hi scott,
everyone's favourite_loser here, and a comment i just made in the BoD update about how raw recaps stuff 5 times over got me thinking: do you think that wwe should treat every segment of their shows as if *that segment* is the 1st time ever that any given viewer is watching wwe?
we get endless recaps of stuff that happened 5 minutes ago, an hour ago, at the start of the show... plus the announcers (especially god-awful jbl) constantly rehash the same trivia about the wrestlers every single time (did you know: that rvd was the only man to hold both the wwe and the ecw titles at once? did you know: that curtis axel is the grandson of larry the axe hennig and son of wwe hall of famer mr. perfect curt hennig? did i know? at this point, do i care?!)
I can see where they're coming from, as Marvel Comics for example is spectacularly adept at recapping storylines at the beginning of their issues, making it really easy for new readers to pick it up and go. I love that about them because if I hear good buzz on something it's easy to drop in and out as needed. Wrestling fans in the same way have been conditioned to be serial viewers, and it's long been a template for soap operas and comics that every issue/show is someone's first. And I will say that as annoying as it is in the moment, if I go back and watch something from the dead zone of 2006 for example it's very easy to catch up with the storylines due to the lowest-common-denominator recap videos they do so well. However, recapping something we literally just saw 5 minutes ago is kind of a drag. I think it's kind of a holdover from the "blink and you'll miss it" Attitude Era stuff where a lot of times you really would need a recap in case you were watching Nitro, and also for the announcers to make sense of whatever bullshit Vince Russo was writing.
TJ:
ReplyDeleteClippers vs. Thunder game is off to a fast start and Paul picked up his second foul
Sin cara beat up Sheamus!
ReplyDeleteKevin Durant is playing out of his mind right now
ReplyDeleteI read that as Sheamus beat up Sin Cara
ReplyDeleteRaws from 1999 were terrible to watch a second time around. I kinda liken it to rewatching a lot of the nwo era Nitros. I didn't mind it at the time but they're really frustrating to watch. Russo was really losing his shit before he left for WCW, correct?
ReplyDeleteWe're going to need another Sin Cara!
ReplyDeleteI think they are just trying to find anything they can to fill some of the 3 plus hours....
ReplyDeleteI can understand Russo and the rest of the staff getting burnt out once they had to come up with shit for Smackdown too....
ReplyDeleteIt could be worse, I mean TNA never shows replays or recaps of anything and their wrestlers frequently mention stuff that happened a few weeks or a few months ago without any videos or recaps and they act as if it was the Cheers finale, like everyone in the world saw it and knows what they're talking about when in fact no one knows what they're talking about.
ReplyDeleteI can see why this annoying for some but it actually helps me while watching RAW because when I watch, I'm never tuned in anywhere close to the 100% of 3 hours. At least during the Monday Night Wars, the WWE could pump their chests out and say "Blink and you'll miss this" because they had direct competition with WCW and wanted above all else to say that and mean it. Nowadays, it's almost as if they accept their product kinda sucks and most of us would much rather be watching sports or TV shows.
ReplyDeleteTo go along with the Marvel comparison, Stan Lee said he liked the recaps because "every comic book is someone's first." If you're someone who doesn't watch wrestling and check out an episode of Raw, a recap of the basic story is really helpful and immediately tells you what's going on. They're helpful, but not so much for people who are watching constantly.
ReplyDeleteAnd another Timmy.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwVA698Hx2g
So is this why I never got the "You got iced" thing?
ReplyDeleteWell the trick with the comics is that they catch you up the one time.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but comics don't usually have about 10 storylines going in a single issue.
ReplyDeleteAnd let us not forget Heat.
ReplyDeleteLol, that was terrible. So embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteThey basically gave up on Heat once Smackdown launched.
ReplyDeleteHeat from that point on just became a bunch of jobber matches with no storylines tied to the show. Heat became so forgettable that according to Stevie Richards, Stephanie McMahon wasn't even aware the show existed until 2004.
The whole point was to keep you coming back in 1999 not to watch them in 2014, Russo knew this.
ReplyDeleteI'm not arguing against this.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering when that would come up. Does this sort of thing ever actually affect one's standing?
ReplyDeleteThe big difference is I can skip the recap page in one second. I have to sit through the recaps unless I DVR.
ReplyDeleteI said this in another thread, but I wish they'd turn the first hour into a Prime Time Wrestling style recap show.
ReplyDeletedidn't Impact try that? Or was it a postgame show they did?
ReplyDeleteEh it's not like the recaps go on for long stretches at a time. They're not that bad.
ReplyDeletePost show called reAction.
ReplyDeleteJust depends on the recaps.
ReplyDeleteRandom: I was watching the Pen game on NBC Sports. After it was over, I just put it on mute and ignore it. They ended up showing amateur wrestling afterwards. They just showed a commercial for the National Registry for wrestling or whatever and had a bunch of clips of various celebrities talking about it. Low and behold, Kurt Angle shows up and under his name it says "WWE Star".
ReplyDeletelol, TNA can't catch a break.
You have a bunch of guys that aren't being used, put them out there and wrestle!
ReplyDeleteOh it's true...
ReplyDeletewwe likes to compare itself to mainstream entertainment. well, if you look at serial programming (like agents of s.h.i.e.l.d, for example), they'll have a recap at the start of the show, but then if they reference something during the show, they don't immediately stop and do a cutaway to show that moment from when it originally aired.
ReplyDeleteyet that's exactly what wwe does: something happens, and if it needs to be referenced later in the show, instead of casually mentioning it, they instead show the same damn 6-minute segment again
and again
and again
like i said, recapping at the start of the ep is fine, just like it's cool and helpful to recap at the start of a comic issue. the problem is that wwe then recaps everything ad nauseum throughout the show itself
i know sports programming will show key plays over and over again, so wwe needs to decide whether they're sports or entertainment
waitaminute...
now that's just crazy talk
ReplyDeleteHEAT: never forget
ReplyDeleteMy point still stands. I don't mind the catchups. I don't mind showing a vingette before the match or whatever.
ReplyDeleteBut the emailers point was that it happens like 5 times for each segment for each show.
AND importantly. Only about the show I'm watching or a few shows back.
"the emailers"
ReplyDeleteIT WAS MEEEEEEEEE, PHILIPPE. IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!!!
also, here's the thing: they've long since had AM raw, right? people wanna get caught up? frickin' find that show
ReplyDeletei'd argue that it's even overkillier with the recap shows airing on Das Network, but i concerned that not everyone has the network
My favorite loser is this guy named James...
ReplyDeleteI...I'm sorry...
the only sport I am into is football (well, "soccer") and they show instant replays of scenes directly after they happens but then usually don't repeat the same scene over and over again during the same game.
ReplyDelete"usually don't repeat the same scene over and over again"
ReplyDeletewwe = groundhog day!
How about the wrestlers recap the angles during their interviews in their own words?
ReplyDeleteIt's only because I know him IRL.
ReplyDeleteWe used to be roommates. He was abandoned by his dad at like age 10 and never really got over it. So he has subsequently A. Become a functioning alcoholic, and B. constantly sort of searches for father figures even though he's like 30 now.
The first guy he did that to shot himself and he latched on to me and a few other people. This was years ago.
He doesn't really talk to me anymore because I guess he had a crush on this girl that had a crush on me a couple of years ago. And I had the audacity to date her for a bit. Then I had the audacity to move out after I got a real job. (We were living in this awful basement in Washington Heights where the leaks were so bad that it would actually sound like it was raining in the bathroom and also this one closet.
But it was cheap and I was in college. We both worked at this rock club and he was actually my boss for a bit but I graduated with a degree in accounting so when I left, I suddenly had a lot more money than he did and he was a bit jealous about that.
Then another girl he liked developed a crush on me. (We were all sort of in the same circle of friends.) He had trouble picking up women because A. He didn't groom all that much and B. The booze. Which was literally a 15,000 a year habit for him. 1/3 of his salary went to Maker's Mark.
Last I heard he's mixing jazz at lincoln center.
He's a good guy though, underneath all the demons. Shame about it all, I suppose but what are you going to do?
But then someone might turn the channel to WCW!
ReplyDeleteIt's true that they do air the same recaps a lot, but it does help with catching up people who didn't see the earlier parts of the show.
ReplyDeleteThe recaps serve 2 purposes, one to legitimately catch up people who don't sit through all 190 minutes or so of Raw every monday night. The second is also legitimate at least in WWE's eyes and that is to remind their country bumpkin,sister kissing audience of events that they've just seen because they're too stupid to remember the past 30 minutes.
ReplyDeleteEverything i've ever seen seems to support the idea of the big wigs at Titan Towers looking down at their fanbase in this regard so i'll stick with it.
This is so fucking fitting for tna
ReplyDeleteTJ: did anyone ever hear the rumor that beginning of the rift between Shane and the family business was him dropping the ball on the WWE/WWF stuff overseas?
ReplyDeleteI kind of equate it to watching LOST.
ReplyDeleteMoment-to-moment, it's gripping. You can't believe what you saw, and you have no idea what's going to happen next, so you have to keep watching.
it's only with some time and detachment that you realize that 99% of what you watched made no sense as far as over-arching plot lines or character motivations.
But it was still fun at the time, and the ratings were insane.
Plus, in a 2 hour show, I actually have no problem with them sticking with short matches on free TV as exclamation points throughout the feud, then giving you the long matches as payoffs on PPV.
Confession time: I semi regularly watch two soap operas and Scott is right, recapping goes on there constantly but has to be worked in dialogue.
ReplyDeleteNo I hadn't heard that but didn't Shane stick around for years after that debacle? Also, I think Shane is doing pretty damn well for himself. He may have just wanted to go make his own mark in the world and not be partners with Steph and Hunter.
ReplyDeleteSo slight thread jack but kinda related. I know it's impossible but could we maybe try to have an all positive day with no negative talk? I know it's silly but jeez the negative crap is overflowing this blog, it might be nice to have ONE day where we talk about why we like this silly rasslin thing and not bitch about it.
ReplyDeleteI've gotta say, I really like that LOST anology. I liked the ending too. I wouldn't mind going back and going through LOST again in 5-10 years and see how it holds up with a lot of distance from first watching it.
ReplyDeleteBut it's the EXACT SAME THING like 20 times in 3 hours. That's "change the channel" time. Even if they did bad comedy skits, or a helicopter flying over a field, that would be better. Terrible stuff shows they're at least trying to do...something.
ReplyDeleteWith RAW it's like 20-30 minutes of stuff shown over and over for 3 hours.
Instead of tossing out the same facts again and again, something they SHOULD do is have a trivia question at the beginning of a match and give the answer later on: like "Who is the longest reigning U.S. champion of all time?"
ReplyDeleteConstant recaps + 3 hour Raw with constant ad breaks means I physically can't watch Raw anymore
ReplyDeleteRecaps from last week are fine. Its the recaps from before the commerical break, half an hour ago, the beginning of the show that make me skip through half the show.
ReplyDeleteI doubt a 30 year old was put in charge of that issue. I bet it was a cocky Vince and jerry mcdivitt who dropped the ball.
ReplyDeleteI heard that the show is on at like 2 AM on Saturday's.
ReplyDelete"but wwe has basically created a scenario where it doesn't matter where you start watching their tv shows"
ReplyDeletePoint being why I only watch the ppvs now. I know if I miss anything note worthy that they will recap it at the ppv pre-match
The rumor I heard (p2b pod) was that he was in charge of the overseas branding. Stephs been in power posits since she was in her mid 20s, I could see them giving shane a gig like that.
ReplyDeleteI have a better chance of simultaneously having sex with Kate Upton, as Beyonce taco bell me Stoli, while Obama reads me Atlas Shrugged
ReplyDeleteIt'd be fun to just have threads with the best moments of wrestling.
ReplyDeleteI still think it's worth getting those awesome moments like when Bryan turned on Bray.
ReplyDeleteThey also mentioned they'll ask Kevin Kelly about it in a couple weeks so we should get the answer then.
ReplyDeleteYea. I have 0 idea if it's true, but it's an interesting little tidbit if it is
ReplyDeletewatching it on DVD or Netflix where you can go from one episode right to the next is still a great experience, as long as you liked the show to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI still dont get it. Is Smirnoff Ice still a thing? Even if it is those Bud Light Margarita things totally kick its ass.
ReplyDeleteYour #1 fantasy includes Obama watching?
ReplyDeleteNo, McCain watching
ReplyDeleteHow pissed would Vince be that it said "star" and not "Superstar."
ReplyDeleteFor the uninformed, what "logo stuff" are you talking about?
ReplyDelete"Nowadays, it's almost as if they accept their product kinda sucks and most of us would much rather be watching sports or TV shows."
ReplyDeleteSo, you're saying most of us would rather be watching "sports" or "entertainment?"
When wwe settled with the world wildlife foundation, it was pretty much understood that Vince could keep using "wwf" as long as he didn't do it over seas for some reason.
ReplyDeleteThe rumor goes that Vince or whomever started ignoring this, thus pissing off the world wildlife federation, causing them to take action.
Yea I do see what you are saying. I generally just read the RAW recaps now, and if something sounds must watch, Ill youtube it, but thats about it. It's just id rather do so many other things on a monday night
ReplyDeleteSports AND entertainment? Sports entertainment? You may be on to something there!
ReplyDeleteWell, 8% helps.
ReplyDeleteAre there even two soap operas left at this point?
ReplyDeleteDrinking it right now, true.
ReplyDelete