Re: The Official WWE Thread - Part 26

[zizzle]

10/10 post imo.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/4hiug6/spoilers_dave_meltzer_explains_the_current_status/

Nature_Boy_Ric_FlairLa Smarka 942 points 1 day ago*x2
Pretending Roman can just replace Cena despite never getting over for more than a week as a singles competitor is such a slap in the face to Cena.
Cena carried the company for a decade after its two biggest stars, Austin and Rock, left. Nobody thought there would be a guy on their level ever again, but Cena found a way to do it. He kept the business from dropping any further than it did after Wrestlemania 17. And instead of a "New Generation" era where the WWE barely has a pulse, Cena's era had pretty solid business. Not the best, but miles away from the worst. Competent.
That's *bleep* incredible and Cena deserves every word of praise he gets for it.
And now WWE has built itself into this big thing that will draw no matter what. 100,000ish people will come see a 7-hour Wrestlemania where the biggest star is a 46 year old Triple H. Why? Because for the last ten years, they've had a top guy with no ego, no politicking, and an insane level of competence. And his reign allowed WWE to stop focusing on things like building new stars, and instead build their company and create a Network.
And they decide his successor should be Roman Reigns. Who is not a proven draw (nobody is nowadays because nobody is over), whose merch sales are good, but not great (#3 for 2015), who has not brought in an ounce of mainstream attention to the product, and who has probably not been universally cheered more than five times in two years.
And that's fine with WWE. That's good enough. That's all it takes to be a top guy now, according to them. You just pick a guy with a good look and athletic ability, disregard the fact that he can't talk, and you just push him for two straight years (longer than Luger or Diesel or any other failed top guy). You have him beat everyone. You never have him lose or even look weak. And then when he gets booed, you don't give a shit. You ignore it for months and months until one day you just shrug and say "Oh, people do it for fun."
Because the merch will sell no matter what. Whoever gets pushed, sells merch. Whoever gets pushed the hardest, sells the most. The tickets will sell no matter what. The arena will fill no matter what. It doesn't matter who the top guy is, if he's good, or if he's even popular. Literally anyone can do it. That's the mindset.
And that's bullshit. Because the only reason WWE has the luxury of keeping a guy like Roman Reigns at the top is because of the hard work and sacrifices of John Cena. The guy came back early from just about every injury he's ever had. He rarely takes time off. And he did everything WWE ever asked of him for a decade.
His successor is going to be a guy who would have fallen flat on his face in any other era. A guy who would have had a three-month monster run and then been defeated by a more talented, charismatic, and marketable babyface. But now they pretend that's all it takes to be the next John Cena. Is there anything Reigns can do that nobody on the roster can do? No. Is there anything they can do that he can't? It's possible they can have a more successful run on top than him, but they won't get the opportunity because he's good enough.
Good enough is all WWE cares about now. With the Network, WWE has a perfect product to sell. Hardcore fans will find SOMETHING on the Network they like watching, so they'll never get rid of it. And WWE itself is the draw now, so ticket sales are in no danger of dropping. All WWE has to do is put on a show that has an absurd workrate (because that's all hardcore fans care about) and then keep doing Hogan-booking for Reigns and they'll be fine. As long as they have those Network subs, they're good. TV ratings are important, but they're still head and shoulders above 90% of cable television. So they're fine.
And that's what WWE (and pro wrestling) is now. It's fine. It's not great. It's not popular. It's not mainstream. It's not culturally significant. It's just fine. And with Roman Reigns at the top, that's all it'll ever be.

Fine speech, but who in the company is good enough to be THE top guy? Out of the whole roster there is no Rock/Austin level guys, there is no Cena level guys, hell there isnt even a HHH level guy. Reigns can be a Batista at best, and he's not even close yet. The only person i can think of is Seth Freakin Rollins, but he too has his limitations. Guys like Owens, Zayn, Ambrose, Cesaro and so on are really good, but they aint Cena good and they're not top guy material (as far as the mainstream goes)

Spoiler:

[M99]

I've said this before though its been disagreed with, I think Ambrose is good enough. Any time the guy went near the title picture he went crazy over. See his feud with Rollins, his feud with Triple H and the lead up to Fast Lane. Post Fast Lane he looked ready to be THE guy as Roman says but then Lesnar squashed him (: He is well liked by everyone, kids, women, marks, smarks. What I like about him is his ability to turn something goofy in to something legitimately entertaining. Good on the mic, good on the ring, over with the crowd, sells merchandise, but simply not the chosen one.

Most of the times his booking sucked. He eats clean pins from Roman when they need Roman to get over. Can you imagine how over he would be if he had half of Roman's booking? When The Authority was boring us to death for the past three years, couldn't we have gotten at least two months of Ambrose being the anti authority figure wreaking havoc left, right and centre? That would have been money.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

I think there's a lot of guys who are technically good enough but they never get put in the position to be allowed to get over.

It's hard when you are booked like crap and eating 50-50 feuds non stop to become the guy. Stone Cold has said it before that he'd never get over in this era because of it and I believe him.

Doesn't help that Vince is obsessed with one guy mind despite that guy himself stating publicly that pushing one guy as some sort of super hero and everyone else like scrubs doesn't work.

Although that's one thing I liked about the AJ and Roman match, they protected AJ while putting Roman over in the end. Which isn't something they usually do but we'll see how long that lasts.

[Casciavit]

The reason Reigns is getting his push is because he has a marketable look. He's an easier sell to the casual fans and worldwide fans.

A guy like Ambrose will never be given a chance at the top because of how he looks. He's barely holding onto his hairline, is skinny, and looks like your average joe.

In the end, that is all it comes down to really. Reigns would have gotten this push in any other era IMO. They might have given up on him because they would have realized that he sucks at that role, but he definitely would have gotten a super push right off the bat.

[Jay29]

I really wish they turn Ambrose heel soon because right now he comes off goofy and stupid as opposed to dangerous and unhinged like he's supposed to be.

[zizzle]

Ambrose is really talented and all, but he doesnt have goat level charisma/mic skills. People do like him, but THE guy in WWE is their ambassador to the rest of he world and Ambrose just doesnt fit the billing. Reigns doesnt either, but he got da look so...The WWE will keep pushing him until a more talented guy with the right look comes around.

[CM Pep]

I really wish they turn Ambrose heel soon because right now he comes off goofy and stupid as opposed to dangerous and unhinged like he's supposed to be.

True. It will get cringe af after a point.

Also, agreed about Ambrose not being a 'face of the company'. But he needs to be given way more than he has been given.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Stone Cold seemed to like AJ and Roman a lot

[Kaladin]

Ambrose will turn heel once he cashes in on Roman imo, then we can have Shield triple threat match and Roman can stay as face like they want

[zizzle]

I've heard some talk about Kofi actually winning the heavyweight championship as a member of the new day. Logic being is that New Day are the most over thing going on and they're moving merch like Candy, so from a business standpoint Kofi winning the title is just cash waiting to be made. I can get behind this thb

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Personally if you are going to push any member of the New Day from a singles point of view surely it's Big E?

[Casciavit]

RIP Mitch

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

[M99]

Samoa Joe vs Eric Young

What year company is this.

[silver]

No way is Kofi winning the world title...

[M99]

WWE NEWS Shinsuke Nakamura Is Already A Top Merchandise Seller For WWE
By Greg Beck Posted on May 5, 2016

Shinsuke Nakamura’s t-shirt that was released on 5/2 in Japan has already sold out. All sizes sold out in just a few hours. His t-shirts are also among the best-selling items on WWEShop.com behind The New Day’s “Booty-O” shirts. That’s very impressive when you consider that Nakamura’s TV exposure is limited to WWE Network programming.

WWE’s upcoming tour of Japan in July sold out within 5 minutes. Nakamura and Asuka will be wrestling on those shows.

His official theme “The Rising Sun” was the first WWE theme to reach 1 million views on YouTube. As of this writing, the theme is approaching 1.5 million YouTube views. At one point, the song was listed as the number 1 soundtrack on the iTunes charts.

[silver]

He's still not over and has no gimmick

[Firenze]

meanwhile it's deavors season and MT's boy Sandow is about to get his long awaited push


towards TNA

[Firenze]

apparently hornswoggle, alex riley and zeb coulter got released so far

more to follow

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Main man Zeb Colter has been let go

[Firenze]

can't believe hornswoggle was still around and getting paid

been in wwe almost 10 years apparently

rofl

[Firenze]

El Torito and Cameron too

had to google what an el torito was

that little pos was still in wwe?

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

He's Vince biological son

[Onyx]

Sandow is needed for jobbing purposes imo.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Firenze who the *bleep* is El Torito lol.

[Onyx]

The small mascot for Los Matadores.

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