WWE is just an absolutely horrible product right now. Outside of two mini movies from Wrestlemania, Balor and Kross on NXT, everything is stagnant and repetitive. It is crazy how out of all of the resources they have at their disposal (they own a movie company) they are getting ran circles around around them by a company that is a year old and has one man booking the shows in a matter of a few minutes.
In an oh-so-ever slight defense...their industry depends on crowd response to see where to take stories (in theory). Without that, you may end up with some really weird winners/losers.
hence...in theory. but in Roman's case they were actually leaning into it and convincing themselves that the push was good for the ratings or whatever. I think they got off on some degree on creating that level of boos. So it was based on the reaction even if they didn't give the crowd what they wanted. Without even that....it's like a comedian trying to figure out if a joke is funny without an audience.
It’s clear your not watching Smackdown if you think Otis is a jobber. I’ll forgive you because only the truly bored can still watch these empty arena shows. Otis has been in fantastic storylines and now has Mandy and MITB.
Can we not pretend as if AEW is some fantastic product right now. It’s all largely meh. Everyone is tuning out and not watching. AEW included. I guess given the size of WWE you can have larger expectations but I think it’s impossible without audience reactions to put on a weekly product people will care about.
As was NXT... again this is such a weak point to make. AEW is down 50% of its viewer ship since it first aired. It’s down 30% over the last 8 weeks. everyone is tuning out. And it’s not necessary any fault of AEW or WWE. Watching wrestling without a crowd reaction just doesn’t work. To attempt to make a claim that once company is somehow thriving to me seems asinine
It’s different... but kinda lame. Otis has already outgrown Tucker. Nobody cares about that team anymore if ever. Otis from day one stood out and now is clearly the top star of the group.
FWIW, I've enjoyed AEW's empty arena shows much more than WWE's. Having even a handful of wrestlers in the "crowd" at least gives it some atmosphere. The WWE shows just being completely dead silent really accentuates the emptiness of the Performance Center.
I agree with you that the atmosphere on the AEW shows are better. Cole is so loud at ringside that you hear his mic call and his voice from the ring mics. The replays are awful because they cut out his mic but you still hear him clearly yelling... It’s so bad Bayley has conversations with him from the middle of the ring because she hears his play by play.
If we had crowds Otis would be the most popular act on the show. The fact that he won MITB despite not having the crowd tells me that Vince still occasionally has a feel for what works even without the crowd to validate his idea.
It’s amazing AEW has put on such good shows when they are missing hangman, pac, lucha bros, private party, etc. I think Shida and Sammy have really taken advantage of this down period to become legit stars in my eyes. Also sucks we only got Jeff Cobb for one night
And IDK, I've been pretty entertained by the no-crowd Dynamite. The floor has been "ok" and the ceiling has been really good. I give more than a few grains of salt during this whole thing, but they've done as well as can be expected.
Turn on RAW and Viking Raiders apparently have a basketball game against street profits. Go ahead and turn that off
She was always my favorite of the four horsewomen, going back to NXT. So happy for her. If this is it she's had a well deserved HOF career. Selfishly, I hope she comes back some day
Becky Lynch joins the likes of Sting and Finn Balor as wrestlers Seth Rollins has taken out of action
That baby is going to come out in an infliction shirt, flipping a tire, and talking about this CrossFit gym you just have to go to
Rey Mysterio got thrown off a 60 story building yesterday and this is the way wwe chooses to write him off after making him have a match after he got thrown off a 60 story building.
They should have had Shayna win the briefcase. Woulda been some real heat (on twitter) if she casually walked down and took the title from Becky.
Ahahahaha they didn’t really say that, did they? I mean, WWE is in a constant state of broke brain, but this is the brokest
Dark side of the ring is demoralizing. Wrestling for the WWE is just so awful for your health and next week we get Owen hart. That said Vince taking the doomsday device in a strip club is an amazing story
I feel like it's time to hold a 4 night draft. In addition to the vacant IC tournament, it would be a great way to fill up time with meaningful content. Do you pull the curtain back a bit and have Prichard and Heyman be the ones drafting? I'd be ok with that, but I also get the push back with the reintroduction of "authority figures". If you did it, you'd have to just go 1 for 1 though. The way they like to fuck things up because of Raw being longer is just so convoluted. Perhaps just make it 3 nights and include NXT, they could use a new coat of paint as well. And I'd allow stables to be drafted as 1 pick, like they did back in the day with the nWo. Make UE a #1 pick and push them to the moon.
First Saudi Arabia and now this. Wouldn't be surprised if Vince shelves Sami until his contract runs out.