WWE - New Generation

[poppycock]

At this moment in time quite a lot of the WWE veterans on the current roster are either injured or working a lot less as far as in ring action on Raw or Smackdown goes..Undertaker, Kane, Big Show, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Goldust, William Regal...

Ok we still have Cena has WWE Champion and an old school wrestler in Mark Henry as World Heavyweight Champion. Plus Triple H, Nash and Christian still get on TV a lot but with recent title runs for CM Punk, Del Rio, beginings of a tag division, two young promising future stars as US and IC Champions etc..

My questions are..

- Is the WWE as good now as it has been for a long time as far as entertainment, wrestling, promising future, heading in the right direction?

- Does the lack of older stars notice to you personally..as in does the WWE miss them/need them around still to have a well oiled product or are the young wrestlers doing just fine by themselves?

 

[The Future Rises]

As you can tell by my signature I like the new generation in the WWE. It's filled with talented wrestlers, good mic workers, and good characters.

Is the WWE better than ever? Is it heading in the right direction? To be honest I don't think it's better than ever. Don't get me wrong it's great right now but the old school early-mid 90s was the best period in the WWE/F.

Now on to the older stars I think they're really helping the young guys step up and carry the new generation. And yes I do notice them actually. The WWE doesn't exactly need them when they have guys like CM Punk and John Cena but those veterans still help put over the new stars a lot. But when it's all said and done I think the new guys are doing fine just by themselves.

 

[poppycock]

I never said better than ever. I mean better than it has been for a good few years. I think with the current roster the WWE has more potential superstars than it has for quite some time. I am pleased with where things are heading and am more entertained right now than a couple of years ago. I think the end of last year and the lead up to Wrestlemania was when I actually started to notice good things and saw a potentially bright future with a great roster that could produce a very entertaining new generation for many years to come.


Still a way to go yet but I think everything is moving in the right direction. Right now the only negative is Cena is once again Champion and whilst I really hate all the Cena bashing even though I am personally not a fan..it does get a bit boring. Then again maybe the WWE plan to make his thing the superstar with the most WWE Championship runs in WWE history. It does not bother me too much aslong as the rest of the divisions, storylines, superstars, Championships are entertaining. Which is the case right now or at least potentially. Cody and Dolph seem to be bringing some value back to the mid card belts and are both entertaining young stars.. A good bunch of young talent that in my opinion if the WWE wanted to do something similar, could easily compete with TNA's X Division. Plus with the tag team scene being recognised once again and some new fresh faces holding the World Heavyweight Championship I am happy right now.

I miss the Undertaker, Goldust and Jericho but mainly because they are three of my favourite wrestlers. I want to see Regal hold a Championship and against the grain I would like one last monster masked Kane run but all these are just for my own personal enjoyment and I don't feel the WWE needs any of it and is doing great right now.

 

[Good Golly It's Ollie]

Oh yes, entertainment-wise it's all fine, I can understand why you'd be a little unsettled by it though. Whenever a large chunk of the old guard disappears all at once it can cause the roster to feel a little empty or lacking. I felt that particularly strongly in the couple of weeks after Edge left earlier this year. Smackdown had to rest on Alberto and Christian until Orton came over, and the star power was quite lacking, even with the excellent mid card they have at the moment.

This is an important area of the business particularly in WWE and TNA's case - so I'm glad you brought it up Poppycock. Me and Coco had quite a discussion a few weeks ago about whether Big Show and Kane were still valuable members of the roster, and I guess in the end it came down to two factors: Youth vs. Familiarity

I think what WWE has successfully done over the past couple of years is keep a balance - you need familiarity, because the most over superstars are the ones the fans know. At the same time you need some new blood because it's good not only to get the fans to pop for the familiars beating the youngsters, but also you can build up the youngsters' credibility and personalities so that in a few years, they become the familiar faces.

This is why the tag team division went to shit. It was mostly jobbers and newbies, so nobody cared about them, but at the same time no-one in that division was really being built. Cryme Tyme got over solely on an amusing gimmick; never won the tag titles. They were burned out in a lacklustre breakup feud which petered out with Shad's release. Miz and Morrison are two of the few guys since 2007 who got out of tag-teaming and survived. But they were built up with an internet show and feuds with lots of screen time, often against who? Familiar faces.

Now though, you put Kofi and Bourne in a team and face them off against Miz and R-Truth, then you got yourself a great balance between youth and familiarity. Because all the guys bar Truth are relatively young and have many years left in them, but also - they're all over with crowds because they've been given the time to get there.

If you want to see the main-eventers of tomorrow then look at the mid-card of today. That is an attitude that should apply to all mainstream wrestling because it maintains the balance and cycle of youth versus familiarity.

 

[Sub-Xero]

Yes, the product is stronger now than it's been in recent memory. Obviously the mid to late 90's were awesome, but for the first time in a while we have a surge of talent that looks like they can stick around for a long time. Most of the Veteran talent came out of the 90's, with the exception of Cena, Orton and maybe a few others, otherwise they're all recent stars.

Personally, I don't think that the WWE really NEEDS the older wrestlers, but they certainly help draw. No, people aren't gonna buy a ticket specifically to see Sheamus, but pair him with Christian or Orton or someone else people are already invested in, and people will start caring about Sheamus in the same way. Wait, that's just what happened. Now Sheamus is over and he can feud with someone else who isn't quite there yet and give him the rub he needs to start drawing himself..It's all a part of the Great Circle of Life.

 

[DeathClutch]

At this moment in time quite a lot of the WWE veterans on the current roster are either injured or working a lot less as far as in ring action on Raw or Smackdown goes..Undertaker, Kane, Big Show, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Goldust, William Regal...

Ok we still have Cena has WWE Champion and an old school wrestler in Mark Henry as World Heavyweight Champion. Plus Triple H, Nash and Christian still get on TV a lot but with recent title runs for CM Punk, Del Rio, beginings of a tag division, two young promising future stars as US and IC Champions etc..

My questions are..

- Is the WWE as good now as it has been for a long time as far as entertainment, wrestling, promising future, heading in the right direction?

- Does the lack of older stars notice to you personally..as in does the WWE miss them/need them around still to have a well oiled product or are the young wrestlers doing just fine by themselves?

People will always bitch and dick over WWE.

Mark Henry as World Hw Champion is a SMART move, his whole gimmick is the perfect recipe for a heel monster and Henry been giving this opportunity is good for WWE and him. Sure he'll never win 5 star matches but seriously only certain guys ever will and big guys like him DON'T, but having him run riot in WWE is good because it now gives him Kane and Big Show, Orton to feud with all while building that one guy who'll take the belt from him.

Over all WWE is probably the best it's been since 2002.

 

[poppycock]

I would agree that the WWE is as good now as it has been since around 2002, for me personally anyway (obviously can not speak for anybody else). I think right now the WWE has a good knack of touching on the past whilst still allowing young talent to develop and not suffer for the benifit of the older wrestlers. Also most of the veterans I mentioned come across as very unselfish when it comes to the business and helping put the younger talent over. I am really excited about the next few years and really hope the people behind the curtains go about things the right way this time around... it is impossible to please everybody all the time but overall I would assume most people are happier now with the product than a few years ago.

 

[The Champ]

The stars are fine, I see plenty of guys talented enough to carry WWE into the future. What I think WWE needs to concentrate on is keeping as many stars relevant as possible, i.e. not just pushing them for a while and then letting them fade away. They've done a good job of that with Miz and Truth recently, but then you have guys like Wade Barrett who used to be huge and now have kind of faded into the background. Like, how do you screw up the push of the hottest heel in the business? Or a better question, why? Let's also not forget the amount of times they screwed up with Punk before finally arriving at this huge push he's getting now. The only reason that even happened is because he threatened to leave and they're short on stars. Bottom line is, if WWE starts pushing everyone more consistently and has actual feuds in every division instead of just meaningless matches, they'll start to be in much better shape for the future. Then they'll have a ton of stars they can work with to create unique and dynamic main event matchups for the next few years.