Too few wrestlers

[dr.greenthumb]

is it just me or is there a serious lack of wrestlers on raw? i don't watch smackdown, so i can't speak for that. but because of the lack of wrestlers, raw seems like a weak product with no surprizes. everyone has a dance partner and it looks like the same show week in and week out. i know it's a tough economy but spring some cash and bring in some more guys so there is a bit of variety to the show.

anyone agree or know why there is so few wrestlers these days? i've taken a long hiatus from watching wrestling, only returned when i heard about the sting rumour and got a glimpse of booker t and nash on the rumble.

 

[dr.greenthumb]

i'm not trying to or wanting to argue and i've only recently returned to watching but i've only seen these guys on raw since 02/21/2011

cena - orton - cm punk - very little of the nexus guys (actually wrestling) - santino and his russian buddy - danial bryan - sheamus - miz - morrison - del rio.

if there was anyone else (aside from hhh & undertaker to do their promos) it was so short and unnoticable that i don't recall anything they did or said or any feud they are in - that's roughly 10 guys only.

ps. correction, last i saw, this must have been a few years ago, khali was a monster powerhouse and this time i saw him, he was dancing.

 

[Kermit]

i'm not trying to or wanting to argue and i've only recently returned to watching but i've only seen these guys on raw since 02/21/2011

cena - orton - cm punk - very little of the nexus guys (actually wrestling) - santino and his russian buddy - danial bryan - sheamus - miz - morrison - del rio.

if there was anyone else (aside from hhh & undertaker to do their promos) it was so short and unnoticable that i don't recall anything they did or said or any feud they are in - that's roughly 10 guys only.

ps. correction, last i saw, this must have been a few years ago, khali was a monster powerhouse and this time i saw him, he was dancing.

In that time frame is the Road to Wrestlemania, so you'll generally only see relevant talent during that time.

The current roster for Raw is:

Spoiler

Alex Riley
Punk, CM
Bryan, Daniel
Smith, David Hart
Otunga, David
Ziggler, Dolph
Johnson, Dwayne
Bourne, Evan
Goldust
Khali, The Great
Harris, Husky
Lawler, Jerry
Uso, Jey
Uso, Jimmy
Cena, John
Morrison, John
Henry, Mark
Ryan, Mason
McGillicutty, Michael
Tarver, Michael
Miz, The
Primo
Orton, Randy
R-Truth
Marella, Santino
Sheamus
Cara, Sin
Sheffield, Skip
DiBiase, Ted
H, Triple
Kidd, Tyson
Kozlov, Vladimir
Regal, William
Tatsu, Yoshi
Ryder, Zack

There has been a lot of who have been injured, for real and kayfabe, and others who just aren't worth giving airtime to during the Road to Wrestlemania.

You can't expect everyone to be relevant all the time, because frankly there just isn't enough time. Now that Wrestlemania is over we will start to see some old faces we havn't seen in awhile on Raw.

By the way, Del Rio is on Smackdown, but I can see why you would be confused.

 

[mral82]

There's plenty of wrestlers on RAW but not enough time to showcase them all plus Orton has kicked at least 5 back to FCW.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

You started watching Raw again right when the hype and build for WrestleMania really began to kick in. During that time, the WWE focused much more time hyping the matches and feuds that Vince decided to build WrestleMania around. Those feuds consisted primarily of John Cena/The Miz/The Rock, Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio, Randy Orton vs. CM Punk and The Undertaker vs. Triple H.

It's common knowledge that Vince goes quasi-psychotic around WrestleMania time. He'll change his mind about everything from match order to which matches will actually make the ppv to how long they should last to who should win, etc. multiple times a day leading up to WM. It was especially difficult for the WWE Creative team this year because Vince was soooooooo focused on generating outside interest, hyping The Rock's celebrity involvement and generally doing anything & everything he could possibly think of that he believed would get WM to the 1 million ppv buy mark.

Now that WrestleMania is over, there won't be nearly as heavy emphasis on just a small handful of feuds or certain wrestlers now.

 

[Reddog1146]

Actually to tell the truth, raw has about ten more wrestlers than smackdown. A couple are injured like skip sheffield, but most are just never seen or are in backstage segments. William regal for example is on raw and tha last time i saw him wrestle was when he fought daniel bryan when the bellas were with daniel bryan so that was a long time ago. there are many more examples of superstars getting little time on their brand.

 

[New Age Outlaws]

I have to say that one of the things that is wrong with the WWE right now is that they don't showcase thier stable of wrestlers on Raw and Smackdown right now. I mean com on you have two hours of show to put on and there are only two matches on Raw in the first hour of the show. Now dont get me wrong i get that you need to hype up matches but i dont need to see HHH talk for 15 minutes every episode since he has been back (which doesnt include his 5 min enterance) even if it is for a big ppv like WM. I also dont need to see a recap of him talking 5 times durring the episode. So i dont think that it is a lack of talent but I think that it is a lack of time management that they could be useing to push the unused talent that they have sitting backstage watching the show, which is a shame.

 

[TheKingHustla]

I think the problem isnt the amount of wrestlers, because there are a lot of contracted superstars, the thing is all of the "entertainment" aspects of the show. 60% of the show now is commercials, promos, and talking. add to that the fact that cena, orton, punk and the WWE champ need face time, it seems like they dont have a huge roster. Once things settle back and the hype of Mania goes away, you'll start seeing more "filler" matches. matches that use more roster guys just to fill time.

 

[JGlass]

This may be the first time I've ever seen someone complain about there being too FEW wrestlers on the WWE roster. The truth is: there are a lot more guys on the RAW roster than we see on television weekly, and some of them are over! Santino doesn't get that much time on RAW, and he's over as hell! Daniel Bryan and Evan Bourne are two more guys that the fans love that don't get to see action on RAW ever week. R-Truth is another guy who usually gets a reaction but only sometimes gets to see action. Then you have a ton of guys who wrestle on Superstars but not RAW: Zack Ryder, Primo, Yoshi, Regal, DH Smith, Tyson Kidd, the Usos, and Goldust are all guys who NEVER appear on RAW and are only sometimes on Superstars.

So, no, there is definitely no shortage of wrestlers on RAW. I suggest you keep on watching and you'll learn to appreciate the WWE again.

 

[Mustang Sally]

What others have been saying in this thread is true; at Wrestlemania time, the company goes almost exclusively with star power and leaves the lower caste wrestlers to wither on the vine.

In truth, though, the modern era of wrestling is that way even when WM isn't being promoted. Vince McMahon likes to feature his top people as much as possible; it's the formula he goes with. It's a direct departure from the way things ran in his father's time; there were a few superstars who faced off on TV each week against a jobber. There was absolutely no question as to who was going to win the match. In fact, the jobber rarely even got in any offense. I prefer today's pro wrestling.

Still, VKM must be doing something right since younger talent is pushed all the time. As long as we're getting an influx of new people, it's not as if we'll be choking on a steady diet of the old ones.

Obviously, there's a problem with having too many wrestlers, too. Look at TNA; their bloated roster from the time Hogan came in left them with tons of performers who were on the payroll just to sit around unused.

I think WWE has just the right amount of talent on the roster now.

 

[eragon555]

What he was trying to say is that RAW doesnt have a enough TV Roster!!
And i agree somehow with the Original Post...

They need to have programs like "Peep Show" & "Carlito Cabana", stuff like that to give more air time to the mid-card players!!
I read in a post, one guy telling that Sheamus could create a "King Court" show, and for me it is a fantastic idea (but i think he is no longer King) that would give some air time to other superstars include himself!!

About wrestlers WWE has the best ones, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, John Morrison, Alberto Del Rio, Randy Orton, Christian and the list goes on and on!!
If you want to see Wrestling you have to see SD!, this Alberto Del Rio & Christian matches has been great so far!
I am a SD! fan, i think that The "B" Show is becoming very good and every week we see that, of course they dont have the Legends coming back, but they work very well with the roster and i just ask them, what's the point of having RAW Highlights? I've already seen that, if i want to see again i'll go to YouTube!!

Now the answer to the OP, WWE has a lot of wrestlers, they just dont know what to do with them!!

 

[martymcfly]

I agree with some of the other posters in that there are plenty of folks on the raw roster but the problem is, we never see them. We only see the "usual suspects", the main eventers. I think part of this problem could be alleviated if we cut down some promo time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for story development and occasional promos, but the biggest problem I see lately is way too much time being devoted to them, at the expense of raw often having only 2 or 3 real matches. Take the recent cena and rock promos for example, leading up to wrestlemania and last week on raw. Any one of those could easily have been cut in half and not lost anything. And the show opener last week...HHH trying to be all somber and poignant. That could have been cut down considerably and not lost anything either.

Overall, I think that if promo time (not necessarily story development, but just flat out repetitive promos we've all seen hundreds of times already) were cut down, then raw would have more time to showcase some of their midcard talent and the roster wouldn't seem so depleted.

 

[iwinulose]

they have lots of guys on raw, a low number on smackdown. plus after every wrestle mania people get fired so we lose more talent then they debut 2 of 3 guys and toss in a couple of lacky's to follow them around. they need to work on this.