A lost art

[The Rated R CMStar]

I talk about the art of long feuds. Back in the 80's and 90's, you had feuds that even if not constantly on, went for years and years without being drawn on. HHH vs Rock didn't feud in all PPVs for their tenure against each other, but you knew they hated each other and they could easily jump into a feud with each other because the heat was always there, for example.

But for years, that booking standpoint was lost. As long or as personal as a feud would get, if it went for more than 4 PPVs, it was already drawn out.

However, in 2007, and without exactly knowing it, we saw this lost art being recovered.

Edge cashed in MITB on an injured Taker starting a year long feud. We would see then Edge cost Taker the belt at SS in HIAC by attacking him, then, a month later, he would stole the belt from Taker by stealing his pinfall and winning at Armageddon.

Wrestlemania, we have Edge vs Taker, a long feud already, and Taker wins to give us the feel good moment, the ride could very well be over, however, it would be far from it, as we would see this feud continue over Backlash, Judgment Day and One Night Stand, and then, hit its climax at Summerslam with HIAC.

Edge vs Taker has gone for more than year and one could argue, there is still a lot of things to do between this two.


But this isn't the only feud that could easily go for a year long. HBK vs Jericho has gone now since Judgment Day until now, and just like HBK vs Taker, it could easily continue.


So, what do you think about this? Do you think that we will get more of this kind of feuds?

 

[C4]

They can continue with Edge and Undertaker feud anytime now. Because as you said CMS, now there is permanent heat between the two on Television; similar to that of Triple H and The Rock in the 90's.

Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho are two great competitors, they are talented and well-built athletes that have lots of experience and can put up great matches, evidence can clearly be seen at WrestleMania 19 when they wrestled a fantastic match. The only problem is that their matches get too repetitive at times and the storyline just doesn't go all that well. The WWE needs to add some kind of weird twist if they want this to be a year long feud.

There are other feuds that can be started and have the potential of being bigger and better Main Event stealer's, but I doubt the creative writers will ever start them.

 

[WCW Rules]

Are you forgetting Randy Orton vs. Triple H? There's a long feud for ya; starting in the Summer of '04, and it continued until Orton's feud with Taker. Then, it was rekindled in '06 with Rated RKO and DX, and in 2007, it continued again and through inconsistencies, lasted until ONS '08. The fued is done, for now, but for all we know, it can continue later on.

 

[Airfixx]

^^^Indeed.... You could also add Cena V Orton & Cena V JBL to that list too.

 

[Moonlight Drive]

I think we've all forgotten possibly the biggest one

Shawn Michaels vs Triple H. That went on and off between 02-04, and is easily one of my favourite feuds ever.

But I understand where you're coming from CMS. Using the HHH/HBK feud as an example, you can throw the two into a match or situation and it's an instant classic, the feud picking up where it left off.

Feuds nowadays just seem to be find a face, find a heel, one costs each other a match, they feud until a PPV, then they move on and the cycle continues.

But I think we will definitely see more of these feuds. I think Raw and SD are going back to an older style, I mean, World Championship matches on TV? I don't think we've seen that since the PPV's became Tri-Branded.

 

[Kaedon]

Its the simple fact of people now a days having the attention span of a GNAT!

 

[Evil Austin]

Well over the 2000 - now era there have been a couple of those real year long feuds for example.

HHH - Shawn Michaels
(I mean LMS, HIAC, 3STAGES OF HELL, NON SANCTIONED MATCHES YOU NAME IT)
Edge / Taker - explained above
Jericho / HBK - turning into a long feud ....
Edge / Cena - started in early early 06 with Edge cashing in the bank in January at NYR and then at Unforgiven we saw a TLC match ..... that went pretty long ?
Stone Cold / The Rock - 3Wrestlemania main events are this? hmmm
a couple of others but might come to mind later.

 

[Soulpower]

Its the simple fact of people now a days having the attention span of a GNAT!

Bolded for truth

 

[LAURINAITIS33]

I think the longest feud because of the personal ramifications is Edge and The Hardys. It was there as tag teams and then the Lita stuff. It seems like Edge faces one of them every few months for the hell of it but it wouldn't take much to get it back into a feud because everybody knows about their history.

 

[Great One]

Actually, I think it's more of lack of star power. There's not nearly enough main eventers on the roster and let alone free agents to bring in and automatically have in the main event. I remember how Kurt Angle was pushed to the main event in less than a year. =/

 

[Headfirst For Hardcore]

I'm thinking the longer feuds are because of the tri branded PPV's and how they improved, most of the matches now aren't just the end of boring, throw away feuds. it seems like almost every match on PPV seems pretty good, and that's because of the feuds.

 

[chessarmy]

Times have changed, wrestling fans don't seem to appreciate really long feuds anymore. Instead, we have people bitch about it getting "boring" and "stale". The only long ass feud that really worked for me was HBK vs Triple H. It told an amazing story, and it was easily the best feud of this decade. Taker vs Edge was also a great long feud which as you all know, ended inside Hell in a Cell.

So basically what I'm saying is, a long feud can only work if every match is unique. Since wrestling fans seem to be impatient, this could be a great way to differentiate the matches so the fans don't turn on the feud

 

[Headfirst For Hardcore]

Times have changed, wrestling fans don't seem to appreciate really long feuds anymore. Instead, we have people bitch about it getting "boring" and "stale". The only long ass feud that really worked for me was HBK vs Triple H. It told an amazing story, and it was easily the best feud of this decade. Taker vs Edge was also a great long feud which as you all know, ended inside Hell in a Cell.

So basically what I'm saying is, a long feud can only work if every match is unique. Since wrestling fans seem to be impatient, this could be a great way to differentiate the matches so the fans don't turn on the feud

the only long feuds that seem to get boring to me are the "best of" series of matches. But it is true that some feuds get boring, and I think there's a reason to bitch about that kind of stuff, if you're bored, you can't really do anything about it.

A long feud doesn't need a bunch of different gimmick matches to succeed. I think it's more about the promos building up to something that makes it great. The more people are hyped for something, the more the match will be interesting. A gimmick match is good towards the end, but I don't think there's a need for a "Black Tie and Chain" or "Insert Random City Here Street FIght" for it to succeed.

 

[Soulpower]

Perfect example of people not being able to enjoy a lengthy feud... Shawn Michaels vs Chris Jericho. I've heard a lot of people bitching about its too long of a feud and about how its gone on too long, when the reality is that its one of the best feuds we've seen in wrestling in a long time.

 

[LKO]

long feuds are a good thing but they do have their negatives. there is always that chance that there will be that one bad gimmick match or angle that can just screw the whole body of work that had been established for the months before then.

I mean Katie Vick or was it Fick who cares the point is thats the only thing we will ever remember HHH/Kane for and that could of been a very decent feud at the time

but other than that. Long feuds are nice but if the WWE continues with their random pushes i can learn to love the short feuds