Main Criminals of WWE’s Decline

[RLStern]

That Paul Heyman ruining Smackdown in 2002 argument has got to be one of the biggest troll arguments I’ve ever seen.

Smackdown lost viewers, and were about to get cancelled.

It was garbage compared to Smackdown from August 1999-March 2002

Heyman made it a work rate show, took away character and promo work, had Big Show as champion, had the Heyman Character betray Lesnar for Show nonsensically, while keeping Angle feuding with midcarders in one of the biggest demotions of all time.

And when Angle did return to main event as a heel with green as grass Brock Lesnar it didn’t draw and people walked out during the match, all for Angle to get his neck broken by the rookie the month prior.

Heyman was taken out as head writer and they corrected things by turning Brock heel.

Paul Heyman should be banned from writing any storyline and characters, he can’t and has never done it, it should be illegal to give him a pen and paper in any wrestling company.

Workrate fanatics love him because he booked in ring workers and the in ring workers had great workrate, as if Heyman was in charge of the IN ring agenting and not the storyline and characters like he actually was.

He utterly failed in ECW, in the WWE in 2002-2003, ECW 2006, and WWE 2019.

Paul Heyman is not a genius and has never written any compelling television or character. He’s a great on screen talent and director/producer, but he should never ever write any storyline or character.

 

[Ricky Smarks]

Most network programs still draw 10s of millions of viewers. NFL is down as well, but still drawing over 15 million a game.

The idea that you can't draw people to a program they want to watch is laughable.

The WWE ratings also started tanking almost 20 years ago. WAY before ratings went down across the board.

 

[Ricky Smarks]

Shit, the playoff game just did a 34 I think.

 

[Ricky Smarks]

You decline to debate, it stands,

Russo increased ratings in every single tenure in every single company he was in.

Some issues from the other thread aside, I'm gonna like you a lot. Huge Russo Guy here <-- cosigns this.

 

[Ricky Smarks]

Paul Heyman - An utter hack who has no creative writing skills whatsoever, who’s overrated by his wrestling media friends who put him over as a genius in exchange for inside scoops.

He failed at every single task given, ECW, WWE 2002-2003, ECW 2006, WWE 2019.

He cannot write if his lift depended o

The only reason he is overrated is because he appeals to workrate niche, dirtsheets and is friends with dirtsheets.

He utterly destroyed Smackdown I’m 2002, when he made it a workrate show, losing millions and millions following Rocks departure, it was one of the most boring and uncreative runs in wrestling that’s overrated by smarks and Meltzer due to workrate.

it didn’t draw and it gave us one of the worst periods of Smackdown, following their best period of 1999-2002.

I'm can't cosign this, though. You ever watch ECW? He was all about telling stories and creating characters.

Are you saying he had no characters and stories in 2002-2003? We're currently watching 2002 for a site weekly chat here, btw.

 

[RLStern]

Some issues from the other thread aside, I'm gonna like you a lot. Huge Russo Guy here <-- cosigns this.

No one is going to agree with everyone about everything, but I do agree with most of your opinions, specifically the WCW post you made, I hope you make a thread on WCW going out of business.

 

[RLStern]

I'm can't cosign this, though. You ever watch ECW? He was all about telling stories and creating characters.

Are you saying he had no characters and stories in 2002-2003? We're currently watching 2002 for a site weekly chat here, btw.

It certainly had more story and character than today, but it had a 3rd of the characters and stories than prior to when he took over.

He led the way to less story and character. It was a workrate show and Smackdown improved for the first time since the attitude era after Heyman

 

[Ricky Smarks]

It certainly had more story and character than today, but it had a 3rd of the characters and stories than prior to when he took over.

He led the way to less story and character. It was a workrate show and Smackdown improved for the first time since the attitude era after Heyman

We're currently watching this period as a site on Thursdays so I may comeback to you and share my thoughts on this soon.

I will say thus far as we just hit September, I did prefer April to July of the brand split, specifically SmackDown, before Heyman came over.

 

[Shane]

Smackdown lost viewers, and were about to get cancelled.

It was garbage compared to Smackdown from August 1999-March 2002

Heyman made it a work rate show, took away character and promo work, had Big Show as champion, had the Heyman Character betray Lesnar for Show nonsensically, while keeping Angle feuding with midcarders in one of the biggest demotions of all time.

And when Angle did return to main event as a heel with green as grass Brock Lesnar it didn’t draw and people walked out during the match, all for Angle to get his neck broken by the rookie the month prior.

Heyman was taken out as head writer and they corrected things by turning Brock heel.

Paul Heyman should be banned from writing any storyline and characters, he can’t and has never done it, it should be illegal to give him a pen and paper in any wrestling company.

Workrate fanatics love him because he booked in ring workers and the in ring workers had great workrate, as if Heyman was in charge of the IN ring agenting and not the storyline and characters like he actually was.

He utterly failed in ECW, in the WWE in 2002-2003, ECW 2006, and WWE 2019.

Paul Heyman is not a genius and has never written any compelling television or character. He’s a great on screen talent and director/producer, but he should never ever write any storyline or character.

Literally none of this is relevant. I love how you point out very specific things that happened for a short period of time. Big show was champ for literally a month. And having Angle wrestle other great wrestlers isn’t a demotion. It gave him a chance to use his greatness to make others great. All those “work rate” superstars aka the Smackdown Six became main eventers except Chavo. Idk what Angle getting his neck broken by Lesnar has anything to do with Heyman. Owen Hart broke stone cold’s neck. Is he bad too? Angle also admitted he was fragile due to not allowing past injuries to heal properly. Most people consider 2002-2003 Smackdown to be one of the best shows in wwe history so I have no fucking idea where you get your info from. It’s hilarious how you blame “work rate” wrestling as to why it was bad acting like those guys couldn’t talk and didn’t have charisma lmao.

 

[Chris]

Putting the belt on Show in 02 was one of Heyman's worst moves I'll agree....not so much the rest tho lol

 

[Shane]

Putting the belt on Show in 02 was one of Heyman's worst moves I'll agree....not so much the rest tho lol

It wouldn’t have been great if he was champ for a long time but he wasn’t. He literally was champ for one month and it was only used to turn Brock face.

 

[RLStern]

Literally none of this is relevant. I love how you point out very specific things that happened for a short period of time. Big show was champ for literally a month. And having Angle wrestle other great wrestlers isn’t a demotion. It gave him a chance to use his greatness to make others great. All those “work rate” superstars aka the Smackdown Six became main eventers except Chavo. Idk what Angle getting his neck broken by Lesnar has anything to do with Heyman. Owen Hart broke stone cold’s neck. Is he bad too? Angle also admitted he was fragile due to not allowing past injuries to heal properly. Most people consider 2002-2003 Smackdown to be one of the best shows in wwe history so I have no fucking idea where you get your info from. It’s hilarious how you blame “work rate” wrestling as to why it was bad acting like those guys couldn’t talk and didn’t have charisma lmao.

Doesn’t matter if he was champion for a month, his November 99-January 2000 runs shows they shouldn’t have made him champion, especially after being in the mid card for the last 3 years.

And no, working with Kurt Angle one of the biggest draws of the attitude era wasn’t going to magically make guys like Benoit and Mysterio word championship material, it wasn’t going to magically make them great talkers.

And in Benoits case they tried over and over to make him a main eventer since 2000 and he never drew.

And in conclusion no, most people do not say 2002-2003 Smackdown is the best, because a niche amount of fanatics saying it isn’t most people.

The data shows that most people loved Smackdown from 1999-March 2002 then absolutely hated and were bored by Smackdown 2002-2003, as shown by the ratings falling to record lows.