Post by Chesbro on Sept 15, 2009 20:13:58 GMT -5
Per request of Ray, I have decided to explain myself regarding a comment I made about WWE being a superior product to TNA. An adoring fan of my show, Mrs. Ray, called me a WWE mark while listening to my show. So... allow me to explain, Mrs. Ray.
I'm not a WWE mark. Not in the slightest. I rarely watch their programming and even if I do.. I'm normally trying to find something else to flip between. WWE doesn't interest me much, but I can respect what their juggernaut of a company can produce.
I didn't get down to some major points about WWE's superiority in my latest podcast. The show was running really long to begin with and when I do the Top Shelf, it's really all off the top of my head. I'm extremely forgetful and often times when I have an idea in my head earlier in the day, it is WAY GONE by the time I'm ready to use it.
So... here's the differences, from my eyes, between the federations.
TNA has better talent... that you can see. They try to emphasize their atheletic ability and their move set innovation on a regular basis. They try to put on solid matches for Impact and their Pay Per Views. For the most part.. their wrestlers are above average. Just looking over their roster, I see TNA's best wrestlers as these names;
AJ Styles
Alex Shelley
Alissa Flash
Amazing Red
Booker T
Chris Sabin
Chris Daniels
Hamada
Jay Lethal
Kiyoshi
Kurt Angle
Robert Roode
Samoa Joe
Sarita
Suicide
TNA stars are relatively unknown, for the most part. If you look over the names that I posted then you'll notice one thing. Their best wrestlers are not their popular wrestlers. I only count 4 of those names as Main Event wrestlers. AJ, Booker, Kurt and Joe. Everyone else is either a really talented female or an X-division wrestler.
TNA doesn't push the X-division anymore. So if 7 of those wrestlers are their best talented wrestlers and they are X-guys, then that's a problem for their company. They are giving the least amount of TV time to their most talented players.
Out of that group, here are the guys with personality. AJ, Shelley, Booker, Sabin, Daniels, Lethal, Angle, Roode and Joe. Lethal is still working off someone else's gimmick. A gimmick that was popularized by WWE.
WWE also has some very good talent. The difference is that their company reserves their talent and only truly allows them to come out of their shell on Pay Per View. They force WWE fans to pay money to see the really big, high flying, crashing through tables, jumping off ladders, falling through announce table, kicking out of finishers, bloody mess spots. Looking over their roster, I see WWE's best wrestlers as these names;
Evan Bourne
Gail Kim
Jack Swagger
Kofi Kingston
Randy Orton
Shawn Micheals
Triple H
Chris Jericho
CM Punk
Edge
John Morrison
Matt Hardy
Rey Mysterio
Christian
Gregory Helms
Shelton Benjamin
Now here's the diffence between TNA stars and WWE stars.
WWE stars are popular. They are people who fans come out of their seat and get loud for. They put on decent, cable TV matches and most of these names have really good personality. Orton, Micheals, HHH, Jericho, Punk, Edge, Morrison, Christian and Benjamin can work the mic. Their personality is what connects with the fans. They get people to really love them or really hate them. The thing about those personalities is that it doesn't matter if they are face or heel. People WILL love them or they WILL hate them. Even the baddest of bad guys can turn face very quickly in WWE and people will go apeshit for them. Orton is one of the more demonic heels of WWE history and people are cheering for him, pretty loudly I might add, during his entrance. That says something.
Some other differences, outside of talent, because we could argue about particular superstars all day long. You would say that guys like Micheals and HHH are old and stale, but I disagree. I think that Joe and Angle are stale and you might disagree. It's a moot point.
Let's get into the other stuff. These are the things that I think separates WWE from everyone else.
First point, show lighting.
You might chalk this up to WWE having money to do so, but I don't see this as anything that any other promotion can't do. When WWE has a match, they bring down the house lights and cast a blue or red haze over the crowd. They aren't a focal point for a match. They are in the background and seemingly, pushed away from the match. The lighting focuses the fan's attention on the wrestlers. You don't notice people going to the bathroom, bringing drinks to their seats or anything like that. They are under that color shadow. You can only really hear them.
In TNA, the lights remain on and this, I think, is a really big problem for them. As a viewer, I can tell when the fans aren't into a match. I can see them picking their nose or yawning, anything like that. I can tell when they are hot and I can tell when they don't care. Unfortunately, most of the time, they don't care.
In indy federations.. they shut off the lights completely, leaving the crowd completely out of a show. Only fans you can see are the ones at ringside. You wouldn't even know fans are there unless they didn't have the money to even go this far. This takes the crowd out of the equation completely.
Second point, theme music.
Let's cancel out the fact that WWE has money to create better theme songs than most federations. Forget about that. It's all in the way that they use it.
Example...
WWE - Randy Orton is fighting Shawn Micheals in the ring. He's getting beat up and he says fuck it, I'm gone.. walks up the ramp.
TNA - Kurt Angle is fighting Samoa Joe and Joe is whoopin that ass. He says fuck this, grabs his belt and he's leaving.
Here's the difference.
WWE - When Orton is halfway up the ramp, they cue Cena's theme music. Not only does Orton go bug-eyed, selling the heel "fear" of credible face characters, but the arena loses their minds because of the timing.
TNA - Angle gets halfway up the rampway, looking back at Joe in the ring, mouthing off and gasping for breath. He gets nearly out of sight, then suddenly falls back into the Impact Zone, because Sting has a bat in hand and he's slowly stalking him. Most of the fans, have no idea what is going on and they are boo'ing.
WWE uses their theme songs as noise to get people's attention for a big entrance. The entrance creates the passion from the fans. By the time that Cena has a quick throwdown with Orton and shoos him back into the ring, the fans are beside themselves, waiting for Micheals to finish him off with Sweet Chin Music.
TNA fans are often confused, because they don't know what is going on at all. The announcers do, because they have a script and TV monitors showing them everything. Fans, small groups at the time, notice the commotion at the top of the ramp and they are suddenly tapping the shoulders of everyone else going, look over there!
Fans love when their favorite superstars are ready to make an appearance and their theme song cues up the crowd to get into the mode of seeing that star. WWE uses a wrestlers theme music effectively to get the crowd roused up for their entrance.. no matter when it happens.
Third point, talent selection for a push.
WWE selects people who the fans can love for the big push. They select male wrestlers who are normally, pretty stacked, clean cut, good looking guys. Even if the male demographic doesn't care about how good looking a man is.. the female audience can go moist in their panties over a particular wrestler. I had a friend who nearly came every time someone even said the Rock. I took her to a WWE show one time and she was damn near crying when his music hit and he came strolling down the ramp. That's why WWE pushes a guy like Dolph Ziggler, Ray.
Normally, WWE selects wrestlers who have personality. The guys who can't talk on a mic, don't really talk on the mic. Matt Hardy? How long has he been in WWE? How rare is it that he has something to say? How often is it that the something he has to say, is even something worth hearing? Case and point. WWE talent can bring the crowd to their feet with their words. Scripted or not, they go the extra mile to ensure that these people can work a mic and they can get themselves over.
TNA selects anyone who they like. You get a push from a guy like Matt Morgan, who at the start of his push, was pretty god awful. His matches were sloppy and sometimes, they still are. They are kinda boring. He is kinda boring to listen to on the mic. So is Hernandez. Consequences Creed. Steiner's best years on the mic were in WCW. Jarrett SUCKS as a face. Kurt Angle just goes on and on in a rant of boring self promotion until someone comes out to confront him.
Their pushed wrestlers, aren't always very good workers. They don't have much of a look for fans to get behind, especially female fans. Often times, their mic work is pretty lame.
We could argue these points, but I think I made some valid arguments here. WWE angles might be stale and recycled over and over, but they have a formula and it seems to work. Thats why their ratings don't slip, they hover in the mid 3s. TNA tries too hard to push people who fans can't get behind. Their "Russo style" of crash booking is rarely effective and they kill most wrestlers momentum by not giving them a chance to run with the ball. They rely too much on guys who just can't wrestle a match anymore to bring them ratings.
Feel free to hit me with your opinions, Mrs. Ray. I can see things objectively, so just help me see where TNA has it going on and WWE doesn't.
I'm not a WWE mark. Not in the slightest. I rarely watch their programming and even if I do.. I'm normally trying to find something else to flip between. WWE doesn't interest me much, but I can respect what their juggernaut of a company can produce.
I didn't get down to some major points about WWE's superiority in my latest podcast. The show was running really long to begin with and when I do the Top Shelf, it's really all off the top of my head. I'm extremely forgetful and often times when I have an idea in my head earlier in the day, it is WAY GONE by the time I'm ready to use it.
So... here's the differences, from my eyes, between the federations.
TNA has better talent... that you can see. They try to emphasize their atheletic ability and their move set innovation on a regular basis. They try to put on solid matches for Impact and their Pay Per Views. For the most part.. their wrestlers are above average. Just looking over their roster, I see TNA's best wrestlers as these names;
AJ Styles
Alex Shelley
Alissa Flash
Amazing Red
Booker T
Chris Sabin
Chris Daniels
Hamada
Jay Lethal
Kiyoshi
Kurt Angle
Robert Roode
Samoa Joe
Sarita
Suicide
TNA stars are relatively unknown, for the most part. If you look over the names that I posted then you'll notice one thing. Their best wrestlers are not their popular wrestlers. I only count 4 of those names as Main Event wrestlers. AJ, Booker, Kurt and Joe. Everyone else is either a really talented female or an X-division wrestler.
TNA doesn't push the X-division anymore. So if 7 of those wrestlers are their best talented wrestlers and they are X-guys, then that's a problem for their company. They are giving the least amount of TV time to their most talented players.
Out of that group, here are the guys with personality. AJ, Shelley, Booker, Sabin, Daniels, Lethal, Angle, Roode and Joe. Lethal is still working off someone else's gimmick. A gimmick that was popularized by WWE.
WWE also has some very good talent. The difference is that their company reserves their talent and only truly allows them to come out of their shell on Pay Per View. They force WWE fans to pay money to see the really big, high flying, crashing through tables, jumping off ladders, falling through announce table, kicking out of finishers, bloody mess spots. Looking over their roster, I see WWE's best wrestlers as these names;
Evan Bourne
Gail Kim
Jack Swagger
Kofi Kingston
Randy Orton
Shawn Micheals
Triple H
Chris Jericho
CM Punk
Edge
John Morrison
Matt Hardy
Rey Mysterio
Christian
Gregory Helms
Shelton Benjamin
Now here's the diffence between TNA stars and WWE stars.
WWE stars are popular. They are people who fans come out of their seat and get loud for. They put on decent, cable TV matches and most of these names have really good personality. Orton, Micheals, HHH, Jericho, Punk, Edge, Morrison, Christian and Benjamin can work the mic. Their personality is what connects with the fans. They get people to really love them or really hate them. The thing about those personalities is that it doesn't matter if they are face or heel. People WILL love them or they WILL hate them. Even the baddest of bad guys can turn face very quickly in WWE and people will go apeshit for them. Orton is one of the more demonic heels of WWE history and people are cheering for him, pretty loudly I might add, during his entrance. That says something.
Some other differences, outside of talent, because we could argue about particular superstars all day long. You would say that guys like Micheals and HHH are old and stale, but I disagree. I think that Joe and Angle are stale and you might disagree. It's a moot point.
Let's get into the other stuff. These are the things that I think separates WWE from everyone else.
First point, show lighting.
You might chalk this up to WWE having money to do so, but I don't see this as anything that any other promotion can't do. When WWE has a match, they bring down the house lights and cast a blue or red haze over the crowd. They aren't a focal point for a match. They are in the background and seemingly, pushed away from the match. The lighting focuses the fan's attention on the wrestlers. You don't notice people going to the bathroom, bringing drinks to their seats or anything like that. They are under that color shadow. You can only really hear them.
In TNA, the lights remain on and this, I think, is a really big problem for them. As a viewer, I can tell when the fans aren't into a match. I can see them picking their nose or yawning, anything like that. I can tell when they are hot and I can tell when they don't care. Unfortunately, most of the time, they don't care.
In indy federations.. they shut off the lights completely, leaving the crowd completely out of a show. Only fans you can see are the ones at ringside. You wouldn't even know fans are there unless they didn't have the money to even go this far. This takes the crowd out of the equation completely.
Second point, theme music.
Let's cancel out the fact that WWE has money to create better theme songs than most federations. Forget about that. It's all in the way that they use it.
Example...
WWE - Randy Orton is fighting Shawn Micheals in the ring. He's getting beat up and he says fuck it, I'm gone.. walks up the ramp.
TNA - Kurt Angle is fighting Samoa Joe and Joe is whoopin that ass. He says fuck this, grabs his belt and he's leaving.
Here's the difference.
WWE - When Orton is halfway up the ramp, they cue Cena's theme music. Not only does Orton go bug-eyed, selling the heel "fear" of credible face characters, but the arena loses their minds because of the timing.
TNA - Angle gets halfway up the rampway, looking back at Joe in the ring, mouthing off and gasping for breath. He gets nearly out of sight, then suddenly falls back into the Impact Zone, because Sting has a bat in hand and he's slowly stalking him. Most of the fans, have no idea what is going on and they are boo'ing.
WWE uses their theme songs as noise to get people's attention for a big entrance. The entrance creates the passion from the fans. By the time that Cena has a quick throwdown with Orton and shoos him back into the ring, the fans are beside themselves, waiting for Micheals to finish him off with Sweet Chin Music.
TNA fans are often confused, because they don't know what is going on at all. The announcers do, because they have a script and TV monitors showing them everything. Fans, small groups at the time, notice the commotion at the top of the ramp and they are suddenly tapping the shoulders of everyone else going, look over there!
Fans love when their favorite superstars are ready to make an appearance and their theme song cues up the crowd to get into the mode of seeing that star. WWE uses a wrestlers theme music effectively to get the crowd roused up for their entrance.. no matter when it happens.
Third point, talent selection for a push.
WWE selects people who the fans can love for the big push. They select male wrestlers who are normally, pretty stacked, clean cut, good looking guys. Even if the male demographic doesn't care about how good looking a man is.. the female audience can go moist in their panties over a particular wrestler. I had a friend who nearly came every time someone even said the Rock. I took her to a WWE show one time and she was damn near crying when his music hit and he came strolling down the ramp. That's why WWE pushes a guy like Dolph Ziggler, Ray.
Normally, WWE selects wrestlers who have personality. The guys who can't talk on a mic, don't really talk on the mic. Matt Hardy? How long has he been in WWE? How rare is it that he has something to say? How often is it that the something he has to say, is even something worth hearing? Case and point. WWE talent can bring the crowd to their feet with their words. Scripted or not, they go the extra mile to ensure that these people can work a mic and they can get themselves over.
TNA selects anyone who they like. You get a push from a guy like Matt Morgan, who at the start of his push, was pretty god awful. His matches were sloppy and sometimes, they still are. They are kinda boring. He is kinda boring to listen to on the mic. So is Hernandez. Consequences Creed. Steiner's best years on the mic were in WCW. Jarrett SUCKS as a face. Kurt Angle just goes on and on in a rant of boring self promotion until someone comes out to confront him.
Their pushed wrestlers, aren't always very good workers. They don't have much of a look for fans to get behind, especially female fans. Often times, their mic work is pretty lame.
We could argue these points, but I think I made some valid arguments here. WWE angles might be stale and recycled over and over, but they have a formula and it seems to work. Thats why their ratings don't slip, they hover in the mid 3s. TNA tries too hard to push people who fans can't get behind. Their "Russo style" of crash booking is rarely effective and they kill most wrestlers momentum by not giving them a chance to run with the ball. They rely too much on guys who just can't wrestle a match anymore to bring them ratings.
Feel free to hit me with your opinions, Mrs. Ray. I can see things objectively, so just help me see where TNA has it going on and WWE doesn't.
