Thought of the Day: Something Russo Got Right
I’ve been watching a lot of Raw from 1997 lately and it’s such a different way of doing things.
Coming into Survivor Series, there is almost no card announced. You can see so many of the matches ready, but more often than not, the matches are all just announced at once. In other words, no long promos to set up a match and no contract signings. The matches are made by the powers that be, who actually do stuff when the cameras aren’t rolling.
Also back in the day, you would see a lot of title matches just announced for the next week. For instance Ken Shamrock gets a World Title shot against Bret Hart. When was this made? Sometime during the week. Who made it? The WWF brass. No promo, no real reason for it, and we get a nice match as a result. In other words, the company didn’t take you by the hand and explain everything to you like a four year old. I get the idea of wanting to explain stuff, but it could be as simple of an explanation as “Shamrock has been on a roll recently so the WWF has granted him a title opportunity.” Three seconds, point made, move on.
Yes and no. If they do this in WWE today it would be refreshing. But in tna these days it seems the standard. I feel like every impact show now is booked on the fly. I think TNA management doesn’t even know what’s going to happen during the night. I wish WWE would learn a bit from TNA and TNA from WWE.
I’m not talking on the fly. I mean from a kayfabe standpoint. Like, Raw starts and here are the matches taking place. The same for PPVs. For example, instead of Rollins and Cena having a ten minute exchange, it’s just “John Cena has been on a roll as of late and as the US Champion, he has been named the #1 contender to the WWE World Title.”
Ten seconds, match made, more time for development.
I am sooooo tired of the main event contract signing. It’s something that should be banned like they’ve banned so many other things.
I assume those reviews for those episodes will be coming soon?
Three hours, my man. Gotta spend the time somehow.