Match Quality

Hey Scott,

Clarify something for me here:

Say it's before a big PPV, Wrestlemania for example. Why haven't Vince/the agents/whoever just told the entire roster to "put on absolute classics/bring your A+ game? For example, what's the downside of having CM Punk and Rey Mysterio cut loose and deliver a ****+ match at this past year's WM? Or do you think Vince and Co. actually does go out and say that every so often, it's just the talent that fails to deliver?

Do you know of any instances where Vince was gunning for purely match quality, and everybody delivered? Or tried to deliver? It just seems weird... why wouldn't somebody like Punk/Cena/Rey/Christian/etc put on nothing but four-star and above PPV matches if they're capable of doing it? That's like asking your big homerun slugger to only swing for the fences once every few months.

The only times I know of where Vince did that was the Bret Hart-Randy Savage match on SNME years back, and the Michaels v. Perfect match at Summerslam where they went on TV and basically promised a **** match.  Otherwise it's generally the talent who put that kind of pressure on themselves, like with Eddie v. Rey at WM21.  Of course it also backfires, like with the same match, so it's pretty much impossible to just say "Have a classic match" and expect people to deliver.  Guys are pros and certainly know what works in theory, but there's so many variables that it's impossible to predict what will work and what will suck.

As for the downside, for sure there's a downside.  Agents try to program the PPVs so that you don't get 3 or 4 similar-style  matches in a row and burn out the crowd, because you're trying to focus on your biggest stars and matches.  John Morrison going out and trying for a **** 20 minute classic in the second match might serve his own ego, but to me it's like the opening act for U2 playing for 2 hours when no one paid money to see that.