Vince McMahon & The Transition Of WWE

[Viola Moonlight]

For the record, the thread title was meant to be a reference to the release & all the titles of the Harry potter. I also know that Vince McMahon is no Harry Potter. More like Dumbledore...

On to business... as known by everyone now, we are in an era of PG-ratings for family-friendly entertainment. Some are embracing these changes whilst others are completely furious. However, what WWE needs to do for their business is their own... errr, business. There have been many threads created for the negative implications of these changes & a lot of how you would recreated the WWE back to old terms. I thought why not make one about the positive side of the new WWE changes? Let's start off with a post I created on The Lariat's recent thread called "The WWE is Official lame." This should set the tone... Oh, I should forewarn many of you that this quote is going to be faily long. [Insert something sexual here... I wait, I just did... , I said insert... i said long]...

The Hogan-era seems to be very comparable in many eyes as the current PG ratings era. However, for the sake of this post alongside the argument I am going to present, I will refer to the PG-ratings era as the Cena-era. The reason why the two are comparable are mainly because the WWE are currently targeting a new audience... the under 16's area per say. They are attempting to create a new fanbase in order to be afloat for the next few years. The business is also taking this opportunity to rebuild itself & its product under the ever so watchful & observant eyes of children. Don't know about any of you, but this seems to be the perfect time to do so what with the ratings slowly descending, why not try something new. If it works, good work... otherwis put it through the incinerator. Now that the WWE is "vunerable," other alternative viewing in the form of ROH & TNA are accessible for those who are interested.

The WWE will, if history repeats itself [which it most likely will as it goes through the business/product life cycle], go through a trial-&-error stage to find something that works, eliminating the old methods they have adopted for so many years. Don't believe me, let's take a look:

Throughout history, there has always been the idea between some wrestling fans that the whole business is a fake, worked plot of entertainment similar to The Bold & The Beautiful... even though business' & people inside have always denied this, taking the professional wrestling secrets to the graves even. During the Hogan-era, these small talks being abolished with simple "Nays" have somehow spread into wide world phenomena between the wrestling fan community & society. As these allegations were on the borderlines of giving up, the WWF at that time was in the stage of rebuilding itself into a new company, refreshing the brand if you will. What happened?

During the time of putting whatever rebuilding plans the WWE had into affect, the WWE seemed to have given an open mind about how to address the rumors of pro wrestling is fake. Eventually, pro wrestling had been revealed that it was indeed a work but not entirely fake as some of these moves still hurt & actually can cause serious physical side effects. These reprecussions can be still felt today, like when Steve Austin was a guest on a talk show & "wrestled the host" in a match [can't remember the show though]. Inside the business, there are now comedy skits & segments during the match depicting & shitting on the point wrestling is fake with humour.

So, by following this trend... I think the WWE's "lame" or "rebuilding" state is doing something. What happened on the ZZ Top host of RAW when Randy Orton "asked" or "demanded" when he wanted to be included into the Legacy vs. HHH/Cena tag match? John Cena explained, with the aids of HHH & his body language, to Orton & the audience of the usual kayfabe storyline plot. Cena kinda gives away the following kayfabe storyline:

- Two guys want a piece of one guy.
- They are put into a difficult situation together to fight the other guy & whatever he stipulated.
- These two guys build heat with each other whilst the other guy gets the fall.
- All hell breaks loose when these guys lose to the other guy, when the other guy comes into the situation to gain an advantage & momentum into an important [usually PPV] match.

As a side, I have also noticed that VKM has gotten rid of the old-skewl colour commentator type from ringside. It is a lot less often do you here that Jerry "the King" Lawler supports Orton & his devious ways. However, he says that despite he may not agree with what he does as a human, he admires his wrestling ability in the ring & can get the job done.

There are other less noticeable examples that i could create for this thread, but lets stick with these two. What do these two have in common? They are not the norm from what happened in the past & seem to be changing. Why? Because the WWE is changing itself entirely. What's my point? Low levels of bloodshed is just one of the various changes the WWE is going to make to form the new product which will last until the WWE is faced with threats of getting taken over by other companies like TNA/ROH or when the cycle repeats itself.

So, while the WWE is in a stage of rebuilding... it is very, very ignorant to say the WWE is lame in my opinion. Until we see the finished product or if they scrap the rebuilding process entirely, then I wil accept your opinion as a valid point. Until then, let the WWE & VKM do what it does best & be patient. For a thread to come from a guy that I respect on these WZ Forums, this is probably a low point for you Lariat in my eyes. Keep these types of forums to those who actually deserve to get the red rep or the non-WWE marks.

Basically my point here was to say that the WWE is a BUSINESS. They need to go make decisions, important ones at that, to keep the business going forever. Even in times of recession, many people still would rather waste precious dollars into being entertained for a couple of hours instead of investing that money in property that would set them up for a long time financially. So the WWE must be doing something right...

After all this, I would like to leave the discussion open to three basic questions about the WWE. You dont have to answer in order or answer all three, these questions act as guidelines as for what needs to be answered if you choose to post something.

1) Is now the right time for a transitional period within the WWE? Why?

2) What do you expect to happen after the transition takes effect? [Example, the pro wrestling is fake story in the quote]

3) Are you embracing these changes & staying alongside the company or are you assessing your options as you have felt abandoned by the company?

As for me, I think it is a great choice of timing as to get in the new generation of wrestling fans early before any competition grows a pair and takes WWE to their limits. They need the fans for the ratings & the recession is affecting the WWE although to is still up & running quite effectively. From this I expect "realism" in professional wrestling go into full effect. The death of gimmicks is upon us with more emphasis of character personalities as a human, not as a wrestler. Kayfabe has been given too many fatal blows in exchange for comedy skits, so I see a lot of kayfabe disappearing soon [Don't believe me, watch some vids of the new DX formed by HHH & HBK only]. Besides all this, I will still remain with the WWE as a fan. I may not condone some of the decisions made, but if it is for the good of the business then I won't complain. Even if I do find something I don't like [e.g. WWE now going for a bikini style diva approach only] then I will complain, but I will still remain loyal to the business.

Any thoughts?

 

[brk1078]

I, personally, like this transition period. Seeing new faces (Yoshi Tatsu, Swagger, Miz and Morrison doing singles, etc) and reestablished old ones (Kane, Khali, etc.) makes me a WWE fan for this whole length of time.