Brian, trust me...I share a lot of your similar opinions about the way wrestling is today. But unfrotunately, they have already done so much to the point where everything has pretty much already been done without doing something illegal perhaps. We fans were spoiled rotten having come off the 80's and early 90's boom...and I don't know how old you are but being a kid and having all these cartoon character type wrestlers when you're little...it was extremely entertaining. Then it was almost as though the wrestling world was growing up with me (and others my age) because once I started getting older into my teenage years...the NWO began, we had DX, Goldberg, etc. It was just incredible. So now here we are in our late 20's (me and those same people in similar ages) and you look at all of this mediocrity and of course it doesn't compare...but almost nothing could. It's sad but it's kind of the way it is.
The thing that bothers me the most is that the newer wrestlers that lack the personality and charisma the older ones had...aren't really making much improvements in that area. It seems most wrestlers just focused primarily on their manuevers and moves and literally zero time on their character...which then results in the boredom they give off. I mean you have Rey Mysterio Jr. swinging around with a World Title belt...it's just bad.
However, I think there are a few things they could do...and a part of me wonders if Hogan's whole surgery thing was in fact one large hoax...as well as the Kevin Nash retirement thing, etc. One way to set yourself apart from the rest would be to literally do something this extraordinary I guess. But who knows.
Like I said, there really isn't much more they can do unfortunately...
I believe I can point to when for me at least everything changed. IMHO Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair circa NWA/Gordon Solie were the last great characters and storylines. I mean the apparent animosity and hatred they had as characters for each other was visible. Their promos were gold and Gordon Solie was the consumate commentator/mediator for their war. It was a storyline that didn't play out over weeks or months, but years. Then came The 4 Horsemen and "The American Dream" had an even bigger problem on his hands. But somehow, "we" believed him right? (keeping in mind that this is all fake! LoL) Then came T.A. Magnum as his Robin to "The Dreams" Batman, fighting evil wherever it was. (i.e. The 4 Horsemen.) Then Magnum gets hurt in his wreck, enter Nikita Koloff. Russia and the U.S. teaming up in the 80's? it ain't so! Didn't really work.
Fast forward to Sting and then the NWO. While I believe that was the best-managed storyline of the last 20 years, I also believe it was what eventually brought down WCW. The bloated contracts, bad actors off stage like SixPac and Scott Hall, and the Era of Attitude in WWE were all contributing factors in their demise. But here's also where I believe the booking went off the rails as well. We were led to believe that a "dark" Sting was able to fend off 8-10 guys all by himself while nearly the rest of the face roster were powerless to compete. While it was a huge hit during house shows, as some point as a tv viewer you start to say, "okay, even this isn't believable."
Then came "The Streak" with Goldberg and all common sense was thrown out the window. With all the years of run ins that sometimes caused title changes, brass knuckles, forks, and knives, now we were supposed to believe that this ex-football star was able to come into a new sport for him and dominate unlike any in the history of the business other than Andre the Giant?
Sorry but I wasn't buying it!
But it gave rise to the notion that booking had become about getting the "superstar" on your roster and booking him in some ridulous storyline for the wow factor. It became less about the character development and more about "the spear", "the stinger with his bat (which he still uses to this day.)" or "the dx chop". Just cheap pops with no long term payoff for the fans.
I'm more like a Chris Jericho wrestling fan in that I like the longer storylines that are played out bit by bit week after week. In fact, I was impressed with TNA and how they were playing out a couple of their storylines, but ultimately I knew it wouldn't be nearly as big a payoff as they promised. And I was right. The "they" storyline is just old WCW in new packaging. Sort of! Add Jeff Hardy (as Jarrett was part of the WCW promotion back in the day.) and you have your new NWO faction of today. With Nash on his way out and Sting pulling his year to year stunt to cash in, and Angle on his last couple of runs, it would be hard to pull those guys into a prolonged storyline like this. On the other hand, Hogan and Bischoff both need the pub and money to fund their offstage projects and personal issues. Either way, TNA loses in the long run as their older talents are all on the verge of retirement.
Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Kevin Nash, Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Team 3D, Sting, and even Jeff Hardy aren't going to be around this business much longer. What then? Jarrett becomes a backstage booker for the matches, Styles is again your top guy, and the rest are just bit players in keeping Styles world champion or in the picture.
At any rate, this business has fallen so far in the last 15 years that it's not even recognizable from what I grew up watching.
