I will grant in the last few years that Raw in particular has been very guilty of going over time with it's segments before an actual match takes place; such as an example from the night after Over the Limit 2012 where Big Show spent near 20 minutes bragging about his Iron Clad Contract is the kind of padding that Raw or SmackDown doesn't need.
Now. Jump back in time with a DeLorean (because Back to the Future day is this Wednesday at the time of writing this) and we come to the Premiere Episode of SmackDown that featured a segment between the then World Wrestling Federation Champion HHH, Chyna, The Rock with his electrifying $800 shirt, then Comissioner Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley & Shane McMahon. And in the near 20 minutes of this opening segment it was far more entertaining and fluid paced than anything that has been done today. I think what makes segments like this from the Attitude Era work is that it wasn't heavily scripted and allowed the wrestlers to be creative with what they would say. Such scripts from Raw of 1999 that were released to the Internet in the last few years actually details the premise of what Austin would say in his promos but allow him to say what he wanted based on the direction they wanted him to go in. And that is much more beneficial to the overall payoff because then it's his words and not something that he has to memorise down to the last detail which is unbelievably frustrating because I can relate to that when filming my movie reviews is that it's really time consuimg to try and recall exactly everything I've typed out just so that I get the end result I'm looking for. The other important aspect that is so lacking in today's product is chemistry. If the two wrestlers don't gel and feel comfortable and trusting of each other then it's going to look very awkward and subsequently the fans are not going to want to see more nor remember it. I know keep using Rock Vs Austin as an example; but it's when of the best examples of two atheletes getting the absolute Best out of each other. When you're able to feel comfortable knowing that your opponent will be insync with what you have to do next then it will come off as natural that the fans can buy into and enjoy. And I'm not seeing that enough today. I think the closest I've seen to that in the modern Era is either CM Punk vs Chris Jericho or Punk Vs Bryan. The rest of the roster really struggle to find that necessary natural chemistry to be able to put on the best performance that they need to find to bring in the numbers. And of course if you listened to my last pipe-bomb you will know that they are in dire need of bringing those numbers back to par. And it needs to happen soon. Otherwise Spring of 2001 will repeat itself again when W W E becomes W C W. - MJ
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AuthorThe Original team that covered Raw & SmackDown since August 2011; are back Archives
July 2017
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