How has the lack of main eventers effeced the product?

[Blue Chipper]

With the bundles and bundles of future endeavors, vacations, and injuries, the WWE main event scene is severly narrow, and void of many main eventers; the main event seen has basically been sliced. On Raw, HBK is on a vacation and Batista is injured, leaving Cena, Triple H, and Orton in the main event scene. On Smackdown, Undertaker is on vacation and Edge has been injured, leaving CM Punk and Jeff Hardy (Who is teetering on leaving and staying, clearly most likely staying). ECW is exempt from this, however, as they've got a healthy amount of main eventers (Christian, Tommy Dreamer, Vladamir, etc. etc.)

Raw had to alternate between the three: Triple H, Randy Orton, and John Cena. Trips and Orton had a long feud with several matches. Cena got involved recently, and was in a triple threat. Now, it's going to be Cena and Orton.

On Smackdown, CM Punk and Jeff is the sole feud going in the main event, and has been for nearly two months. They've also had a variety of matches.

So, my question rises up, and that is how the WWE is doing with a sorely chopped and limited main event roseter? Are they doing an acceptable job with their limited main eventers? Has the main event gotten stale? What's your opinion?

 

[Chill]

Well, I don't think there is much need to discuss the RAW main event scene because basically it has consisted of Orton and Triple H for such a long time. All I can say is that, while Cena and Orton have fought and briefly feuded before at least it is something different from what we have come used to seeing...I feared that Orton and Hunter might wind up in a Hell in the Cell at Summerslam but it appears that wont be the case (althought it could still well happen somewhere down the line). As for future RAW main eventers, it is obvious who they are focusing on....Dibiase, Rhodes, Mark Henry (do they want this guy to succeed or what?!), Swagger and the Miz. Slowly but surely this new crop of talent will move up and join the Ortons, Cenas, Batista, Big Shows, HHHs of the RAW main event scene....but only if WWE treat them right and allow them to go over occasionally.

To answer the question with respect to the RAW product being affected by the lack of main eventers, I think it's fair to say that it has been affected. There's only so much Orton/Triple H anyone can take, there's only so much Cena/ Big Show and so on that anyone can take....but at long last things might be looking up.

Over on Smackdown yes it appears to be dominated by Punk and Hardy...that needs to change soon I suppose, because they have fought a lot on PPV lately. It doesn't help of course that Edge is out and in my opinion, Chirs Jericho should be in the main event scene wrestling for the World Title rather than focusing on the tag division (although, admittedly it is nice to have a major name associated with the tag division which is in need of some tlc). Of course, they also have Mysterio and they appear to want Dolph Ziggler to succeed (luckly, I think he appears to have what it takes) and then they will have Undetaker back which should provide fresh main event options. Overall, I don't think the lack of main eventers is as noticeable as RAW because at least Punk/Hardy was new, wereas RAW was/is having to constantly recycle old storylines and feuds, hence why the Smackdown product feels fresher ...

As Blue Chipper says the problem doesn't really extend to ECW as much becuase it is the developmental TV show...

 

[RH23]

Well on Raw, I would have to say that the main event has been stale for quite some time now and I'm glad that its now Cena/Orton instead of HHH/Orton. However Smackdown's main event has been quite entertaining. I'm really into this Hardy/Punk feud, CM Punk has been do a fantastic job of being the preaching heel. I like how CM Punk keeps reminding Jeff about how Jeff screwed up and how he's so perfect and Straight Edge. With the injury to Edge, and Undertaker being off, its actually kind of freshened up the main event scene.

 

[JBK2008]

HHH/Orton is done for me I could care less about it right now. Cena/Orton has been done enough as well but it'll do for now. I like the Punk/Hardy feud and there's multiple ways to go from there. ECW is just a fresh of air with Christian taking on all who want a shot.

Raw needs MVP or Swagger to get in the ME scene and SmackDown! is coming along nicely.

 

[sports_fan_2007]

Well I would have to say that Raw is really stale with Orton seeming olnly to take on HHH and Cena. But at least going into summerslam it wont be HHH vs Orton but Im sure once SS is over he will continue to go after Orton which will probably lead into the HIAC ppv. My only hope is that somewhere along the line HBK or HHH turn on one another which would give us a different feud and with any luck Orton may lose the title to Cena so that way when Batista comes back and feud with Orton that we will have someone new in the ME to go for the title.

As for Smackdown I love the ME with Punk and Hardy and tonight they are having Morrison go for the title so perhaps they will add him into the title mix so that could livin things up a little bit as well and than when Taker gets back he will have 1 of 3 new people to go into a feud with so Smackdown has quite a bit of potential moving forward right now so thats pretty good.

ECW well its a developmental show so Christian can face anyone right now.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

To me, it seems that Raw has started to focus more attention on the younger, mid-card stars as of late than they have at any point in a while. The Triple H/Orton feud seems to be on hold for now, praise the lord. It's just gotten overly stale and utterly predictable that I think most of us are glad to see anyone else in the main event. Granted, Orton is still there but he's against someone that he hasn't really been feuding with off and on for years and years.

On Smackdown, I get the sense that there's just more of an anything can happen atmosphere than I do with Raw. Cena, Orton and Triple H are made to look almost invincible right now, as if they can only way any of them can lose is in some match against one another. On SD, I don't really see any unbeatable badass main eventers right now and I think it's a good thing. Neither Punk or Hardy give the idea of being unbeatable or impervious to the rest of the talent.

 

[Decarow]

I wouldn't say "lack of main eventers", I would say "lack of superstars that the IWC wants in the main event". Let's look at the late 90s- the title revolved around Austin, Rock, Foley, and HHH. Throw in a random Taker, McMahon, or Big Show. They also had the same exact 4 people in the main event. Hell, they changed titles nearly every time they defended them. However that's everyone's favorite era in WWE history. The IWC sees a new superstar one day with potential, and the next day they are pissed cus that superstar isn't a 20-time world champion. Let's just chill out and see how everything turns out. As for Cena-Orton, we all knew they were going to be big rivals years ago. Even when the original Smackdown! vs Raw, they stressed the fact that Cena and Orton are the future of the company. How are yall going to act in 5 years when Dibiase and Punk are feuding for 8 months straight, with the occasional triple-threat with Morrison? It's just the way of the business. 4 years ago we had storylines that went on for months, and everybody hates the brands because it lacks long storylines. Well, we have one right now and yall are bitching. So just shut up cus in 10 years people are going to be praising this era and wishing to go back to it.

 

[Southwind]

Raw's main event scene has had a negative effect their are no new stars getting pushed and I doubt it's in the cards for the near future. Since Raw is the "flagship" it's stale main event scene has tainted the rest of the product. I personally find the Smackdown and ECW main event scene to be refreshing and entertaining Christian's putting together some good work and it's beyond me why he's not main eventing on Raw or Smackdown. CM Punk is dynamite as a heel and while I intially disagreed with his title drop to Hardy I firmly believe that was done to butter up Jeff to resign with the company.

 

[[email protected]]

Raw is particularly stale and stagnate at the moment. he main event scene consists of 3 men. Randy Orton, Triple H and John Cena. Just think how they could of livened things up the night after the bash when they had that no 1 contenders tournament and the trade. Here is what they should of done:
MVP should of beat Triple H. HHH had been through a war the night before, he could of played on his fatigue and injuries and fought valiantly but MVP's freshness was the difference. It wouldn't of hurt The Game to lose.
The Miz should of been allowed to look competitive at The Bash before Cena got a hard fought victory, in the tournament it was the other way round with The Miz using his devilishly heel tactics to get the upset.
Also in the draft match where Orton won the gauntlet, it should of been Christian drafted to Raw not Mizark Henry who nobody gives a shit about. Imagine the reaction had Christian pinned Orton. So they could of had 3 credible main eventer's in one night.
If they didn't want to leave HHH and Cena off the NoC card they could of done the final the next week which featured runs in's from Legacy, HHH, Cena, and Christian and gone with an elimination chamber match: Orton v. HHH v. Cena v. Christian v. MVP v. The Miz
Also Ted Dibase's marketability would of sky rocketed had he beat Orton when they went 1 on 1
However it looks like they are gonna go with the same 3 until HBK and Batista returns.


Over on Smackdown! it's slightly better CM Punk's being elevated but should of retained at NoC, to give him more credibility as champ. Morrisons the other one with big potential on Smackdown and should of been the man to capture the WHC from Punk eventually for a caretaker reign before dumping in to Jericho to set up the Edge-Y2J main event of WM. Kane's character is over and is much more believable in the monster role than The Big Show, Mark Henry, Khali, Kozlov and whoever else they like to push as an unstoppable machine. At times they look like there gonna push him as the focal point but its normally a false start.