Message #1411

[Hammy]

I suppose it's easy for us to sit here and say what we'd like from the WWE, but I guess getting the balance of wrestling/entertainment/comedy etc. isn't as straightforward as we might think. What do the majority of people want? Will too much wrestling and too few comedy moments bore people? Do most viewers prefer actual wrestling to 'entertainment'? How many skits/segments is too much in one show? How old on average are the viewers? Are you gonna lose lots of kids, who may not be allowed to watch the show, if you stop being PG? Will that matter?? Lots of things to consider....

Hopefully they find something that works somehwere down the line....

If most viewers preferred actual wrestling to entertainment ROH would be #1.  I think people like a balance, people want good production, larger than life characters, goofy storylines and some holy **** spots as well as splatterings of good wrestling here and there.  Anyone who watches wrestling simply for the matches and nothing else (as in don't care about the characters, skits or anything else) should just watch wrestling in Japan or something, the more match based promotions.

I'll be the first to admit I like skits, just the right kind, and with many its just personal taste, I mean heck I enjoy Cryme Tyme's "Word Up" w/ Slam Master J.  I also like the early Nitro shows where there are virtually not backstage skits, all storylines are advanced ringside on the whole, it has a more real feel.  You can enjoy a show like Superstars with very little backstage stuff because you are seeing characters you have already connected with, guys with personality, it's strange with ROH, maybe it I just didn't wait long enough to connect with the wrestlers but after a few shows I was bored.  The matches were very good, you couldn't fault the movesets but something for me wasn't quite right, maybe the cheap indie vibe or something I don't know, but their in-ring product was much more thanTNA and WWE's, more moves, more hard hitting, more technical yet more high flying, they cover all the basis, yet its not the complete product, people want their polished product on the whole.

As for who WWE caters to as mentioned Attitude Era covered kids, women, young blokes 18-35 and all that.  Now its more kids and women with less of the 18-35 who are turning to MMA.  Thing I've noticed like you highlighted, we sit here, and heck we forget about people outside the IWC Smark boards.  Since I've been promoting us on twitter (by getting followers from the WWE page...) I've noticed endless "Can't wait 'til RAW", "RAW was great" etc. and so on messages, there are loads of people loving it and sometimes I think its an age thing.

I mean take Lofton, Lofton seems to be "That 80s guy", then you get a bunch of us who are those "Attitude Era Kids" yet if I'm right, you aren't much of a fan are you Lofton?  Then we have the "WWE Universe" generation, maybe we are too old for this and we can only great true wrestling pleasure from watching the eras we grew up we and loved.  I can watching any 90s stuff and generally love it, whereas today, I rarely get the "Buzz".  I mean I enjoy Smackdown, ECW and Superstars, in recent months its been the best wrestling television I've seen in years, but I think for me I'm yet to get that "Buzz" back that I had back in the day, I question whether its an age thing or whether we may be on the verge of getting that "Buzz" back now WWE is finally trying to create some quality young stars such as Morrison and Ziggler.

I think if you tried to seperate eras.  Attitude Era was BRAND NEW never before seen for mainstream audiences, the **** stuff combined with the car crash tv, most mainstream audiences hadn't seen ECW so it was fresh and completely different to the late 80s/early 90s Hogan fronted product and the kiddie era of 1993-1996.  You take todays products and it seems to have aspects of all the prior eras, the matches in many cases are a mixture of the 80s style with a modern edge, the storylines are a PG version of Attitude Era storylines, fact is though there is nothing NEW.

As for the "PG" thing and relating it solely to the Attitude Era, there were some classic storylines back in the day which probably wouldn't happen now because of the PGness of it all, for instance Savage vs. Roberts complete with the snake biting incident which is a classic.