Wrestling is slowly dying.

[! JDM The Professional !]

TNA did a .8, and raw was 2. Something (their lowest in 15 years). Wrestling is dying.

[GM Franchise]

I've been saying this for years. It's been slowly dying since WCW and ECW folded back in '01.

[Rob]

Slowly dying? Compared to the height of it's popularity in the 90s it's virtually been dead for the last 10 years... Night of Champions had less fans in attendance than a Crystal Palace home game and the buyrates have gone down hill on a yearly basis since the Attitude era ended. Nobody's interested anymore.

I must admit I was watching both TNA and WWE up until recently and now I've gone off both promotions, not because what they're doing is worse than before... Just because it's STILL not very interesting

[Hondo]

Dudes.

Wrestling has been cyclical since Jesus invented water. Look at the period between 1988-1996. That was the lowest it's ever been. And look how it rebounded.

It was the same way before the mid 80's too.

So let's all scale back on the Chicken Little impressions. The sky's not falling.

[Mike Powers]

Dudes.

Wrestling has been cyclical since Jesus invented water. Look at the period between 1988-1996. That was the lowest it's ever been. And look how it rebounded.

It was the same way before the mid 80's too.

So let's all scale back on the Chicken Little impressions. The sky's not falling.

+1

Someone/something will catch the casual audiences attention, shits will be given, and wrestling will boom harder than in 97-98.

[Snap]

Wrestling has been cyclical since Jesus invented water. Look at the period between 1988-1996. That was the lowest it's ever been. And look how it rebounded.

Using the "cyclical" excuse doesn't cut it when the product itself is borderline garbage. It's also not an exact science, as people aren't going to look at their calendars and say "Hmmm, it's 2016 so WRASSLIN' is KOOL again!!!"

PG isn't the problem, nor is John Cena (though he has been completely overexposed), the product as a whole is just insipid and whoever is ultimately responsible for the final call (yes, I'm talking about YOU, Vince.) needs to stop insulting the intelligence of the audience and provide a product they want to see.

You want to know how I know it's gotten bad? I was watching the Randy Savage DVD and it made me fall asleep! A Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat match should NOT do that, but whenever I try to watch something WWE-related, it knocks me out quicker than Big Show and the WMD.

[Hondo]

Using the "cyclical" excuse doesn't cut it when the product itself is borderline garbage. It's also not an exact science, as people aren't going to look at their calendars and say "Hmmm, it's 2016 so WRASSLIN' is KOOL again!!!"

PG isn't the problem, nor is John Cena (though he has been completely overexposed), the product as a whole is just insipid and whoever is ultimately responsible for the final call (yes, I'm talking about YOU, Vince.) needs to stop insulting the intelligence of the audience and provide a product they want to see.

You want to know how I know it's gotten bad? I was watching the Randy Savage DVD and it made me fall asleep! A Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat match should NOT do that, but whenever I try to watch something WWE-related, it knocks me out quicker than Big Show and the WMD.

And like I said, the period from 1988 to 1996 was horrendous on both sides. The WWF decided to go full-on cartoon mode and WCW went through so many bad management hires that they couldn't have put forward a decent product even if they wanted to. The product in that era far exceeded the "borderline garbage" threshold.

But you know what happened? An angle caught the fans' imagination (the NWO, of course) and it helped spark renewed interest in the product. And it didn't just boost WCW either. Getting trounced in the ratings forced Vince to freshen up his product and create new stars. And thus, the Attitude Era was born. And from that, you had Paul Heyman shouting "You guys think those two companies are something? You should see ECW!", and garnered much more interest in his organization.

You can't set a watch on the wrestling world, or circle a calendar and say "Oh look, it's 2016, I can watch Raw and Impact now". It takes that one feud that captures everyone's imagination, or that one character who the fans want to pay money to see. All it takes is for the seed to be planted and the tree will grow.

[! JDM The Professional !]

And like I said, the period from 1988 to 1996 was horrendous on both sides. The WWF decided to go full-on cartoon mode and WCW went through so many bad management hires that they couldn't have put forward a decent product even if they wanted to. The product in that era far exceeded the "borderline garbage" threshold.

But you know what happened? An angle caught the fans' imagination (the NWO, of course) and it helped spark renewed interest in the product. And it didn't just boost WCW either. Getting trounced in the ratings forced Vince to freshen up his product and create new stars. And thus, the Attitude Era was born. And from that, you had Paul Heyman shouting "You guys think those two companies are something? You should see ECW!", and garnered much more interest in his organization.

You can't set a watch on the wrestling world, or circle a calendar and say "Oh look, it's 2016, I can watch Raw and Impact now". It takes that one feud that captures everyone's imagination, or that one character who the fans want to pay money to see. All it takes is for the seed to be planted and the tree will grow.

FCW Bray Wyatt Promo

I'd pay to see him over any current wrestler.

[Black Death]

I agree with Hondo , his thoughts  are the same as mine . , it will cycle it up again as  new stars are made and the older ones fade out .

[GM Franchise]

+1

Someone/something will catch the casual audiences attention, shits will be given, and wrestling will boom harder than in 97-98.

I highly doubt this will happen especially considering that RAW is now an hour too long.

FCW Bray Wyatt Promo

I'd pay to see him over any current wrestler.

I've seen this character before...

Waylon Mercy picnic vignette

No one remembers the awesomeness that was Waylon Mercy. 

[Rob]

That's it, everything has been done now...

[Dorling]

Waylon Mercy is clearly supposed to be Max Cady.

Bray Wyatt I dig, there's a more sinister edge to him.

He ain't talkin' bout no picnic, y'know what I mean?

[GM Franchise]

Bray Wyatt is Max Cady meets Forrest Gump. Look at the shirt he's wearing. It's very similar in style to one Mercy is wearing. Google "Bray Wyatt, Cape Fear" and you'll get 12,000 results that basically go along with my point about it being Waylon Mercy, version 2. That's part of the reason I don't dig it. It's been done before. Let me add in that the only rehashed character that I like is The Genius version 2, aka Damien Sandow. Hopefully he goes more along that route as far as that goes.

[Hondo]

The thing you're leaving out, James... The Waylon Mercy gimmick wasn't a bad one. They just saddled it on a guy (Dan Spivey) who'd been around for years and was getting up in the years and his body started giving out on him. Before he could make much of an impact, he suffered a career ending injury and that's the end.

And I thought the same thing about Sandow/Poffo at first too. But Sandow's managed to evolve the character much more than just a Genius clone.

[The Stonewall]

Well, Varga.  You probably can't accept the fact that every angle now has probably been done before and everything after will be repeated in cycles and circles.  Not everyone remembers who the hell Waylon Mercy is.  I doubt the younger generation will bother to look for him, either.

Point blank, while you might not like it...  Vince/HHH doesn't care.  They have a direction they want to go in.  He might be a part of the plans.  Heck, Waylon didn't work because Dan Spivey got hurt.  If he didn't...  Who knows, eh?

So, let them try again.  If it works, then okay, it's Waylon 2.0.  If not, at least they tried.