J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q

Iam a life long fan and i have to say it's really a huge shame that the Entertainment is lacking as much as it is.

I've always been a true fan of proper wrestling, however i love what used to be a combination of wrestling and entertainment, and no i don't mean the risk taking or high flyers, i mean what the real entertainment was.

Look now, Vince dislikes tag teams so that division is pretty much completely extinct, hardcore / lightweight & literally any divisions have been killed off, the rating has been lowered, so the more interesting things will lesson further still, attitudes of wrestlers are simply that watered down it's pathetic...
 And to top that off, almost every match is so overly scripted, no matter what wrestlers are in the matches or what they are doing, singles or tag, it's way overly transparent.

For example, almost every single tag match for ages now has the same route, it tells the exact same story, and it isn't a story told well no matter who wrestles. Iam sick of seeing a baby face team have a guy get a beat down, then eventually tag out... Just look at JTG & Shad, i can't remember a match where JTG doesn't get a beat down...

Why are wrestlers watered down? Why am i seeing lots of amazing athletes not being able to reach the heights they should, and the 1% that do make it, simply are nothing like the old days...

Going back before the attitude era which was obviously the most entertaining era in history... Remember the persona's??? Remember the Repo man, papa shango, nailz even.... The heels which were truely bad in a great way, i was fairly young watching them and i loved how great it was to enjoy that kind of persona attached with wrestling. Then there was bulldog and bret side, the storylines.... The great technical wrestling.

There was no Hot Lesbian Action, no over the top weapon use, no need for nothing but personality and character with the effects which were rather low budget but very effective to watch. Yes the attitude era had the more new-age brutality in things, and i loved that too, but look what dominated the attitude era...

Stone cold, his personality... The rock... i could list endless wrestlers to prove my points, but the fact remains, i look at todays product, i still enjoy it, but it could be so much more and it doesn't require anything other than passion for the business, and probably a hefty removal of stupid politics that just hold back what could be.

So today.... We have month to month stories, which are not at all interesting in old comparison, no real interviews or wrestlers cutting some amazing promos... In my eyes many guys are looking weak on tv instead of the untouchable guys which always appeared to be more than mere mortals.

Yep some promos are good in one sense, but the amount of dribble, look at Jericho for the last few months, going to show people how to be a real heel.... Yet he stood around in the ring for large chunks of time with literally nothing interesting at all coming out.... I didn't feel anything personal between him and HBK... It wasn't at all believable... Even what was supposed to be shocking, just is entirely lacking shock value.

J.R .... I doubt you'd be reading this, but if by some luck you did, iam almost certain if i spoke with you, we'd feel the exact same way, anyone with true love for the business and some inteligence could say a lot about things, i know there's millions out there that would love to say how things should be, but it certainly does make me wonder why business isn't first anymore..... Why wrestling and the product are not given the attention it deserves, and same goes for the wrestlers themselves.

I know i will give my life to the business when i get the chance, but it's so harsh that the business itself is losing grasp of it's routes, where it came from, what got the best memories for everyone. Iam wondering where todays kids memories are going to be...

The young people growing up now, and in the years to come, are they going to have anyone to be there idol like every wrestling fan had? Where are the superstars, with immortal memories, being larger than life...

Who's going to replace the Undertaker? Who's going to headline after Batista / Cena / HHH / Edge.... Who's going to be the next show stopper? ... Who is going to be allowed charisma and personality to actually have a chance of filling those kind of boots.... Obviously no one could replace these guys, but that's not the point ,there should be bigger than life wrestlers to love and hate in every department...

Another problem is, the younger guys being portrayed as younger guys on tv... If you look at the up and coming guys, they are so weak with there personalities... Most not all. No one is portrayed as being supremely strong or attitude driven. Even DiBiase, you can tell he's got so so much talent to burst through and no doubt will be on the same level as Orton, but still these personalites are not like the older years where we the fans can love to hate them as much.

I used to enjoy proper tag teams... Why'o'why does Vince not see the need for this i will never understand, not only is it a great building ground for stables to have wars, but the very basic premise of tag team wrestling should be headlining ppv's right close up the behind of the main event.

Managers anyone??? They used to have a place, now the odd couple who do ever exist, just standing around ringside playing literally no part in a match at all....

The Brain... used to commentate and be utterly bias.... I don't know if anyone else has noticed that bias commentating that used to be entertaining has now almost completely disapeered.....

I mean why has so much of the entertainment gone....

In this blog iam replying to..... To quote - "Jericho is definitely an individual, but there are influences of other greats in his game, in my view, including The Rock and Ric Flair.".....

Erm Jericho was prime WITH The Rock..... Jericho was wrestling BEFORE The Rock, how could he be influenced by him???.... They both had great personalities at the same time in there own ways....

This is the current attitude about up and coming wrestlers or those who are yet to make it to the higher tier.... They are being compared openly to the stars of yester-year... Being portrayed as young and shown as weaker....

They are not simply generating into stars as individuals... Do you ever remember The Undertaker being compared to someone before him? Infact the ONLY wrestlers who ever used to be compared or reffered to by there predecessors, were those of the ilk of Bret Hart because of (excuse the pun) there foundations.... Where they came up in the business, and the legends who went before them.

Divas.... Absolutely nothing wrong at all with having beautiful ladies every week to enjoy... But what's happened to variety?? Do you see any kind of reminiscence, be it personality, appearance or otherwise.... Of Miss Elizabeth, Sherri Martel, lol even Luna?? .... Sorry to say it but it's just another example where interesting personalities or something different is lost and replaced by regularity.

We have the older years of brilliant entertainment and wrestling, the attitude years of upto-date entertainment and smash-mouth action, and then we have today, steady entertainment and wrestling that isn't all that different between wrestlers anymore really.

Surely with 2 major productions and 1 which could be major with the right audience it should have.... There is HUGE scope for major variety....

Chuck in todays production values with yester-years entertainment, and some of the interesting things done properly, and it would be utterly cracking in everyway.

Oh and no more of the trying to re-create some fun things, because that really does suck when we all know it's a copy of what's gone before, innovative entertainment with todays wrestlers would really be awesome.

Getting rid of the High card / mid card blatently stupidly obvious devide would serve wonders... And replacing it with divisions of tag teams and lightweight... Hardcore should still exist and have it's place as ECW.... No reason at all not to!

Storylines which pan for months and engage us.... Which means we can't wait for next weeks show, that's how it used to be.... Developing properly, and as such we fall in love differently and get a lot more from it.

Free-flowing segments which twine together through the show... This really does my head in, it needs to flow smoothly from start to end, not be split into parts like it is now.

And finally, is it actually possible to cut the WWE back anymore.... There's literally nothing left to strip back on... The IC belt has no worth... The US title has.... Little worth, Tag team belts???? ... Sorry hardcore? Lightweight? Infact does anyone care about any belt now except the two biggys? .... To think how much they used to mean....

Well i've said plenty with my opinions.... And i've not even once come close to scripting who vs who and why this should happen, i've just told what i think of the state of the product and simply how it's performance is actually starting to worry me, i did it without mentioning comparisons to .... other companies too ;) 

I love the WWE, always have and always will, it will never be replaced as the best programing on tv, and i will always be watching with curious eyes as to what's next.

Thanks to anyone who has viewed my opinions and this rather lengthy group of comments, i needed to have a say!

Steph.

JR,

Raw is the "A" show because of its longer history and the way it is promoted. When was the last time you seen a steel cage match on Smackdown. I also know that you will be on Raw in the future so, in my view Raw is and always will be the best show.