Quote:
Originally Posted by Mota
The answer is that WWE can do it because they're the WWE and people are used to it. That's it. It's not because their storylines are better. It's not that the wrestling is better. If you put all these guys in masks and had the same writers booking them in an indy show they'd also struggle to draw 100 fans.
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But what if you put the bookers of Ring of Honor (or pick whatever indy promotion you think is good), in charge of WWE, and they tried to book it just like ROH, would business improve?
I'm not saying, by the way, that WWE booking or wrestling is any "better" than any indy promotion. But they're selling a completely different product to a very different demographic. This is the style that works on a global scale.
TNA does roughly the same style and they do have a decent fanbase and budget, but they still don't make money. And they have access to all the great talent and bookers outside of the WWE. (And since everybody who runs WWE is terrible, TNA in theory, should have access to the best wrestling minds in the world, right?) And their product has never been as good for any period of time. So if the WWE bookers are terrible, and the TNA bookers are worse, who are the people that can actually do this? It's like with refs in sports. Everybody bitches about them all the time, and then when the replacements come in, they're clearly worse. So where are the "good" refs? Where are the ones who have an acceptable level of competence where we wouldn't have to hear constant bitching? In the same way, if the WWE has always been "terrible" where are the bookers/promoters that are hypothetically great at it by comparison, and why can't TNA hire them?
I like Chikara because it's ridiculous and doesn't take itself seriously, and they (and I think their fans) don't have that arrogance of believing that they're so superior to the WWE in every way but name recognition. I like Colt Cabana and his podcast for the same kinds of reasons. Even though he's personally been chewed up and spit out by the WWE system, he still just loves it all and epitomizes what's fun and endearing about pro wrestling. You really have to look hard for that kind of thing, 95% of the wrestling content on the internet is just about how terrible the WWE is. It's been like that for 15 years at least. And everybody thinks they're booking geniuses and could do it so much better - even though nobody else has ever made a dime doing it in the last 15 years.
I think if I tried, I could watch RAW with the more common mindset and find 20-30 things per show that I'd do differently. I sure as hell would personally prefer a Mania without Rock/Cena and Lesnar/HHH again. That doesn't mean it's terrible to do it that way.