Storylines vs Wrestling

[Soulpower]

Thing of Japan Wrestlers. Wrestlers walk out. Shake hands. Compete in Great match. Shake Hands. Leave!

No farkin 8 minute video hyping the match, especially when the match is shit!

Actually, the main events in Japan tend to be preceded by a video hyping up the match. And there ARE storylines in Japanese wrestling... They're just not as over the top as the ones in the US.

Fact is that Pro wrestling needs a storyline.. Wheter its Kobashi vs Misawa or Flair vs Michaels, the feuds need a storyline in order to give the fans a reason to care and look forward to the actual wrestling.

No one wants to see Wrestler A go up against Wrestler B for shits and giggles.

 

[MikeRaw]

Seriously now, to the people who like to say they wanna see wrestling... Well none of its real, but if you still wanna see wrestling that isnt WWE, and you prefer Mexian/Japanese, even if its fake, well go watch that. But 95% of WWE fans like the storylines. I mean thats what the whole business is around here, its like a show that never ends. And thats what WWE actually is. So to impress fans here, all they need is a good or great storyline, and just a average match (like a Cena vs Edge or Batista/Taker) without mat qwrestling techqniques, but just a big match feel, or it to work.
Because if your actually here for amazing wrestling, other than the odd match, your in the wrong place.
Even WWE would admit that its not wrestling with storylines to tie it all together... Its storylines with wrestling to tie it all together... And most people here are fine with that.

So who cares if in Japan they have a match with no storylines? Watch that if thats what you want, but still, here in North America and other places in Europe/Australia, basically the western world, most people would want to just sit and watch 2 hours of JUST matches. now its good because if you want you can do that with ROH or japanes wrestling, but foor an all round product, you have WWE...

Anywaysm for me its storyline. I enjoy a good match, but to me, I get that enough when I watch TNA, or if theres like a Mysterio/Benoit/CM Punk in the ring. But my main reason is the storyline, as I have said in recent posts, I enjoy it because its like a show.

 

[Headfirst For Hardcore]

I'm more of a wrestling kind of guy, because that is the name of the "sport", right? The storylines are needed like it was said before, and each needs the other to thrive. The storylines are just a build up to a match, which can make the match have more or less heat on it. And you always need a story to go behind the wrestling. The WWE might go crazy sometimes with the outrageous stories that don't even lead to a match, but most of the time their storylines and gimmicks save the match.

You can't really compare Japanese wrestling with American wrestling, because they're two very different things. Puro (Japanese Wrestling) is played off as a real sport most of the time, and the storylines are played off as like a conflict you would see in real life. I would rather watch a Japanese wrestling match with some build rather than an episode of ECW where the biggest storyline doesn't even involve the wrestlers.

And these are the years where real combat sports like UFC are very popular now with guys 15-25, where there is action and a story that goes with it. and that usually does have a story and a verbal conflict between two fighters, even though it's real, just look at the pre-UFC PPV hype shows, it's all heated "promos" making the fight more interesting.

And who does the casual viewer choose? WWE. The storylines and characters make or a larger than life feel that children and adults can get into, where as only certain people can get into the ROH wrestling aspect.

A casual viewer wouldn't really watch ROH, because it's not as accessible as WWE or TNA is. I've never seen hype for an ROH show in like ads and stuff. I've been to an ROH show where at least a quarter of the crowd was kids (Long Island Crowd) and they were amazed by what they saw from what I heard, and I saw a couple of kids telling their parents that it was better than Raw and WWE in general, which was cool to hear. And the only promos on that show were the Larry Sweeney show, a Human Tornado comedic promo, and a Jimmy Jacobs emo rant.

 

[C4]

Storylines are wrestling and that's what interests most of us. Sure the matches are good but without a back-up storyline they would be bad as hell. Imagine a Cody Rhodes vs. Funaki match for the Intercontinental Championship. Both are accomplished wrestlers and they can wrestle, who would watch them?

Now imagine a 32 month feud with Funaki killing Cody's father and all the bullshit drama and action. Now they are having a match for the Intercontinental championship.... makes sense huh? And so storylines are far more important and appealing than the matches.

 

[The A-man]

For me, it would have to be the wrestling portion as always. Don't get me wrong, I do understand the importance the angles, storylines, and plots help paint a picture as to what's going on, but I like the action that goes along with it better.

Now imagine a 32 month feud with Funaki killing Cody's father and all the bullshit drama and action. Now they are having a match for the Intercontinental championship.... makes sense huh? And so storylines are far more important and appealing than the matches.

To which TAKA Michinoku comes out saying how it was all apart of his EVIL plan, Funaki replies with "INNNNNNDEEEEEED!", kills Cody, and kills(?) the Intercontinental Championship!!!!!