Thought of the Day: That’s Sad
So there’s a new report out saying that the creative team loves the idea of having just two weeks between pay per views because it makes it easier for them to come up with and write their stories. If this is true……just dang.Have we really reached the point where a FOUR WEEK BUILD to a pay per view is too much to ask? It’s so hard to come up with a month’s worth of stories? Are you kidding me? It’s freaking professional wrestling. Let the people in the feud go out there and talk, have matches against someone else, have a staredown with the person they’re fighting against, talk some more, and then have the match. Now apparently it’s set the match up Monday, have a quick build the following Monday, then WE MUST HAVE THE MATCH NOW BECAUSE WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO KEEP PEOPLE INTERESTED ANY LONGER THAN THAT!
Take Wyatt vs. Ryback for example. Here’s a simple, more than two week build.
Week 1: Wyatt speaks cryptically about his next target.
Week 2: Wyatt keeps talking, Ryback says he doesn’t know what’s next for him.
Week 3: Wyatt attacks Ryback.
Week 4: Wyatt laughs a lot and says that’s just the beginning. Ryback says he’s got someone ready for him and he can’t wait to get his hands on Wyatt for what he did.
Week 5: Ryback has a match with say, Rowan, to get a taste of what he’s got coming against Wyatt. After the match, Wyatt appears and laughs.
Week 6: Wyatt wins a squash and talks about how he defeated a little guy (say one of Los Matadores so we don’t have to sit through him squashing R-Truth for the 94th time) but now he wants the Big Guy.
Pay per view match.
You have five hours of original, top level television a week, plus the Network and WWE.com to build up a story but you can’t go more than two weeks before you think your fans will get bored? Maybe the problem is you put together boring stories that don’t have a shelf life, but there’s zero excuse for not being able to entertain wrestling fans for four weeks.
This report made me shake my head, but it tells you so, so much about the state of wrestling today.
Interesting story even if it’s not fully true.
The trouble is that while some stories can be built up in a few weeks (say, you’re building up a monster face or heel by giving him several wins in semi-squashes on successive PPVs), the really good ones need a much longer build AND a story arc that makes sense.
Take Roman Reigns for example. Reigns v. Lesnar was clearly a long-term plan, but the story arc that led up to their WM31 match was plain awful (copyright Carl Barks). Similarly, take Rusev. His split with Lana was clearly planned over quite a while, but the story they went with (in which Monster Rusev was replaced with Whiny Emo Rusev, allowing the Bulgarian Brute to share a drink with Severus Snape and Anakin Skywalker, and mourn the fact that they didn’t get better writers) was where they dropped the ball.
I think the creative team may have more problems coming up with a good story than in dealing with a specific time frame. Which is also sad, but in a different way.
There is no logical way that report is true; I’m pretty sure the creative team can come up with four weeks of storytelling. Anyone can.
It would help if you would cite the source on reports like these.
Noted.
It doesn’t say they aren’t ABLE to it just says they ENJOY it better.
That would make things a bit better.
I don’t believe one word of the report. There’s no chance somebody from creative claimed the inability to come up with four weeks of material.