Why has wrestling become so predictable?

[Maidenfan18]

Is it just because I'm getting older or what?

I don't mean to be bashing wrestling, but the storylines..matches, etc are all becoming so predictable.

Almost every main event on Raw and SD end with either a DQ or a cheated win. What happened to the days of clear wins? And why no more upsets? Am I the only one who can correctly predict how each match will go each and every week?

 

[Kasey]

Don't worry...it's not just you. It is very predictable. Not just in the appearances of certain stars or stuff like that. The scritping is incredibly cliche a majority of the time and reeks of staleness. A lot of the change in the product is typically because the front office protects certain wrestlers, and others are just unflexible in terms of whether or not they'll do a clean job. And no, you're not the only one who can predict things. Hell, I can typically call two or three spots in sequence from most of the main eventers before they do them and a lot of the dialog is as rehearsed as a high school play. The freshness and intelligence is completely absent from storylines at times.

 

[justinsayne]

from what I can figure it's because the creative teams today consist of old wrestelers and people that have been in the bisnuess for a long time, all their Ideas have either been used before or they don't know what todays fans actully want, I think that if they were to go out and hire some new younger writers, that are fans of wrestling then maybe things would change and things might go back to being a bit more unpredictable, they also have to start listening to the fans and give them what they want

 

[Bocob]

It's only wwe. TNA isn't predictable. Only wwe, because Vince Mcmahon has favorites. And having favorites, Vince Mcmahon makes his favorites win their matches. He has many other wrestlers he can use such as Val Venis, Viscera and Rob Conway. But instead he has to go and hire big wrestlers when half of them don't know how to wrestle. I personally think TNA is gonna be the new generation of Wrestling and TNA is gonna get in the same league as wwe when TNA rise.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Wrestling has largely become predictable because of the internet. You can read spoilers any time you want which will tell you everything that is going to happen on this week's show, then wonder why it's so predictable.

Even sites like this one make wrestling predictable. We all come on here with our opinions, our predictions, our information, etc., . That is not a criticism, it's not a bad thing, but it makes it harder to surprise a true wrestling fan.

Think about wrestling 10+ years ago. Superstar squashed jobber, over and over again. Our expectations were low, and not much thought went into it.

Now we all expect 5 star matches for 4-5 hours of TV every week, and we all chime in about it. I wouldn't want to be a writer today, trying to be unpredictable, it's nearly impossible.

Take this week's Raw, for example. The "fan" winning the IC belt would have likely been a huge surprise 10 years ago. But now, we all knew in advance who this guy was, because we all follow wrestling so closely. We all read about it online before it happened, and we have all analyzed it to death since then. How then can we complain about this being predictable? How could it not be?

 

[Big Ace]

Meh. I don't even have to get on the 'net, and I already know what RAW's main event two weeks from now will be. It really is a shame. RAW used to be unpredictable. It does have its moments, but those are very rare. The Rock ''coming back'' for one night. It's just enough to please us really. I think it's because back in 98, they set the bar so high, that the fans (Us) just wanted more. It's not just you. I'd rather go back through the days of Bret and HBK than endure this crap. At least it wasn't as predictable IMO. TNA's the same thing and that's the damn truth. TNA may not promote their main event match every week, but it's still similar. TNA just doesn't look as well produced as WWE for some reason. WWE still has the money, for which reasons that escape me, have kept them alive even through the worst of times. Even if TNA is the proclaimed ''future'' I doubt it's enough to overtake Vince. While Dixie's pulling a rabbit out of her hat, Vince will pull a gorrila out of his. Plain and simple.

TNA = WCW.

 

[Shocky]

Wrestling is predictable for a shit ton of reasons.
1. over exposure of wrestling. Too many damn hours of television for wrestling a year.

2. Lackluster creative team. The creative teams have an attention span of maybe a month or so. They don't know how to properly book a show, and when they have good matches, they give them 5 minutes to work.

3. Too many wrestlers with creative control. This is ALWAYS a bad thing, NEVER a good thing.

4. No competition. WWE has no serious competition, therefore the WWE has no reason to better themselves.

5. Vince is getting old. Vince is hell bent on making one more superstar. Instead of listening to the fans like he used to, he is hell bent on forcing Cena down our throat, so Cena will win all the time everytime.

Spoilers have been around for a long time. It's nothing new.

 

[ExtremeRage81]

It's only wwe. TNA isn't predictable. Only wwe, because Vince Mcmahon has favorites. And having favorites, Vince Mcmahon makes his favorites win their matches. He has many other wrestlers he can use such as Val Venis, Viscera and Rob Conway. But instead he has to go and hire big wrestlers when half of them don't know how to wrestle. I personally think TNA is gonna be the new generation of Wrestling and TNA is gonna get in the same league as wwe when TNA rise.

I wouldn't go as far as to say TNA isn't predictible but it's not as bad as the WWE. They do have moments of preditibility but WWE has become so bad with it to the point it's like Raw has become Nitro. Hell even the ring seems smaller. But Wrestling in general is suffering from this problem and it's killing it because fresh ideas are a rarity these days. And the worst part is that because of the predictibility, it's caused our expectations to go higher.

 

[Shocky]

Ya i wouldn't say TNA isn't predictable. Vince Russo is still apart of creative, and his garbage can wreak from miles away. TnA has a ton of growing to do before its officially a threat. TNA has better in ring performances, but there is something missing still.

 

[Shadowmancer]

The Way to solve this is to have everything live and get rid of creative control in the wrestlers, give them creative input into their character, but Predictability breeds cynicism, look at my prediction for what RAW was going to be, it would be a fairly typical for what the booking would do. As for changing that, if they can throw more swerves like they did with Santino Marella or however you spell his name, but as I said earlier, Vince Mcmahon's philosophy is right on this way, to make it unpredictable have it live and nothing can go wrong live. If someone trips they meant to do that.

 

[matt1011]

personally, i dont really care if its predictable or not as long as i can see my favorite wrestlers, its just that i hate that wigger John Cena winning almost every match, thanks ALOT vince.............I just hope HBK wins that fatal 4 way for the WWE title at backlash.

 

[attila]

Creative is the reason. Wrestling has been too slow to adapt. You look at TV in general and look at shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Prison Break, 24, Sleeper Cell, Dexter, The Black Donnellys, The West Wing, etc. and its obvious that the level of writing has hit a new zenith in the last few years. TV (dramas in particular) as far as writing goes have reached an echelon which was unfathomable ten years ago.

At the same time, wrestling has changed very little since 1997. Some may argue that the scripting of WCW and even the WWF at that time were better than current offerings. I think it all comes down to evolution. The same minds that brought you WWF and WCW are now bringing you WWE and TNA. And little has changed. The same stories and same ideas and concepts that you saw in 1996-99 are the same ones you saw in 2000-2002 and are the same ones you see today. Only now you don't have the amazing talents of Bret Hart, Hollywood Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock, and so on to rely on. That is not to say that there are not some incredible talents out there today - just that perhaps not at that same level.

But that is the other thing. The whole overall presentation has nto evolved either. Maybe the way things were done ten years ago won't work in today's TV climate. Maybe we need somehting more ECW, maybe something more ROH, maybe even something more UFC. Maybe peole want to see wrestling become a sport. Maybe the level of drama needs to be lifted (highly unlikely IMO). Maybe the stroylines are just too novice, perhaps the audience wants more sophisticated storytelling. There is a lot to consider. But the main reason is still in the people. We have the same people writing the same bullshit and producing the same product.

Politics also has a lot to do with it. WWE and TNA are too scared to push new people. They find a "safehouse" in Cena and Christian and they fear putting the title on someone else because it may deter viewers. Its this same fear which is disabling the business from progressing to and reaching that next level. WWE in particular is so predictable in this respect that its ridiculous. The last time I saw something I was not expecting, was Edge's first title win at New Years Revolution. TNA is just as bad, however, they can also surprise you from time to time. Most likely because they are trying their hardest to throw in a few swerves here and there. But in a holisitic sense it remains an obvious course. Throwing in a few surprise wins to cover up the predictable temperament of your programming is not enough.

The fed that leaves you on edge the best is ROH. And I hate to sound like a smark but its true. ROH is not afraid to try new things and as a result their swerves, strylines and title-wins are much less predictable. I don't remember ever correctly guessing who would be the next ROH World Champion (other than Homicide's win late last year, and only because it was built that way). ROH is free from politics and doesn't need its champions to be great mic-workers so they are able to throw in these unexpected title-reigns from time to time without the threat of a fan backlash. And I think that if the WWE and TNA show a little more back they can do the same. They need to let loose and do things they havn't done before.

 

[Oatesy07]

I Also Think It Has Become Very Predictable I Can Choose A Winner Before The Match Starts Pick What Moves They Are Going To Do Before They Even Do It,i Think They Need A Big Shakeup If They Want Ecw To Suceed They Are Going To Have To Move Some Big Talent That Draw Fans,Bobby Lashley Was A Big Move But Snitsky Was An Awful Bad Addition To The Ecw Roster He Doesnt Draw Fans And Thats What They Need I Also Think They Should Shake Up The Raw And Smackdown Rosters With These Moves Both Shows Would Improve,



Cena For Batista

Triple H For Mysterio(AFTER DX ENDS)

Cryme Time For London + Kendrick

Edge For Kennedy,

AND MOVE THESE PEOPLE TO ECW

CADE + MURDOCH

DUECE + DOMINO

WORLDS GREATEST TAG TEAM

(REASON FOR THE TAG TEAMS IS TO COMPETE FOR THE ECW TAG TEAM BELT THAT EVERYONE IS PUSHING VINCE TO MAKE)

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK.

 

[BRING BACK SID!!!]

Heres y wrestling became predictable....1) LACK OF TALENT 2) LACK OF TALENT and 3) LACK OF TALENT!!! Ok now there are a few and i mean slight few who are good and can do it for many years. HBK, Triple H, Taker, Mr. Kennedy, Edge, maybe Orton....and if only god would allow it....AJ STYLES IN WWE! But no....WWE would make him a lame ass gimmick and he would fight like SHELTON BENJIMAN or CHARLIE HAAS for like 5 months...and then they fire him....like they do to all their decient talent.....WWE will eventually collapse on itself from the REPEAT STORYLINES!!! UH MACMAHON FUDES WITH ANOTHER UP-AND-COMING STAR...or when HHH RETURNS HE'LL FIGHT HBK FOR THE BELT AND ENDING DX....oh oh oh orrrrr.....EDGE AND ORTON HAVE A FEUD FOR LIKE 9 MONTHS UNTILL WE CANT STAND EITHER ONE AND THEY FALL OFF THE FACE OF WRESTLING AND END UP IN TNA!!! WWE NEED RUSSO BACK.....

 

[Shadowmancer]

there is no lack of talent in WWE, it is what they do with that talent, There is no need to get that negative with WWE. WWE do not need Russo back, No Wrestling promtion should go near Russo without some strong leashes on what he can do. This is why WWE is predictable, the move ban and a genuine disintredness of the writers that they are getting in, ones with soap Opera and Comedy experience and not with wrestling experience for the most part. Edge and Orton could be an interesting feud, I am actually intrested in how it pans out, it could be a great Heel vs.Heel feud that people will remember, that i why i am cautiously optimistic with the direction the storylines are taking when it comes to the mainevent level, the Wrestling needs to improve but the storylines are improving. This is the first time I have seen Vinnie Mac feud with an Up and coming Wrestler. and evn then it is sort of iffy because Lashley is not quite up to scratch in terms of mic work so he can barely hold up his end of the feud. Wow who else is Trips going to face when he gets back without ruining the credibility of any wrestler, viscera, Val venis. Edge and Orton would end up with the credibility of either of these guy being destroyed in a matter of two matches.

 

[Mr.KennedyPWNS]

Why has wrestling become so predictable?

Because the creative team... isnt CREATIVE.

Just because guys are big, doesnt mean that they should be pushed to the moon. Put Mr. Kennedy in the Main Event picture. Keep King Booker there. Push guys with talent. Obviously, Batista doesnt have any.

 

[Prax]

I'd have to partially disagree with that last post... There is one creative person on the creative team and his name is Dusty Rhodes.

He single-handedly turned the Smackdown! brand around and he's starting to do so with ECW. Now if only there were more people like him on the creative team...

 

[Shocky]

Dusty Rhodes was responsible for Edge winning the title at NYR, that was an amazing swerve. The main problem with Dusty is he's throwing the idea around of making Hardcore HOlly the top heel in ECW. Ya i get it, Hardcores been around forever, but in that time, he has never been interesting.

Dusty is good, but not great. I'll take Dusty's good right now though.

 

[A.J.]

Things will never be perfect but Dusty is on the right path in making things interesting. If all the writers can be like that then we would have some good programing, but that is not the case.

We dont need great writers we need a few good writers who together can produce a good quailty show.

 

[captainamerica79]

I think alot of it has to do with seoerate brands. On respective shows you only have a few main event caliber people and its always the same people fighting for months on end.

 

[TheRealDC]

The reason why I think wrestling is getting too predictable is basically like captainamerica79 just said. The separate brands are kind of killing them. WWE really isn't at their best, unless they have competition. The need competition. They need competition so bad, that they created their own competition by splitting the fed and using their two shows. Now, they split the brand even more by bringing in ECW. Now, they have issues. Because with three brands to tend to, you have way too many story lines going on. You really don't know which way to look. I do. I look to TNA, only because, they have easy story lines to follow. And its no too predictable. The thing is though, in TNA the matches are predictable because they don't have the two hours that Raw and Smackdown have. Take that into notice, and realize that WWE has competition now, so the smart thing to do would be to fuse it all back into one fed, and acknowledge TNA. We all know it exists, and we are all guilty of checking it out. In TNA you know where everyone is, and what division they are in. Matt Hardy was a Cruiserweight Champ not too long ago, on Smackdown. Now he is a Tag Team Champ on Raw. Bobby Lashley is the ECW champ, but defends the belt on Raw. You get where I'm going with this? NO ONE is really where they are supposed to be. And Smackdown is actually the one that is hurting the most. They are running out of star power, because a lot of the mid card guys are disappearing. You can't have a top card, if you can't get the fans anticipating to see the last. There is some talk about Chris Benoit going to Raw... Booker T is out... Matt Hardy went to Raw... Mysterio is still out (but coming back)... just look at those four guys... and tell me... who else would be a good running for the United States Championship? Its not the lack of a roster that kills them, its the fact that they have such a huge roster thats separated to different shows, and it prevents creativity. If a writer has three storylines, and another writer has two. In one fed, they could use those for an entire two months until the next two PPVs. Now, if you have two writers, one with three storylines and one with two, and THREE DIFFERENT SHOWS, with a whole lot of different wrestlers... do the math, you can't blame the writers... they have to write so many storylines for so many people.

Granted a lot of talent goes underrated nowadays, and it is a crime that they don't get the spot light as much. But, the problem with that, is that some of the moves that got them over before they went to the WWE, are banned moves... I saw a video of Jillian Hall doing a 450 splash... a chick doing a 450! But she can't do it in WWE. I know there are reasons for the move ban list, but your taking away most of your superstars creativity in matches, which make them predictable because now, they can't do any "unpredictable" moves!

WWE has shit for a Tag Team division, so sending people over to ECW to make a Tag Team Championship there, would be completely pointless. What they need to do in ECW is drop the "Extreme Rules" B.S. that would completely solve their problems. No one, and I repeat, NO ONE, wants to see Sabu wrestle a clean match. And its nothing against Sabu, I like watching him do anything, I'm a fan, I don't want to see him hurt, but don't MAKE him stop. Wrestlers have a choice to make, if they want to swing chairs and spill blood for our entertainment, then we can't stop them. So for the people that are going to tell me, ECW was crappy because of the blood and guts, screw you. Moving right along. They need to at least bring in the T.V. Title, because the midcard guys need something to wrestle for. The champion doesn't even represent the title on your own damn show, so if you make another title, for f*cks sake, keep it on that show.

Another thing WWE should do, to make us all happy, is NOT have Vince come out and use his real life heat as a set up for MORE heat. Its one thing for us to sit here and complain about not seeing any wrestling... and then Vince not showing us any wrestling, thats not improving the story. Its bringing it down harder.

 

[Big Fella]

A lot of you guys are coming close, but just missing the mark on whats really wrong with wrestling, particularly the WWE today.

The main issue is in the creative department, but the responsibility can be shared by Vince, the creative team, and the wrestlers nearly equally.

As the Attitude Era came on, the storytelling and storylines became more indepth than they had in the past.

When that happened, and the promo's went from bulleted outlines left for the wrestlers to mold, to out-right speeches the talent was forced to essentially memorize. In my opinion, that is what is killing wrestling right now.

Even when wrestlers did not like their angles in the past, they were still given enough creative freedom within the angle to take credit or blame for successes and failures. Now when something flops, they shrug their shoulders and blame creative.


Then there are guys trying very hard. They are good wrestlers, cut good promos, the fans just don't like their gimmick. That is on the fault of creative. You can tell when these guys are left out to dry, because they are walking around almost trying to convince themselves that the gimmick is not awful, ala Terry Taylor the Red Rooster.

Why are wrestlers partially to blame? Because simply put, some of the ones that complain about their angles and not getting over are guys that would not even be thought to be pushed in the 80's. Creatively they bring nothing to the table, and they lack the knowledge and nuances of the business to make even the crappiest of angles fairly interesting.

 

[kev7471]

No man, your not. I feel the same way you do. When I was younger they seemed to suprise just about every week, but now...nothing.

I think its partly because Vince has pulled just about every suprise out of his hat that he could think of and now they're fresh out of ideas. I mean, you can only do so much without it running out right?

Eric Bishoff showing up on Raw, that was a suprise that I don't think could ever be topped. Then this nobody winning the IC title from Umaga? What the hell is that about? Umage went undefeated for damn near a year and now he's doing jobs to nobodys?? Whats that? Personaly I think they're starting to kill that character in Umaga, theres so much more they could do with him but now he's doing nothing but losing.

 

[little nice girl]

i think the problem is well maybe were expecting a bit too much. the attitude era was a great era but eras dont go on forever now do they? or maybe wwe's uncreative team is slacking off. their is alot of up and coming wrestlers like kennedy cryme time and dare i say matt and jeff hardy.Also rey mysterio when he comes back they are wayyyy over.the rock austin nor hogan is coming back and wrestling full time get over it.when taker hbk hhh leave the wwe will survive. ratings may go down but in time they will come back up. dusty has been doing a great job lets hope he can save the sinking ship known as ECW.

 

[mabuza]

The problem is the WWE doesnt have any real compettion.If this was 1998,they would allow Cena to keep thetitle(with his faceheat) because fans would change the channel and watch WCW.There's no need for them to have launced 3 brands & more ppvs when thier existing ones still sucked.Its not even that they dont have talent.They've got Nitro,Carlito,Dykstra,Masters,Umaga,Orto,Edge,CM Punk,Burke,Kennedy etc. but they continually bury them in favor of Cena.
The sad reality is that Cena is the only real young-"big draw" that they have,but he's current heat with the fans is ruining RAW & John's career.