The Forzese View - Mass Confusion
Submitted by Jim Forzese on Wednesday, November 26, 2003 at 7:48 AM EST



Mass Confusion

I do not envy the creative team in WWE at all. Everything that WWE does has a detractor against it. In some cases what fans herald one minute is met with a bit of hypocrisy the next. If WWE gives fans what they want how the hell do they succeed when the same fans change the criteria the second they get it? WWE is trying to do things that will work, but things will never be better until fans set in stone one set of rules and requirements and then stick to them. If fans can’t figure out what the hell they want then how does WWE produce a fan appreciated show? WWE goes with what they know and under no circumstances can they change mid stream like the mind of the wrestling enthusiast.

I wrote a column that said the brand extension should be terminated and I received some e-mail that said without the brand extension some wrestlers would never get a chance on WWE TV. Wrestlers like Spanky, Hurricane, and Nunzio to name a few are benefiting from the brand split. If you read around the Internet fans are extremely upset about these same wrestlers not getting an opportunity on Smack down or Raw and that these wrestlers are underutilized. So these wrestlers are underutilized by being kept off of Smack down or Raw and sent to the b-level of Velocity and Heat, but if the roster were combined they would be where? Wouldn’t these wrestlers still be on Velocity or Heat? What door opened or closed for them?

So the brand extension has not helped these wrestlers at all. Ending the brand extension also would not help these wrestlers, but it also would not put them in any worse position than they are currently in. So the reason fans like or dislike the brand extension is confused somewhat with how one personally feels about a particular wrestler. These wrestlers would never have a chance in hell if HHH and Goldberg were on the same show with Brock and Taker was said to me. Too much time would go to the “big guys”. If I were one of these wrestlers I would rather be on Velocity or Heat because of Goldberg and HHH and not Nathan Jones, Matt Morgan, or A-Train putting me there.

It’s said that Smack down is better than Raw because of the way in which Smackdown’s creative team writes their show as opposed to Raw’s creative team. Smackdown has more of a focus on wrestling where as Raw is more focused on storylines. Smackdown has the better roster of wrestlers as compared to Raw also. How is WWE going to give the fans a different feeling show if they present both shows as being identical? Fans were thrilled when they found out WWE was taking the extra step in creating two distinct creative teams. Now fans are mad that these different teams are writing two entirely different shows. Shouldn’t fans want the benefit of getting both sport and entertainment every week? As for the roster being better I disagree completely. Raw has at least ten top-notch wrestlers on their roster that can and do work hard every match. RVD, BookerT, Y2J, HBK, Mattitude, Christian, Orton, Lance Storm, Kane, Hurricane to name a few.

The entire wrestling community on the Internet believes Chris Benoit deserves to be the WWE champion. Why? What does Benoit do that HHH, who everyone complains about doesn’t? Both work very hard at their craft, both love the business, and both sacrifice their personal lives in order to be a professional wrestler. So by that criteria Kanyon should be in line for a WWE title run. Everyone who works hard enough to get to the WWE deserves something in one form or another because they worked their ass off to get there. Who gets to run with the title is made up of a different set of guidelines that all have to do with drawing power and fan appeal. Wrestling will only take you to the employment stage, what the wrestler does after that will determine if they are worthy of holding the belt. Maybe a gimmick that has been used since his inception is ready to be changed up (Benoit). Has Benoit earned the chance? The answer is yes, but does he blindly deserve it? Just as much as the next guy deserves it.

Fans want to see new faces not the tired old has been on TV any longer. So WWE put on to TV a whole slew of new faces for the fans to appreciate. Now fans are mad that Nathan Jones and Matt Morgan and Randy Orton and Bastista are getting main event spots over Benoit, Y2J, and RVD.Again, it’s not just new faces it’s new faces that are deserving of a spot occupied by a veteran. So just being new is not the criteria it’s being new and worthy at the same time. How many wrestlers is that? Even Brock Lesner has fans still saying he stepped on a more deserving wrestler’s toes on his way to the top because he was “homegrown”. Fans will say to me Kurt Angle or John Cena fine but what has Randy Orton done to get to the top so quickly? He has “it” and that is what makes him worthy of a push so quickly ala The Rock.

With that much subjectivity going on from the fans no wonder WWE creative sticks with a formula that is repetitive. It is much easier to recycle what they know fans liked at one time as opposed to try and create something new in a “changing by the minute” wrestling world. The fans will never change, that is a given nor should they change because that is their right as the consumer. However, what other show would fans do that to? TV shows will make mistakes. WWE is TV because the scripts are written; this is not a sport like baseball. This is all about suspending –disbelief. Trail and error in the writing department is necessary to weed out the bad and continue on with the good. The creative team cannot write to an ever changing and evolving fan cycle.

Bottom Line:

One of my favorite TV shows was Married with Children. If you remember the show then you will remember the ill-fated attempt to introduce you to the new Bundy child Seven. Seven lasted seven episodes because the ratings started to tank as soon as he became apart of the show. Quickly the writers remedied the problem and returned the show to glory. I did not turn my back on the show and say it sucked just because there was one thing I did not like. I just did not like his segments but I stayed true to the show as a fan. WWE does the same thing with their writing in that if it bombs it’s gone quickly. How many Katie Vick style storylines have there been since the original one? The aftermath may linger but the remedy was made immediately.

Fans have every reason to dislike certain things about wrestling as long as they are consistent as to why they are disliked. WWE can only rectify what they understand is not working. To just generalize the issues does quite an injustice to the WWE creative team and makes WWE care less about our opinion. At this time of Thanksgiving I for one am thankful that we still get WWE TV at all. WWE could have gone the way of WCW and ECW leaving us with no wrestling at all. I am thankful that I get to write these columns about the program that I love and although WWE may not be perfect I like it that much more.

If everything was perfect there would be a whole hell of a lot less to write about and I would not be able to form my opinions of what I think is good and bad. So to the fans please try to get into a mindset that you have formed an opinion and you are upset that WWE is not doing that and only that which you dislike. Stop getting upset about things that you asked for the week before WWE gives it to you. Ranting is fun and all but what good does it do for the business? Try to stay positive until you find it impossible to do that very thing any longer. Until Next time that’s just my view. Happy Thanksgiving.

Jim Forzese
forzeseview@yahoo.com









*NEW GALLERY* Must See! Lots of Rare and Hot Photos of Randy Orton's New Wife Samantha!

• Quick Links -
  [Back to LOP] [News Archives] [Results] [Columns] [Forums]