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Plug request...



Hi Scott,

With the recent signing of Prince Devitt, I got thinking of the way in which WWE signs and assigns it's talent...

http://jimmosangle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/how-wwe-brings-in-new-talent.html

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on the matter, too.

cheers

Well aside from Sin Cara it's hard to argue with the results thus far.  

Comments

  1. Crikey Mate Down Under AussieJuly 30, 2014 at 7:53 AM

    "It was the kind of year long planning they just don't do anymore."

    You say that, but I think we're all going to pleasantly surprised by the thrilling finale to Sandow's impersonation angle.

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  2. I would go with Hogan/Andre. Headlined 2 wrestlemanias (3 & 4) and had the most watched match in wrestling history.

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  3. Weren't both Rock-Cena matches year long planning that backfired?

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  4. if you can call making tons of money for 3 wrestlemanias backfiring?

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  5. It would be impossible to do a year-long angle without detours now.

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  6. Austin-McMahon, Mega-Powers ... can't really think of anything else, maybe Owen-Bret?

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  7. yep, just because a few people complained about it online sure as hell didn't make it unsuccessful. I mean seriously, they had back to back million plus buyrates.

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  8. Point. I was going for more of a critical success than a commercial success in my statement.

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  9. Hogan-Andre was set up tremendously with Andre's subtle jabs and then seeing him walk out with Bobby Heenan on Piper's Pit was mind blowing.


    And that program made some decent coin too.

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  10. Yep, sometimes detours are necessary. The thing about the Hogan/Savage feud is that they had what, 4 PPVs to fill during that year long storyline? Plus 1 hour a week of nothing but squash matches, and a few SNME's. Completely different ball game than now.

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  11. If Hogan-Savage happened today, it would be on 3 straight PPVs (wrestlemania, extreme rules and whatever is the June one. Extreme rules rematch would be awesome because savage would be even more blood thirsty and paranoid after losing the title.

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  12. The advantage was that Cena had tons of stuff to occupy his time with, and Rock wasn't on TV enough to get mercilessly booed.

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  13. You have to be careful doing slow burn runs these days - too long and the fans lose interest.

    The Steiners breaking up is a good example of this, and when Scott finally turned on Rick, at least it was quick.

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  14. When ranking all-time angles I'll always give extra weight to ones that happened in the post-1995 weekly tv/monthly ppv era.

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  15. Prediction: at the end, during a RAW broadcast in Austin, TX, Sandow will rip off his mask and reveal himself to be Vince McMahon, who will then proclaim:

    "IT WAS ME, AUSTIN! IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!!!"

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  16. Either that or something bigger happens. I.E. Summer of Punk pre Rock-Cena happening.

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  17. When looking at it in hindsight, and totally ignoring the backstage rumors and college basketball games and all, the Daniel Bryan Saga from SummerSlam to WM 30 was incredibly good.

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  18. If the nWo angle would've ended with Sting beating Hogan cleanly and decisively, it would've been one of the best angles ever.

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  19. I was just thinking this but from wrestlemania 29 to summerslam was better. Bryan was seen as the weak link and wanted to prove to himself to be the best. Thus, he got better and better, became the #1 face and then beat Cena for the title.

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  20. Neither match was really built over the year. We simply knew about the matches in advance.

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  21. Also ignore the Wyatt pit stop.

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  22. It may not be THE best, but it deserves a mention (and I never see it get one): AJ/Daniel Bryan.

    For 1 thing, it had a conclusive beginning (they meet, flirt), middle (he wins the title and starts treating her badly), and end (the wedding). Great performances by everyone involved, crowd loved it, got both people more over, had a logical payoff. One of my favourites.

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  23. I actually loved that. Daniel lost the blowoff match in the Cell against Orton, and they needed a few months to kill until he got back in contention just before Mania. Was a perfectly fine upper midcard feud, and brought us one of the best moments of the year when he beat up Wyatt in that cage, then a near 5 star match at the Rumble.

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  24. I wish they had more tag matches such as Mega Powers vs. Demolition or vs. The Brainbusters. It was a perfect angle but Hogan / Andre, nWo, Austin / McMahon all are all in the discussion.

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  25. MikeyMike, WitnessJuly 30, 2014 at 8:12 AM

    I've said this before, but I just don't give a shit about 80s WWF.

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  26. Not after the debacle that was the Royal Rumble and how badly he was booked for the fall.

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  27. How the hell was he badly booked? He had all 3 PPV matches against Orton won, then he got screwed over and over and over. That was the point, so we would want him to kick HHH's @$$ all over WM 30, which he did. Then he got his big moment, not at a B PPV, but at friggin Wrestlemania.

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  28. They would never have the patience to let them be friends for a year and a half.

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  29. By June everybody would be saying: "Just end that feud already."

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  30. Only after everyone complained. Let's not think that this was all planned since Summerslam.

    The result may have been awesome, but it was no way planned like this from the start. As opposed to stuff like the Megapowers and Austin-McMahon.

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  31. So you refuse to enjoy it because it was not all on paper from the get to? Very sad.

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  32. How do you know Hogan/Savage was always supposed to go down like that? If Honky doesn't throw a fit, does Savage ever get the belt? Who knows.

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  33. What part of "the result may have been awesome" do you not get?

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  34. Right, we can go in a ton of directions, but at least Savage would've gotten the title at Summerslam. Maybe the blowoff is WM VI and the Megapowers/Megabucks angle happens at WM V.

    Shoot, WM VI was supposed to be Hogan/Zeus and that was changed.

    My point is never "I can't enjoy this angle; this isn't how it was intended!", but the thought that it was planned out from the outset. Things change, and this was rather enjoyable.

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  35. Yes, Owen-Bret was masterful. Owen's jealousy, heel turn, shocking victory at Wrestlemania, ascension to real threat by winning King of the Ring, screwing Bret out of the title at Survivor Series, and finally the tearful reunion in 1997. Just fantastic continuity.

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  36. They are actually making a Daniel Wyatt action figure. Those are planned months in advance. What do you think they were planning on doing?

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  37. MikeyMike, WitnessJuly 30, 2014 at 8:25 AM

    Looking in hindsight, yes. But a lot of things had to go right for Bryan for it to work.

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  38. The whole thing was an active fight, fans didn't get to sit back and enjoy like most classic angles. Royal Rumble was a total disaster as well.

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  39. Mister_E_KindaBuzzedAllBecauseJuly 30, 2014 at 8:29 AM

    It was up there with Hogan/Andre and Harts/Austin for me, for sure. The whole Macho Man story, of which this was a big part, was really quite well done.

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  40. Post-Attitude Era best angles (in order):

    1. Batista's road to WM
    2. Daniel Bryan's road to WM
    3. Summer of Punk
    4. Michaels/Jericho
    5. AJ/Daniel Bryan
    6. Punk/Hardy
    7. Benoit's road to WM

    Probably forgetting something.

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  41. I kinda feel the same way about the Austin/McMahon era. I loved Steve Austin in WCW and I loved his paranoid psycho heel character in WWF, but I was never captivated by his 1998/1999 stuff like most people seem to be, and the endless matches with Undertaker and Mick Foley certainly didn't help. Then again, I was firmly in the WCW camp at that time, having grown up on NWA stuff, so I probably paid far more attention to them than WWF during that time.

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  42. Yes, when I think of iconic angles of all-time, I think of the one that ended with the crazy girl becoming the RAW GM and everyone going, "huh?" And then it going nowhere. Absolutely brilliant.

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  43. MikeyMike, WitnessJuly 30, 2014 at 8:34 AM

    Wasn't watching during the Batista era; was it really that incredible?

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  44. BTW, I'm fairly certain that, no matter how it went about, we were always going to get Savage vs. Hogan. WM V or later, but the partnership and personalities pretty much ensured it.

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  45. MikeyMike, WitnessJuly 30, 2014 at 8:35 AM

    It was the most unusual thing I had ever been a part of. Losing to Wyatt wasn't a big deal but that Cena-Orton and Batista victory showed that they had no pulse on what the fans wanted.

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  46. Few angles in the last decade or so have gotten me emotionally invested, but the Jeff Hardy-CM Punk feud did just that. Punk's slow heel turn was brilliantly done, had proper justification, and he played the shit out of that character. By the time the blowoff came and he ran Jeff out of the company, I wanted Punk's head. He was just a POS that I hated.


    Well done, Punk.

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  47. MikeyMike, WitnessJuly 30, 2014 at 8:37 AM

    That wasn't how the plan was going to go all along.

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  48. I'm sorry you have such poor taste. That entire angle was tremendous.

    And the angle essentially ended that night. AJ moved on as GM and DB moved on to Team Hell No.

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  49. MikeyMike, WitnessJuly 30, 2014 at 8:38 AM

    I liked it but it gets dwarfed by what Bryan has accomplished since.

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  50. Considering that it was done in the era of weekly tv, I think it's a legit candidate for Greatest Ever. They hit every note perfectly and created a mega star out of a guy that was jobbing in IC title matches at Summerslam.

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  51. N....W....O.... until Starrcade 97.

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  52. Certainly not the best ever but Dean Malenko chasing down Chris Jericho was awesome. Malenko and his ever absent charisma somehow got EVERYBODY on his side when he took off the mask, and gave Jericho a beating of his life.


    As funny as Jericho was, he was really great at tweaking the crowd and the faces as well.

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  53. The build up to Taz and Sabu is so awesome and underrated, IMO. Remember vividly when Paul announced the PPV in the ring with all the faces and the heels in the Eagles Nest "and THAT man Taz will face THAT man Sabu", loved it so much.

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  54. I don't think any other angle comes close. Not the nWo -- it went on too long. Not even Austin/McMahon -- McMahon wasn't a wrestler, so no truly great blowoff match was possible.

    The thing about Hogan-Savage: it began even before it 'began'. Savage trash-talked Hogan almost from the day he showed up in the WWF. Even the formation of the Mega Powers felt like the culmination of something big.

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  55. Love that angle to pieces. Good mention!

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  56. How did it critically backfire?

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  57. I also think fans don't want to praise anything related to the 18 second loss. That'll be the enduring image from that angle.

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  58. "I actually loved that". Nobody thought otherwise. :)

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  59. Yes! I would have loved those tag matches. Especially vs The Brain Busters. Oh man.

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  60. Nearly left the arena when Malenko unmasked at Slamboree 98, was so mad Jericho was dropping the belt, even though it was easily one of the top 5 pops I've ever heard live.

    And I probably should have left because that was the same night Hall returned and turned on Nash which was such bullshit.

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  61. You know what amazes me? Yeah, there might be a lot of TV they have to write every week, but your supposed to be television writers in what amounts to a live-action play on TV. Come up with some compelling storylines for more than two people. I'm sure some of it has to do with Vince, but still.....somebody come up with interesting things for the undercard more than "rinse and repeat" booking. You're the WWE! You're supposed to be over the top and crazy! Do something.

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  62. Damn, you've been pushing this for...two years now? You are certainly in the minority, but I admire your convictions.

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  63. Totally agree with this. Didn't mind one bit that they shortened it - it was tremendous for what it ended up being.

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