This was posted at DVDVR and I wanted to post it here as well.

 

 

This last image is my favorite.

 

Reading that, it's amazing how anyone could think that would make for some good television, let alone a good wrestling program.

 

Where else on television can you find the action, drama and humour of the WWE? No where. No show offers worse action, drama and humour than the WWE.

I didn't realize that the promo's were scripted word for word like that.

I didn't realize that the promo's were scripted word for word like that.

Yeah, it's no wonder the long-term booking plans suck. The writers don't really have any say in keeping things consistent, pushing new guys, etc. Their job seems to just be to write out what the wrestlers are going to be saying.

In last week's Observer, Meltz was talking about a Rock interview and Rock said he didn't know if he would be successful as a rookie coming into today's WWE because only a few top guys don't have to follow the script and he wouldn't have had the chance to let his charisma and catch phrases catch fire.

What frightens me is that it takes a week (or more) to come up with THAT.

 

I blame Steph. Isn't it her job to be coordinating everything?

aren't those written up earlier that day? i don't think it's like stephanie gets the writers together tuesday morning and says "all right guys, we need to start working on next week's raw..."

The final draft is written that day, and this script says it is the 4th draft. So there were 3 other drafts before that. Which makes it even worse cause there was an actual process behind getting that crap on the page.

Shawn Michaels hardly has any place pointing out someone's baldness.

What frightens me is that it takes a week (or more) to come up with THAT.

 

I blame Steph.  Isn't it her job to be coordinating everything?

I blame Vince. He's the one who has an incompetent person in such a position. Plus, all of this shit has to go through him anyways. There have been times where Steph was pleased with a script and Vince sent her and Co. back to re do things to his liking. What you see in the end is Vince's vision.

Wow, it's like a damn movie script. I didn't have any idea..

You know, I'm half tempted to say that Vince is the sole problem after seeing that. Wrestling is not meant to be that scripted ever. You hafta let people bust out and do their own thing every now and then so that they'll catch fire, ala Rock, Hogan, Austin, Flair...

 

Hell, I'm half tempted to lay off on the bashing of Triple H and Steph for their booking after seeing this. Triple H because he's of the old school mind (or so he says) and there's no way he'd let the show be that scripted if he could help it (since he'd be scripted right down to his last word). Steph because I don't think she'd write every single thing down that fucking often.

Just think, some of the guys who got a bad rap for promos that sound like they were reading them off a card....they probably were.

Ok, just to clarify, there are a few people, like HHH and Ric Flair who do not have things scripted out for them... or rather they do not have to follow the script. Someone should ask Meltzer about this.

Fuck this shit.

 

Vince has been controlling the WWE product for over 20 years. In that 20 years the product has had its ups and downs. Steph has been in charge of writing for 5 years and in those 5 years it has been continually DOWN. She has a direct influence on the product and has the ability to make it better and has the ability to make it suck and she's been making it suck for so long. How about some damn accountability for her position? I know Vince doesn't hold her accountable, but the fans at least should.

Considering the ratings and PPV buyrates, I think the fans are letting their opinon be known.

Seeing that intial post actually upset me, I know "wrestling is scripted" but that shit was ridiculous.

 

Them dogs dont hunt.

It's a television show, they can't just do things on the fly. I don't think the script format is a problem. In terms of promos, however, to completely lay it out doesn't work - it's the same "voice", which means all the promos are alike.

This follows the Vince Russo formula to a T...

 

 

By which I mean the *WCW* version of Russo's formula, in which the matches are as short as possible because they don't have a fucking clue on how to script them out ahead of time for the guys.

It's a television show, they can't just do things on the fly.  I don't think the script format is a problem.  In terms of promos, however, to completely lay it out doesn't work - it's the same "voice", which means all the promos are alike.

That was one of my problems with this. It really shows a lack of character familiarity when they script Shawn to use the word "ass", or when all the wrestlers talk just like each other. And that's just about the most melancholy Flair promo given the violence of the angle that they could have possibly done. If Flair/HHH had any hope of being a success, the promos had to be off the charts, reference each man's history and their history together, and be hyped like the biggest match in WWE all year. It hasn't quite worked out that way, as was shown by them playing to crickets. I don't think they know the difference between all their feuds -- Flair/HHH *had* to have outstanding mic work from at least one of them or it was a total waste of time. It was just the nature of the feud. I'm sure it'll continue in a long, agonizing way enough to keep HHH busy until the end of the year, but after three years of frequent enough teases and fans wanting Flair to finally get away from the guy, they should have done more.

The problem with Flair vs. HHH was that it was HHH that turned on Flair and not Flair turning on HHH. People wanted Flair to turn on HHH.

 

How they have this Ed person writing promos is hilarious, considering Ed probably hasn't cut a single promo in his life.

I'm pretty sure that Russo introduced this type of scripting to WWF. I think there is a fine line that can't be crossed. You need to have an outline, otherwise you have WCW. If you have over-scripting to the point where individual wrestlers have very little oppururtunity to get over using their strengths then you have modern day WWE.

The problem they have now is that it seems that the guys who know how to do a promo with only using bullet points are unwilling to help those who can't yet and those who can't are never given the oppurtunity to try because "they'v never proven themselves." It is a self fullfilling prophecy. If you don't help guys and never give them a chance then they will not succeed. Their lack of success will reinforce your opinion that they can't succeed.

According to Russo, Vince didn't know that Austin was going to say the "Austin 3:16" line and didn't even realize that he ahd said it at the PPV. Wade Keller has said that Austin had run the idea by him months before KOTR but was never given the chance to talk because WWF felt that he couldn't. So Austin just went out and fucking did it and as a result became the biggest star in the business.

 

It's common knowledge that wrestling is about hiding weaknesses and pushing strenghs. WWE is unwilling to do either anymore. Take Shelton for example. Here is a guy who is incredibly athletic and has questionable mic skills. The fans get into his matches and enjoy them. So rather than just letting him og out there and wow the crowd with his matches and not have him talk. They forced him to talk, which he didn't do well and then stopped letting him showcase his skills on Raw, putting him on Heat in short matches instead.

They had a great chance with Shelton to elevate both him and the IC title, but they blew it. I honestly can't even remember who the IC champ is right now, because the last time I remotely cared about it was when Shelton had it. They had a young guy who was getting over pretty well based on his ring work alone. They had a chance to elevate him and make their secondary title worth a shit again, but instead chose to expose what he can't do well at this point in his career rather than letting his show off what he can do.

 

This script is a prime example of what's wrong with WWE right now.

 

BTW, who is the IC champ?

 

EDIT: I just looked it up, it's Ric Flair.

If it was obvious WWE was rebuilding and was giving guys mic time that aren't quite ready to be doing interviews yet so they could get experience talking in pressure situations so they'd improve later, would you be patient and commend them on thinking ahead or would you criticize them for not "entertaining" you at that very moment?

There are other ways of giving guys opportunities to cut promos for an audience. OVW, House Shows and Dark Matches and pretaped interviews. I don't want to watch people learning as they go at that level of wrestling.

If it was obvious WWE was rebuilding and was giving guys mic time that aren't quite ready to be doing interviews yet so they could get experience talking in pressure situations so they'd improve later, would you be patient and commend them on thinking ahead or would you criticize them for not "entertaining" you at that very moment?

Like Rudo said, have them practice at House Shows or OVW. There is no need to put guys in a position to fail because they aren't ready to thrive. I'd have a guy like Shelton go out and work. No need to have him talk, just let him wrestle and let his natural charisma and work get him over.