WWE needs to start booking like the past and like Comic Books....

[TheMainEvent]

I been thinking alot lately about why wrestling has been in such a slump and really just hasnt interested me in the last year or so. Really it comes down to the booking and direction of the business as of late and I started thinking about how things once were. With that in mind its become apparent that WWE has been lacking the "epic all-encompassing" storylines that once drew in mass viewers. Think about it: WCW had the nWo storyline that involved nearly the whole roster in some capacity and created a defined good vs evil struggle that was enthralling....WWE had the Austin/McMahon storyline that caused the Corporation/DX/Ministry storyline that involved everyone on the roster at some point... Then came the McMahon/Helsmley Era, the failed Invasion storyline, the Raw vs Smackdown (Bischoff vs Steph) storylines...

I think of it in similiar terms to how comic books "book" their storylines with one main story arc that runs the most of the year and brings together all the main players leading to some epic showdown or revelation... if your a comic fan you'd understand what I mean...

Regardless WWE needs a large long term storyline that will draw in viewers... Nexus had potential last year to become a new nWo/New Blood vs WCW type epic storyline but bombed at Summerslam... Raw vs Smackdown is played out.... Unkown GM is a bust... Celebrity Hosts was lame....

Albeit WWE is currently lacking a strong heel force to really drive this storyline but do you think WWE should focus on booking a large epic storyline that drives the years events leading to something and encompassing the whole roster(s)? What should it be? Who involved? etc.....

 

[The Champ]

This Cena vs. Punk thing, if done right, and Punk is going to be returning to the company at some point soon, could be that storyline you're looking for. There are various places they could take this from here, including having Punk actually take the WWE Championship to wherever he goes. Now, I don't actually think they'll do that, but it would sure as hell create a new level of interest if they did, with WWE scrambling to find out how Raw would survive without a championship.

Or, they could go the route of having the MITB winner be the title's savior, which could create a big storyline between that guy and Cena. If it was Del Rio, you could have him get arrogant and talk about how he did what Cena couldn't do, and how Cena was a failure. Then Cena's road back to the championship involves him struggling to prove himself to the fans, and to himself as well.

 

[TheMainEvent]

Yeah the Cena/Punk feud is what really got me thinking about the Attitude Era feuds and how they really took over the whole company and involved everyone... with recent rumors of Cena battling slight injuries it would be great to have Punk win the title and Cena get fired or taken out... Raw without Cena and Punk on a tyranny as the rogue champion could be some interesting TV. Add in the fact that he still has his Nexus faction and a possible GM Reveal to be someone like a returning Foley or even Kevin Nash could cause some great segments....

I think the thing I really wish was just overall long term booking and feuds that have real meaning and heart/history... Feuds like HHH/Rock for the IC title, Austin/Taker for WWE Title, Rock/Austin, Foley/HHH.... all had great backstory steming from a larger fued and builds that lasted months...

 

[H33LTurn]

I think that a Austin/Vince rivalry is what theyre trying to do with the Cena/Punk/Vince storyline. If Punk's not coming back then the role of Austin needs to be played by Cena, and theres already enough reason for him to assume that role. Cenas a great comic book hero but he needs that big flaw to bring him down. He needs that edge and that darkness about him that you just keep "flipping the pages" to expose. WWE really needs to book sitcom style. There can be the funny moments and the moments that dont make any sense but you still need the serious moments. They need those recurring storylines that you mentioned. People are complaining that theres not enough time between ppvs to evolve storylines, well who said they have to last a month? Austin/McMahon went on for years. Oh and if its actually extended people think its a drag like Orton/Christian. The reason that rivalry is failing is because theres nothing new to it. Theres no element of surprise because we know that Orton is going to come out on top. Now with Sheamus in the mix hopefully things will be different. But yeah, they need to cartoon it up a little.

 

[Dude_Love87]

I don't think I would say the unknown GM is a bust, I'm still interested to find out who it is. However, I do agree with you in terms of lack of using all of the talent on a weekly basis. First off, having the Raw and Smackdown as 2 seperate Rosters is dumb in my opinion. No way am I going to watch wrestling on a Friday Night. It's frustrating when they have great talent on smackdown and you hardly ever see them interact with Raw talent.(except recently) Zach Ryder is not used right at all, I can't believe he hasn't left yet, it's shocking really. It's going to be intersting to see if they can work this Cena vs CM Punk storyline right. If it works to a T, they might have screwed themselves with that John Cena vs Rock at wrestlemania, which was crazy to promise to the fans that far in advance.

 

[crossface for ever]

I think the Punk angle now is exactly what they need. However I really dont think this can be done right the way things are now. You cant have an Austin type character in the WWE with it being PG. THe whole point of Austin was that he was a beer drinking swearing authority hating redneck it just wont work nowadays. Her is what i think would help freshen things up a bit. Have Punk and Cena have this fued, at MITB have Punk win and after the match have Vince come out and beg Punk to stay. He tells Vine the only way he will stay is if Cena is sent to Smackdown so that he can be the top talent. You then send Cena to friday nights have Smackdown be the PG show and return raw to the tv14 this was SMackdowns ratings will improve and you also give the adults some quality program again. As for the WWE championship eventually have Orton come over to Raw to face against Punk These two have put on great matches and could really lead a new "attitude" era

 

[TheMainEvent]

If CM Punk were to win the match at the PPV and Cena gets fired it would shake things up and allow for some interesting setups all leading into Wrestlemania... Its almost very nWo beginning like in that you have Punk (Hogan) as the rogue champion with his cronies (Nexus/nWo) helping him essentially control the company. Cena (Sting) is out and McMahon (Bischoff) is desperate for some help allowing for new faces like Kofi or a Miz turn to step up and challenge Punk. Miz could make sense in that he idolized the WWE all his life and wont let Punk stand by and degrade the title and company, or Triple H could return to feud with Punk for McMahon and WWE. With his Nexus help, Punk could reign supreme for months leading to a Cena return and showdown at Royal Rumble where Cena regains the title...Throw in Austin as a special guest referee for their no holds barred match and following CM Punks loss he could move into a Wrestlemania feud with Austin and Cena with Rock...

Thats one route but the downside is where does it leave Del Rio unless you use Punk to elevate some faces and bring in Triple H to feud with Del Rio because of the lack of faces...

Then there is the option of Punk winning, Cena gone and Punk doing a bit of a tweener role through his feud with McMahon, the greater evil, of the two. McMahon outraged that Punk has the title would work with Del Rio and other heels to get the title away from Punk, who becomes the modern Stone Cold/anti-hero. I could see Nexus turning on Punk because of McMahon threatening their careers during a promo and allowing Punk to go full rogue as a loner... Cena could return and a) align with Punk and help against McMahon or b) FINALLY go full heel and become the true Corporate Champion, thus changing his attire, etc... This could all lead to again Punk/Austin for respect and heel Cena/face Rock at Mania... or even Punk/Triple H with HHH aligned as a heel with McMahon....

Just a few thoughts that could work...likely Punk wins the title, Del Rio wins MITB, Del Rio beats Punk with McMahon help and goes to feud with vanilla face Cena though....mark my words thats prolly how the PPV will go down....

 

[RJB1976]

Want more long term fueds...have less ppvs, its that simple. Reason that fueds are so short nowadays is because there is a glut of ppvs, and you can't have fresh match ideas to keep interest in the fued. Too many ppvs have watered down, and killed off what could have been a long term angle.

As for MITB...I hate that this is a ppv, because the mitb bank could have been a wrestlemania staple, and Vince killed the match by giving it its own ppv.

 

[fenfool]

Yeah the Cena/Punk feud is what really got me thinking about the Attitude Era feuds and how they really took over the whole company and involved everyone... with recent rumors of Cena battling slight injuries it would be great to have Punk win the title and Cena get fired or taken out... Raw without Cena and Punk on a tyranny as the rogue champion could be some interesting TV.

I can totally see Punk getting the title...the next night on Raw, Vince fires Cena, then Punk strolls by and hugs Vince. There are a bunch of ways they could play this, but the great thing is that everyone is trying to guess how it will play out. That's what made the heyday in the late 90's so popular, it had people talking about what was going to happen next.

Back to the original point, I'm not sure comic book booking is the best analogy, but I do see your point. TNA has the Bound For Glory Series going on now, which has helped their product a lot by giving most of the roster a common 'storyline', albeit on a smaller scale than what you are talking about. The problem is, the Immortal vs TNA also gave them a common storyline, but that has fizzled in a big way. The point is, the all-encompassing storyline done WELL can help the product, as you suggested...done poorly can sink the whole ship. Having 5 smaller storylines that work can be just as effective, you just have to hit the right buttons with the audience. They have to be careful with this one, we've seen many, many attempts to recreate the nWo invasion, they have all failed. But I am interested in where they will take the Punk angle.

 

[D-Man]

First of all, we already have multiple threads on the Cena/Punk feud so if you're going to comment on it, do it in those threads. Any further conversation based solely on that feud in this thread will result in spam warnings and infractions.

Onto the subject, I see nothing wrong with WWE's current booking ideas. Every entertainment product must evolve in order to stay relevant and interesting. Going backwards and booking the product the way it was booked in the 80's and 90's is a horrible idea. Those ideologies are no longer an interest to the audience. No one is going to believe that a cartoon/comic book type of character is a threat for a title. With the influx of sports such as MMA, the pro-wrestling audience has smartened up and realizes that wrestlers are real men. These men don't have super powers, they don't dress up like cartoons, and the WWE doesn't need to give them longer storylines and less PPV's. (If you guys haven't noticed, the WWE is still breaking their own records with PPV buy rates so why create less of them when they're clearly working?)

WWE is on the right track with their product right now. After coming off the Attitude Era where every week required a surprise, otherwise the product was considered to be shit, those said surprises didn't give the same effect to the audience as they used to. But once they slowed things down and threw surprises in the way they were supposed to be thrown in (i.e. Nexus, CM Punk shoot promo), the audience was stuck like glue to the TV set. This has far more effective entertainment power than forming more stables and going back to old, worn out storylines.

 

[huegtoad]

WELL, this is my thought

one problem WWE has is the only PPV it considers special anymore is WrestleMania. And that always gets a great build where you think, MY GOD THEY ARE MAKING THIS PRODUCT SPECIAL AGAIN, and then WM comes and goes and VKM pushes down on the flusher and we get what we are getting for 9 months. I understand that post WM you need to restart your for lack of a better term, phiscal year, all over. shake up roster, draft feuds tough enough etc etc. and April May and June are good months to do that, but in my opinion, once that june PPV is over, it's time to build up SummerSlam. Put mini ads letting you know it's coming. Take MIB out and place TLC in it's place and have that cluster ME instead of being for a MIB contract, have it be for the right to go to SummerSlam's ME to contend for the title. Start filtering in the HHH's UT's SCSA's to boost interest. Run an angle that can AT LEAST span two months and do things to make that PPV special. the whole CM PUnk saga is a perfect example, yet as of right now, has nothing to do with Summer Slam. Summer Slam needs to be special, maybe not mania special, but special enough to hold interest. S. Series needs to be special, maybe not summer slam special, but still special to hold interest. if you place MIB and Summer Slam on equal footing, you might not watch from April until January and start watching around Royal Rumble time, because that's when VKM puts the real effort into things, and that isn't working

 

[DeathClutch]

WWE's problem is that they don't know when to finish something good and end up ruining it, The RAW GM for example, 8 months ago Edge went nuts with the laptop and vowed to get to the bottom of who's behind it, nothing. Austin looked to be terrorizing the GM and we'd find out who it is NOTHING.

They give away PPV matches on TV shows then expect us to pay for them on PPV and every PPV feels the same minus the gimmicks here and there.

Current storylines with Punk/Cena, Orton/Christian are fresh and have been pretty exciting but it's the over-all creative knowning when to cease/keep things going and ppv's making them stand out.

Ironic that 12 years ago PPV's were the same, you had the top 5 but every ppv felt the same, nowadays they've got gimmicks here and here and they all feel the same, maybe WWE needs to upgrade creative or allow creative to go full throttle

 

[Deadlysyns]

I was thinking something along the lines of Every good hero needs a good villian and Cena doesn't have one oh sure you may say The Miz but i mean someone who despises John someone who wants to make it known how much he does keep it PG but put some Resentment out there and have it known the reason Triple H and Austins feud was well recieved was tension between them we need someone who makes us think when we see him in the ring with Cena "woah he really hates Cena " something like that

 

[D-Man]

I was thinking something along the lines of Every good hero needs a good villian and Cena doesn't have one oh sure you may say The Miz but i mean someone who despises John someone who wants to make it known how much he does keep it PG but put some Resentment out there and have it known the reason Triple H and Austins feud was well recieved was tension between them we need someone who makes us think when we see him in the ring with Cena "woah he really hates Cena " something like that

This is really reaching at the bottom of the barrel. So now you're saying that the writers aren't making it sound like Cena's opponents legitimately hate him enough?? First of all, it's the job of the actors to make a script come to life. So if you want to blame someone for that, blame the wrestlers John feuds with. And with your way of thinking, since you practically admit those wrestlers aren't playing their parts properly, why should they take John's spot in the main event?

None of your logic makes sense. Just face it: you don't like Cena and your personally don't want to see him at the top anymore, but you can't find anything really wrong with him besides your personal opinions.

 

[Deadlysyns]

This is really reaching at the bottom of the barrel. So now you're saying that the writers aren't making it sound like Cena's opponents legitimately hate him enough?? First of all, it's the job of the actors to make a script come to life. So if you want to blame someone for that, blame the wrestlers John feuds with. And with your way of thinking, since you practically admit those wrestlers aren't playing their parts properly, why should they take John's spot in the main event?

None of your logic makes sense. Just face it: you don't like Cena and your personally don't want to see him at the top anymore, but you can't find anything really wrong with him besides your personal opinions.

Honestly when u watched the Miz Feud with John Cena you saw hate all i Saw was a guy who was afraid of losing the title theres a difference what i would like to see is someone who doesn't care about the title as much as he hates John Cena he would do anything to stop him have him cost Cena the title like the whole Nexus thing a Real feud not just oh you have something i want because it will make me a big star feud

 

[D-Man]

Honestly when u watched the Miz Feud with John Cena you saw hate all i Saw was a guy who was afraid of losing the title theres a difference what i would like to see is someone who doesn't care about the title as much as he hates John Cena he would do anything to stop him have him cost Cena the title like the whole Nexus thing a Real feud not just oh you have something i want because it will make me a big star feud

First of all, PLEASE start using punctuation. Your posts are very difficult to read.

Secondly, you are WAY too picky. The reasons you're giving for being unsatisfied with the product are completely absurd. You're using semantics as your argument? That's ridiculous.

"Well, you saw it this way but I saw it that way. And that's why it sucks."

Wait... what??

It doesn't matter what you see, don't see, would care to see... fact of the matter is that Cena is being written into feuds and is doing a damn good job of promoting them and turning them into PPV buys and merchandise sales.

Now enough about picking on John Cena because this topic is getting derailed quickly.

As for the original subject, the WWE cannot go backwards in time with their booking. Unless they stay modern and fresh, no one will be interested.

 

[The Champ]

The way to keep audiences interested is to create storylines that have big hooks in them. But unlike the past, those storylines often benefit from being based on real life situations. WWE has moved towards that in recent years, and they've created some incredibly memorable stuff as a result. Look at CM Punk's biggest storyline before the one he's in now: the feud with Jeff Hardy in 2009. They took Jeff's drug abuse, which a lot of people knew about, and created an emotional ride where the fans were cheering him on to overcome his demons and a judgmental prick with a self righteous agenda. Remember how much crowd support Matt Hardy got when he came back to feud with Edge, despite almost blowing it due to his lack of charisma? And now we have this thing with Punk against the "WWE brass." This is what WWE should do more of; creating in-depth angles that appeal to every type of fan, including us sitting here on our computers right now. We should never be the complete focus of the booking, but through these angles, WWE has appealed to the casuals and us alike, and that's what has helped to generate massive interest.