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Saw the ratings number for RAW recently. This number doesn't surprise me. Not sure who they are catering to but they're no longer catering to them either. Gonna start listing things I see, if you disagree, let's have discussion.
1. They give you lesser and lesser reason to invest in anyone. Why should you care about the talent when they don't?
2. You have a roster of talent that isn't John Cena. People talk of Bryan, Orton, and Punk getting that magical rub of beating Cena but how are they booked afterwards? One of the best workers in the world, Ricky Morton, pinned Ric Flair and while he might have gotten put back in the Tag team ranks, he was booked in a way that if they needed to bring him back up, you'd believe he was credible. Now, if you get even a fraction more popular than Cena, your movement will be killed (although then show gets hijacked).
3. Too much cookie cutting. I've seen a heel Seth before and that version wasn't wimpy, wasn't codependent. Here's a guy that as a member of the Shield was fearless and was always ready for a fight against anyone. Where is that now?
4. RAW is no longer must see TV for me...it's NXT. I hear more discussion and see more love given by people to NXT than anything. Why? The audience isn't insulted...they are given quality wrestling to watch...credible storylines to get involved in...every piece of talent is seen as important...women wrestle instead of being eye candy (I'm afraid of Alexa Bliss now that's she's made a wonderful transition to mean bitch)...and every week, you know you're going to love what you watch.
5. Bringing back legends only work if you treat them with respect but not if you make them comedy fodder.
6. Problem with maintaining seriousness. Angle gets gritty and dirty and finally by hook or by crook gets you invested and then it happens, they try to make it funny or add comedy where it's not needed. Imagine if shortly after Barry Windham does the infamous heel turn, he puts on a clown nose and starts to joke with Luger or Rhodes...kills all the heat and interest.
7. Too much overscripting. Takes 15 minutes to make a point that 5 minutes from the heart could get over better.
8.They always pride themselves on the Attitude era and how hot it was. So why did they stop? I'm not saying PG is a problem, federations have done PG with much success but you do have to have a product that people aren't going to have their intelligence insulted over.
9. Remember, it's all about the stars you have in place, not what stars outside will do. Was watching the Jerry Lawler DVD where they talked about Andy Kaufman. Drew Memphis a lot of attention but what happened after Andy left? Could have been bad management or something else, but you didn't see a heavy surge in interest for Memphis afterwards. Why? Because that star power is only good for as long as said star is there.
10. What if philanthropy was private? What if you couldn't mention John Cena's Make a Wishes (as I've mentioned before, why aren't you mentioning other stars Make a Wishes?)? What if you couldn't mention Connor's Cure? How would you get your product and your stars over then?
11. Is the disk space for the Network that limited that you can't put older stuff on? I can go on Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu and find tons of old stuff I probably won't watch but I know it's there. At the same time, there's lots of old movies and TV shows I can pull up and watch without fail and all from decades ago. At the very least, you're providing more content
12. I'm done typing. Dwelling more and more on what some may see as negativity. They do have some good things going for them however the things I've mentioned is stuff they can work on. Give us reasons to enjoy your product. Give us less reasons for someone like me to write things like this. I've been a fan since 83. I know some things still work after all this time.
Feel free to drop me an email at agourrier@yahoo.com and check out my FB group Catch the Pinfalls
