It's time for me to come to terms with WWE

[Dolph'sZiggler]

or perhaps more specifically Raw.

This is not a program that I enjoy any longer. Generally speaking, I think most of us put Raw on a pedestal because it's live, and hypothetically 'anything can happen!!!' but let's just be honest.. anything isn't happening. A very specific and played out formula is happening, and it's happening every single week.

I know a lot of people including myself frown at WWE/TNA comparisons while others make them every time they post. I tend to shy away from them but I feel for the purpose of this post I have to bring up TNA.

If it were not for TNA I would probably be convinced I've outgrown professional wrestling, because that is exactly how I feel when I watch Raw. Everything within the structure of WWE is so formulaic, and it's become overtly clear to me that I'm just not into it any longer.

The wide array of problems contributing to my apathy are well documented and have been discussed to the point that me listing them here seems redundant, but allow me to mention a few anyway. Feud structure is almost always the same. They all feel the same, and very rarely do we get a unique feud, and when we do it always involves the same played out fucks like Cena or HHH. Matches. Every fucking match is the same. TV and PPV matches. TV matches always follow the same WWE script. You can always predict when a match will be a DQ, no contest, or dirty finish because WWE is scared to let (for example) Big Show or Orton lose that match last night.

Don't even get me started on tag team matches which literally follow the exact same arch verbatim every damn time. And PPV matches, while they include more spice and variety, also stick to the same general eb and flow 90% of the time (but I'm not here to swear off PPVs).

Beyond played out stories and matches come the lame ass characters we see every week. We dealt we dickhead Punk's face character for however long, and now he is just a default whiny 'why always me?' heel. Really? Daniel Bryan's character is an abomination. Big Show, Kane, Cena, HHH... I don't care about any of these fucks and they are taking up more screen time than anyone else on Raw.

Bottom line: Soon enough I'll have Monday Night Football to watch and quite frankly I just don't need Raw. I have Impact to watch every week, and I'll continue to watch WWE PPVs. The one obvious exception to all of this is Dolph Ziggler, who is amazing enough to overcome all of the shitty obstacles WWE puts up for him and he stills finds a way to draw me in.

WWE even had me bored off my ass during a Lesnar/HBK segment. Just.. shame on you WWE. So Raw, peace out homie. I'll follow you occasionally and keep up with what happens, but I'll only be watching DZ. Maybe Summerslam will change things with an epic show.. we shall see.

btw I've come to this conclusion because last night wasn't even a bad show. There were a lot of good match ups, but I felt nothing but apathy for the entirety of the show besides Ziggler... and then he lost to Riley :haha:

sorry if I come off as butt hurt in this thread.. but I am somewhat. I would love to sit back and enjoy Raw, but it just doesn't happen for me. Any time I start to waiver on this stance I'll just replay the memory of Big Show closing out Raw as the dominant badass for probably the 5th time in the last 8 shows. Who the fuck does WWE think wants to see that shit?

I'm out. see you in the Impact discussion thread Thursday

 

[DarksideTrin]

I approve this statement!

 

[Rysenberg]

That's fair enough I guess, there tends to be enough things on an average Raw show to keep me interested but a lot of what you say there is totally correct.

One thing, you might want to check out the Chris Jericho's highlight reel with Zigs on SD this week, get the feeling that will be epic.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

That's fair enough I guess, there tends to be enough things on an average Raw show to keep me interested but a lot of what you say there is totally correct.

One thing, you might want to check out the Chris Jericho's highlight reel with Zigs on SD this week, get the feeling that will be epic.

I always watch what Ziggler does on SD

 

[DarksideTrin]

I fast forwarded most of the show and actually started playing Xbox NHL 12 halfway through the show as well.

The disbelief of them being larger then life Is gone... Prolly from the movies and the social media.

They needed to have 3 hours of better matches. Not 60 minutes of recaps and the same 5 minute garbage matches that we are used to seeing.

Why can they not have an "anyone can beat anyone mentality?" anymore.

Riley over Ziggler was HUGE!
Kidd over Tensai was huge as well.

More of that please!

RAW is becoming more like superstars was back on the late 80s.... Superstar vs scrub.

It is like we can call most of the tv winners and how it will happen. We called double count out at the store... We called sandow sneak attack.

Freshen this stuff up!

 

[Asskicker]

Well said :bitw:

 

[Crayo]

I enjoyed the show personally. Oh well, it'll get better and I guess you'll be watching when it does.

 

[Snowman1]

Dolph's, I agree with every single thing you said, and have been wanting to say this for a while but couldn't put it into words. Had you and Crayo not begged me to come back to (and if I didn't enjoy) the discussion thread, I would have stopped watching long ago. The WWE script is so stale and boring that there's really no point in watching, tbh during most matches this week (such as ADR/Christian, Punk/Rey, and parts of Cena/Bryan) I didn't. Everything is so predictable so what reason do you have to watch?

I'd add another rant, but there's really no point.

 

[Asskicker]

We should make the iMPACT thread big like RAW now. Impact is entertaining as hell now after I watched last week, I can't wait to watch this thursday.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

We should make the iMPACT thread big like RAW now. Impact is entertaining as hell now after I watched last week, I can't wait to watch this thursday.

I would love for more people to not only watch Impact, but discuss it live. I'm in the thread every week I can be, and I will be this Thursday. It's the go home show for a highly anticipated PPV card, so it should be good shit.

 

[Asskicker]

I'm not going to have work late thursday, but if only impact went back to 7 to 9. Then I wouldn't miss the whole thing. Or else will join the live discussion thursday, becoming a TNA mark now.

 

[Matt]

I feel the same way. probably wouldn't still be watching it if i wasn't a part of this forum :

 

[GrammarNazi82]

I'm not going to have work late thursday, but if only impact went back to 7 to 9. Then I wouldn't miss the whole thing. Or else will join the live discussion thursday, becoming a TNA mark now.

:win:

Also, I should be home and able to watch live this week. I'm very much looking forward to it. Of course, with Impact, I pretty much get excited about it every week regardless.

Dolph's -- I take it that means no review / rating this week? I was guessing what your rating would be at one point during the live discussion thread. I hate that WWE, or more accurately Raw, has become such a thorn in your side and is unbearable, but I can also understand where you're coming from. I think I have the benefit of having just recently started watching again, so I'm not as jaded as I may be if I had been watching it continuously for quite some time. The sad part of that? Even with me not watching it that long, WWE still gets on my nerves and makes me want to ask them WTH they're thinking. It's a shame really. There is so much potential available, right within their grasp, yet they let it go to waste. Shame.

 

[DarksideTrin]

I usually watch via internets so I can't be part of the live thread.

 

[Wacokid27]

I can understand Dolph's sentiment completely. I have had similar.....I almost want to call them breakdowns. In fact, I basically had one last night when I saw Big Show deliver the WMD to Punk (the fact that he then gave one to Cena didn't make it any better). It's almost become completely clear that WWE is now marketing and writing exclusively to children and casual fans, as they believe the hardcore wrestling fans will continue to watch, regardless of the quality of show they produce. I'm also just about to the point that I believe the only way they might realize (and I emphasize "might") would be for the hardcore wrestling fans to turn off WWE and focus on TNA and ROH (or any other independent promotion), but that means not enjoying the talents that many of us love to watch (Punk, Bryan, Christian, DZ, for me, personally). It becomes a terrible choice for those of us who love good wrestling, but also love those talents.

Either way, I should be in the TNA thread on Thursday and I look forward to posting with all of you then.

wk