The Wrestling Boom Sequel?

[CCIV]

Every wrestling fan wants another wrestling boom so why doesn't the WWE simply write a sequel?

A sequel or a reboot you can call it either. I go with sequel because they wouldn't retell the stories verbatim. A new cast telling similar stories to those from the past only upgraded and made better for today's viewers.

With the WWE Network and the plethora of young talented writers, producers and directors out there why doesn't the WWE use the past to write for today?

I've never thought of this in this simple of terms till just recently. It seems McMahon believes the business only needs a top guy, i.e. Hogan, Austin, Cena and now and eventually Reigns. But why doesn't he and others see that it takes an entire roster and years of good stories to get that boom back and not just one guy? Right now RAW and Smackdown have a
roster of boring individuals. Rather than groups of allies and foes who interact with one another.

So that lead me to thinking about how the movie industry operates and what do they do when one of their movies becomes a hit? They jump right back on the horse and take that movies characters for another ride. All successful sequels keep it simple and create another adventure that feels much like the first. Stray too far from the original or kill off or create too many new characters and they fail. People want simple, familiar characters and stories.

Right now in the WWE I feel they have the right talent to write a sequel to 1997-2001.
Seth Rollins and the Bullet Club as the NWO.
Fin Balor as Sting.
Reigns as Luger.
From that foundation you retell the US vs THEM story. The powerful entity from within, there to destroy led by Rollins (our Hollywood Hogan).
HHH (our suit), retired wrestler, family man, string puller, leads the WWE locker room with his voice and corporate power with Reigns and Balor our on screen, in ring fighters. Every face we want elevated joins in the fight with Reigns and Balor and vice versa for the heels. HHH has full control of NXT and uses that power to call up reinforcements when needed, this immediately elevates that talent on the spot. A year long or even longer story of this level elevates everyone and creates multiple storylines and fan interest. This is nothing new, DX, NWO, Aces and Eights and is available to study and learn from via the WWE Network. The people within the industry know the formula works why isn't anyone doing it?? Why wouldn't you use the blueprint of the past to write for today?

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The problem with this outside the fact that it wouldn't be a sequel, because that was written in the late nineties with the Monday night wars, is that fans are to fickle to really endorse anybody for long

When you look at what worked during the first wrestling boom in the late 80's it was completly different from what worked in the second wrestling boom of the late 90's.

Now to have another wrestling boom you really need 2 things, first you need to find a new way to present their product to attract more fans of all ages groups and they need to be motivated by something.

In the first wrestling Boom in the late 80'S Vince was motivated to prove he could take the WWF at the from a regional promotion to a global promotion, so he did everything to make sure this happenned.

In the Second wrestling boom, he wanted to defeat Ted Turner at any cost, that'S what motivated him.

Now Vince and to an extend HHH, aren'T really motivated by anything or anyone because they pretty much know that no matter what they do, they are pretty much untouchable. So why try to create something new when the same old boring product works has well as anything else they would do.

So at this point, why create another wrestling when they're really no point in creating one?

 

[HBKperfect23]

The sequel can't be written. It needs to happen organically. The answer is a viable competitior. IMO they are trying to write the sequel you mentioned with Raw vs SD. They even call it the ratings war. Unfortunately nobody cares about "the war" of today. Competition is the answer and I don't think we'll ever see it. TNA had a chance with the money they had but they'll never be a threat.

The sequel I think would be more realistic would be the territory system. Vince could do it himself with the network. Kind of does now with NxT and 205 live. But what I'd like to see is some of the top independent promoters start their own NWA type agreement where they trade talent and have one world champion. That's the only way I could see someone being competitive with WWE. Find a competitor and we'll see a wrestling boom sequel.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Half of that stuff wouldnt work today. Imagine Ambrose(as new StoneCold) taking a gun and threatening to shoot Vince or HHH. Or Divas looked as porn stars who compete in bra and panties matches and kiss each other. People had opened thread here where CM Punk was characterized as child of Satan because he took Undertakers urn and drop the ashes. Imagine backlash when you have stories like HHH having Stephanie drugged and married her keyfabe. Its new time and new product, what worked in 90s may not work now.

Besides, they are trying at least for some storylines. You have The Authority and you would have HHH new stable of NXT people but after The Authority seems like nobody got the rub from them. Bryan did it but he was injured and then Steph destroyed his wife and him. Shield was in the way but then Seth turned. Ziggler and others banished them. Only for few weeks and then they were reinstated. So, you could say that they are like NWO in that way. But seriously, you have some stories that have resemblance.

 

[sMark]

WWE history of sequels:
1993:
Vince: well, Hogan has left the building, but we will give them a better version, let's call Hogan 2 - Lex Luger. And instead of Andre we will give them Yokozuna!
....
Fans: well, we don't care for Hogan 2, we better watch the original 1 in WCW
...
1996:
Vince: well, Hogan 2 didn't work, maybe we need something completely different.
....
1999:
Vince: Yup, i was right! They don't need a sequel, they need new stars, new moves, new catch phrases, new stories and new style

Bischoff: well, i can just reuse my stars and stories and we will be ok...*calling to recreate nWo again*
...
2001:
Vince:well, i won!
....
2002:
Vince: now i can hire all WCW...no, MY former guys, again
...
2004:
Vince: well, this didn't work so well, maybe i push for the younger guys again
....
....
....
2017:
Vince: i need a new John Cena
....

 

[CCIV]

I agree with all of you. Well said. Just like matches and finishes the experts in the back use what worked in the past or at the very least a variation of something that worked from the past. It just seems like everyone wants to reinvent the wheel and I believe the simple stories still work.

Here is one paragraph walking someone through a possible main event storyline on a Smackdown say in 1999.

The Rock arrives at the arena in his rental Lincoln dressed in his $1000 shirt and pants and makes his way into the arena. JR and King hype the ass kicking the Rock is looking to hand out tonight. Segment 3: A backstage reporter interviews the rock outside his dressing room, now in his ring gear, and informs him he will be facing Xpac in the main event. Rock cuts a classic promo on Xpac and midgets and we go to commercial. 9:20pm the Rock is shown making his way through the halls to the ring. The audience at home sees that there is still 40 minutes left of the show the main event is starting too early something is up. The Rock is attacked in the hallway by Road Dogg and Gunn. They brawl through the halls, through an exit door, out onto a loading dock and throw the Rock into a dumpster. JR: Holy Hell!! King: You can't mix trash with recycling! Commercial... We return to a "moments ago" recap and the announcers speculate on what's the main event now? Main Event time: DX accompanies Xpac to the ring as they laugh and taunt the crowd as they believe they've disposed of the Rock. The crowd is on its feet knowing better just waiting and waiting and waiting and finally the Rocks music hits, he comes out limping as the place goes nuts. The Rock is attacked by DX on the ramp. Mankind comes out to help followed by Kane. Two characters that have been mixed in to this main event storyline. The Rock and Xpac eventually end up in the ring where Rock hits the rock bottom and peoples elbow and the place goes ape shit. Rock, Mankind and Kane force DX to retreat up the ramp to the stage and JR sends is us off the air.

I'm saying you don't try to fix what isn't broken. Take my Smackdown Main event story and replace Rock with Reigns, Mankind with Balor, Kane with Zayn and DX with The Bullet Club. I guess instead of a sequel or rehashing stories I really mean retooling or rewriting the formulas that worked just with a new cast.

Raw today for me is a televised wrestling event that I didn't or couldn't get tickets to. Every segment is seperate from the last. If we get a story that threads it way through the show it is paper thin and usually involves one program. How on earth they don't know how to tease and slow burn a Lesnar/Goldberg story throughout the show is beyond me. Today's wrestling show they get one segment. And that one segment can be viewed in 8 minutes on a phone on YouTube instead of having to watch the story evolve over 3 hours. Why did the people running the ship forget how to write a show? Why did the product revert back to a televised wrestling event? Why did they change what was working? And..... with the WWE Network to clearly show today's writers and creators the formulas that work, why aren't they using it??? My questions are rhetorical of course. It can't be as simple as Russo and Ferraro leaving. There are still plenty of people backstage who lived through the boom and know the formulas.

Even today's matches need to go the "keep it simple" route in my opinion. Way too many false finishes and finishers not ending matches. But that's a whole nother area. Why hasn't anyone learned from Pat Patterson and stuck with the formula. They have to try to reinvent the wheel once again.

 

[sMark]

1 aspect i don't like today is there is no real cliffhangers anymore. For example let's take this week:
Styles attacks Shane McMahon, Bryan fire him, Shane makes a WM match. - all in 1 show, story basically ends here, and all is left is special rule *if Styles win, he gets his spot back*, then contract signing.

Now if it was in let's say 2000, Styles will attack Shane right before the show ends, and this story will continue next week, cause you know *cliffhanger*

 

[FromGlasgow]

Personally I find that a horrible idea for many reasons particuarly that it would look to fake to start copying storylines exactly from the past, Secondly we have already seen it and we will all know the outcomes what would be the fun in watching and thirdly the rehashed stories could never live up to the original ones when it was done first, Its not hollywood the WWE comes accross as its meant to be a legitimate sport, If we all knew the outcomes the surprise element would be good along with the magic fans get from watching it.

 

[ISkye]

I mean if you really want that watch other promotions, and try to sway fans to go to them instead of pinning it all on WWE. When you dissect a lot of their success it stems from almost all outside sources or inadvertently benefiting from things. The massive revenue difference between NJPW and WWE really isn't surprising or that impressive once you really deconstruct it. NJPW is on at awful TV times and that huge downfall of AJPW/ NJPW, etc came strongly from that lack of a TV deal. WWE on the other hand has these secured and they can take even huge shots or mishaps and bounce back to near or equal strength just from stability. Vince McMahon is easily a better business man than a booker, and wrestling in the United States at the time Vince was on the rise was vulnerable to falling to monopoly.

They have pretty much everything working for them in one way or another on the side that prevents them from tanking financially. When you have money you can acquire X talent, and even X promotion. You can up production value to no end, and endless other things that hurt rising promotions before they can even dream of competing.

WWE has been trying to make huge, drastic changes or improvements to their product and I honestly don't think they would push storylines we bluntly know are rip offs. If they did, I think there are worse things that have higher chances of being true or put into actual execution first. I think pro-wrestling has slowly, but surely gaining traction as a whole on a global scale. The only issue with that is the people in that WWE bubble don't see it in front of them or it's just not there entirely where they're located.

It's an unfortunate reality that the giant WWE has become halts natural escalation of pro-wrestling. For both them, and literally everyone else no matter how close they are. They seem to have been focusing much more on that territory idea and pushing that narrative slowly, but in a way that is effective. They aren't sleeping for sure, and I'm glad they aren't really pulling a trigger that is right in front of their majority audience's face. The way pro-wrestling has shifted in the last 2/3 years have really set the tone of the foreseeable future. WWE doesn't need a war, and maybe they can't even acquire that in keyfabe from them own selves in the current landscape. They instead can plant these seeds and continue to replenish them instead of snatching that peak harvest. After that peak harvest there is nothing to expect,but a drought. So eliminate it.

The biggest war WWE has faced so far is currently ongoing. TV losing it's control of the entertainment market, and the shifting landscape of a more technology inclined society. The generation of fans that can go back and watch legendary Stan hansen matches in AJPW, and then go on YouTube and see Will Ospreay doing mind boggling things in a random UK promotion 5 minutes later. Pro-Wrestling might suffer from being ever so transparent in this age, but now we're getting to the point where they are benefiting off of it and you don't have to go through others. It's great when you don't have to appease to someone else that is cutting the check for your show, and you're more in control of your art and story and how it goes.

That boom will never be replicated again at the speed and intensity it was. There is absolutely zero chance of that. Unless the common fantasy that some billionaire who loves wrestling throws his money at what would be an absolute shot in the dark comes true. That could happen, but the chance of it going over well is another shooting star to wish upon. WWE has become much, much bigger over the years and that gap has not closed in by much despite the opportunity levels elsewhere drastically spiking.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

I don't think there every will be a Wrestling Boom and I don't think the WWE is even trying to capture another boom.

WWE is a publicly traded company and as long as the company is growing, albeit incrementally, then investors are happy and there's no pressure for another boom.

Roman Reigns is being groomed as the top guy not because the industry and company is going to explode with him on Top. They want him to be the #1 guy because he fits the company's corporate vision moving forward.

Plus WWE has enough revenue streams outside of the actual wrestling product to grow.

 

[Phenomenal]

It would never work, the superstars just don't cut it. Majority of the current WWE roster looks like they work in Wal-Mart. No one has any larger than life presence or personality...even the mic skills. Also the 90's were special because mostly frat boys were into wrestling, they made the crowd feel extra special. Todays crowds are an abomination... and the announcers.

 

[Radical]

I've thought about this a decent amount and I'm pretty confident in saying: There will not be a wrestling boom period ever again like there was in the Monday Night Wars/Attitude Era.


Attitude Era no doubt had great talents that would be great in any era but it also was just a perfect storm of everything else that made it really the boom period that it was. The big Monday Night Wars was a big part of what made WWE have to push their product to be better, and it got edgier and more hardcore.

BUT, that was the late 90s and TV didn't have quite as many channels as wide spread as today, the Internet was around but streaming video online was slow and very unpopular so if you DID like wrestling and you wanted to see the big events you HAD to pay for it and tune in LIVE or else you would really have missed it.

But today's media climate has truly changed the way people consume content and there's just no way to ever get the same mass appeal that WWE/WCW had back in its heyday.

Let's not forget that the WCW during the Monday Night Wars with the NWO storyline was pretty much the most original, shocking thing that pro wrestling has done in mainstream media and it can never be done again or else people will just say it's copying something from before. NWO and WCW forced WWE to up their game and they got more extreme and it drew more fans because it was like a hardcore rebellious thing to watch.

WWE TRIED to keep their edgy content and keep fans with the "Ruthless Aggression" era but it was never the same once the novelty had worn off that yes, this pro wrestling was really staged and made-up and I think a lot of fans around during Attitude Era were not really pro wrestling fans they were the same type of fans who now enjoy UFC, NFL or Game of Thrones. They were attracted because of hardcore violence, sexuality and (what seemed like) really rebellious, crude people.

The people who have stayed fans or at least kept an eye on how pro wrestling has developed are people who really appreciate good professional wrestling (good storytelling, compelling characters, spectacular showmanship and athleticism) and if they AREN'T watching regularly now it is probably because they aren't feeling WWE (or whatever other wrestling program) is being consistent enough in providing what they feel is compelling wrestling programming.



Because today's wrestling talent is PHENOMENAL (no direct pun intended with AJ Styles in the scene) and the production value is pretty high.

Maybe the one thing WWE doesn't have as much is a bunch of big, muscular, larger-than-life characters at the top of the card all the time. But hey, that's not REALLY what draws people to professional wrestling. Sure, you need to have SOME big muscle-bound dudes but big parts of the Attitude Era aside from Rock, Austin, Triple H, Undertaker, Kane was Shawn Michaels (not a big muscle-bound dude, but charismatic, yes), Mankind (somewhat big, but NOT typical muscle-bound, but just very popular character) and Chris Jericho (again, DEFINITELY not big, mostly oozing charisma and athleticism, though).

So I don't buy for a second haters saying WWE isn't as popular today because top stars look like guys you see at Wal-Mart. That's BS. If you put Shawn Michaels, Mankind and Chris Jericho in regular, casual street clothes and didn't have them show any personality then they would just be like any other person in a Wal-Mart, no one would give them a second look. But it was BECAUSE they had great athleticism, charisma, mic skills and personality that made them so popular and the SAME reason those same type of characters are popular in WWE today.

The difference is, the audience just isn't there like the AE and it won't be, not because the talent isn't good. It is a combination between storylines not always being all that compelling, there just being so much other things to watch and ways to watch WWE that are free (even if illegal) that can't show off how many fans WWE still, technically, does have.



But my view is that while I don't think pro wrestling will ever have a boom period again like it did in the Monday Night Wars/Attitude Era, it will continue to be reasonably popular as a niche interest like how zombie shows and movies have a good following but not everyone watches it or likes it.

Maybe what might happen is if WWE gets better consistency with character development without allowing too many NXT call-ups to get poor debut opportunities and maintain compelling storylines and allows talent with oozing charisma to really show off then for a period of time WWE may draw in increasing numbers of fans who might stay tuned for longer periods of time rather than just on and off.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Going back to the past is what's got them here... Even now, they are relying on concepts from 20 years ago like the evil McMahons in charge rather than actually changing their product.

They're no longer wrestling... they are a soap opera SET in a wrestling company, that has a live component. They are making moves to go "back" to a form of wrestling, in that the WWE becomes an umbrella body much as the NWA was (Vince Sr. is laughing his head off up there) to try and stimulate a new boom and buying ROH is the next stage of that.

It'll never be mainstream again in the way it was... it can't be... the concept jumped the shark a long time ago in most peoples eyes... what they need to focus on now is making people care about talent... that's what they fail to do now.

30 years ago, Parents may not have "liked" Hogan or Warrior, but there were guys like Jake, Rude, Savage, DiBiase they could like as wrestling fans... 20 years ago you had Austin who parents could like and Taker for the kids... now it's ALL about the kids seemingly and only now are they trying to reverse the trend by cramming as many "wrestling stars" adults can like... because let's face it... if the adults don't like it... the kids ain't going to see Roman, Cena or whoever they want to front the thing.

Neville is a great example... exactly the kind of guy they should be building an IC division around, not the cruiser... Bray Wyatt is inevitably going face but it's a bad move... he should be more adult, more creepy... Roman Reigns is a modern day Sid or Warrior... fine for short bursts of push but not the guy to hang the company on however much you want to... But Vince wants to run the same playbook as he did 20 and 30 years ago... Trips doesn't and there is clearly disconnect.

Re-doing the NWO is the worst thing they could do... right now the best way to get interest is get the Broken Hardys at all costs... pay TNA a lump sum or back Matt and Jeff with the legal case and do it anyway...but that's not gonna fly in a public company.