what are some reasons that wrestling is not the same no more like the "old" days

[Heelish]

A lot of people who use phrases like "indy midget" were calling guys like Styles, Punk, and Bryan midgets too. On the flip side, Roman Reigns and even guys like Del Rio and Ryback couldn't connect wih crowds on the same level. But yet the so called "midgets" have had better crossover appeal.

Agreed, but it's just guys like Rollins, KO, Cesaro, etc. aren't the total package like Punk, DB, and Styles. The former mentioned are cool, just to me.

 

[R=G]

I would have to say the online internet. Forget a TV deal, do a online deal.
imagine that WCW or ECW netflix deal during their prime. both companies would still be around

Vince McMahon. He's not the man he was in 2000 and that type of era. When he went overboard with the Cena stuff..and before that let Cripple H ruin Raw and now this Reigns stuff...he butchered so much to get the result he wanted. He's lost a lot of faith from extremely loyal fans. As for the other companies being important if online stuff was around...it wasn't meant to be. Rocky and Austin were too hot and were the ANSWER for the Nwo, Goldberg, and ECW's best. And it's simple as that.

 

[TheGodling]

Punk and DB low-key exposed the rest of these indy darlings, excluding Styles. They ain't shyt compared to those three.

Punk and DB were great in-ring storytellers, that shyt is almost gone from WWE and that sucks the most. It's mostly just aimless selling ('oh, so and so is injured, he's at a disadvantage') and occasionally after a match ends someone turns heel. Like ask yourself this, what was the last time you truly saw someone turn heel in the actual match as a result of what was going on in the match? It's all so formulaic these days, like you're just watching a house show with shytty segments in between them.

 

[R=G]

Punk and DB were great in-ring storytellers, that shyt is almost gone from WWE and that sucks the most. It's mostly just aimless selling ('oh, so and so is injured, he's at a disadvantage') and occasionally after a match ends someone turns heel. Like ask yourself this, what was the last time you truly saw someone turn heel in the actual match as a result of what was going on in the match? It's all so formulaic these days, like you're just watching a house show with shytty segments in between them.

The most irritating thing about this little "holding down" of Sasha they were doing right now is playing off that injury bull$hit to make sure she don't have fire matches. I hate the injury angle thing worked into matches except for when Savage did it because it made sense with how he could fight back. The leg injury thing gave away the Sasha result against Nia and that's just not good.

 

[Golayitdown]

Regarding the WWE: Forgetting that less is sometimes more. Everything from the promos (overly scripted and ineffective) to the commentary (robotic and monotone) to the backstage segments, to even the in ring action at times (finisher spam to get the this is awesome chants) feels like it's from a template.

Their last peak was much more relaxed in all of those areas and everything came off much more organic and natural.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

So many good answers in here. You would think actual WWE creative team members would realize stuff like this

 

[RammerJammer]

Overproduction. WWE has become the wrestling version of Love & Hip Hop where the production just turns people off (L&HH still beats RAW in ratings), I know it may sound nitpicky but it's true. No interesting backstage promos, backstage interviews the same every week. GM office is a fukking curtain for christ sakes.


Lack of interesting storylines. SmackDown has done a decent job of it (primarily just the women's feuds) and LU does a great job of it, but still, where's the storyline on the other shows, RAW has a three hour show, use them! Stop wasting time on a meaningless Curtis Axel/Titus segment if you're not going to do anything with them.

Can't replace legends, pushing the wrong guys. It's 2017 and Goldberg, Brock, Taker, and Triple H will be taking up spots at WrestleMania. I showed my stepdad that Goldberg was at the Rumble and he was shaking his head, he stopped watching nearly 20 years ago because Hogan kept winning the belt in WCW. I understand that they want to create interest and ticket sales but that's WWE's fault that they're in this situation. Think about all the guys and girls in the past few years who were hot but because of booking got cooled off. I'll use two examples.

CM Punk: Hottest thing in wrestling during the summer of '11 but got stuck in a weird feud with HHH and Kevin Nash. During his year long title run he only main evented without Cena twice. He was still big after that but that 2011-2014 run could've been much more.

Sasha Banks: Arguably the most popular female in wrestling in 2015 (four horsewomen overall) and what do they do? Some bullshyt Tag Teams, then Sasha wins the title three times I believe and keeps losing it to Charlotte to push some dumb streak, they've never mentioned a PPV streak until now.

 

[8WON6]

Lucha Underground has all the qualities to make wrestling mainstream and captivating like it used to be. Other promotions should be taking notes.

came in to say the same thing. Lucha Underground is putting a quality product that covers pretty much everything w/ the exception being they don't do alot of standard wrestling promos but they make up for it with vignettes. They have cracked the code on kayfabe. They figured out you can take well known wrestlers and just treat them like actors in a movie instead of wrestling characters. And they have the match quality, and plots to match.

as far as WWE goes, i think one of the big problem is there is just too damn much on tv right now. Never thought that could be a problem when i was a kid, but yeah. Raw, SD, NXT, 205, Main Event, UK show bout to get started too...Of course most people aren't watching all this, but I almost feel like NXT and 205 could be combined. 205 would work much better in the smaller NXT arena. Raw doesn't need to be 3 hours. You can only see so many of the same match. As big as WWE is they still manage to have the same few wrestlers wrestle in the same circle of guys.

 

[jerniebert]

20 or 30 years from now kids will have the same discussion about this era.

 

[llt23]

I agree with those that say Lucha Underground is what would get people into wrestling in 2017 on a casual level. That cinematic feel would really help with WWE since everyone knows its a work and just wanna see a good show with a cool storyline.

Completely separate point though. I went and watched New Years Revolution 2006 for kicks with my boy last night, neither of us were watching during that era, assumed it would be shyt and it was a great PPV. Even Lawler vs Shane Helms was ight. These kids could learn from a Lawler match, he sold amazingly and this is 2006, breh was old. Only match we skipped was Hunter VS Big Show cause you already know, 4/10

Matches were shorter and done more realistically. There was blood in the first match with Flair vs Edge. There was more blood later in the Elim Chamber match. Aside from the no blood now, think about PPV's of today, they are WAYY too long, matches from the beginning to the end get way too much time, you just get burnt out and lose interest and if we the hardcore fans cant take it, why would a casual? Shorten the shyt brehs

Mickie James lesbian kissed Trish Stratus in their video package for their feud, and had more sexual innuendo after their match backstage. Tell me not that if the hoes of today did that it wouldnt explode social media???

And hell their match was better than whatever Sasha Banks and Charlotte, and no moonsaults were needed to tell their story.

Then there was a bra and panties GAUNTLET match. One by one hoes getting stripped. Who used that as a piss break brehs? NOBODY.

None of this shyt is on the show today. Just saying.

 

[Nero Christ]

LU brings a whole new way of producing a wrestling show that really makes it stand out and gives it a better chance of competing against wwe, I mean that will never happen but you get my point. Too many of these other promotions just come off as cheap imitators of the WWE and at the end of the day, people will just watch the "superior" product, no different from the NBA and the Euro league or UEFA and MLS.

WWE needs direct competition with another company that is producing wrestling in a different way and has stars/or makes stars that weren't big in the WWE.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

came in to say the same thing. Lucha Underground is putting a quality product that covers pretty much everything w/ the exception being they don't do alot of standard wrestling promos but they make up for it with vignettes. They have cracked the code on kayfabe. They figured out you can take well known wrestlers and just treat them like actors in a movie instead of wrestling characters. And they have the match quality, and plots to match.

as far as WWE goes, i think one of the big problem is there is just too damn much on tv right now. Never thought that could be a problem when i was a kid, but yeah. Raw, SD, NXT, 205, Main Event, UK show bout to get started too...Of course most people aren't watching all this, but I almost feel like NXT and 205 could be combined. 205 would work much better in the smaller NXT arena. Raw doesn't need to be 3 hours. You can only see so many of the same match. As big as WWE is they still manage to have the same few wrestlers wrestle in the same circle of guys.

Way too many rematches. Every feud has 3-4 matches in it. 2015 going into night of champions I saw a graphic that said Rollins had faced cena 24 times since the shield split with him going 5-18-1 in that span. Why have this match so many times even if it's one on one or tag matches then? That shyt burns fans out. 2015 when he had his feud with rusev they faced off 4 pay per view events straight. Him and Wyatt had 3 straight the year before. They didn't do this so much in the past.

 

[RammerJammer]

I agree with those that say Lucha Underground is what would get people into wrestling in 2017 on a casual level. That cinematic feel would really help with WWE since everyone knows its a work and just wanna see a good show with a cool storyline.

Completely separate point though. I went and watched New Years Revolution 2006 for kicks with my boy last night, neither of us were watching during that era, assumed it would be shyt and it was a great PPV. Even Lawler vs Shane Helms was ight. These kids could learn from a Lawler match, he sold amazingly and this is 2006, breh was old. Only match we skipped was Hunter VS Big Show cause you already know, 4/10

Matches were shorter and done more realistically. There was blood in the first match with Flair vs Edge. There was more blood later in the Elim Chamber match. Aside from the no blood now, think about PPV's of today, they are WAYY too long, matches from the beginning to the end get way too much time, you just get burnt out and lose interest and if we the hardcore fans cant take it, why would a casual? Shorten the shyt brehs

Mickie James lesbian kissed Trish Stratus in their video package for their feud, and had more sexual innuendo after their match backstage. Tell me not that if the hoes of today did that it wouldnt explode social media???

And hell their match was better than whatever Sasha Banks and Charlotte, and no moonsaults were needed to tell their story.

Then there was a bra and panties GAUNTLET match. One by one hoes getting stripped. Who used that as a piss break brehs? NOBODY.

None of this shyt is on the show today. Just saying.

I don't think you need blood to have a great feud, and blood doesn't make a feud great (see HHH vs Roman last year) but I agree to an extent, WWE is lacking brutality in feuds, yet another thing LU does a great job with. WWE has killed the momentum of some of it's greatest matches, including Hell in a Cell. I remember growing up, when someone made a match Hell in a Cell, I went because I knew I was gonna see some brutal shyt, now it's just normal match, HIAC is supposed to be the end of feuds.

Way too many rematches. Every feud has 3-4 matches in it. 2015 going into night of champions I saw a graphic that said Rollins had faced cena 24 times since the shield split with him going 5-18-1 in that span. Why have this match so many times even if it's one on one or tag matches then? That shyt burns fans out. 2015 when he had his feud with rusev they faced off 4 pay per view events straight. Him and Wyatt had 3 straight the year before. They didn't do this so much in the past.

Breh, why did WWE start doing this shyt where the #1 contender has to beat the Champion to get a title shot? That shyt it so stupid

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

I don't think you need blood to have a great feud, and blood doesn't make a feud great (see HHH vs Roman last year) but I agree to an extent, WWE is lacking brutality in feuds, yet another thing LU does a great job with. WWE has killed the momentum of some of it's greatest matches, including Hell in a Cell. I remember growing up, when someone made a match Hell in a Cell, I went because I knew I was gonna see some brutal shyt, now it's just normal match, HIAC is supposed to be the end of feuds.



Breh, why did WWE start doing this shyt where the #1 contender has to beat the Champion to get a title shot? That shyt it so stupid

Makes the titles worthless. I agree entirely on ruining gimmick matches too. The last great hell in a cell match was 2012 Undertaker vs triple h. They didn't shoehorn a feud into it because of an upcoming event. Instead it was meant to be the definitive end of their program. Same went for Undertaker vs edge 2008 at summerslam. Taker vs Batista 2007 didn't need it. It it was ok to add at the survivor series. The finish ruined the premise of the match though. Really we've only had 2 hell in a cell matches that were both great and the use of the match made sense since 2006 (I don't count taker vs Brock 2015. Never saw it, heard great things, but there should never ever be a second hell in a cell match between two people when the match is designed to be the end of a feud with no exceptions)

 

[Playaz Eyez]

20 or 30 years from now kids will have the same discussion about this era.

There are people who grew up directly in the Golden Era of wrestling who appreciate the Attitude Era and even the Ruthless Aggression era. On the flip side, there are kids growing up in the post-2010 Era of wrestling who are already finding other non-wrestling things that interest them and moving away from it

All I know is, I feel sort of bad for the wrestling fans that are solely WWE loyalists. They are really missing out on a good variety of wrestling out there.