Stunt Granny Conversation: Creatively Bankrupt
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Jeremy: I am up for a show tonight but I am not going to be positive. I can’t even pretend
Kevin: Hahaha. Another rushed episode may have made it feel not so bad to me last night. They do seem to know how to end on a high note.
Jeremy: That show fucking sucked
Kevin: After re-reading it, seems fine enough to me. Nothing was sticking out in my mind other than the butchering of the Divas division.
Jeremy: You mean the Marriage Proposal was good? Or stopping the show and talking about selling merch for cancer companies? Ya know like Walking Dead does, right after Rick and the group fights off a pack of walkers. They all get together after the break and shill Pink Walking Dead merchandise. Fuck them. Lets not forget Neville, the man that booking forgot. Kane the demon from hell who has no superpowers or back up from Satan. Cause that is what their ratings needed, a nice bolster of 20 minutes with Seth Rollins talking about Kane. I mean 5 minutes going to Kevin Owens would be way too much. But hey, at least Cesaro is getting time on Raw
Kevin: I thought you loved playboy Rusev?
Jeremy: Ya know how that should have ended? NO. There, the end. have Lana come out and say “good boy” or something and goes back to being a killer . he helps New day destroy Dolph. Ryback comes out and Owens beats him senseless. New Day, Rusev, Owens end show on top. Not the three clowns , who i like, in new Day by themselves. it makes no sense how they go from goofballs to dominant heels.
Kevin: They’re only going to get so much mileage out of goofballs as Santino, Heath Slater, etc. have proven until it gets old. As inventive as New Day has been, they needed a killer edge. They had been getting too many cheers too. As much as the WWE likes to pretend they blur the lines these days, it’s mostly face vs heel still. New Day needed to be booed more so give them a beat down segment.
Jeremy: I totally agree with needing a killer edge but then they play the horn on the way out? I suppose that is the new age megaphone. They need some credibility as strong heels though. If you are going to create a moment why have Big E lose? have them all go ” screw this” and beat the hell out of Cena. Claim it as weakening him so they can become US Champion.
Kevin: The only thing I can come up with for the loss is that it happened so quickly after Kofi & Xavier got tossed from ring side, that they couldn’t beat him down. Big E had dominated the match up too that point so New Day would have needed to plan to beat down Cena. Last night, Kofi & Xavier didn’t attack until after the loss so it was more of a reaction to it than a plan going in.
Jeremy: As long as they establish that no one can beat Cena then that is fine. I have a hard time believing someone is a strong heel if they never win. Even the Governor killed some people in cold blood. I am going to continue with the Walking Dead analogies no matter how far I have to go to squeeze them in.
Kevin: They have established that pretty much no one can beat Cena. Have you missed the last decade of wrestling? And if New Day never wins, how do they have the WWE Tag Team Titles?
Jeremy: I meant in the Cena situation. Look, all of this anger is based off of weeks of futility. The Cena stuff is irrational but acceptable when the matches were good. Even then that wore thin for me. Ratings have plummeted and WWE keeps plugging in the same tired garbage. But hey if they can profit over a very real issue like the NFL and their partner Susan G. Komen they must be happy. By they I mean shareholders and Vince. Even if Vince is supposedly micro-managing everything creative.
Kevin: See, this is where not watching live has it’s largest benefits. No one is pro-cancer, but I also don’t want, as you have pointed out, a long commercial for breast cancer in the middle of the show. I’m not even going to piggy back your point and go with another you brought up, the NFL. As much as they support the cause, they don’t break their own game flow to bring you an ad. They do it when other regularly run ads take place. No reason the WWE can’t do the same thing. Creative can’t fill three hours though so we get it as a segment.
Jeremy: They cannot fill 3 hours with different talent even though there are characters and talent sitting idle every week for Raw. Also in this case the NFL is sports. WWE is entertainment according to them. So breaking you narrative to beg for merch money, which is what it is, should be considered reprehensible and also creatively bankrupt.
Kevin: I won’t disagree with them being a bit bankrupt creatively. Going back to the Divas, you’ve got great talent sitting around but they don’t get their own in ring time. Witness yet another six woman match this week. As you noted, Neville has been forgotten about. I’m sure Heath Slater wouldn’t mind more screen time even if it was for another squash match.
Jeremy: Heath started getting that cult like cheer and WWE isn’t going to allow that. If I am a NXT talent I stay put until Wrestlemania season. This is also a source of frustration. They announce thee ticket on sale dates then take a shit in the ring.
Kevin: I’ll note here that the build up for Wrestlemania this year was as bad as could be and a lot of people thought this WM was one of the best ever. I’m not going to write off WM in 6 months right now.
Jeremy: Oh no I am not going to as well. The timing was just terrible. Plenty of time in year and in to February to get things in place but will it be too late for them?
Kevin: I’m not sure what too late is. Again, last year’s WM was great as an event. People may not be watching as much but somehow, they’re playing packed shows and selling out small to medium sized venues for NXT wherever they go. As the ratings have dropped, I’ve seen more and more people in Nationwide Arena. It’s a weird trend.
Jeremy: Maybe it is just going back to the diehards? No evidence or research done with that statement but only thing that immediately would make sense. I do find the contradiction between USA/SYFY programming and WWE television. WWE television has gone to TV-PG while almost all of the networks content is TV-14 or TV-MA.
Kevin: I guess I couldn’t blame diehards for coming back. I’ve noted for a while now that the wrestling in ring is as good as it gets. There wasn’t much wrestling last night though. I didn’t notice that subtle difference and it could be helping the Network.
Jeremy: See I can understand an uptick in house show attendance. If you listen to wrestlers on podcasts they all talk glowingly about the house shows. they are way freer to work matches. No stupid ass talking segments that go nowhere or lead to the exact conclusion you expect.
Kevin: I still haven’t hit a house show since the days of the Jaffa Mosque in Altoona. I know Raw tickets are on sale for January in 2016 here. Still need to look into purchasing those. I can understand the upside of just wrestling but you do need some of that dumb ass stuff to keep things moving along.
Jeremy: I do not remember the last house show for me as well. The focus of all marketing has been Raw , Smackdown, PPVs or forget it. It has made the house shows obsolete to the casual viewer when they should be a huge focus.
Kevin: It’s another facet of the business that has been better in NXT than it has on the main roster. The Dusty Rhodes Classic matches have been at some of the house shows for NXT. Nothing drawing you to a regular WWE house show.
Jeremy: I suppose this is what they mean by making Dusty proud.
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