Tuesday, August 1, 2017

What the WWE needs to learn about making stars


The WWE stinks right now because they have no idea how to make a star.  It is a little weird because making stars was the only way they survived the Monday Night Wars.  The star of Austin and Rock made the modern day WWE.  The emergence of Angle and Edge during that time helped too.  But, now they don’t have one.  Cena, their top star, is half hated, and is now where near the height of Austin or Rock.  While that may be an unreasonable expectation, the WWE has fallen too far to consider Cena too highly.

The WWE is currently riding waves of indy wrestlers joining and keeping wresting fan engaged.  This leads to twitter talk, and the WWE hopes it leads to more causal fans returning and thus money.  But the WWE has undercut all of that by their horrible booking.  Their decision to chase money in Inida with Mahal has also hurt business. 

They ought to be taking notes from New Japan.  If you look at New Japan over the long run, it is a master’s level class in making stars.  They had young stars like Kojima and Tenzan who went from Young Lions to Heavyweight champs.  They innovated moves and pioneered a stronger style, but they both jumped ship for All Japan.  New Japan listened to their fans and Tanahashi and Nakamura emerged as new stars.  Their rivalry at every stage helped push New Japan along.  Kojima returned, and New Japan gave him the push an aging star deserved.  Kojima won the G1 and then the title.  Then he dropped it to Tanahashi cementing Tanahashi as the man.  Kojima still is used effectively in the mid care (and not too long ago in the Tag Title scene with Tenzan).  Their brief alliance with the NWA allowed Kojima and Tenzan something else to do.  But they now serve as mid card guys who can get the crowd going, but lose. 

But we have since seen the era of Tanahashi come to an end.  Tanahashi and Nakamura battled over and over to big houses.  They both battled the invading Westerners such as Balor and Styles.  Those guys were never to be the main stars, just treated as stars to help the real stars shine brighter in the end.  And while this reign went on NJPW listened to its fans and found Okada.  Okada was slow pushed, given learning trips to Mexico and the US, and he met every goal, every bench mark.  Coming back he was given time with top stars, won the G1, won the New Japan Cup, and then he was then given the reigns.  The first title reign did not see him become the face of the company as the fans still favored Tanahashi, but NJPW did not throw away Okada.  They gave him a nice long reign. Still using Tanahashi v Nakamura to make big bucks, the company had Okada drop the belt to international star Styles.  They then found a way to get a program where Tanahashi was clearly passing the torch.  It was a year long program that began with a close lose to Tanahashi at one WrestleKingdom and ended with his victory over Tanahashi at the next WrestleKingdom thanks to a G1 win and a redemption story line that put Okada over as a face big time.  Okada now draws the houses and goes toe to toe with the Western threat.  Tanahashi is not thrown away. He gets a lower belt for now, and helps put over the stars that will help Okada on his run such as Ibushi, who just scored a big win over Tanahashi in the G1. Such wins serve as major milestones and big helps in pushing forward younger talent in NJPW.

The WWE needs to listen to its fans as they cheer on the mid card.  The mid card needs opportunity to shine and develop.  50-50 booking sinks both boats.  Using a top start to tell a good clean story and put over the next guy is important.  Not necessarily blaming the wrestler when one story does not overwhelm, and instead finding a way to put the wrestler in a situation to succeed.  Cena has failed to do that.  He put Punk over, but continued to hog the spot light.  He put Bryan over, but the company refused to go with Bryan.  He lost to Owens, but won the feud (same with Bray).  He lost to AJ, but was that really putting him over?  Especially considering AJ had just lost a feud with Jericho.  And the company did not really run with him.  If the company really wants to roll with Reigns, why not Cena vs. Reigns? 


I really think that the WWE needs help.  It is withering on the vine.  NJPW has plenty of opportunities to tell stories with the mid card.  And they do.  They have events that don’t depend on the title belt, but every belt feels meaningful (almost at any rate, they have a few too many).  Maybe it is time to look for ways to help the midcarders grow.  Maybe a King of the Ring?  If we are doing 20 PPVS a year, surely a King of the Ring can make an occasional appearance. 
It did wonders for Austin.  

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