Where did all the feuds go?

[Troy]

Reading over the RAW and Smackdown results this week and one thing that struck me is how few feuds there are in WWE at the moment. Here is a list of all the feuds in WWE right now;

CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Kane
John Cena and Big Show
Christian and Cody Rhodes
Sheamus and Del Rio (well this one is now scrapped due to Del Rio's injury)
Santino and Ricardo
Beth and Layla

Now compare that to a list of wrestlers who are on a random winning streak since returing or debuting Brodus Clay, Ryback, Antonio Cesaro, Damien Sandow, Sin Cara and Tensai before last week. Six wrestlers are basically doing the same thing each week across the two shows.

Where have the feuds gone? It used to be that all wrestlers on the roster would be involved in actual storylines and feuds whereas now it is pretty much only the maineventers. There are so many wrestlers on the roster that just wrestle random matches each week and it does nothing for the show. It would be so much better if WWE actually had feuds running in all the divisions and from the top of the card right down to the bottom of the card. I feel that this is a big reason why a majority of fans don't care about anyone other than maineventers because WWE don't give fans a reason to get behind them each week.

Does anyone else think that this is an issue?

 

[Andrew]

I believe it's an issue that we're not seeing a feud outside of the title like we used to.

Sheamus/Del Rio kept me interested and it's a blow he got injured/concussion.
Punk/Kane/Bryan is a feud that's really picked up lately especially with AJ around

But I believe there needs to be a feud, a US title feud or even a mini-tournament with those wrestlers who are currently on random winning streaks to move towards the mid-card title contention

 

[Killz]

Interesting thoughts. I think first of all we should be expecting, and hoping, that comedy segments don't make up the bulk of our extra hour of Raw when it starts and that they will take the opportunity to give the likes of Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger the exposure they need to continue proving how useful they are. Remember, injuries and suspensions are bad right now but imagine another one or two? Suddenly it's these men carrying your company.

As for getting everyone involved in a feud, sure it'd be a fantastic idea. Back in the old attitude era there'd at least be viable reasons for hardcore title matches and lower card matches, at least most of the time. Some of these lower card, lower profile feuds conjured some entertaining matches and launched guys like Kurt Angle at this time.

What I would say, however, is that with the amount of actual main event storylines that WWE regularly drop without explanation, do we really want them writing double the creative ideas for the rest of the roster? Can they be trusted? It SHOULD be the case that they manage and we get meaningful feuds for all potential superstars and potential future main eventers but I think if the other option is the type of writing Vince had Monday night and the likelihood angles will be dropped with no explanation...perhaps it's better we have the focus be on the world titles and one other major feud? At least we get a sense of closure then. What having everyone involved in a feud reminds me of is TNA and if you watch TNA you can see that the intention is good and it leads to action but the execution doesn't work.

 

[Irish Mark]

Not all that long ago, Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson were booking Raw all on their lonesome. They had a roster of 50 and 30 of them were involved in storylines. Then, due to lawsuits n such, The Montreal Man Molester Pat Patterson quit and was replaced by Jim Cornette and Jim Ross; The Attitude Era was born! Vince Russo came in and like the dude or not, every wrestler, male and female, on the roster was involved in some sort of angel. The more we lost bookers and got teams of writers the more wrestling has spiraled into what we have today. Drew McIntyre, Tyson Kidd and Mike McGillicutty are not extras as these cretinous WWE TV writers see them as, they're main eventers waiting for 10 minutes a week on Raw to tell a decent story.

 

[Deezy]

Vince McMahon most likely changed his mind on booking in advance like the way he did in the 80s and 90s. Probably wanted more focus on the top names, and was most likely convinced by someone that nobody paid to see the underlings feud with eachother.

Seemed to be this way since 05. I remember caring more about secondary title feuds and tag teams than I did about Triple H and JBL back then.

 

[Kahuna]

I also think it goes back to the undeniable truth that every type of feud and angle imaginable that can be done, has been done. What my point is, I think when a company like this with no real competition, no real inspiration anymore, can look at the roster and say "Well, we don't need to push anything other than what we want. We dont need to give undercard feuds and develop character on such a regular basis, theres no need. Why do this when we have that?"

That mentality has been ideally the same for about eight or nine years now, its gotten better in the past two years but theres definitely that aura I see about the WWE in general where they know they have done the proverbial task of shooting themselves in the foot and maybe if hindsight is 20/20 they are starting to realize that the way they imaged things looked so much better in the imagination and fantasy.

The result obviously looked good too, but the bigger picture always remains distorted when they only focus on one part of the canvas, I think WWE is starting to realize now they can't rely on the same for very much longer, the time for change is long over due and fate is catching up. They need to start building an overall brand, as opposed to the same concept week in, week out.


I remember watching some PPV's from around eleven or twelve years ago, and I remember every match on the card had a back story, I think it was like seven matches, we had everybody from that time frame. There was Mankind, Stone Cold, Rock, DX, Undertaker, Kane, all the big established guys at that time and everyone had a storyline, even the lower level guys came in.

These are guys like D'lo Brown and Steve Blackman, Val Venis, Godfather, everyone involved in a match had a storyline behind it at that point and I think, even though some of the storylines in that era were so ridiculously far fetched and lame at times, it made the product better because everybody on that card seemed to have a place and a job to do, as opposed to just coming out and wrestling the same people in abysmal, unannounced matches or coming out for segments that dont make sense. Thats not even mentioning the fact that most PPV's are headlined by the same predictable storylines they deem important in the first place.

I don't know. Agh.

 

[Dale]

Probably a terrible idea I dunno, but I reckon RAW could possibly benefit from changing the United States Title into the TV title. You look at the Intercontinental Title for example, sure it might not be great and be defended as much as it actually should be, but at least it somewhat has a feud around it, Cody/Show Cody/Booker and i'm sure this will carry on when Christian retains hopefully this Sunday and moves onto someone new. RAW just doesn't want to put effort into the US Title so I reckon turning it into the TV title and just defending it every week on RAW in random matches would actually be worth something especially if you put it on someone who can be exciting or put on decent matches. Would at least make the midcard worth a damn, surely?

 

[Irish Mark]

Probably a terrible idea I dunno, but I reckon RAW could possibly benefit from changing the United States Title into the TV title. You look at the Intercontinental Title for example, sure it might not be great and be defended as much as it actually should be, but at least it somewhat has a feud around it, Cody/Show Cody/Booker and i'm sure this will carry on when Christian retains hopefully this Sunday and moves onto someone new. RAW just doesn't want to put effort into the US Title so I reckon turning it into the TV title and just defending it every week on RAW in random matches would actually be worth something especially if you put it on someone who can be exciting or put on decent matches. Would at least make the midcard worth a damn, surely?

I would have Cesaro beat Santino for the US title and change it to the European title. Make it a matter of national pride!