Ferrara together again in TNA to try to do what they can to give WWE some competition.
I'm entertained by a lot of what the WWE is doing overall, some of it leaves me a bit cold, but no promotion is going to give everyone everything they want. The Attitude Era changed a lot of the perception of what wrestling could be and wrestling became a fad again. Blame it on the fall of WCW, changing times or whatever, but those viewers moved on to the latest thing. Vince McMahon hasn't lost "touch" overall.
Sure he has lost touch. And he has become blind to the product. If he hadn't lost some touch with the product, then explain to me why even though he is the Lead Writer for WWE Television, why he has actually become frustrated with his own product, and can't figure out why he can't produce more stars? It's because he lost sight of pushing the Mid Card, developing talent, and actually trying to get them to formulate connections with the audience. Nobody is going to formulate a connection with the audience solely based on their wrestling skills, yet Vince didn't believe that to be the case, and keeps harping on the quality of matches. Well, as you can see, ratings certainly aren't going up by providing good matches on Free TV. Instead, something else is missing ... and that is the art of developing a feud, developing storylines, and giving the talent distinct personas to actually connect with the audience and get them intrigued enough to follow them weekly, and hopefully purchase PPV's.
Sure, he does some things that I don't like sometimes, but that's nothing new. I'd like everything exactly the way I have in my head, we all would, but it's not going to happen. It doesn't mean that he's lost touch at all, it means that he knows what he has to do to keep the WWE in business. If that means pandering to more family oriented material, then that's what he'll do. If it means that the WWE has to portray women as vaccuous sexual objects like they used to, or do a mock of the Crucifixion then that's what he'll do. But the general WWE audience just doesn't hold with your view, at least not at this time. Revenue is up, ratings are up so Vince is going to do what any businessman would do in his place.
Revenue is up because of rising prices across the board. However, that is a bubble and eventually the bubble will burst when the public gets tired of paying exorbitant prices. Hell, if he charged back in the Attitude Era what he was charging today, that Era would far surpass the PG Era in terms of profitability. However, running more Overseas tours, raising prices, and cutting salaries will certainly make for a more profitable product. So he is smarter managing budgets. That certainly isn't a reflection of the quality of the product.
What actually is a measurement of the quality of the product is attendance, ratings, and PPV buyrates. None of which is higher today as it was in the Attitude Era or even the Post Attitude Era.
All this comes down to is Vince trying to tell his audience what they "should be liking" as opposed to listening to his audience in what they want. Because if there was more competition, then Vince would be forced to cater to his customers, as opposed to his advertisers. The sad part about it is that wrestling fans still tuning into the product, even if they aren't happy with it, only proves Vince right in that he can tell them what they should be seeing, and they will be spoon-fed.
Another thing about Russo and Ferrara it seems they want to book a wrestling company [well if teir shoot is any indication] with no wrestling, and only promos and nonsensical angles, that sounds like a Soap Opera. So why won't they just apply for a writing job on a Soap Opera?
Because there are obviously a large portion of wrestling fans that want BOTH, wrestling and soap opera elements combined into one show. That isn't your cup of tea, because you would rather view wrestling as a legitimate sport, however there are many people out there that view wrestling quite differently than you do.
And welcome to Wrestlezone.
