WWE needs to go back to having more Jobber matches

[DL23]

OK I don’t know how many of you read the recent RVD interview he did threw the week, in which he discussed wrestling needing to revert back to the old way and bring back the jobbers. This keeps the top guys from wrestling each other every week, so when they do wrestle, it feels special.

That had me thinking, that when wwe used that format they had some stellar guys but at the time the had 3 title belts, and the Intercontinental belt MEANT something, so I was thinking what if wwe reverted back to this, I think it could work. you’d have a select group like the Carlito, Santino etc etc who’d pick up wins against nobodies and job to the main guys, this would also keep the HHH and HBK’s from wrestling to much which would prolong their in ring careers same with Undertaker.

That concept would also open up the gates for Kane to look legit again, and even Knox and this way you could build guys up like Sheamus to look badass and a threat to the championships.

Also this would allow more in ring time for guys like Primo, Bourne, Tatsu, Shelton etc etc as jobbers never last to long, so the fans would get more wrestling and when it comes to PPV matches both guys would look unstoppable and not as predictable as wrestling as become.

anyways thoughts please.

 

[mster]

Great post. I feel wrestling has lost both storylines and the ability to null people up without jobbers. They play such an important part in the making of a wrestler. Also I agree, ppv's would be so much better if top stars wrestled each other only then and not on raw. Yay you would have some matches with top guys, but you would also be able to set up better storylines. Besides SD Jones, Barry Horowitz and Gillberg were great! Sorry im an old fan ha!

 

[hellod245]

WWE already have a bunch of guys who are jobbers. There is a plethora of guys in raw,sd and ecw. What RVD said that having a jobber vs superstar match at ppv will create new stars as it did in past. But now time has changed who will buy a PPV with Sheamus vs Bourne or Batista vs Chali Haas match on it? No one. Jobbers are important to elevate a wrestler to higher level and guys like Bourne, Jimmy wang yang, Chali Haas, Great Khali, santino Marella, Carlito, masters and primo are doing the same thing.Remember wwe had Kozlov vs jobbers and sheamus vs jobbers so many times that people wr tired of that so they are using jobbers to elevate a guy. They dont need to have more jobber match , specially not on PPV's

 

[Vintage]

With what.. 8 titles or so on the roster and not one for the cruiser weights I think it's plainly obvious that jobbers are alive and well in the WWE. Heck, most of the new hires in the last 2-3 years have less back story than Iron Mike Sharpe or Barry Horrowitz. It's a shame because I really enjoyed no name jobbers from back in the daysbut to replace them with the new blood..the small, young guys is disgusting.

 

[rbacica]

Well i have to totally agree with you ,dl23, because i have thought along those same lines now for a long time. In general, i think wrestling should revert back to the way things were back when i was a young kid growing up watchin(late 80s early 90s), when wrestling was still wrestling! Back then i never remember having the same two or three guys crammed down my throat year in year out in the same matches over and over and over again..(a la hhh/orton/cena)..Which i do like hhh and orton...hhh finally stopped hogging the title and spotlight, and orton is the best heel/heel champ today (Edge should take notes, orton understands the art of being a heel).

Anyway back on topic here, with the old school style format-jobbers, less titles, and even less ppvs you didnt have these problems. I do remember when the IC title (and even the U.S title) meant something...LIKE NO. 1 contender or number 2 guy in the company so to speak. Nowadays once people hit the world title picture they act like its beneath them to hold any other title after that, it didnt used to be that way...rotate guys around, after they been in world title picture for a lil while switch them to the IC title picture..keep things fresh...AND

WHILE WE R AT IT SOMEONE PLEASE PLEASE WAKE UP VINCE AND GET HIM TO BRING BACK A REAL TAG TEAM DIVISION.....TAG TEAM IS GREAT when you do it right like its supposed to be done...HE Should know a lil something bout that with the tag teams he had back in late 80s early 90s

 

[TimAH]

I agree with this. The choices seem to be watching jobbers get squashed in matches vs. watching "superstars" have matches that end with dq's and and other non clean victories so neither one has to look bad.

 

[Kryptic Messiah]

I think RVD is partially right with his jobber theory... if the wwe would use Jobbers to umm... feed to thier so called superstars, it would make the big PPV main event match, feel like a big PPV main event match, and not the dark match between the 2 drunk members of the ring crew of the local indy fed that consists of 10 guys setting of for the 3 match show they are gonna attempt to put on.

Now i aggree with ya WWE needs a tag Division, what happened to the days of the LOD, the bulldogs. RIght now WWE is setting pretty for what could be a great tag division. Theres a few teams that could turn to be good. (I for one like THe Hart DYnasty, and well i was getting into JeriShow). the reason i say what could be a great tag division is theres alot of guys that well dont quite have the complete package but if you matched them with someone else, well 20 years from now people could ask what happened to the days of Santino Marrella (give the man a push!) and Hornswoggle...Just kidding on that team... A cruiserweight division would be nice, we all know Rey is great in any match, but to me hes best agaist guys like EVAN BOURNE (man i wish hed go to TNA(i mean bourne not Rey))
Orton the Lead Heel? Yup agree there 120%... One question whos the lead face? Cena? I haven't been able to stomach the site of him since this time last year. Hes constantly getting booed. In my eyes he should go heel, be that rapper again, do something he can do well, that would still be him, and be a change of taste a bit.

on to my next rant. WWE needs to do away with ECW, and Superstars, frankly they SUCK! Next thing is the draft split, get rid of it let your younger guys carry the show a little more, some of the older guys need a damn retirement party, as much as i hate to say it, the UNdertaker one of my alltime favorites who i still love to see wrestle needs to retire before he gets so beat up that the rest of his life will be nothing except a crippled man in a wheelchair because he didnt know when to quit.

Make the tittles mean something... ECW World Championship since when does the jobbers have thier own championship (sorry christian ,regal, benjamin your the 3 exceptions o yeah and reasons for watchin) N y wont they use Goldust right? I liked the Bizare Goldust, Not the half electrofried dingleberry we got now.


I got more but my fingers hurt so im quitin on that note

 

[The New Generation]

I would have to say that we need the exact opposite. I remember when Kozlov was dominating Jobbers on Smackdown that the joke was that when he was wrestling, it was everyones bathroom break. Those matches weren't entertaining and didn't make Kozlov feel dominate. he only started looking dominate when he started going up against actual wrestlers, not jobbers, like The Undertaker.

I think that naming Primo, Bourne, Tatsu and Shelton as jobbers isn't fair, but unfortunantly is how the WWE is treating these talented wrestlers. Jobbers are people like Santino, Kung-Fu Naki and Jimmy Wang Yang that every match get one hit then get squashed and have basically no pop from the crowd. I've heard all of these wrestlers get reactions from the crowd, Bourne when performing SSP, Tatsu when winning on Raw, Primo when being the Unified Tag Champion. These guys can get crowd reactions and people on thier feet. Create a cruiserweight division for these guys and leave the jobbing to Kung-Fu Naki and Local Wrestlers.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

They've done this, and it's still very much present on a show like ECW where new stars are trying to be built up. The fact of the matter is however, that the fans bitch and complain if there's a jobber match. Although it's great character building in the long term, in the short term it's a fucking chore to watch. WWE has built up a lot of monsters this way, just for them to later be fed to the main guys. The problem is, when a monster squashes a jobber these days, it just seems so generic and dull, it doesnt get a reaction out of the crowd.

You really have to find the balance between jobbers and proper, competitive matches. If a wrestler goes on too long just squashing jobbers, he in essence because a joke and is boring. If he is steam rolled too much by big superstars, the same thing happens. I think WWE did the right thing with Sheamus, in which they made him look legitimately dangerous. He wasn't just going out beating up Funaki and getting the win. He was DOMINATING the jobbers that he faced. Something like what they did with Noble was far more impacting than anything a few jobber wins could do. But before that got stale, they moved him up to the big leagues in a snap. They transitioned him quickly before the force of his jobber crushing was diluted. It went from retiring Noble and attacking a hapless Lawler to WWE title. That's the way you need to build a monster.

 

[jrwhitfield1974]

They do have Jobber's they are Called ECW!! I miss the days of S.D. Jones, Iron Mike Sharp, Barry Horowitz, and even the Brooklyn Brawler Steve Lombardi. Now you have a bunch of kids in ECW that should be jobbers, mixed togeth with guys that should be in the Main Event and no one cares!!!

 

[Todd0478]

You nailed it. I was a huge fan from the early years until I was about 13 or 14(31 now). Got away from it for a while and became reobsesed about 2 years ago. Have spent a lot of time the past 2 years "catching up", watching all the ppv's and big matches from the mid 80's until now. And having watched so many matches in such a short time, I can honestly say some of the best cards and/or matches occured when a story wasn't worn out and the matches weren't just the same guys over and over again with a new gimmick added (i.e. DX v Legacy or Orton-Cena this past year). While not a classic, the WM22 Cena-HHH match was huge because they had never faced off before. Bring back the jobbers, and while we're at it, bring back more of the interview and promo segments like Piper's Pit, the Flower Shop, The Funeral Parlor etc.... both the jobber matches and the interview segments allowed for rivalries to get built up through "run in beatdowns" or just plain old calling somebody out. PPV buys would definitely improve if you only saw to main eventers go at once or twice a year with each other instead of week after week and the ppv after ppv. I guess the point (if I even have one), is we all get tired of the same stories with the same guys. There's tons of star power between the brands, but too much of it is used up throughout the 6 hours of programming (not to mention superstars, etc). There's a reason things were so big in the mid 80's, and the way things were promoted was why.

 

[whitefox]

When I first read the title of this thread my immediate reaction was "of course not", back in the day it used to frustrate me when I used to tune in to Superstars and Wrestling challenge and all I would see is jobbers getting crushed.

However it didn't stop me watching and when the PPVs came around there was a genuine excitement of watching the top guys square off as it was something that you did not see week in week out. Personally speaking it is very rare that I get that these days, maybe it's because I'm older but I do think that seeing the top guys face off every week plays a factor alon with there being so many PPVs.

It wouldn't work in wrestling today though, If WWE and TNA were up against each other and one side has their talent going up against jobbers and the other filled their show with their top stars going against each other, I know which side I think would come out on top.

 

[DL23]

WWE already have a bunch of guys who are jobbers. There is a plethora of guys in raw,sd and ecw. What RVD said that having a jobber vs superstar match at ppv will create new stars as it did in past. But now time has changed who will buy a PPV with Sheamus vs Bourne or Batista vs Chali Haas match on it? No one. Jobbers are important to elevate a wrestler to higher level and guys like Bourne, Jimmy wang yang, Chali Haas, Great Khali, santino Marella, Carlito, masters and primo are doing the same thing.Remember wwe had Kozlov vs jobbers and sheamus vs jobbers so many times that people wr tired of that so they are using jobbers to elevate a guy. They dont need to have more jobber match , specially not on PPV's

The problem with WWE jobbers is they are all regular wwe superstars, and they end up getting wins over one another so as much as they're a jobber to theelite guys they're still win so it makes them look weak.

my argument is, WHAT IF wwe brought back the ENHANCEMENT guys, a bunch of guys from the city there in to come in and job to there guys make their superstars look unmbeatable even the Carlito's Masters, Bourne's etc etc so when they face off against the main eventers on RAW or SD (once in a while) they'll look like they have a chance at beating them.

Wrestling as became to predictable since the monday night wars, they had superstar vs superstar matches and it killed wrestling in away, as nowadays we get Wrestlemania, Summerslam calibar matches on RAW and Smackdown.

 

[GetsHeat]

The big thing about jobber matches is they are almost always entirely predictable which makes a product stale and tough to watch.

 

[Davi323]

As soon as you start booking more jobber matches, there will invariably be threads complaining about how the talent in the WWE has gone downhill suddenly, and how there aren't nearly as good of matches as their used to be. Besides, they already have jobbers. Their names are Carlito, Primo, Evan Bourne (love him, but, lets face it, when does he ever get to win?) Chavo, Chris Masters, Charlie Haas, Kung Fu Naki, JTG, Shad, and most of the ECW roster. If any of these wrestlers were in a match against one of the established stars, its almost a guarantee they are getting the loss...if that isn't the definition of jobber, what is?

 

[Tastycles]

The whole reason that the Monday Night Wars were a success was because they stopped this format. When Raw and Nitro started to air, it was so that real stars faced each other week in week out. Having local wrestlers on more than once during a show will kill any crowd reaction you had going. In my years watching wrestling, I have never seen a jobber squash match were you can't hear a pin drop. Nobody cares. People say it builds people up, but it doesn't. Kozlov and Sheamus are both recent examples of guys who had months beating jobbers and when they reach the main event, what happens? Everyone questions what the fuck they're doing there.

Jobber matches are boring, and what is far more entertaining is seeing matches with guys like Evan Bourne geting a fair amount of offence in before losing. Keep doing that, and you can always save them later on. How long was Tommy Dreamer getting pissed on on a weekly basis before he picked up a win or two and then the title? A long time, that's for sure.

The traditional jobber is a thing of the past and they should be used sparingly for very early developmental work and that's it.

 

[Drew]

I think the WWE needs more matches like the Cena-Swagger match from a few weeks back. A match where the lower level guys show that they can keep up with the ME'ers, but the top guys pull out wins because of smarts and ability. Even the Bourne squash vs Sheamus a few weeks back was a good squash, because he went all out and actually helped build suspense that he would pin the Celtic Warrior, who then went on to overpower him. I think now it should be less about the amount of wins a wrestler gets that builds him up, but more about how he achieves said wins. Just for example in Cena/Swagger, Cena's experience earned him the W, while in the Bourne squash, Sheamus' brute strength and aggression won. In both cases, the match was entertaining and also told a story about who each man's character currently is.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Absolutely. Having more jobber matches would give the guys who don't get pushed something to do (put over someone who is higher on the card than them) and gives the guys being pushed a way to get a victory to increase their credibility. The best part is that the main eventers wouldn't have to keep facing each other for free on tv when they should be having PPV matches against each other. Having more jobber matches again would be a great idea because it solves two huge problems that WWE has.... too many guys have nothing to do storyline-wise, and the main eventers face each other too often. Could it really be that simple? Maybe not, but it's a great start. Another thing to add to this would be to also have the world champion(s) rarely ever wrestle a match on tv unless it's on PPV. Suddenly, the PPV matches will seem far more special rather than stale.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

I definitely agree that WWE should go back to having more Jobber Squash matches. I am not saying they have to take it back to the old days of Superstars of Wrestling and Wrestling Challenge, but I firmly believe that WWE should try to work a minimum of two squash matches per broadcast into their programming. And when I say squash matches, yes I am talking about no name Jobbers.

Now, people can argue that WWE has that today, except the Jobbers have names. Names like Jimmy Wang Yang, Charlie Haas, Mike Knox, Paul Burchill, etc. But the problem is that they are name talent. Eventually when you have name talent like this jobbing all the time, this devalues them in the eyes of the fans and they aren't taken seriously. Why not keep them for your Lower Midcarders and at least they have some credibility with an occasional win here and there through squash matches against real jobbers? That increases their value in the eyes of the fans somewhat. More so than today, at least, since they never get wins on TV these days.

But I do think the fans would stay tuned in through the squash matches against no-name jobbers. As long as they are kept to a minimum and no longer than maybe 3 or 4 minutes (not including entrances), then I don't see the problem with it.

But the reason why these matches are so valuable is that they spread out TV time which WWE fills these days having higher profile matches that could be saved for actual feuds. Instead, you see all these feuds on TV and 5 or 6 months down the road, you are seeing the same feuds repeated.

This way, it helps keep guys separated from facing each other, which results in a fresher product.

 

[billm75]

I remember in the 80's as a kid, tuning in to watch the WWF and feeling cheated that the JunkYard Dog was fighting "Joe Blow from Stumphumper Idaho". I wanted to see him and Roddy Piper going at it. I wanted to see Hulk Hogan ON the show once in a while. It seemed that the shows were always packed full of jobber/squash matches and you only got one GOOD match out of the entire show.

Now it's the exact opposite. Almost NO jobbers. And here's my thing about that, there's a balance that can be reached and it shouldn't be too hard. For example, lets say there's a new guy on the roster they want to build up from day one. Vance Archer comes to mind. He had a few squash matches, but it seemed they were TOO easy and TOO predictable. I can't remember him ever having to fight the opponent to win, he just beat the crap out of him and pinned him. Wow, exciting.

How about you bring out the new guy let him completely squash the first guy, so he gets some attention. Then, give him an enhancement talent opponent the next week so he has to actually EARN a victory. Then another jobber match. Then start a mini-fued with one of the lower midcarders. Build him slowly and use jobbers sparingly. Not 5 or 6 weeks straight, that's too painful to endure.

I think we need SOME jobber matches as has been stated by others here, I just don't want to see weeks and weeks of them, it gets boring to watch.

 

[theBIGdealAndyP]

yeah, gotta say that this is a tough one, the point was made that when you have guys like kozlov squashing jobbers week- in, week - out, it gets boring and then hes treated as not deserving because hes never beat up anyone that counts... thats how we look at them now, as not really counting... but same token warrior beats jobber after jobber and that makes him "unbeatable" i think it is a matter of face and heel, i think that a face beating heel jobbers looks better then a heel beating up on tiny jobbers. and it would be nice to see the champ put his title up against jobbers every week, then that sets up the chance to actually surprise people and have a "jobber" beat the champ, obviously, your not having iron mike win the title, but bringing in some kid youve never seen come in and upset the champ in a non-title match works- hell, thats how john cena was introduced to us. kurt angle had been beating up jobbers in a beat the clock challenge in record time week after week, then this kid in green (pun intended by WWE) trunks comes out and takes him to the limit- the rest is history...

 

[Zigglerfan227]

AAAHHH!!! i dont even wanna read this because I just wanna say that i hate it when WWE or any other wrestling business use jobbers!! the Only jobbers should be the local talent from wherever the show is at or maybe use people from FCW to job. Other than those people no one should job. The local talent should be the only ones to job, I have no problem with that. Even Santino Marella and Chavo doesnt deserve to be a jobber. Thats my only problem with jobbing is when they use regular wrestlers like them. ONLY LOCAL TALENT SHOULD BE JOBBERS!!! *whew*........yep. Glad i got that off of my chest.