Top 11 List - Things That Need To Go Away Or Be Changed In Wrestling For Good!
Top 11 Things That Need To Go Away Or Be Changed In Wrestling For Good!
Written By System Crash
Now before I dig into this Top 11 l want to remind you that this is my personal opinion on the matter, your may agree with some of my points, and you may not. However I would like to have those of you who are reading this submit your feedback on what you think of my top 11, and what your top 11 would be. Be warned this Top 11 List is a lengthy read. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this list, I hope you enjoy it.
11. Battle Royals
Seems like once a month either TNA or the WWE has a battle royal of sorts. Hell there probably will be a battle royal at WrestleMania either on the pay per view or as a dark match. Battle royals have become overly predictable like everybody gang up on the big fat fuck spot. They seem to lack of a lot of action because there is a lot of stalling in the corner or a guy just lying on top of the turnbuckle with a guy appearing to try to push him out. That shit works just as much as Ric Flair hitting a move off the top rope, hell I think Ric Flair has had a higher success rate.
Battle royals seem to be a waste of TV time, not very entertaining to watch, and an easy way out for bookers. It seems like they can’t trust two guys to put on a good match, so instead they throw a bunch of the people in the ring, and hope it works. There should be a rule in battle royals, that if you go outside other than going over the top rope, you can’t pull an Edge and be out there forever until the end, a 10 count should begin the moment your feet hit the floor.
The only battle royal that should be allowed to happen each year is the Royal Rumble, but even then it’s a little predictable. The Royal Rumble atleast it furthers storylines, creates new feuds, and the winner goes to WrestleMania to get a world title shot. I’d even let TNA get away with doing a royal rumble type battle royal if it meant something like the Royal Rumble and its not a reverse battle royal.
10. ECW being called ECW
Leave it up to Vince McMahon to tarnish and fuck up a legacy. I’ll admit on a personal level I didn’t object to them having One Night Stand in 2005, hell the ECW mark in me came out and said OH MY GOD! It was probably one of the best pay per views Vince had put on in a long time that wasn’t a WrestleMania.
Then we fast forward to 2006 where it was announced that ECW was being brought back now part of me knew it was going to be bad, but the other part of me wanted to believe that it would be cool if it was brought back. So we had another one night stand in 2006, how can you have two - one night stands? Hell if I sleep with a girl for the second time she usually becomes a friend with benefits. One Night Stands are supposed to be One Night Stands. While One night Stand 2006 was a good show, and hearing a real ECW crowd tear into John Cena was worth watching the show, it also would serve as the last time that ECW would be cool.
Trouble began with the first show on Sci-Fi channel and Sandman beating up some joker named The Zombie. That’s not ECW, unless Raven would have been wearing a zombie mask and beat the shit out of The Sandman and took the mask off. Things really turned for the worse when RVD and Sabu got pulled over, and RVD had to drop the title to the Big Show. After that ECW turned into Everybody Comes to Wrestle. The Big Show then defended the title against Batista, Kane, Ric Flair, and the Undertaker, man those guys are extreme! Now when you think Extreme according to Vince, you think Bobby Lashley! The only real positives I see on ECW are CM Punk and "The Alpha Male"Monty Brown not this Marcus Cor Von bullshit.
What ECW needs is a name change; it shouldn’t be allowed to be called ECW, because it’s nothing more than a nationally televised developmental league. ECW doesn’t need the old tag belts or TV title back because the world title is the TV title, since it’s defended on TV about every week. If there is a lesson a Vince should have learned a long time ago was adding new to something that used to exist and was good is a way to guarantee it will suck, for example the New Rockers, the New Blackjacks, the New Midnight Express, the new and improved DX, and now the new ECW. Vince that little lesson is courtesy of RD Reynolds from WrestleCrap.
9. Streaks
Streaks aren’t really impressive in a pre determined sport, because they are artificial. In baseball when someone hits 56 straight games that means something because that is hard to do and probably took a good combination of skill and luck.
Streaks are usually created in wrestling as a method for the bookers to get you to give a shit about someone that they are trying to force down you’re throat in some way or another. Streaks usually tend to go too long, are over hyped, tend to end in a bad way, and the guy who ends up doesn’t really look much better for breaking it.
Look at Ludvig Borga breaking Tatanka’s nearly two year win streak, it didn’t do shit for him. Kevin Nash ending Goldberg’s streak was bullshit even though his streak did need to end. Instead of having Nash who didn’t need the rub anyway to end Goldberg’s streak, WCW could have possible created a new main eventer by having some beat Goldberg, like say Chris Benoit. Samoa Joe’s streak went on too long also, but Joe wasn’t really shoved down our throats, he got over on his own. Kurt Angle was probably the right person to end Joe’s streak,because Joe didn’t look weak because of it. And finally let’s look at Bobby Lashley breaking the unbreakable but was really broken before Masterlock. Did you really give a shit about the Masterlock challenge and Lashley breaking it? No I didn’t think so unless you’re the stupid woman and young person who cheers for John Cena.
8. Vince Russo
I’m beginning to wonder if he is still on Vince McMahon’s payroll. Maybe he is a secret agent for Vince McMahon. McMahon probably sent him to WCW and TNA to book those companies into oblivion so Vince can buy them out or put them under. Ok enough with conspiracy theory!
TNA was doing well until Vince Russo showed up again and almost instantly TNA went to shit. There is no emphasis on the X-Division anymore instead Russo is trying to give these guys personalities that don’t need one to be over with the crowd. There has been a rash of gimmicky matches, matches that have things on a pole, and other dumb fuck ideas. Reverse battle royal anyone? Not to mention the crash TV style that Russo has brought with him to TNA. TNA used to be about wrestling until Vince Russo got there.
7. Booking on the Fly
I’ve been tired of booking on the fly for a long time. There are not too many angles these days that any sort of long term planning in them. Wrestling seems to be more booked for the short term these days instead of the old days where things were planned in advance. Seems like things are just thrown together and then try to go long term with it, or it just doesn’t make any sense. Like why in the hell are Shawn Michaels and John Cena even the tag team champs? Maybe the internet could be partly to blame for booking on the fly, but instead I blame leaks from people in the know. Now I realize sometimes that you have to book on the fly and change things because of injuries, suspensions, flight troubles, etc. However booking on the fly should be the exception not the rule.
6. Monthly PPV’s
Back when I first started watching wrestling in 1989 the WWF as it was known had four pay per views per year the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and the Survivor series. WCW usually had five pay per views per year though at first the February PPV had different names but would quickly become Super Brawl, then a pay per view in May that would later become Slamboree, the Great American Bash in July, Halloween Havoc in October, and Starrcade in December.
Then when Eric Bischoff started to climb the ladder in WCW in 1993, WCW went to 7 PPV’s, in 1995 they went up to 9 PPV’s, and in 1997 they went to 12 PPV’s per year. The WWF went to 5 PPV’s per year in 1994 with the addition of the King of The Ring, then went to 10 in 1995 with the addition of the 5 - 2 hour In Your House line of PPV’s, and 1996 the WWF went to 12 PPV’s per year.
Now here we are in 2007, and the WWE has 16 Pay Per Views a year that will be featuring talent from all three brands now, making the brand extension absolutely pointless. TNA has 12 PPV’s a year also. The cost of buying every WWE PPV during the course of a year is 649.20. The cost of buying every TNA PPV during the course of the year is 359.40. That’s not including the fees some companies charge on top of that for ordering a PPV. Do they think we are made of money? Do we even feel like that we got our money’s worth when ordering a pay per view?
The point of watching a PPV back in the old days was to see something special, longer wrestling and sometimes better quality matches without commercial interruptions, and probably matches that were a little more violent. Now we have rematch hell where sometimes a feud doesn’t end in one or two matches because they have PPV’s every month and don’t seem to be creative enough to come up with new feuds. The build up for feuds has gone way down since the monthly PPV system; granted there have been a few exceptions to that though. Sometimes these days the PPV’s are just three hour versions of their TV show with endless promo packages, very little wrestling, and other shit that just wastes my time and money.
5. The Brand Extension
I won’t be getting into too much depth on this one, because The Boss will be writing about this in his column "The Pink Slip" in the near future.
The brand extension on paper sounded promising to me when it was announced in 2002. However it has failed miserably and now the pay per views are going to have all three brands, if that’s the case what’s the point of this brand extension? Especially if the wrestlers just show up to wrestle on the other brands.
I personally believe there is a way to fix the brand extension and if it doesn’t work, then it’s time to merge all three brands. RAW and SmackDown should be ran as totally separate companies with all their own offices, staff, bookers, and with an equal quality of talent unlike now. Also each company will have their own president that is not a McMahon who will report to the WWE Board of Directors, comprising of people other than a McMahon including Jean Paul McMahon. ECW should be renamed (see item 10) and separated, and become a breeding ground in which the two main companies are allowed to draft wrestlers from once or twice a year. The only time a wrestler competes in a company different than his own is WrestleMania and the Royal Rumble match. Since we have better chances of seeing the Ultimate Warrior on WWE programming again than getting rid of the monthly PPV’s these single company PPV’s should be 19.95. The main companies would get 4 PPV’s each, ECW would get 0, and the two main companies would jointly put on the big 4.
4. The Current WWE Wellness Policy
I won’t be getting into too much depth on this one either, because I’ll be writing about this one in depth in the debut of my column "The Reboot".
The current WWE Wellness policy needs to go. Wrestling in general needs an anti-drug and wellness policy. However the WWE Wellness policy was nothing but a knee jerk reaction to quiet the critics over Eddie Guerrero’s death. The WWE should have had a wellness policy a long time ago. However the WWE needs a real policy with real consequences and that is truly random and independent of the WWE. It will probably take an act of Congress to get the WWE to toughen up their policy. The WWE tends to put the needs of the company above the health of their wrestlers. Shooting up steroids, using human growth hormones, and doing hard drugs isn’t healthy for anyone.
3. Things that waste or take up too much time
Boy I don’t know where to begin with this one. Let’s start off with the Diva Search, what does this have to do with wrestling? The WWE is very focused on the "E" than the wrestling. I’m tired of seeing endless promos that go nowhere and really do nothing. The running down of a pay per view card on a pay per view I’m already watching and isn’t that what the pre show is for? Not to mention the 3 to 5 minute promo match before each match just in case you haven’t been watching. I’m tired of seeing endless replays over meaningless bullshit do wrestling companies think I have a short attention span? I don’t mind replays of something that is like totally awesome and shows that from a different angle, or if the monkeys in the truck fuck up and you missed something somewhat cool, but to do it just to kill time instead of putting on a wrestling match is ridiculous.
I’m also tired of seeing shit that caters to the live crowd and doesn’t cater to the people at home, isn’t this stuff they should be doing during the commercial break like the extremely lame expose, the kiss cam, t-shirt gun, etc. Another thing that caters to the live crowd that doesn’t cater to the TV audience is the long ass entrances you see in the WWE. In TNA, Kurt Angle probably has the longest entrance of about a minute unless he just comes thru the tunnel pissed off. In the WWE you have the Undertaker who takes about 5 minutes to get to the damn ring, hell I think an old bastard with a walker could make it down to the ring faster than that. Not to mention the 10 minutes it takes for all the people to get to the ring for the main event that starts at 10:50 if we’re lucky.
TNA used to be more about wrestling until Vince Russo got there, now they are just as bad as the WWE. I swear some days I’ve seen more action on a Jerry Springer show than I’ve seen on some wrestling shows. How about less talk and bullshit and more action? You’ve got a roster full of wrestlers; why not have them wrestle instead. Gee what a fucking concept wrestling on a wrestling show!
2. Vince McMahon
Ego-Mania is still running wild brother! Here we are just before WrestleMania 23 and what’s the main event of WrestleMania? The answer is the battle of the billionaire egos. All you have to do is to the main page for WrestleMania to see what I’m talking about. They have a picture on the main page promoting the two world title matches and the battle of the idiots. Guess whose match is taking up 50% of that image? Yeah you know that answer.
Vince McMahon is largely responsible for how wrestling is today. However the guy has a large ego that no one can keep in check anymore. Vince doesn’t have any real competition these days; TNA isn’t big enough to be considered competition. Vince McMahon should have never been allowed to buy WCW, the FTC or the Department of Justice should have blocked that from happening. However anyone that got over somewhere else that Vince didn’t create, Vince tries to destroy them. Vince blew what could have been the biggest angle ever in order to stroke his own fucking ego. Vince’s ego is so big that he thinks he can succeed outside of wrestling such as the WBF, WWE Films, and let’s not forget the XFL. Vince needs to realize he is not shit outside of wrestling, and hell he is not even doing a good job of doing that these days. Vince McMahon is one of the reasons why the WWF/E was so successful, but he could also be the downfall because of his own ego. Vince needs to resign as chairman of the WWE and wash his hands clean of the WWE and get away from it for the sake of us wrestling fans. Just don’t hand the company over to Nipple H and Jean Paul McMahon. Hand it over to people like Jim Ross,Michael Hayes, Paul Heyman(just don’t let him manage the checkbook)and other people who legitimately give a shit about wrestling.
1. The inability to listen to the fans
This is not just a WWE/TNA problem, this problem has gone on for a long time and probably won’t go away, but could be fixed if someone opened their damn eyes. The only company to ever truly listen to the fans is ECW, and I’m not talking about the WWECW, I’m talking about the original ECW.
One of the main reasons why these promotions today don’t listen to the fans is because of someone’s ego or backstage politics. Granted TNA probably does a better job of listening to its fans than Vince McMahon because TNA fans tend to be vocal like the original ECW Fans, the "Fire Russo" and "You Can’t See Us" chants are priceless.
The WWE likes to clamp down on signs because they don’t give a shit about what you really think, they get rid of TNA signs, anti face signs, etc. You people should just be more creative about getting your signs in the door. I can understand having no profanity on a sign, but if someone wants to have a TNA sign at a WWE event by all means this is a free country and you paid for a ticket.
Sometimes we hand Vince something on a silver platter and he doesn’t care or doesn’t run with it. He ran with Hogan turning face after WM18, or the pop that the crotch chops got at WM22. Even though DX coming back was a bad idea, but the crowds popped for it. However we’ve been bitching about John Cena who could have turned heel at WM22 and guess what he is still on top and getting shoved down our throats. The same thing can be said about Batista and Bobby Lashley. I don’t care about their title reigns except I want them to end. Edge and Booker T were interesting as champions.
Both companies haven’t listened or done anything about the complaints on having more wrestling on the shows; instead we still get the items mentioned in #3 on the list and more of it.
Wrestling fans who want to make a difference should stop buying their PPV’s and merchandise, you could stop watching the shows, but if you don’t have a Nielsen machine in your house it really doesn’t matter then. Stop attending the live shows, or if you do attend anyway voice your opinion instead of just looking like you’re bored to be there, and be creative in sneaking in anti whatever signs. The best way to create change in these wrestling companies is cut off their main revenue streams. I used to have WWE 24/7 on my cable box I dropped that shit because it was like buying a CD, one or two good shows and lots of filler material. I told the cable company why I was canceling my subscription and sent a copy of that complaint and cancellation to the WWE.
The Boss and El Gringo are thinking if shit doesn’t change in TNA after Lockdown, that they will not be ordering anymore TNA PPV’s until things do change. We’ve seen nearly the same card for the last few PPV’s, and what’s worse is TNA has performed in the same venue to pretty much the same crowd. Though the fans at the Impact Zone let their voices be heard at the last PPV. We need to see more of that in wrestling especially the WWE, just like the fans in St. Louis during the fake rosie/trump match.
Here are some honorable mentions of things that should go or can’t be changed or stopped.
Women Wrestling - I’m not sexist, but majority of women wrestlers can’t put on a good match. Chances are this will never go away, plus if they got rid of this when are we supposed to go piss during a 2 or 3 hour show.
Formulas - Whether it’s a tag team or a triple threat match. Instead of having the face get their ass kicked most of the match teasing towards that hot tag, they need to change shit up once in a while. Formulas in wrestling have been around forever and will be around even after we’re all dead.
The Roll Up - You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, what happened to finishers. The roll up is fucking weak and way overused. The sunset flip roll up never works either, quit it!
The Chinlock - Ok I threw this in just for kicks, seems to be part of Heel 101 now thanks to Randy Orton.
The Great Khali - I’d like to see him go, but another oversized lug will show up to take his place.
Celebrity Wrestlers - The only time I want to see celebrities wrestle is in Celebrity Death Match. Otherwise the only time a celebrity should actually wrestle on TV or PPV is if they actually can put on a good match. However with Vince McMahon and Vince Russo running the shows this will always happen.
Backstage Politics - This shouldn’t be a part of wrestling because wrestlers shouldn’t be on the booking staff or be able to politic their way for a push. Backstage politics have a harmful effect on wrestling, but unfortunately will never go away.
The Spinner Belt - Do I really have to explain this one? Nope I didn’t think so unless you’re still that stupid fucking child or woman who cheers for John Cena.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my Top 11 things that need to go away or be changed in wrestling for good! Please feel free to submit your feedback by clicking here and scrolling down to the bottom of my profile and filling out the form. I’d like to have a column where I post and respond to your feedback, and what things piss you off in wrestling.