Vince McMahon's Philosophy: "I Want the WWE to be Like UFC"

[Coco]

Who said the changes had to be "dramatic ones". It's called tweaking your product into being something "more real". Tweak something about your product one year. Tweak something else, the next.

I feel like some of those tweaks that he has made, is being influenced in some ways by UFC.

The funny thing is that the position I see people like you wanting to argue is that you "acknowledge that the WWE has made a couple changes over the years ... and you acknowledge that some of those changes have been in the name of making the WWE product more realistic ... but you simply don't want to say the words that UFC has anything to do with it".

Honestly, what's the big deal in admitting that UFC has something to do with it or not? Are we all that big wrestling marks and that big Vince marks, that we can't admit that Vince is influenced by things outside of his own product?

I absolutely believe Vince is susceptible to influences outside the WWE. Unfortunately, he's probably a mark for Michael Bay movies and sitcom re-runs, giving us crap like Santino's existence and constant product intergration into the product, which while a money maker doesn't scream intergrity.

Everyone is liable to be swayed by other mediums. I just don't thinK UFC is a major one for Vince.

What I would like you to do is run down a list of storylines that were done from right after Wrestlemania 24 up to Wrestlemania 25 ... in other words a full year .... and only list the storylines and who was involved, that did not have anything to do with the title. In other words, if you have two people competing for a title or are involved in a #1 contendership storyline, in which the storyline wasn't primarily about the title, hen don't list it. The storylines you listed were done for Mania, and I don't recall very many actual complex storylines the rest of the year.

-Shawn vs. Jericho
-Taker vs. Vickie (Edge/Show were both involved, and this was out of the title scene in the summer and fall)
-Shawn vs. JBL
-The Vince/Finlay/JBL/Honry clusterfuck (Hated the build, loved the payoff)
-The Noble/Palumbo/Michelle saga (Loved it and am still upset that Palumbo was let go)
-Batista vs. Orton
-Who attacked Jeff?
-The two title matches at WM25 weren't about the title, but the don't about because it was Mania season... (?)
-Flair's retirement storyline
-Batista-Michaels

Yes, I went slightly before your cutoff and yes some sucked. But I don't agree with the idea that storylines are non-existenct or going away. Heck, I think there's more last year than there were in 2007.

Yeah, yeah. Blah, Blah, Blah. God forbid Vince be criticized for legitimate criticisms, and we have his PR team come rushing to the scene. We've heard it all before.

I don't call what I do "Vince hating". Clearly, anyone that criticizes your idol is a "Vince hater", evidently. To put it simply, the Vince McMahon I knew back in the 80's and 90's has different philosophies from the Vince McMahon I know today. And like I have stated many times, individual performances are judged in the "here and now" ... not what Vince accomplished back in the 80's and 90's.

So if Vince does something I don't like today, and I can point to data that reinforces my opinions ... then, I'm not going to say "but, he's Vince McMahon and Vince McMahon is a genius. Just look at what he did for wrestling!" Sorry, but I don't play those games.

I hate Vince just as much as anyone. I think he's unmotivated, far too single-minded to make a great product, and has failed over the last few years to light a fire under the collective ass of the creative team. He needs to hang it up. I think that and at the same time think this thread is uncalled for. It is possible for a person to be moderate.

Look, people like you and Industry enjoy virtually every thing you see on today's WWE TV.

Industry is so awesome. (I'm just teasing you now... haha.. sorry.)

I don't like everything I see now. I hate most of Raw, and can't watch most of it anymore. Too much of Legacy being boring and directionless, too much of Santino's lameness, and too little focus on the guys I enjoy are killing it for me. I'm a huge mark for Cena, Show, Matt, Kendrick, and Michaels, but I can't make it through Raw. I'm not a WWE apologist. Quit painting me as such.

I can't speak for Industry though..

And you don't like people criticizing what you enjoy.

Untrue. A while back I gave it to you that some of your Chris Jericho criticism was spot on (not all, but some). I'm a Jericho mark, but I can see the flaws.

Heck, my favorite wrestler ever is Rob Van Dam. If anyone has to give up a lot of battles in the name of objectivity, it's the RVD marks. Lol.

I just feel some of your points are off base. It's as simple as that.

On that same token, it appears as though that you don't want to even acknowledge that there are fans out there that have different tastes in their wrestling programming then you.

I acknowledge that you're out there. By that same token, I feel you're a small niche, more impossible to please personally than most of the fans left from the era you most enjoyed and that you use dated numbers to put your case over. I know you're there, though. Don't worry.

It seems that you want everyone to be happy enjoying exactly what you enjoy, so we can continue having the same product we have today. Basically, you want to live in your own little bubble.

Nah, the bubble isn't for me. If it were, you'd have been on my ignore list long ago. I give you the time of day because I enjoy the differing views.

Postivity, come on!

And you don't want to negotiate views, either. You want to see what you want to see ... and you want it on every single wrestling show on the air today, without exception.

But I don't see quite what I want on any one wrestling show today, despite how you've painted me. The WWE is too rigid, too scripted, and too branded for my liking. We need more styles of wrestling, legitimacy in tag, cruiser, and women's wrestling, meatier feuds, more freedom given to wrestlers when it comes to promos and characters, etc etc. No show does it all today.

Still, don't make this THAT discussion again.

Ah yes. Whenever the evidence is presented that others out there also see the same problems that I see with the product, and begin tuning out, this is the candid response. "Fuck the ratings. They don't mean anything."

They do mean something, but what you take from them isn't quite what I do. And a direct comparison of Raw's ratings to the WWE other shows, which aren't distributed or promoted as widely as Raw, being used as justification of the opinion that a focus on more wrestling over talk is sending viewers away is simply faulty logic. That comparison is simply not valid.

Let me ask you a question. I am anxious to see your threshold. How far do the ratings need to drop amongst each of the shows, for you to acknowledge that there is a problem somewhere?

There is a huge problem now and has been for a while. We just don't agree on the solution. Make no mistake, however, that I am well aware of the existence of a problem.

Like I said, I never said Raw's ratings were all that great, either. They aren't. It's simply that Smackdown's ratings have had a much higher drop than Raw's.

Less promotion, less distribution, and the piss-poor night that the show airs on have nothing to do with that?

Come on, it really isn't a valid comparison at all.