TWJC: The Beginning
Royal Rumble Winner
You reaize that Punk wasn't really a star until this year right? Yea, he had title reigns, but now people who aren't wrestling fans know who he is. So count that as one star made.I actually agree and think you make some really valid points. WWE is quite simply not creating the same level of stars as it was a decade ago. I believe the talent is there with guys like Ziggler, Rhodes and Miz but the problem resides with bad booking. In the past WWE used their top marquee stars to help create new stars, one of the prime reasons they triumphed over WCW. Nowadays however it seems that the younger guys who show potential are built upto a point, given a brief stint in the main event schooled and made to look weak by Punk or Cena (Orton has been terrific on SD recently putting people over) and reside in the upper mid-card until needed in the main event again.
This was noted most recently in Ziggler's brief run at main-event fame where he was basically booked as Punk's bitch, he couldn't beat him in spite of massive help form JL, Miz dropping the title to Cena where he basically lost a handicap I Quit match and his subsequent fall to mid-card siberia. Compare this to guys like Taker, Rock and Foley putting over a multitude of younger talent often losing clean and losing fueds overall to help escalate incoming stars like Lesnar, Jeff Hardy, Y2J and Angle onto the next level.
The problem is WWE is so fixated and reliant upon Cena, Orton and now to an extent Punk to carry the program that they seem to feel the need to make them look strong at every turn, not realising that an air of vulnerability and the odd loss does a superstar at their level no harm at all. In fact Cena would garner a lot less hate if he would actually just lose clean every now and again. This is why the WWE is becoming so reliant on stars from the past to carry this years mania buyrate.
It's not the bookings fault. They've been given the chance. You don't get over with title reigns or wins, you get over by being interesting.
You guys ALWAYS talk about "years ago" but look at the age of the roster now. They're super young. A pro wrestler's peak is early-mid 30s because it's such a mental profession. That time period is when they're both physically fit and smart enough to really get over. If you don't believe me, look at the average age of when guys were given the strap. You'll have outliers like Rock, Lesnar, and Orton, but they are generally late 20s at the earliest. Austin was 33, HBK was 30, HHH was 30, Hart was 35 I believe.
Seriously, you guys need to chill out. Stop letting "ZOMG 2.75 IN TEH RATINGZ!!!' get to you and actually look at things objectively. They are RANKED in the top 3 virtually every week. That's insanely strong. They sell SOOOOOO many tickets each year. They do all of this YEAR ROUND. That's what's so incredible is that there is no offseason. I'm a huge sports fan, but I can't watch the NBA preseason-NBA finals, I get tired of it, can't do it with any sport except baseball. However, the WWE keeps the interest at a pretty high level year round.