castle? The general complaint coming from the camp of the diehard fans is the lack of direction in current WWE storylines. More to the point is this…Is there even Storylines period? Because it sure doesn’t look like it from here…
But then again I am a diehard fan of Pro-Wrestling; I tune in every week in some way. However, the juggernaut that is WWE is not really writing for the diehard fan. Their audience is now the casual fan, that fan that perhaps tunes in every 2 out of 4 RAW shows, and skips Smack Down (I will be honest; I sometimes skip SmackDown in favour of trolling the internet for some indy stuff I haven’t seen yet…or scouring DIY sites for ideas I will probably never do…or trying out a new recipe).
They are writing storylines that should the casual fan miss a couple of Raw’s they’ll be able to catch up on the doings; much akin to the afternoon soaps – you can always figure out what is happening with everyone by the end of the hour in the soaps; the same goes for WWE.
Probably one of the bigger issues is there is too many ‘cooks’ in the ‘kitchen’ and the ‘executive chef’ (Vince) swoops in right before the ‘dish’ is served, tosses something totally opposite to what the dish is – think whipped cream on beef wellington – and sends it out for consumption. So any so called storyline pretty much goes tits up as it leaves the ‘kitchen’. I think the storylines suffer greatly from the situation that seemly could be so easily rectified and that is to have the writers sit down with the wrestlers they are writing for. This would give them a sense of who the wrestler is trying to portray. If they are the Heel (aka the Villain) of the piece then they need to be villainous; not acting like a toddler who didn’t get a treat when his mom took him to the store. The Face (aka the Hero) needs to seem heroic not wishy washy. Wrestlers portray larger than life personas; they need to do so convincingly. Think of the iconic characters in tv and film, and the actors who portrayed them; if they half-assed it those portrayals would not have resonated or stood the test of time. Promos are Ads; and Wrestlers are the Ad Men/Women. They need to sell what they are saying, with everything
they have.
If I get the impression they would rather be in the rear making puppies I am going to lose
interest really fast…especially since one of my other favourite shows airs in the last hour of Raw. It’s a fine line in selling this from Dolph Ziggler at one end of the spectrum with the oversell…to John Cena at the other with the No Sell. Cena is superman to the WWE universe, but even Faster than a speeding bullet had his weakness (Kryptonite); Cena will also have his Kryptonite; and when that happens; Cena will need to sell it. Lesnar could have been Cena’s Kryptonite or at the very least his Lex; the WWE Universe would have bought that. Especially since Lesnar defeated ‘Taker at Wrestlemania 30. I am pretty confident that people would have totally bought into it; and they could have had Cena battle back after a break from the ring and our viewing pleasure – stick his bland ass in another movie…do vignettes showing him working out to get back to peak form. Ziggler at the other end oversells everything…EVERYTHING…even the botches where it’s blatantly obvious that they didn’t even connect and there’s Ziggler writhing around on the mat or the floor or wherever he happens to be. Ziggler does have his moments I will admit that; like when he was the last man in a battle royal for the IC contender spot only to be dumped from the ring by Miz who sat most of it out; the look on his face was heartbreaking. But Ziggler also suffers from staleness; sure he’s the show off and he steals the show…but it needs to evolve again (remember he was a member of the spirit squad). The rest fall somewhere in between; including the ladies…who seem to sound like they are involved in a high school spat in the locker room as opposed to the squared ring. It makes it hard to suspend belief when they miss the mark. No different than going to a much anticipated movie only to have it suck donkey wang (Horror movies are exempt for as every horror buff knows…you will sift through a lot of shit before you find ‘gold’.)
Storylines lose their direction and thus the investment we as spectators put in when someone in the back chickens out on pulling the ‘trigger’ on the feud; or when they decided to have random feuds resulting from two random wrestlers thrown together in a tag team as a way to set up for a feud. It becomes frustrating to the viewer who invests anywhere from 3 to 6 hours per week; every week when this occurs. I used to watch 3 hours of Raw; 1 hour of NXT (before Sportsnet 360 decided to stop showing it in favour of Main Event…thanks a lot Rogers…dicks); and SmackDown. Now those 3 to 6 hours are devoted to maybe two hours of Raw…maybe…and then scoping the Net for some Indy stuff to see what’s going on and who is making consistent noise.
Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a change in the direction…or lack thereof in storylines. Because they don’t have too; there are enough fans of the casual variety tuning in every week. As I said in a previous post; they write for TV…and the casual fan.
So diehards…keep a look out for those flying monkeys…the witch’s castle is hoving into view…
interest really fast…especially since one of my other favourite shows airs in the last hour of Raw. It’s a fine line in selling this from Dolph Ziggler at one end of the spectrum with the oversell…to John Cena at the other with the No Sell. Cena is superman to the WWE universe, but even Faster than a speeding bullet had his weakness (Kryptonite); Cena will also have his Kryptonite; and when that happens; Cena will need to sell it. Lesnar could have been Cena’s Kryptonite or at the very least his Lex; the WWE Universe would have bought that. Especially since Lesnar defeated ‘Taker at Wrestlemania 30. I am pretty confident that people would have totally bought into it; and they could have had Cena battle back after a break from the ring and our viewing pleasure – stick his bland ass in another movie…do vignettes showing him working out to get back to peak form. Ziggler at the other end oversells everything…EVERYTHING…even the botches where it’s blatantly obvious that they didn’t even connect and there’s Ziggler writhing around on the mat or the floor or wherever he happens to be. Ziggler does have his moments I will admit that; like when he was the last man in a battle royal for the IC contender spot only to be dumped from the ring by Miz who sat most of it out; the look on his face was heartbreaking. But Ziggler also suffers from staleness; sure he’s the show off and he steals the show…but it needs to evolve again (remember he was a member of the spirit squad). The rest fall somewhere in between; including the ladies…who seem to sound like they are involved in a high school spat in the locker room as opposed to the squared ring. It makes it hard to suspend belief when they miss the mark. No different than going to a much anticipated movie only to have it suck donkey wang (Horror movies are exempt for as every horror buff knows…you will sift through a lot of shit before you find ‘gold’.)
Storylines lose their direction and thus the investment we as spectators put in when someone in the back chickens out on pulling the ‘trigger’ on the feud; or when they decided to have random feuds resulting from two random wrestlers thrown together in a tag team as a way to set up for a feud. It becomes frustrating to the viewer who invests anywhere from 3 to 6 hours per week; every week when this occurs. I used to watch 3 hours of Raw; 1 hour of NXT (before Sportsnet 360 decided to stop showing it in favour of Main Event…thanks a lot Rogers…dicks); and SmackDown. Now those 3 to 6 hours are devoted to maybe two hours of Raw…maybe…and then scoping the Net for some Indy stuff to see what’s going on and who is making consistent noise.
Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a change in the direction…or lack thereof in storylines. Because they don’t have too; there are enough fans of the casual variety tuning in every week. As I said in a previous post; they write for TV…and the casual fan.
So diehards…keep a look out for those flying monkeys…the witch’s castle is hoving into view…
Let Krysta know your thoughts on twitter at @Krysta_Ibach and be sure to catch her on Lowdown and Showdown giving her opinions each week from 6pm EST.
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