The Figure Four - ALL Things ECW-WWF-NJPW-TNA-ROH-AEW

[KDawg]

I mean, it was pretty well documented he was unhappy and banged up. When you're unhappy it's generlly because of stuff like this.

I also wouldn't rule out Punk coming back. Not any time soon, but somewhere down the line when he sees the change. When guys like Zayn, Neville, Bryan, Ambrose, Balor, Itami and Steen are at the top and he's given essentially total creative freedom.

I just don't see it happening for awhile. And by that time he may be over coming back. But I wouldn't rule it out.

Oh and by the way, he did walk out. He said as much. They officially fired him a few months after. But he was already gone.

[spjunkies]

The only reason he walked out was because he was suffering from major injuries that they wouldn't allow him to properly heal. I bet if they would've allowed him to take a few months off he would've returned.

[CrypticVillain]

Punk totally opens up about his time in the WWE. I thought he was a dick for walking out, but after hearing his story it sounds like the WWE is a miserable work environment.

 

The fools fired him and tried to twist it to make it seem like he quit.

 

http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2014/11/27/7298557/cm-punk-story-walking-out-on-wwe

I was hoping somebody posted this. I was trying too, but my phone died before I can finish it.

 

My favorite part of the interview...

"First night out back with Ryback, gorilla press through a table? Misses the ****ing table. Dumps me on the concrete"

To Ryback: "You can't tell me you didn't do that on purpose, you've done it so many times now"

To Ryback "You tell me right now you're dumb as **** and you suck, or you did it on purpose" Ryback says, "I'm dumb as ****. I'm sorry"

[KDawg]

The only reason he walked out was because he was suffering from major injuries that they wouldn't allow him to properly heal. I bet if they would've allowed him to take a few months off he would've returned.

Not saying he wasn't justified. Just saying he was already done. The firing wasn't a shock and I'm sure Punk knew it was coming.

[Gallen5862]

http://prowrestling.wikia.com/wiki/Ric_Flair

 

Richard Morgan Fliehr (February 25, 1949) is a semi-retiredAmerican professional wrestler, better known by his ring nameRic Flair. Also known as "The Nature Boy", Flair is considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time with a professional career that spans 41 years and is noted for his lengthy and highly decorated tenures with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling(WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (now known as WWE). Flair is officially recognized by WWE,TNA and PWI as a 16-time World Heavyweight Champion(seven-time NWA Champion, seven-time WCW Champion and two-time WWF Champion) although his actual tally of World Championship reigns varies by source—Flair considers himself a 21-time world champion.

Edited November 28, 2014 by Gallen5862

[KDawg]

Why did you post Flair's bio?

[Gallen5862]

I found it interesting that their is a dispute between Flair being called a 16 time Champ and he considers himself a 21 time Champ. This will probably become important when Cena wins the title to become a 16 time Champion. This Bio had alot of interesting info on some match info that many fans might not know about his career. 

[KDawg]

I was thinking... Would a brand split work again? Not sure I'd pull the trigger if in position, but it would definitely give Smackdown (which is moving to Thursdays again) a much needed jolt with brand exclusive stories... But then again, that would only work if it was treated as an equal to RAW, and not to B-Show.

 

You could start off with the titles:

 

WWE World Heavyweight Title - Shared

Intercontinental Title - RAW exclusive

United States Title - Smackdown exclusive

Divas Title - RAW exclusive

Tag Titles - Smackdown exclusive

 

Roster (I used WWE.com's roster page to do this):

 

RAW:

Daniel Bryan (assuming he comes back healthy)

Roman Reigns

Randy Orton

Bray Wyatt

Seth Rollins

Erick Rowan

Big Show

Kane

Luke Harper

Damien Sandow

Fandango (w/Rosa)

Adam Rose

Darren Young

Zack Ryder

Tyler Breeze

Hideo Itami

Adrian Neville

 

Nikki Bella

AJ Lee

Alicia Fox

Brie Bella

Cameron

Emma

Naomi

Nattie

Paige

Summer

Tamina

 

SMACKDOWN:

John Cena

Dolph Ziggler (w/Eva Marie)

Sheamus

Dean Ambrose

Rusev (w/Lana)

Mark Henry

Bad News Barrett (w/ Layla)

Ryback

Miz

Swagger

Curtis Axel

Justin Gabriel

R-Truth

Bo Dallas

Sami Zayn

Finn Balor

Kevin Owens

 

New Day - Kofi/Woods/Big E

Cesaro/Kidd

Los Matadores

Gold/Stardust

Slater/O'Neil

Usos

 

Jericho/Christian/RVD (if/when they come back) can be used to bolster ratings on a show that may be struggling a bit.

 

You put big name draws on both rosters to make sure people want to see the show. 

 

Put the poster boy on Smackdown to show your serious.

 

Now, as you can see from some names above, I went with this idea post some of the big NXT names coming up to WWE.

 

I'm not sure it would work, but if you also cut RAW to two hours, I think you could develop characters and really make the product bite again. One thing that would need to be maintained, though: Keep the brands separated. Completely. No crossover.

 

That makes events like Survivor Series & Royal Rumble much more special.

 

*shrug*

 

Like I said, not sure I'd go with it, but just thinking out loud.

[@SkinsGoldPants]

Haven't watched in a while. But no, I wouldn't brand split. What I would use smackdown to have more title matches and to showcase other belts as the main event.....meaning I would actually have the show end with a match and not a contract signing or a fake talk show or whatever they do now.

 

Like a lot of us have said in the past......this means putting time and effort into building storylines around those other belts that make them more valuable than they are now. If the main event for Smackdown is for the Tag Titles. The matches leading up to it should be contender matches for other belts that will be defended the next week or on Raw. 

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

How long is Smackdown? 2 Hours?

 

I just find it odd that everyone is bored with 3 hour Raws and the solution is to make the writers have to come up with 5 exciting hours now when they fail at 3.

[@SkinsGoldPants]

How long is Smackdown? 2 Hours?

 

I just find it odd that everyone is bored with 3 hour Raws and the solution is to make the writers have to come up with 5 exciting hours now when they fail at 3.

 

Agreed. How much of these shows are replays of something that happened a week ago? They have a locker room full of people who want to go out and perform. I say "let them". Those are the "oh my god" moments when you have two cruiser weights doing crazy flips for 5-10 min.

 

I'm also sick of video of somebody backstage WATCHING video of something else like a match or somebody talking in the ring.

Edited December 3, 2014 by @SkinsGoldPants

[KDawg]

It's five hours now.

 

It would be four if you moved RAW to two hours.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I think I would watch wrestling again if it ran at 6:05 on the Superstation for one hour and was occasionally pre-empted for Braves baseball.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Please no brand extension.

 

Some of those Smackdown only PPVs in the mid 2000s were garbage....

[KDawg]

Please no brand extension.

 

Some of those Smackdown only PPVs in the mid 2000s were garbage....

 

Well, I mean... yeah.

 

But I'm not referring to having an A and B show. I'm referring to making them equals, and both live TV shows.

 

Again, I'm not for or against it. I'm just thinking out loud. *shrug*

[CrypticVillain]

I just think prioity number one right now should be making the secondary titles important. 

 

I think the best way to do that right now would be to have the top heel, I guess Seth Rollins, win the World Heavyweight Title, the IC, and US title. And have him keep all of them for a month or two.

 

Or another way would be to have Brock comeback and take them and dissapeer again. I mean, by having no titles, it would make all titles important right?

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

I've been saying this for years........they need to make Raw only 2 hours and cut Smackdown to 1 hour or 1.5 hours.  Scrap the stupid stuff like the little people wrestlers, all the idiots dressed in bunny costumes, etc.  This isn't a ****ing carnival.  

 

They need to have more title defenses on a regular rotating basis.  All we get now is matches leading up to the PPV, title is never on the line.  Which means, don't give the title to part time wrestlers, though I love Brock.  

 

They need their main talent holding the lesser belts (as y'all have mentioned) and going cross shows defending against inferior mid-card talent and up an coming super stars.  My ideal vision would be Raw - 2 hours, Smackdown - 1 hour and bring back Saturday Night Main Event once a month only on the WWE Network, 1 hour full of matches.  

 

The formula they use now is so predictable and stale.  I watched the PPV, I didn't need to see Cena, Ryback, Dolph team up against Rollins, Kane and Wyatt again on Raw two weeks later.  

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Did anyone watch or listen to the Austin-McMahon podcast?

 

It's safe to say that what we are watching now is the pure essence of what Vince wants sports entertainment to be. And that he sees any problems with the product as the total fault of the young talent "not grabbing the brass ring."

 

Nothing is going to change until Vince's heart explodes (and with today's technology, who says he is ever going to die) and then you had better hope to God that HHH has the vision you like and has managed to sell Stephanie on that vision. Because I have no faith in Stephanie alone.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Watched growing up. I think the first PPV I clearly/vividly remember was Undertaker vs Undertaker to find out who was the real Undertaker (Undertaker won). Watched religiously in the 90's and into the Attitude era. Was a HUGE fan of wrestling, period. During the Monday night wars I would watch Raw in the living room and record Nitro in the basement old school style on a VCR (and then would run downstairs and watch it as soon as Raw ended.) Got as many of the PPVs as I could hustle out of my folks. Was so devoted and nerdy with it, I played Cyberslam like my entire teenage years. Don't know if anyone here knows that or used to play it. Was an eWrestling game where you would write out scripts and then run automated matches on some engine. The definition of nerd (my wrestling fandom coincided perfectly with the start of the Internet Age).

My devotion started falling off after joining the Army in late 2001 (followed by other places) where TV wasn't too accessible. Was really the only reason. I still loved it, still gobbled up everything I could.

Finally made it back home after a few years and tried to get back into it. Gave it a real effort, just kept getting lamer and lamer though. Maybe a year ago, maybe two or three (don't remember specifically) was going through the DVR and realized I had Raw/Smackdown on autorecord and hadn't watched a single one in damn near a full year, literally. Decided to end the recordings and ever since, reading this thread has been my only consumption of anything wrestling.

So yeah, thinking and thinking about it, I honestly don't think there is anything they could do to get me back on board. I can't picture a single scenario where I would ever purchase a PPV ever again. It sucks because it was so much fun.

Had a question: is it not obvious that they have an issue with the product? Has it not been obvious for awhile? And if the fixes aren't obvious, aren't the problems? So why are they still in the same quality-of-entertainment hole, still just lazily digging away? Is it just because anybody who has the power to do anything is getting theirs and that's good enough?

Edit: lol started swyping out this post before LKB's was on here and I got to read that. Guess he answered my question.

Edited December 4, 2014 by G.A.C.O.L.B.

[CrypticVillain]

I didn't see it yet, but I heard about him saying Cena was the last one to grab the brass ring. That's a slap in the face to pretty much every main eventer since 2000. 

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I didn't see it yet, but I heard about him saying Cena was the last one to grab the brass ring. That's a slap in the face to pretty much every main eventer since 2000. 

 

That was interesting.

 

The one thing that jumped out at me is that he seems to think that a match can't tell a story without an interview to set it up.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

That was interesting.

The one thing that jumped out at me is that he seems to think that a match can't tell a story without an interview to set it up.

What he said about Cesaro is what got me,

That whole "Only I know what you the ppl really want" thing is not just a gimmick

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

What he said about Cesaro is what got me,

That whole "Only I know what you the ppl really want" thing is not just a gimmick

 

This is the problem with no competition. They can probably keep the machine rolling 20 years past McMahon's death just as a glorified version of the Globetrotters or Disney on Ice or Monster Trucks or whatever big loud arena show comes to your town once a year and sells 10,000 tickets. And there is nothing to knock Vince out of his own head.

 

He would still be giving us wrestling plumbers, pig farmers, and hockey players if Bischoff hadn't put Nitro on the air. That company has always done best when it had some desperation at its center. Everyone talks about the Monday Night Wars, but I'm old enough to remember the PPV Wars.

 

Survivor Series exists because McMahon wanted to kill Starrcade '87. So he ran a show the same night and told cable companies that if they didn't run his PPV, they would never get another WWF PPV again. (In '87, PPV was basically one channel on the cable companies that had the technology to do it, and they could really only run one event a day).

 

The Royal Rumble exists because McMahon was told never to pull the Survivor Series stunt again by the cable companies. So, he ran the Royal Rumble on USA instead. Hey, it wasn't PPV.

 

Clash of the Champions I (which is a tremendous show) was run on TBS against Wrestlemania IV.

 

The point being - competition gave us the Royal Rumble and Stone Cold and no competition has given us....this.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Yep

And that's why ppl (laughably) wanted TNA to succed so badly....

Edited December 5, 2014 by BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93

[spjunkies]

Punk signed with that mma place. Poor guy is going to get beat up pretty bad.