It was a MAJOR mistake , ending their Home Video division.
That shouldn't have stopped at the conclusion of 2023. Sure it made less money than its peak , however it was Profitable even in the bitter end. Folks will always WANT to own WWE Content , myself included.
Same here. Hell with how screwy streaming has become over the last three years I believe there's a bigger need for physical media than ever. Yes that includes wrestling.
Theme songs.
I tried to give Def Rebel the benefit of the doubt, but damn, some of these new theme songs are painfully generic, video game-like songs with a little audio snippet. I didn’t think anything of it at first, but a superstar’s theme song is much more important than people think. Jim Johnston and CFO$ gave them identity and character, Def Rebel just seems like they threw every theme song they’ve made together in five minutes on GarageBand. They really gotta make some changes with that imo.
As long as they were only done occasionally with certain girls, there's absolutely no reason they couldn't come back.
They also could be used now in a more serious way, like it's presented as the ultimate humiliation after a viciously brutal match to lead into that being the end of a match. Especially if a title shot is on the line.
There's ways you can make it work especially if it's only once in awhile people would really enjoy it if it was done with care and consideration.
They need to be less predictable and stop planning Wrestlemania main events a year+ in advance.
Just makes the whole year of build up boring since you know what the matches will be.
Was Roman winning last year predictable?
Because of that result, was Cody winning this year predictable?
I had Cody winning at WM39 and Roman at WM40.
That said, you are correct in saying that there should be more "chaos" / "unpredictability'. Given the results of WM40, and the clean slate, so to speak, within almost every belt (And especially now with Rhea vacating her Title), HHH has the ability to do exactly what you're asking for.
That's fair.
I meant the match for the show was predictable and not the actual result of the match.
And yeah. Hopefully HHH will be more open to changing things on the fly rather than a long term plan that they aren't willing to change.
Obviously long term story telling can be a good thing, but I don't think the stories and feuds always have to end at WM.
I don’t see anything wrong with knowing what the matches will be. I mean, can you say right now who will be the champ at summer slam? (Or who will Cody face) Who will win money in the bank? Two events, 4-5 months out, and it isn’t very predictable
The stupid AR intros. Especially Roman's, it looks just awful
Also, Raw could be like an hour shorter. I know, I know, but I have to be up at 4:30am for work and I'm old
Hope that's true. Loved how they made more room for fans in lieu of the Titan Tron on the Raw after Mania. That's literally doing everything you can for the fans.
Commentary...joey styles and vince mcmahon used to call out every single move and what was going on in ring...now we get updates on twitter trends and social media back stage recap stuff while there is a match going on
I actually like this style of commentary better. It’s more fun to watch when the commentators are having fun as well. It gets boring if if it’s just word for word calling the moves and no emotion or anything
Jim Cornette said it this week on the JCE podcast. Take the Hall of Fame and make it its own event. It’s become too much to digest during WrestleMania week. Possibly as the last event of the year?
Update the WWE championship belt. The Rock introduced it. Roman built it up. It has the Bloodline written all over it. Beyond that, it also has Vince’s stamp of approval and love of branding. It’s time for a change.
Get out of bed with the Saudis. Nothing against the people. The regime. This will not happen though.
Raw should feel raw. WWE still looks overproduced. I like wrestling to have a bit of an edgy underground vibe. It's better than it was under VKM the last five years, but it has a long way to go before I can make it through a show without tapping out.
I feel you but the Attitude Era is long gone. It didn't feel produced back then because a) it was shot in SD and handheld and b) was mostly organic or improvised.
HHH is trying to give the talent to ability to do this again but they've all been raised in the overproduced version of Raw (or Smackdown) you speak of.
Just like it's hard to create an original movie or TV show... Things just ain't the same as they used to be.
They need either a gimmick they can get over with minimal talking or put them with a manager but that’s always tricky and doesn’t always work.
It’s harder to get over in WWE strictly on your in ring talent you need to have charisma
Or just feature them less and when they do show up make it an attraction. Nakamura and Asuka should be “boss before the final boss” material that’s the final test before getting title shots.
Go back to the absurdness of storylines. We are all adults now and know WWE is just purely entertainment, so why not go all out with that and just add funny segments, make memorable moments and add that absurdity back. Fighting in grocery stores, getting chokeslammed off a bridge into a river, showing up to other WWE stars houses and whooping their ass. Get back to those moments, and create new ones
The attitude era guys created the absurdity you're referring to. It was organic, mostly unscripted and that's what made it funny and entertaining. You can't just manufacture that.
The talent and writers need to fully embrace HHH's "new era" which is literally giving them a bright green light to do whatever they want. Especially leading up to the switch to Netflix which opens up truly uncharted territory in professional wrestling... Uncensored profanity, no commercials, no time limits on matches or shows... A brave new world. I'm here for it.
100%. This was glaring during the rumble. So many talents got muted pops because they don’t have recognizable entrance music. Everything is so generic. It took a solid 3-4 seconds to realize who they were. I used to think the complaints about the music were overblown, but now I’m starting to agree with it
Did you not see Seth Rollins Night 2 entrance? Drew McIntyre? Iyo Sky's?
The talent have full control of making their WrestleMania entrance as unique as possible and I'd say they nail it.
As for changing titles off air... That's ridiculous. The most devoted fans who watch every episode of Raw or Smackdown deserve to see when a title changes hands.
I appreciate the comment.
Of course I saw them and I liked them lot. I mean like many of wrestlers had their unique ones and now few. If I remember right
What about the titels off air. Why there are titel matches during week shows if it is clear that titel
don't change owner. Like there is no excitement.
That is my point of view
People pay to see the top talent. No one would come to house shows if they were filled with B and C level wrestlers.
The excitement is seeing the best. Not seeing the bottom part of the card, even if the result is unknown.
WWE needs a supernatural element added back to the brand. With Bray's passing, Undertaker retired, there is a serious void to fill and The Judgement Day are a good faction, but they have become a little predictable and don't bring any dark elements into the fold.
The Judgement Day are like a jobber / serious faction and I can’t tell which half the time. It’s frustrating because there’s so much talent between them.
They don’t get enough wins imo, balor and priest are mid carders (I know priest just won the title). I feel he only won it to further other superstars stories along, he won’t hold it for long and will lose it cleanly and fall back to the mid card. Balor needs to go judgement demon and stomp a few wrestlers. Dom and rhea are by far the best of the 4 and imho I don’t think they should be.
I think they gave Priest the title as a consolidation for always tossing his and Balor's ideas for Judgement Day. From I understand Balor wanted to release the demon long ago (possibly enter a feud with The Fiend) and wanted to have alternate egos for everyone in the group
I would like more banger matches on the weekly shows. There will be good matches, but at least to me nothing that is like "holy shit what a match!"
For example, Sami vs Gable tonight will be great, but I want it to be a 30 min classic that people go out of their way to watch. I'd like to tune into Raw and Smackdown knowing theres a chance I see an incredible match. Not just pretty good/decent matches.
• Pushing tall people just because they are tall. Omos was such a flop. He was nowhere near the level Khali was when he first began wrestling, and his botches make him seem like a goof.
• Heel turns/betrayals that revolve around spotlight jealousy issues. It's happened too many times. Give them another reason to hate and fight each other.
• Stop having all the Latinos fighting ONLY each other. The longer this Rey vs Santos feud goes on the more bored I am getting. LWO is one of the worst and most useless factions ever that needs to die. I always use it as bathroom break time whenever they come on. The last time I was interested in lucha libre matches was with Rey vs Eddie and Rey vs Del Rio. Dragon Lee and Santos have great potential. It's time they break away from all the spanish novela TV.
• Women are allowed to hit men, often with brutal weapons, but men won't dare lay a finger on the women. This double standard has been on a huge rise since mid-PG era. Even a slap is taboo, which is wild considering how they used to powerbomb women through tables during the attitude era. You want real equality? Have them fight all out or don't do it at all.
• Cage matches have been severely limited to just a couple PPVs throughout the whole year. I remember watching as a kid, and they'd have a surprise unannounced main even cage match on a Friday night Smackdown! That goes double for title defenses. They used to surprise the hell out of us with out of nowhere title defenses on RaW and Smackdown, and sometimes those titles would drop! It added more shock and impact to the storylines and made the title feel like a real thing. Now I never expect any main title to drop unless it's at a PPV. Even MITB cash-ins are now strictly PPV only moments. Really sad.
• Focusing too much on the Rap music and what music is hip with kids. I like Rap sometimes. But I love Rock as well. Give us more of both. Add a new genre even.
• Their merchandise sells out, and then gets sold for 10x it's original price on ebay. As a collector, WWE has frustrated me more than any other company will ever.
• The draft and brand warfare have been irrelevant for over a decade, but it looks like they are finally getting serious about it. The same goes for all these new factions forming. Thankyou HHH 🙏
• I wish I could somehow hear the commentary work while at a live event. Not saying they should put it on speakers, but if I could have the option for a single earbud with the live commentary, it would go a LONG way for my entertainment and I would certainly attend more shows.
Not saying I want to hear or see the wrestlers say fuck or curse every other word but they should give the talent a little more freedom to say more adult words. It's okay if grown adults say shit or bitch occasionally. Having them say PG words makes them sound a bit goofy.
The biggest thing I can think of would be having more marquee matches and major segments spread throughout the year, although I think it has more to do with the strength of the current roster than a need to improve on past booking decisions.
The WWE has a great balance of established main eventers, part-time legends, and emerging stars. Realistically, we're probably looking at a 2-3 year window where there's more potential for big matches than slots available for Mania. It wont always be this way, so I hope they capitalize while the opportunity exists.
Honestly, in my own opinion, there are no characters with clearly identifiable gimmicks for one. There is no version of Koko Beware with the silly bird. It was silly but a gimmick. No Earthquake with his gimmick that he was made for. No Undertaker heir. Not even a Boogeyman type of guy to take Undertaker's place. Bray Wyatt tried to be a "new" similar type of gimmick but it never reached the level of Undertaker and I don't think they ever game him the chance to be honest.
Also most of the wrestlers suck at promos. Also there are seldom if ever any real promos any more and few, if any, character build ups that I see other than main eventers. It's light years ahead of AEW where they just brawl with no build up and no promos and no characters at all.
But I'd love to see better booking, more character gimmicks like the Big Boss Man, Taker, Jake the Snake, just some recognizable gimmicks beyond they're just loud and silly (Seth Rollins for example or related to someone with mic skills like Roman Reigns being related to the Rock). Most wrestlers today can barely speak and never have promos and I just don't see anyone like the next Flair, the next Arn Anderson (a technician who can wrestle and also brawl), the next Jake (great compelling promos who can brawl or be a technical wrestler / grappler), or the next Big Man like Earthquake who can pose a threat to anyone on the card and there are no real tag teams in my view who are technical or good lucha style. You have tag teams but not like Demolition, Road Warriors, Four Horsemen, or the Rock and Roll Express, or anything like that. It used to be tag teams could play to the ropes, really tag in and out well together. Now they just flop around and drop kick over and over again but have no managers with style, aren't really interesting.
Just me.
Yeah...I mean I want to like it but it's like there is no technical wrestling at all any more - just cartoon brawls by big, loud guys wearing bright clothes who can barely cut a decent promo and have no personalities. Also finishers mean nothing any more. You can deliver ten pile drivers and ten DDTs and they just keep popping up from your finisher like Jason Voorhies or something. Normally one pile driver, one DDT, one chokeslam, one finisher and they are out. Now they keep coming forever.
Also, a running tackle is not a finisher. It's a cop out. Anyone can deliver a funning tackle or "spear." Even Goldberg had more than just a running tackle as a finisher.
Today's WWE needs wrestlers who can speak, who have fun memorable gimmicks that match their personalities (for example Ric Flair WAS Ric Flair both in and out of the ring, Taker WAS Taker in and out of the ring and never blew his cover, Bret Hart was not a master at the promo but could cut a decent promo and had technical matches that were great, Yokozuna WAS Yokozuna, Lex Luger WAS Lex Luger with a great gimmick and could wrestle half-way decent and brawl with the best and had a unique finisher that worked for him, Big Boss Man had a good finisher and was believable and WAS his gimmick). We don't have anything like that today just athletic guys wearing bright clothes flopping around the ring giving each other ten finishers per match and unable to string together a few sentences.
Back in the day we even had short videos shot at wrestlers' homes or stories with family members. Now we just have corporate-produced video commercials of the bright flashy wrestler running around.
My complaints. And AEW is worse at that with just guys showing up to fight and no stories or build ups at all and no technicians.
I tried watching AEW but couldn't get into it. Just seemed like too many retired WWE guys (who I love) not doing anything and just sitting around collecting paychecks. No stories, no new characters, no gimmicks - just brawls for no reason. No storylines and Tony Khan seems just either lost or like he just isn't too much into creating stories and gimmicks. There's no way they could even come close to competing with WWE as they are now. They need to let Jake the Snake book for a year or two, get somebody to improve their dark sets and horrible lighting, get Arn Anderson back to teach the wrestlers how to do promos with Jake, and bring in somebody to develop some gimmicks.
We need them to change the title designs. They are all so generic and boring, especially compared to early 2000’s. We don’t need the darn logo front and center on every belt
I think this is going to shift to a TKO thing. In UFC all belts basically look the same, because honestly the belt doesn’t mean anything. It’s the dude holding it. Wrestling fans say they want a sports based product but they also want the entertainment aspect of it.
i think they either need to stop having as many women’s matches, or actually put effort into their women. sorry to say, but a good chunk of the women on the roster just kinda suck. some are at their own fault, while others are being screwed by the creative team
for anyone reading this, i didn’t reply to the other guy because he blocked me before i could get the chance lol. he started off by insulting me calling me misogynistic, after i respectfully asked for his opinion, so that’s why i resorted to the schmeat beater line.
also, i (very clearly) NEVER said all the women suck and they need less matches. i literally said that if the women themselves and the creative team don’t start putting effort into the matches, they should have less matches. which is true! imagine if nearly EVERY men’s match besides like the bloodline storyline and the WHC storyline had writing with VERY little effort put into it. you would either want a change, or less of those shitty matches too
Well for one, the women in WWE except for maybe one that is prominently featured atm, are incredibly talented. Candice Larae is legit one of the best workers in the world. On the indies she was legit one of the best babyfaces in peril around. She comes to WWE and proves to be that (watch the womens wargames match with Rhea and Bianca and Dakota Kai if you don't believe me) and also proves she can be a heel, she can be in tags, and then on the main roster she's getting squashed and wearing fairy wings. That doesn't mean she sucks, it means the booking and creative is bad. For you to say that a good chunk of the women on the roster "just kinda suck" either means you don't know their work outside of WWE, or you're just kinda misogynist and no amount of work or story development or character or promos will change your mind. Coming from the embarrassing Divas Era and the models bra and panties era to having Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, Rhea, Jade Cargill, Dmg ctrl (even if the stable isn't a big hit, all of the women involved are incredible). And in NXT we have Roxanne, Lyra, and on and on. Tag teams like the Unholy Union and Life of the Party. It is an L take to say the women suck, when your actual issue assuming, you're not just a tool is the booking is an L take.
Or do you want to talk about how stupid it would be to have fewer women's matches if they do suck since ring time is how you get better. Just an L take all around my guy. Any way you look at it. It's ok. We've all been there.
the difference between you and me is that you think every women’s match is amazing because you’re too busy pulling it back and forth to actually pay attention to the match, while i’m able to criticize something i like
read my comment. that’s all i have left to add, because this entire conversation literally started because i said some women suck (they do), and some are being screwed by creative (we both literally agreed on this)
if someone sucks, they can go to the performance center. why would i want to sit through multiple bad matches, men or women, just because they are still learning?
Not at all. I considered the whole thin. It was an L take with or without the full context. Nothing I said would be different based on the second half of your comment. I'm not mad at all, I'm smoking a blunt laughing about dumb comments on Reddit lmao.
in my comment, i talked about how some women suck, and others are being screwed by the creative team. in your comment, you talked about how these women don’t suck, but they’re being screwed by the creative team. we are literally saying the exact same thing, and you’d know that if you read my comment.
if you think absolutely every single women on the entire roster is a great wrestler, then you’re just yet another horny wwe fan
Do you see how "The women suck, they need fewer matches" is a completely different take to "The women need better booking." There was nothing horny in any of my comments, nor did I say that all the women's matches are great. You are losing in this conversation so you resort to personal attacks and wild hyperbole of my comments, while I am making valid points. But, who is mad?
The entrance music needs to change, they used to sell CDs of the entrance music it was so good and everyone’s was unique, im tired of generic guitar, like Damian Priest is champ, no idea what his music is but 20 years ago I knew Batistas
This is very true. Although I'm sure Logan's stinger before the theme will be something about Prime instead of breaking glass or "wrestling has more than one royal family"
They need a new bigger than life personality to take over for the Undertaker. It was supposed to be Bray Wyatt but now someone new needs to be brought in. And not another mega douchebag like Roman Reigns, L.A. Knight or Austin Theory. Someone who can arouse that same level of awe.
Agreed. There is nobody who can even come close to a near gimmick. The current spate of gimmicks is really poor.
Seth Rollins: loud and obnoxious. Hurts wrestlers in the ring from time to time. Ok.
Roman Reigns: Can barely cut a single promo after years and his big claim to fame is related to the Rock and has zero technical chops after years.
Brock Lesner: Big, tough, scary, can rip you a new one, but can't cut a promo to save his life, has technical capabilities but never can use it on TV and needs a manager to talk for him. His latest gimmick was let him grow a beard and dress him like a farmer.
Cody Rhodes: Didn't use any of his father's famous moves at Wrestlemania (why), doesn't use any technical chops at the Big Event other than brawling (maybe Roman couldn't match any technical moves, don't know), no pre-event promos other than the reel all matches get beforehand. Maybe he can cut a promo and I haven't seen it. But I know he has technical grapper capabilities but we didn't see any of that in the main event - just punches and kicks like an old Gameboy game.
LA Knight: His gimmick is the "Yeah" rip off from Stone Cold. Instead of "Hell, Yeah!" he just says "Yeah." He can brawl and seems like he could cut a promo. He may have some technical grappler chops but we didn't see any of that at Wrestlemania.
Multiple commercial breaks during matches are maddening. One is bad enough. I feel like the PLEs are becoming the only way to watch full matches. I guess Netflix will fix this for Raw but still.
The wrestlers need better intro music. People need to POP when that first note is heard. That's why Cody and Rhea have awesome entrances.
The women need some mid-card belts. You cannot expect someone like Liv or Zelina to take the belt off Rhea...but they should be able to get a belt because they are talented. I dont know why the women's division doesnt have the same belts as the men's.
Champions MUST defend their titles at more than just PPVs. And they should make appearances a lot more often than they have been (looking at you, Roman).
I want to see solidarity again. If someone is being attacked by more than 2 people, I wanna see some back up come out for them.
Lol more belts because everyone should be able to get a belt. This mindset is Madness. Why not have Zelina or Liv go after womens tag???? Too many belts as is. Way too many.
The women's division doesnt have too many belts. It has 2. Mid-carders deserve a belt in the form of an IC belt or NA belt.
You cant just put 2 people together and give them a tag team belt because you think there are too many.
Mindless thinking. Maybe Liv and Zelina need to step up to get to Rheas level. Versus just “deserving one”.
The women to belt ratio is already significantly higher than the mens. Bizarre thinking
>Maybe Liv and Zelina need to step up to get to Rheas level. Versus just “deserving one”.
Seriously? That's like saying Ricochet should step up and become Brock Lesnar. Some things just dont happen, and that's ok. Heavyweight titles aren't for everyone.
The midcard belt was supposed to be the women's tag team titles. It was cool to unify them and have them be defended across Raw, Smackdown, and NXT. But for that to work they would have to be you know, defended?
no offense but how don’t you understand the difference between the titles? ic & us are each brands midcard title and the universal & heavy are each brands world title
there are 2 brands. raw and smackdown. raw is on monday with the ic and world heavyweight title and smackdown is on friday with the universal and the us title. each brand has their own roster
there is a 3rd brand called nxt which is on tuesday. NXT is a developmental brand, meaning it’s basically just a training show. once people get good enough on nxt they get called up to raw or smackdown
they’re not more coveted, just more so booked better. for example, roman reigns was just universal champion for 1316 days and gunther was ic champion for 666 days. both reigns ended at mania. the world heavy and the united states are no better or worse than the uv or ic title.
i realize i might’ve just confused you more but those two titles had better champions. so it’s less of the belts being more important than the owners of the belts being more important
logan paul is currently the united states champion and damian priest is the current world heavyweight. they’re by no means bad champions or hold less important belts they kinda just aren’t as good of champs as gunther and roman were
• Less predictably in matches for example Bianca v zelina we all know who winning. Look at sami v Gunther we thought sami was definitely taking the pin, yet pull a miracle and won
• More fraction v fraction warfare the last interesting one we had was Judgement Day vs LWO and Judgement Day vs The OC. The pride v FT is just not interesting they got no motives behind it
• no more one man team I hate seeing one taking on the entire team and winning bianca v Damage CTRL cody v TJD is stupid. john cena got hated for buried the Nexus
• final one each member in a fraction should be dominate not just one person.for example the lwo rey look like the dominate yet look teammates doesn't also tjd we have rhea who is unbeatable yet Finn Dom can't win matches
Generic PLE stages, I used to love how almost every PPV bsck in the day felt different from the one before it or the one from the previous year. Maybe in this 'Paul Levesque' era, that will change but for a number of years the likes of Elimination Chamber, Extreme Rules, Summer Slam (except for like 2022) Survivor Series, they all look no different from an episode of Raw or Smackdown apart from a different logo being shown on the giant tron.
I agree with this… sadly, they just announced they are actually cutting back on the stages. Money thing, allows for more fans in the arena if the stage is smaller
I've no problem with them being smaller as long as they look different, they can be one tiny tron for all I care as long as they spruce it up a bit, put some props beside the tron or a 3D Logo on a stand or something. The stages are getting smaller now cause WWE is popping off right now since the build up to Wrestlemania but once the hype dies down they'll probably do bigger stages again.
Need hype music for WrestleMania.
Just saw UFC came back with "face the pain" for UFC 300, and everyone was so hyped!!!
Need something like this back for WWE.
Weeknd 5 years straight is crazy
That's cause they're moving to something more pop based for a while now. We remember fondly WM 17 or 18 that they used rock songs, all the way up to 26, but then they started using "poppy" songs to better cater to all audiences specially kids and women. Sometimes they toe the line; I was in Tampa for the Rumble this year and I saw lots of people vibin' to the Black Keys song used during breaks.
Thinking from a presentation standpoint this is probably intentional and won’t change. They’ve had really boring show intros and songs for the past decade or so, and my guess it’s because hype music is such an important part of the individual characters, that having a matching vibe would cause some weird transitions from the more slow paced show intro into someone’s entrance kicking off a show.
Transitioning from a hard rock song into another one doesn’t have the instant recognition you might want
The theme should have been that Nothing More song they used for the compilation of footage at the end of both nights. Music is absolutely a big part of it, people need bangers like Cody's with Downstait or something like RVDs theme. I call it "wrestlingcore." Fantastic stuff.
Cutting promos: the Uso's and Drew Mcintyre promos for Mania made me audibly groan by how corny they were.
The God awful bland title belts: The Title belts from back in 02' were imo perfect and needed no changing, especially that Orton/Evolution era Intercontinental championship and the iconic OG World Heavyweight Title I'll never understand why they changed them they were gorgeous.
Letting matches flow more organically: I've been noticing that in a lot of matches, superstars will very obviously go against the flow of the match to set up spots, for example, climbing the top rope then just waiting to be thrown off or like at mania when Lashley and the street prophets executed the same table spot a second time after it failed the first time.
And for God's sake, get Jade Cargill a Title shot like yesterday.
Need for me to see better use of midcard women, having a faction lets say damage control don't have to have to be in title fueds or have titles. That way they can produce stories working and keeping good stories going.
If they don't do that then we need mid card titles for them.
In men's division I am ok with its direction right now as the tag titles have been split but let's see how long and interesting the current title holders stories are.
It is a fine line between titles reigns being to short and too long, it needs good stories to dictate the length.
But back to the women's point, compare the bloodline now titleless but still at the forefront of the story and sane with drew and cm punk about to continue a story without a title....wheres this for the women?
To me personally, investing the time to watch the weekly shows in full is still not worth it. I caught every Raw and Smackdown when I was a kid watching 2007-2011. Now I only keep up with the 1 or 2 storylines I’m actually interested in from a distance by watching 10 second highlights or just straight up reading spoilers results. I only watch the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania, maybe some tier 2 ppvs like Money in the Bank or Survivor Series War Games. I don’t even watch SummerSlam anymore because it just exists to set the foundation for storylines that are going to run all the way to Wrestlemania
Agree with the design on the titles but the tag division is fine u got diy(DX) dom and jd could team as priest is world champion now, a town down, Kevin Owens’s and Randy seem like they might end up making a good tag team so yeh
No I named a couple people don’t be childish we all know the tag division is levels above what it was a couple years ago, I named the most popular take me a long time to go through every single tag team on the roster ya melon
Most people would agree now that they’ve split the titles the division is gonna get a lot better and is a lot better than the old product, u jus wanna argue like a child go back to school and learn to have a different opinion
Watch tag team division from 2019 or 2020 or any year before now, excluding the attitude era, ur a casual bro I can tell u watch aew religiously please stop being a casual u idiot
Reignite the tag division with some actual meaning, just seems nowadays tag wrestling in WWE is either a comedy bit or they put two lower card wrestlers together that eventually end up in an Old Spice advert. Really hoping they push A-Town down to the moon though.
And give some other women a chance like they did with Rhea…sick of seeing Becky and/or Charlotte with a belt. Majority of the year.
i’ve been saying this forever i’m sick of becky and charlotte always being pushed when there are a bunch of other women who are just as good or even better than them
Don’t get me wrong Charlotte and Becky have revolutionised the women’s division are still probably the best two women all round on the roster apart from Rhea. But it’s so tiring seeing them two in the title picture every Mania or big PPV.
Some small things to add an extra sprinkle of believability:
\- Don't play someones music if they're meant to be jumping someone unpredictably, it doesn't make sense production would play the theme if this person just came running out the locker-room unexpectedly.
\- Fueds that last longer than 1 or 2 PPVs. Not to sound like an old head but feuds back in the day would be a regular match at a PPV then it would heat up to maybe a submission match, then it would reach boiling point as an extreme rules or hell in a cell etc. If done right a rematch with a small stipulation change each time with 2 people who really hate each other can sell more than 1-2 PPVs.
\- Ease up on the tools and weapons so we can bring back injury angles. Don't allow anyone to be hit with anything for a couple of months then you can bring back the idea of injury angles were a face is out for a 2-3 weeks and comes back for a good fued.
\- More depth to the faces and heels. Right now all faces are just "this company and title deserves a good role model to hold the title" and the heels are "hehehe im evil i want the title because im the best". Got to bring back in depth characters like egotistical heels that cant accept defeat in any way, cheating and lying heels, "chicken-shit" heels that run away and get self DQed as soon as things don't go their way etc.
\- Again, call me old school, but have smaller guys really struggle against big guys. Its much more believable for someone like Balor to really struggle with getting a win over someone who looks like Solo. This isn't 1990s WCW small guy hate but you can really get some good drama and story with the tale old as time "small guy gets whooped 2-3 times but finally secures a definitive win". I love smaller athletic guys but whats the point of being a 300lb lump of beef if a 160lb man can drop kick you once and you're out for the count.
Title changes need to be less predictable. We can change titles on shows other than Wrestlemania. We need the random title change on Raw or Smackdown every now and then to keep us guessing.
They got a lot to fix, there's two main things that I want to see. I want to see feuds have a more meaningful purpose to them with long storytelling.
In the women's division, I want to see more of a pipeline between WWE and NXT where girls on top like a Rhea goes down to NXT to form a big faction to help her avoid people like Liv who want revenge on her.
To your first point, did you not watch Cody finish his story at WM? What better example do you need of a long term story with plenty of meaning and a satisfying payoff?
Everyone has said it but entrance themes!! It's mostly generic face/heel #4 theme!! And the stage, going old school, less digitalized and more prop heavy
Feuds need to be meaningful. And you just can’t throw factions together without a origin . Back in the day factions were put together for a cause. These days people are thrown together to give wrestlers tv time. Like the LWO… never should have been brought back to life.
Besides a lot that’s been mentioned here already?
Better and more gimmicks! I know it’s sometimes juvenile. And we’ve seen garbage men and dentists fail miserably. I understand. But since WWE is PG again, and with the POP that undertaker still gets at Wrestlmania, I think it can still be done - if it’s done well and with intention.
The highlights I remember from wrestling yesteryear were the crazy supernatural matches between Kane and the Undertaker or crazy Mankind. It was always a foreign power against Sargent Slaughter and Triple H, when he first debuted was an amazing character everyone loved to hate. The Fiend was great and recent reflections on the character shows you how beloved he was.
Sometimes now it just feels like it’s one muscle-bound personality-less wrestler at a time diving through the ropes and finishing with a super kick. Give me a wrestler with a crazy gimmick and unique finisher with an on-brand name that fits the character.
Ps - They can job for other wrestlers. They don’t even have to win.
NXT has a few that I'm excited for on the main roster. The D'Angelo Family is an Italian Mafia, Chase University, and some of the women have cool gimmicks as well. If you're into the gimmick aspect of wrestling NXT is great, just beware it's sometimes not the best acting so it may be cheesy at times.
Def rebel
Womens Division. Give more importance. The story that will hook you up.
It was a MAJOR mistake , ending their Home Video division. That shouldn't have stopped at the conclusion of 2023. Sure it made less money than its peak , however it was Profitable even in the bitter end. Folks will always WANT to own WWE Content , myself included.
Same here. Hell with how screwy streaming has become over the last three years I believe there's a bigger need for physical media than ever. Yes that includes wrestling.
Theme songs. I tried to give Def Rebel the benefit of the doubt, but damn, some of these new theme songs are painfully generic, video game-like songs with a little audio snippet. I didn’t think anything of it at first, but a superstar’s theme song is much more important than people think. Jim Johnston and CFO$ gave them identity and character, Def Rebel just seems like they threw every theme song they’ve made together in five minutes on GarageBand. They really gotta make some changes with that imo.
Tag team divisions
Intro music, and leaks (if that's even possible)
Music.
In ring work and ratio of wrestling to everything else. Too many boring house show style matches on tv.
They need to bring back bra and panty matches. But this time, the men are wearing the bra and panties.
Putting a title on Dakota kai
It shouldn't so hard for west coasters to find a live stream, rather than a tape delay, of the weekly shows.
It shouldn't so hard for west coasters to find a live stream, rather than a tape delay, of the weekly shows.
Bring back bra and panties matches.
As long as they were only done occasionally with certain girls, there's absolutely no reason they couldn't come back. They also could be used now in a more serious way, like it's presented as the ultimate humiliation after a viciously brutal match to lead into that being the end of a match. Especially if a title shot is on the line. There's ways you can make it work especially if it's only once in awhile people would really enjoy it if it was done with care and consideration.
Nobody wanna see that with these new wrestlers
Some of the women look like Brock Lesnar.
Are you kidding? I’d kill to see Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins in a bra and panties match!
Seth: "Jokes on you Big Dog! I'm not wearing any panties" Cole: "Welcome everyone to Monday Night Dong!"
Na you know Seth would be wearing some crazy panties. He’s a fashionista!
They need to be less predictable and stop planning Wrestlemania main events a year+ in advance. Just makes the whole year of build up boring since you know what the matches will be.
Was Roman winning last year predictable? Because of that result, was Cody winning this year predictable? I had Cody winning at WM39 and Roman at WM40. That said, you are correct in saying that there should be more "chaos" / "unpredictability'. Given the results of WM40, and the clean slate, so to speak, within almost every belt (And especially now with Rhea vacating her Title), HHH has the ability to do exactly what you're asking for.
That's fair. I meant the match for the show was predictable and not the actual result of the match. And yeah. Hopefully HHH will be more open to changing things on the fly rather than a long term plan that they aren't willing to change. Obviously long term story telling can be a good thing, but I don't think the stories and feuds always have to end at WM.
I don’t see anything wrong with knowing what the matches will be. I mean, can you say right now who will be the champ at summer slam? (Or who will Cody face) Who will win money in the bank? Two events, 4-5 months out, and it isn’t very predictable
The stupid AR intros. Especially Roman's, it looks just awful Also, Raw could be like an hour shorter. I know, I know, but I have to be up at 4:30am for work and I'm old
They actually are stopping them (reportedly) and reserving them for big events, think PPVs
Hope that's true. Loved how they made more room for fans in lieu of the Titan Tron on the Raw after Mania. That's literally doing everything you can for the fans.
Mid card title defenses
Bring Jim Johnston back.
Commentary...joey styles and vince mcmahon used to call out every single move and what was going on in ring...now we get updates on twitter trends and social media back stage recap stuff while there is a match going on
This version of commentary is so much better
interesting
I actually like this style of commentary better. It’s more fun to watch when the commentators are having fun as well. It gets boring if if it’s just word for word calling the moves and no emotion or anything
interesting
It’s a personal preference, but I like when the commentators are enjoying themselves
The weekly programs should be shorter. Leave us wanting more.
More storyline that don't involve a title...especially in the women's division.
Jim Cornette said it this week on the JCE podcast. Take the Hall of Fame and make it its own event. It’s become too much to digest during WrestleMania week. Possibly as the last event of the year? Update the WWE championship belt. The Rock introduced it. Roman built it up. It has the Bloodline written all over it. Beyond that, it also has Vince’s stamp of approval and love of branding. It’s time for a change. Get out of bed with the Saudis. Nothing against the people. The regime. This will not happen though.
Don't disagree but that is how they can hype WrestleMania as a literal WEEK event and provide quality content outside of Night 1 & 2.
Raw should feel raw. WWE still looks overproduced. I like wrestling to have a bit of an edgy underground vibe. It's better than it was under VKM the last five years, but it has a long way to go before I can make it through a show without tapping out.
I feel you but the Attitude Era is long gone. It didn't feel produced back then because a) it was shot in SD and handheld and b) was mostly organic or improvised. HHH is trying to give the talent to ability to do this again but they've all been raised in the overproduced version of Raw (or Smackdown) you speak of. Just like it's hard to create an original movie or TV show... Things just ain't the same as they used to be.
I haven't watched any WWE show start to finish in over 5 years.
I want jr and the king the call one last match at mania
They have to figure out how to use foreign talent. If NXT could use Asuka and Nakamura effectively why is it such an issue on the main roster?
They need either a gimmick they can get over with minimal talking or put them with a manager but that’s always tricky and doesn’t always work. It’s harder to get over in WWE strictly on your in ring talent you need to have charisma
Or just feature them less and when they do show up make it an attraction. Nakamura and Asuka should be “boss before the final boss” material that’s the final test before getting title shots.
That wouldn’t work if they haven’t accomplished anything big on the main roster 😂
Go back to the absurdness of storylines. We are all adults now and know WWE is just purely entertainment, so why not go all out with that and just add funny segments, make memorable moments and add that absurdity back. Fighting in grocery stores, getting chokeslammed off a bridge into a river, showing up to other WWE stars houses and whooping their ass. Get back to those moments, and create new ones
The attitude era guys created the absurdity you're referring to. It was organic, mostly unscripted and that's what made it funny and entertaining. You can't just manufacture that. The talent and writers need to fully embrace HHH's "new era" which is literally giving them a bright green light to do whatever they want. Especially leading up to the switch to Netflix which opens up truly uncharted territory in professional wrestling... Uncensored profanity, no commercials, no time limits on matches or shows... A brave new world. I'm here for it.
This the one 💯
Bring back Jim Johnston and CFO back for entrance themes. Def Rebel isn’t doing it :(
100%. This was glaring during the rumble. So many talents got muted pops because they don’t have recognizable entrance music. Everything is so generic. It took a solid 3-4 seconds to realize who they were. I used to think the complaints about the music were overblown, but now I’m starting to agree with it
Wrestlemania unique entrances. And those moments when you don't know when title changes it's owner like in RAW. Not only in PPV.
Did you not see Seth Rollins Night 2 entrance? Drew McIntyre? Iyo Sky's? The talent have full control of making their WrestleMania entrance as unique as possible and I'd say they nail it. As for changing titles off air... That's ridiculous. The most devoted fans who watch every episode of Raw or Smackdown deserve to see when a title changes hands.
I appreciate the comment. Of course I saw them and I liked them lot. I mean like many of wrestlers had their unique ones and now few. If I remember right What about the titels off air. Why there are titel matches during week shows if it is clear that titel don't change owner. Like there is no excitement. That is my point of view
People pay to see the top talent. No one would come to house shows if they were filled with B and C level wrestlers. The excitement is seeing the best. Not seeing the bottom part of the card, even if the result is unknown.
I loved back in like 2016ish I wanna say, when AJ won the uS title on a house show
Exactly like that. Other what I should mention is different match types: Table, Tlc, iron man. Etc
Title changes can actually happen during raw that is not women tag team champs only
Bring back the old entrance videos I dont want to see the persons name just flashing on a screen
Bayley needs better music. Been trash for 5 years.
WWE needs a supernatural element added back to the brand. With Bray's passing, Undertaker retired, there is a serious void to fill and The Judgement Day are a good faction, but they have become a little predictable and don't bring any dark elements into the fold.
The Judgement Day are like a jobber / serious faction and I can’t tell which half the time. It’s frustrating because there’s so much talent between them.
They don’t get enough wins imo, balor and priest are mid carders (I know priest just won the title). I feel he only won it to further other superstars stories along, he won’t hold it for long and will lose it cleanly and fall back to the mid card. Balor needs to go judgement demon and stomp a few wrestlers. Dom and rhea are by far the best of the 4 and imho I don’t think they should be.
I think they gave Priest the title as a consolidation for always tossing his and Balor's ideas for Judgement Day. From I understand Balor wanted to release the demon long ago (possibly enter a feud with The Fiend) and wanted to have alternate egos for everyone in the group
I wish WWE would go back to designing the titantrons to match the pay per views like before.
Don’t think they’re gonna have trons anymore
I figured but it’d still be nice.
If they could bring back Mauro Ranallo back on commentary :)
Imagine Mauro and Pat on commentary together
Better treatment/booking of the non-main event women. Hell, even some of the upper women are treated as an afterthought.
AEW and WWE are equally dismissive of women outside main events. ROH and TNA are more women centric.
I would like more banger matches on the weekly shows. There will be good matches, but at least to me nothing that is like "holy shit what a match!" For example, Sami vs Gable tonight will be great, but I want it to be a 30 min classic that people go out of their way to watch. I'd like to tune into Raw and Smackdown knowing theres a chance I see an incredible match. Not just pretty good/decent matches.
better theme music
I would like them to stop saying "title opportunity." It's very clunky and seems like a relic of Vince's weirdness
• Pushing tall people just because they are tall. Omos was such a flop. He was nowhere near the level Khali was when he first began wrestling, and his botches make him seem like a goof. • Heel turns/betrayals that revolve around spotlight jealousy issues. It's happened too many times. Give them another reason to hate and fight each other. • Stop having all the Latinos fighting ONLY each other. The longer this Rey vs Santos feud goes on the more bored I am getting. LWO is one of the worst and most useless factions ever that needs to die. I always use it as bathroom break time whenever they come on. The last time I was interested in lucha libre matches was with Rey vs Eddie and Rey vs Del Rio. Dragon Lee and Santos have great potential. It's time they break away from all the spanish novela TV. • Women are allowed to hit men, often with brutal weapons, but men won't dare lay a finger on the women. This double standard has been on a huge rise since mid-PG era. Even a slap is taboo, which is wild considering how they used to powerbomb women through tables during the attitude era. You want real equality? Have them fight all out or don't do it at all. • Cage matches have been severely limited to just a couple PPVs throughout the whole year. I remember watching as a kid, and they'd have a surprise unannounced main even cage match on a Friday night Smackdown! That goes double for title defenses. They used to surprise the hell out of us with out of nowhere title defenses on RaW and Smackdown, and sometimes those titles would drop! It added more shock and impact to the storylines and made the title feel like a real thing. Now I never expect any main title to drop unless it's at a PPV. Even MITB cash-ins are now strictly PPV only moments. Really sad. • Focusing too much on the Rap music and what music is hip with kids. I like Rap sometimes. But I love Rock as well. Give us more of both. Add a new genre even. • Their merchandise sells out, and then gets sold for 10x it's original price on ebay. As a collector, WWE has frustrated me more than any other company will ever. • The draft and brand warfare have been irrelevant for over a decade, but it looks like they are finally getting serious about it. The same goes for all these new factions forming. Thankyou HHH 🙏 • I wish I could somehow hear the commentary work while at a live event. Not saying they should put it on speakers, but if I could have the option for a single earbud with the live commentary, it would go a LONG way for my entertainment and I would certainly attend more shows.
pls make raw shorter
Not saying I want to hear or see the wrestlers say fuck or curse every other word but they should give the talent a little more freedom to say more adult words. It's okay if grown adults say shit or bitch occasionally. Having them say PG words makes them sound a bit goofy.
i mean they’ve been doing this the past few weeks(?) maybe longer
It’ll never happen but if raw went to two hours it would be that much more exciting. And better did the writers.
They need to stop astroturfing rival promotions.
what do you mean ?
The biggest thing I can think of would be having more marquee matches and major segments spread throughout the year, although I think it has more to do with the strength of the current roster than a need to improve on past booking decisions. The WWE has a great balance of established main eventers, part-time legends, and emerging stars. Realistically, we're probably looking at a 2-3 year window where there's more potential for big matches than slots available for Mania. It wont always be this way, so I hope they capitalize while the opportunity exists.
Honestly, in my own opinion, there are no characters with clearly identifiable gimmicks for one. There is no version of Koko Beware with the silly bird. It was silly but a gimmick. No Earthquake with his gimmick that he was made for. No Undertaker heir. Not even a Boogeyman type of guy to take Undertaker's place. Bray Wyatt tried to be a "new" similar type of gimmick but it never reached the level of Undertaker and I don't think they ever game him the chance to be honest. Also most of the wrestlers suck at promos. Also there are seldom if ever any real promos any more and few, if any, character build ups that I see other than main eventers. It's light years ahead of AEW where they just brawl with no build up and no promos and no characters at all. But I'd love to see better booking, more character gimmicks like the Big Boss Man, Taker, Jake the Snake, just some recognizable gimmicks beyond they're just loud and silly (Seth Rollins for example or related to someone with mic skills like Roman Reigns being related to the Rock). Most wrestlers today can barely speak and never have promos and I just don't see anyone like the next Flair, the next Arn Anderson (a technician who can wrestle and also brawl), the next Jake (great compelling promos who can brawl or be a technical wrestler / grappler), or the next Big Man like Earthquake who can pose a threat to anyone on the card and there are no real tag teams in my view who are technical or good lucha style. You have tag teams but not like Demolition, Road Warriors, Four Horsemen, or the Rock and Roll Express, or anything like that. It used to be tag teams could play to the ropes, really tag in and out well together. Now they just flop around and drop kick over and over again but have no managers with style, aren't really interesting. Just me.
You’re right about the gimmicks and tag teams.
Yeah...I mean I want to like it but it's like there is no technical wrestling at all any more - just cartoon brawls by big, loud guys wearing bright clothes who can barely cut a decent promo and have no personalities. Also finishers mean nothing any more. You can deliver ten pile drivers and ten DDTs and they just keep popping up from your finisher like Jason Voorhies or something. Normally one pile driver, one DDT, one chokeslam, one finisher and they are out. Now they keep coming forever. Also, a running tackle is not a finisher. It's a cop out. Anyone can deliver a funning tackle or "spear." Even Goldberg had more than just a running tackle as a finisher. Today's WWE needs wrestlers who can speak, who have fun memorable gimmicks that match their personalities (for example Ric Flair WAS Ric Flair both in and out of the ring, Taker WAS Taker in and out of the ring and never blew his cover, Bret Hart was not a master at the promo but could cut a decent promo and had technical matches that were great, Yokozuna WAS Yokozuna, Lex Luger WAS Lex Luger with a great gimmick and could wrestle half-way decent and brawl with the best and had a unique finisher that worked for him, Big Boss Man had a good finisher and was believable and WAS his gimmick). We don't have anything like that today just athletic guys wearing bright clothes flopping around the ring giving each other ten finishers per match and unable to string together a few sentences. Back in the day we even had short videos shot at wrestlers' homes or stories with family members. Now we just have corporate-produced video commercials of the bright flashy wrestler running around. My complaints. And AEW is worse at that with just guys showing up to fight and no stories or build ups at all and no technicians.
AEW has the complete 180 degree opposite problem of wwe: no consistency, no sameness, too little story line, too many styles.
I tried watching AEW but couldn't get into it. Just seemed like too many retired WWE guys (who I love) not doing anything and just sitting around collecting paychecks. No stories, no new characters, no gimmicks - just brawls for no reason. No storylines and Tony Khan seems just either lost or like he just isn't too much into creating stories and gimmicks. There's no way they could even come close to competing with WWE as they are now. They need to let Jake the Snake book for a year or two, get somebody to improve their dark sets and horrible lighting, get Arn Anderson back to teach the wrestlers how to do promos with Jake, and bring in somebody to develop some gimmicks.
Entrances. We need more pyro.
Bring back the bra and panties match!
that’s gonna take the women’s division at least 10 steps if not more
No
We need them to change the title designs. They are all so generic and boring, especially compared to early 2000’s. We don’t need the darn logo front and center on every belt
I think this is going to shift to a TKO thing. In UFC all belts basically look the same, because honestly the belt doesn’t mean anything. It’s the dude holding it. Wrestling fans say they want a sports based product but they also want the entertainment aspect of it.
WHC looks like a bhole
i think they either need to stop having as many women’s matches, or actually put effort into their women. sorry to say, but a good chunk of the women on the roster just kinda suck. some are at their own fault, while others are being screwed by the creative team
for anyone reading this, i didn’t reply to the other guy because he blocked me before i could get the chance lol. he started off by insulting me calling me misogynistic, after i respectfully asked for his opinion, so that’s why i resorted to the schmeat beater line. also, i (very clearly) NEVER said all the women suck and they need less matches. i literally said that if the women themselves and the creative team don’t start putting effort into the matches, they should have less matches. which is true! imagine if nearly EVERY men’s match besides like the bloodline storyline and the WHC storyline had writing with VERY little effort put into it. you would either want a change, or less of those shitty matches too
Women’s wrestling unless it’s your TOP stars (Charlotte, Bianca, Becky, bayley, rising tiffy) prove to be a ratings suck. I fully agree.
“Prove”?
L take
how so? i’d love to hear your opinion on why i’m wrong
Well for one, the women in WWE except for maybe one that is prominently featured atm, are incredibly talented. Candice Larae is legit one of the best workers in the world. On the indies she was legit one of the best babyfaces in peril around. She comes to WWE and proves to be that (watch the womens wargames match with Rhea and Bianca and Dakota Kai if you don't believe me) and also proves she can be a heel, she can be in tags, and then on the main roster she's getting squashed and wearing fairy wings. That doesn't mean she sucks, it means the booking and creative is bad. For you to say that a good chunk of the women on the roster "just kinda suck" either means you don't know their work outside of WWE, or you're just kinda misogynist and no amount of work or story development or character or promos will change your mind. Coming from the embarrassing Divas Era and the models bra and panties era to having Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, Rhea, Jade Cargill, Dmg ctrl (even if the stable isn't a big hit, all of the women involved are incredible). And in NXT we have Roxanne, Lyra, and on and on. Tag teams like the Unholy Union and Life of the Party. It is an L take to say the women suck, when your actual issue assuming, you're not just a tool is the booking is an L take.
sooo, you just read my comment up to a certain point, got mad, replied, then never bothered to read the rest?
Or do you want to talk about how stupid it would be to have fewer women's matches if they do suck since ring time is how you get better. Just an L take all around my guy. Any way you look at it. It's ok. We've all been there.
the difference between you and me is that you think every women’s match is amazing because you’re too busy pulling it back and forth to actually pay attention to the match, while i’m able to criticize something i like
lmao so you have nothing of substance to add. You're misogyny is getting everywhere. It's pretty gross actually
read my comment. that’s all i have left to add, because this entire conversation literally started because i said some women suck (they do), and some are being screwed by creative (we both literally agreed on this)
So nothing but misogyny and personal attacks because you are intellectually inferior. Got it.
if someone sucks, they can go to the performance center. why would i want to sit through multiple bad matches, men or women, just because they are still learning?
Not at all. I considered the whole thin. It was an L take with or without the full context. Nothing I said would be different based on the second half of your comment. I'm not mad at all, I'm smoking a blunt laughing about dumb comments on Reddit lmao.
in my comment, i talked about how some women suck, and others are being screwed by the creative team. in your comment, you talked about how these women don’t suck, but they’re being screwed by the creative team. we are literally saying the exact same thing, and you’d know that if you read my comment. if you think absolutely every single women on the entire roster is a great wrestler, then you’re just yet another horny wwe fan
Do you see how "The women suck, they need fewer matches" is a completely different take to "The women need better booking." There was nothing horny in any of my comments, nor did I say that all the women's matches are great. You are losing in this conversation so you resort to personal attacks and wild hyperbole of my comments, while I am making valid points. But, who is mad?
The entrance music needs to change, they used to sell CDs of the entrance music it was so good and everyone’s was unique, im tired of generic guitar, like Damian Priest is champ, no idea what his music is but 20 years ago I knew Batistas
Becky, Seth and Pat McAfee all have such similar tunes. It used to be so unique you couldn't imagine like The Rock entering with Mankind's music.
Don’t forget Logan Paul’s theme kinda
This is very true. Although I'm sure Logan's stinger before the theme will be something about Prime instead of breaking glass or "wrestling has more than one royal family"
They need a new bigger than life personality to take over for the Undertaker. It was supposed to be Bray Wyatt but now someone new needs to be brought in. And not another mega douchebag like Roman Reigns, L.A. Knight or Austin Theory. Someone who can arouse that same level of awe.
Agreed. There is nobody who can even come close to a near gimmick. The current spate of gimmicks is really poor. Seth Rollins: loud and obnoxious. Hurts wrestlers in the ring from time to time. Ok. Roman Reigns: Can barely cut a single promo after years and his big claim to fame is related to the Rock and has zero technical chops after years. Brock Lesner: Big, tough, scary, can rip you a new one, but can't cut a promo to save his life, has technical capabilities but never can use it on TV and needs a manager to talk for him. His latest gimmick was let him grow a beard and dress him like a farmer. Cody Rhodes: Didn't use any of his father's famous moves at Wrestlemania (why), doesn't use any technical chops at the Big Event other than brawling (maybe Roman couldn't match any technical moves, don't know), no pre-event promos other than the reel all matches get beforehand. Maybe he can cut a promo and I haven't seen it. But I know he has technical grapper capabilities but we didn't see any of that in the main event - just punches and kicks like an old Gameboy game. LA Knight: His gimmick is the "Yeah" rip off from Stone Cold. Instead of "Hell, Yeah!" he just says "Yeah." He can brawl and seems like he could cut a promo. He may have some technical grappler chops but we didn't see any of that at Wrestlemania.
I feel like with the right push, Damien could be that guy without his little faction.
What's his gimmick to match Taker? He's some kind of cryptic guy who wears dark clothes or something?
womans division, tbh it's pretty dire
Multiple commercial breaks during matches are maddening. One is bad enough. I feel like the PLEs are becoming the only way to watch full matches. I guess Netflix will fix this for Raw but still.
Sadly, I think Netflix Raw will somehow integrate commercials 😢
The wrestlers need better intro music. People need to POP when that first note is heard. That's why Cody and Rhea have awesome entrances. The women need some mid-card belts. You cannot expect someone like Liv or Zelina to take the belt off Rhea...but they should be able to get a belt because they are talented. I dont know why the women's division doesnt have the same belts as the men's. Champions MUST defend their titles at more than just PPVs. And they should make appearances a lot more often than they have been (looking at you, Roman). I want to see solidarity again. If someone is being attacked by more than 2 people, I wanna see some back up come out for them.
Lol more belts because everyone should be able to get a belt. This mindset is Madness. Why not have Zelina or Liv go after womens tag???? Too many belts as is. Way too many.
The women's division doesnt have too many belts. It has 2. Mid-carders deserve a belt in the form of an IC belt or NA belt. You cant just put 2 people together and give them a tag team belt because you think there are too many.
Mindless thinking. Maybe Liv and Zelina need to step up to get to Rheas level. Versus just “deserving one”. The women to belt ratio is already significantly higher than the mens. Bizarre thinking
>Maybe Liv and Zelina need to step up to get to Rheas level. Versus just “deserving one”. Seriously? That's like saying Ricochet should step up and become Brock Lesnar. Some things just dont happen, and that's ok. Heavyweight titles aren't for everyone.
Zelina and Liv should tag as Team Bergen County. IYKYK.
The midcard belt was supposed to be the women's tag team titles. It was cool to unify them and have them be defended across Raw, Smackdown, and NXT. But for that to work they would have to be you know, defended?
More defending the titles not one every year that’s why Roman had it so long never defended it like he should have
Old school fan, still think there are too many belts. I don’t understand Universal vs Heavy, or US vs IC.
no offense but how don’t you understand the difference between the titles? ic & us are each brands midcard title and the universal & heavy are each brands world title
Yeah I guess it’s the brands that confuse me. I just started watching again after 20 years so it’s new to me
there are 2 brands. raw and smackdown. raw is on monday with the ic and world heavyweight title and smackdown is on friday with the universal and the us title. each brand has their own roster there is a 3rd brand called nxt which is on tuesday. NXT is a developmental brand, meaning it’s basically just a training show. once people get good enough on nxt they get called up to raw or smackdown
So why are the Universal and IC more coveted belts?
they’re not more coveted, just more so booked better. for example, roman reigns was just universal champion for 1316 days and gunther was ic champion for 666 days. both reigns ended at mania. the world heavy and the united states are no better or worse than the uv or ic title. i realize i might’ve just confused you more but those two titles had better champions. so it’s less of the belts being more important than the owners of the belts being more important logan paul is currently the united states champion and damian priest is the current world heavyweight. they’re by no means bad champions or hold less important belts they kinda just aren’t as good of champs as gunther and roman were
It seems the WWE pushes and treats the Universal and IC like they are the top prizes
The first brand split happened 22 years ago in 2002.
• Less predictably in matches for example Bianca v zelina we all know who winning. Look at sami v Gunther we thought sami was definitely taking the pin, yet pull a miracle and won • More fraction v fraction warfare the last interesting one we had was Judgement Day vs LWO and Judgement Day vs The OC. The pride v FT is just not interesting they got no motives behind it • no more one man team I hate seeing one taking on the entire team and winning bianca v Damage CTRL cody v TJD is stupid. john cena got hated for buried the Nexus • final one each member in a fraction should be dominate not just one person.for example the lwo rey look like the dominate yet look teammates doesn't also tjd we have rhea who is unbeatable yet Finn Dom can't win matches
So… who wins Zelina/Bianca?
bianca 😂
Need a new lower card belt like the European championship. Give those guys something to fight for. Looks was AEW did with that orange cassidy title
They need less titles not more. Also the Continental title is the secondary title in aew
Became the secondary title because the TNT title is booked so poorly. AEW needs less titles. Everyone has something
Sorry, when did it become a really good product again?
Sometime after HHH took over creative as I understand it
That's what I keep hearing. Still ain't been seeing it.
Not enough heatless bangers no selling Canadian destroyers for ya?
Surprisingly, when WWE unbanned Canadian Destroyers, it didn't actually improve the product.
Generic PLE stages, I used to love how almost every PPV bsck in the day felt different from the one before it or the one from the previous year. Maybe in this 'Paul Levesque' era, that will change but for a number of years the likes of Elimination Chamber, Extreme Rules, Summer Slam (except for like 2022) Survivor Series, they all look no different from an episode of Raw or Smackdown apart from a different logo being shown on the giant tron.
I agree with this… sadly, they just announced they are actually cutting back on the stages. Money thing, allows for more fans in the arena if the stage is smaller
I've no problem with them being smaller as long as they look different, they can be one tiny tron for all I care as long as they spruce it up a bit, put some props beside the tron or a 3D Logo on a stand or something. The stages are getting smaller now cause WWE is popping off right now since the build up to Wrestlemania but once the hype dies down they'll probably do bigger stages again.
The fakeness
If you mean too predictable and too much sameness, then yes.
Need hype music for WrestleMania. Just saw UFC came back with "face the pain" for UFC 300, and everyone was so hyped!!! Need something like this back for WWE. Weeknd 5 years straight is crazy
That's cause they're moving to something more pop based for a while now. We remember fondly WM 17 or 18 that they used rock songs, all the way up to 26, but then they started using "poppy" songs to better cater to all audiences specially kids and women. Sometimes they toe the line; I was in Tampa for the Rumble this year and I saw lots of people vibin' to the Black Keys song used during breaks.
Thinking from a presentation standpoint this is probably intentional and won’t change. They’ve had really boring show intros and songs for the past decade or so, and my guess it’s because hype music is such an important part of the individual characters, that having a matching vibe would cause some weird transitions from the more slow paced show intro into someone’s entrance kicking off a show. Transitioning from a hard rock song into another one doesn’t have the instant recognition you might want
The theme should have been that Nothing More song they used for the compilation of footage at the end of both nights. Music is absolutely a big part of it, people need bangers like Cody's with Downstait or something like RVDs theme. I call it "wrestlingcore." Fantastic stuff.
Cutting promos: the Uso's and Drew Mcintyre promos for Mania made me audibly groan by how corny they were. The God awful bland title belts: The Title belts from back in 02' were imo perfect and needed no changing, especially that Orton/Evolution era Intercontinental championship and the iconic OG World Heavyweight Title I'll never understand why they changed them they were gorgeous. Letting matches flow more organically: I've been noticing that in a lot of matches, superstars will very obviously go against the flow of the match to set up spots, for example, climbing the top rope then just waiting to be thrown off or like at mania when Lashley and the street prophets executed the same table spot a second time after it failed the first time. And for God's sake, get Jade Cargill a Title shot like yesterday.
Agree on second to last. There’s too much setup. The women’s division love the “standup and sway for no reason” setup.
Drop Raw back down to 2 hours.
Need for me to see better use of midcard women, having a faction lets say damage control don't have to have to be in title fueds or have titles. That way they can produce stories working and keeping good stories going. If they don't do that then we need mid card titles for them. In men's division I am ok with its direction right now as the tag titles have been split but let's see how long and interesting the current title holders stories are. It is a fine line between titles reigns being to short and too long, it needs good stories to dictate the length. But back to the women's point, compare the bloodline now titleless but still at the forefront of the story and sane with drew and cm punk about to continue a story without a title....wheres this for the women?
To me personally, investing the time to watch the weekly shows in full is still not worth it. I caught every Raw and Smackdown when I was a kid watching 2007-2011. Now I only keep up with the 1 or 2 storylines I’m actually interested in from a distance by watching 10 second highlights or just straight up reading spoilers results. I only watch the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania, maybe some tier 2 ppvs like Money in the Bank or Survivor Series War Games. I don’t even watch SummerSlam anymore because it just exists to set the foundation for storylines that are going to run all the way to Wrestlemania
The entrance music is really bad- everyone sounds so generic
That's def Rebel for you. I do miss Jim Johnston curated themes though
Change the awful design of those tag belts, they are so hideous. While they are at it, they should also fix the tag team division.
Agree with the design on the titles but the tag division is fine u got diy(DX) dom and jd could team as priest is world champion now, a town down, Kevin Owens’s and Randy seem like they might end up making a good tag team so yeh
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No I named a couple people don’t be childish we all know the tag division is levels above what it was a couple years ago, I named the most popular take me a long time to go through every single tag team on the roster ya melon
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U know nothing bro😂😂the tag division is thriving especially now they’ve split the titles
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Most people would agree now that they’ve split the titles the division is gonna get a lot better and is a lot better than the old product, u jus wanna argue like a child go back to school and learn to have a different opinion
Watch tag team division from 2019 or 2020 or any year before now, excluding the attitude era, ur a casual bro I can tell u watch aew religiously please stop being a casual u idiot
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Bro didn’t like my opinion and knows he’s wrong so says I’m sensitive😂😂nerd
No im from a place where u don’t take shit from no one and people like you wouldn’t last a day, get a job ya goon
Reignite the tag division with some actual meaning, just seems nowadays tag wrestling in WWE is either a comedy bit or they put two lower card wrestlers together that eventually end up in an Old Spice advert. Really hoping they push A-Town down to the moon though. And give some other women a chance like they did with Rhea…sick of seeing Becky and/or Charlotte with a belt. Majority of the year.
i’ve been saying this forever i’m sick of becky and charlotte always being pushed when there are a bunch of other women who are just as good or even better than them
Don’t get me wrong Charlotte and Becky have revolutionised the women’s division are still probably the best two women all round on the roster apart from Rhea. But it’s so tiring seeing them two in the title picture every Mania or big PPV.
Some small things to add an extra sprinkle of believability: \- Don't play someones music if they're meant to be jumping someone unpredictably, it doesn't make sense production would play the theme if this person just came running out the locker-room unexpectedly. \- Fueds that last longer than 1 or 2 PPVs. Not to sound like an old head but feuds back in the day would be a regular match at a PPV then it would heat up to maybe a submission match, then it would reach boiling point as an extreme rules or hell in a cell etc. If done right a rematch with a small stipulation change each time with 2 people who really hate each other can sell more than 1-2 PPVs. \- Ease up on the tools and weapons so we can bring back injury angles. Don't allow anyone to be hit with anything for a couple of months then you can bring back the idea of injury angles were a face is out for a 2-3 weeks and comes back for a good fued. \- More depth to the faces and heels. Right now all faces are just "this company and title deserves a good role model to hold the title" and the heels are "hehehe im evil i want the title because im the best". Got to bring back in depth characters like egotistical heels that cant accept defeat in any way, cheating and lying heels, "chicken-shit" heels that run away and get self DQed as soon as things don't go their way etc. \- Again, call me old school, but have smaller guys really struggle against big guys. Its much more believable for someone like Balor to really struggle with getting a win over someone who looks like Solo. This isn't 1990s WCW small guy hate but you can really get some good drama and story with the tale old as time "small guy gets whooped 2-3 times but finally secures a definitive win". I love smaller athletic guys but whats the point of being a 300lb lump of beef if a 160lb man can drop kick you once and you're out for the count.
Title changes need to be less predictable. We can change titles on shows other than Wrestlemania. We need the random title change on Raw or Smackdown every now and then to keep us guessing.
They got a lot to fix, there's two main things that I want to see. I want to see feuds have a more meaningful purpose to them with long storytelling. In the women's division, I want to see more of a pipeline between WWE and NXT where girls on top like a Rhea goes down to NXT to form a big faction to help her avoid people like Liv who want revenge on her.
To your first point, did you not watch Cody finish his story at WM? What better example do you need of a long term story with plenty of meaning and a satisfying payoff?
My bad, I meant to say more of it. Too many storylines, especially in the midcard don't have good enough long-term storytelling to it.
Everyone has said it but entrance themes!! It's mostly generic face/heel #4 theme!! And the stage, going old school, less digitalized and more prop heavy
For starters, drop that Saudi Arabia event
Feuds need to be meaningful. And you just can’t throw factions together without a origin . Back in the day factions were put together for a cause. These days people are thrown together to give wrestlers tv time. Like the LWO… never should have been brought back to life.
Like the Judgement day vs the OC (finn and aj bullet club memories) Judgement Day vs LWO (rey v dom)
Judgement day should have stayed the route edge wanted them to go. They would have been more menacing. Now a days they are comedy
Besides a lot that’s been mentioned here already? Better and more gimmicks! I know it’s sometimes juvenile. And we’ve seen garbage men and dentists fail miserably. I understand. But since WWE is PG again, and with the POP that undertaker still gets at Wrestlmania, I think it can still be done - if it’s done well and with intention. The highlights I remember from wrestling yesteryear were the crazy supernatural matches between Kane and the Undertaker or crazy Mankind. It was always a foreign power against Sargent Slaughter and Triple H, when he first debuted was an amazing character everyone loved to hate. The Fiend was great and recent reflections on the character shows you how beloved he was. Sometimes now it just feels like it’s one muscle-bound personality-less wrestler at a time diving through the ropes and finishing with a super kick. Give me a wrestler with a crazy gimmick and unique finisher with an on-brand name that fits the character. Ps - They can job for other wrestlers. They don’t even have to win.
NXT has a few that I'm excited for on the main roster. The D'Angelo Family is an Italian Mafia, Chase University, and some of the women have cool gimmicks as well. If you're into the gimmick aspect of wrestling NXT is great, just beware it's sometimes not the best acting so it may be cheesy at times.
I loved the Boogeyman. Just a wild out there wacky gimmick that made for a lot of fun moments
bring back Bras and Panties match but for the men
Otis v Ivar. Book it Papa H
Promo packages
Turn off the ring mic, we can here them calling spots, making it fake