Win via comedy distraction

See, that just doesn't bother me. I'm excited to see Stardust yell at a bull. I care about being entertained by that way more than I do about title belts.

So much this. If a match can end on many different moves it is much easier to become immersed in the match and entertained. Not to mention the impact on verisimilitude.

On top of that, have the wrestlers and announcers stop ruining false finishes, wrestlers by staring at the ref, annoucers by Michael Coling.

I'd argue that you'd be much more interested in a title match when the champion is built up as someone that's very hard, almost impossible to beat. Title changes would carry a much more important air about them. You'd feel like what you've just seen is a very big deal and the holder of said title would feel like bigger stars.

Sure, you can still be entertained by characters when this isn't the case, but it could be so much better.

It used to be that guys would get title shots be winning matches against other contenders and being the #1 contender that way. I don't know why they have to actually beat the champ to feel like a viable threat now. Because when everybody beats the champs, everybody is now a viable threat.

It should feel like a shock when someone beats the champ in a non-title match and most matches shouldn't be non-title otherwise why is a person even a champion. Use DQs and COs to beat the champ, you lose so much when they are constantly being pinned every week.

They me still entertain me, but I don't care about their matches or the belts. In the 80's and 90's I really cared about IC/US title champs and their matches and can remember a lot of big title defenses and changes. Ask me about the last 10 years and I can pick out maybe one or two.

great post

Oh of course, this would be better. I just don't feel like the other way is necessarily bad at face value. At lot of this just comes back to the point of "I like wrestling, I want to be happy, I'd rather try to enjoy it than just get mad, especially considering there's always bigger stuff to be mad about anyway."

Yep, well put.

I mean it would probably be better if I just gave up on them ever booking things correctly again, with champions or otherwise, because they very well may never book well at an acceptable rate again. But there are clearly voices within the creative team that advocate what I want to see, and in this case it's a wish that doesn't collide at all with good business or what casuals would want or anything else, so I'm always teased into thinking that it's possible that they get it together again.

It's undoubtedly what others have said, that the creative team is too big and is all pulling in a bunch of directions and thus nothing is ever going to stay in one shape for long.

Back when WCW was raiding WWE and taking all their guys, Vince had a reason to "humble" some wrestlers and not let them get too big so he didn't have to worry about needing to either pay them more or lose them. Even a few years back, TNA took a few guys like Christian, Angle, and the Duddleys when they were spending money. There's no reason for that now. Where are they going to go to make more money? You don't have keep guys in check for fear of them becoming bigger than the company anymore. I still feel like Vince is afraid to make too many guys stand out now though.

For example, NXT. Obvious stars. Champions that rarely lose. Title changes are a big deal. Quality in-ring storytelling with enough time in the matches to let that happen. Commentary that isn't atrocious and doesn't insult my intelligence. No Twitter/reality TV bull****. Females are more dimensional than "crazy".

It very clearly is possible. Hell it's happening now.

(Also it really helps that it's 1 hour of programming a week + 4 PPV-like episodes a year)

Yeah, the complete overload of programming and a limited willingness to fill much of it with squashes is why I feel like it's probably a bridge too far for the main product to ever really be what I'm envisioning.

Unfortunately, at least when it comes to SD and Raw, they're not going to reduce any of the hours they air. Literally zero chance they ever do since their ratings are still very good for cable.

My guess is more that it's too small, like it's just the one old guy calling the shots.

RAW's writer was fired sometime after Mania, and that's when everything got bad, and I don't know that we've heard of a replacement or anything. It all seems to Vince-ish right now.

It could be that too. Unfortunately he's not going to ever retire unless he's truly too unhealthy to continue.