After watching professional wrestling for a little over twelve year, a fan begins to pick up on some of the small thing that irritates them. This isn't a general list of things. It's a list of specific things. Yes, this challenge was brought onto me from a friend who I've been speaking to since high school. During one of my usual rants, he asked, "what, exactly, gets you so irritated?"
I thought that was a good question. I mean, I rant all the time about things here and there, but I never really sat down and listed my gripes about the product, big and small. Well, I decided to do just that today. Today, Jesse Lee bringing to you, his list of pet peeves of wrestling. Now I won't be making a full essay on these. Some will be long-winded, but others may just be a few words.
*Short title reigns. I absolutely hate short reigns. Sometimes they're forgivable and can't be avoided, but more often than not, it's just a case of the title holders playing a game of hot potato. The most ludicrous of these changes are ones that happen in the same night of a previous title change. I thing longevity gives the belt its value. What's the value of a title and its holder if next week, it'll be a different face wearing the belt? That's the main problem here. It's become more about the person holding the belt rather than a combination of the two. There needs to be a face on the belt for a solid period of time so fans can tell non-fans "yeah, Bob Backlunds the champ." Not, "well, I think now Jeff Hardy is champion. I'm not sure though cause I haven't seen an episode in a week."
*Too many titles. There are WAY too many world champions in WWE. You have the WWE Champion, the World Heavyweight Champion, and the ECW Champion. Along with this, you have the Intercontinental Champion, U.S. Champion, two sets of tag team titles (though unified - for now), and two titles for women. If you break things down, we really only need one women's champ, one set of tag team champions (WWE doesn't even have a division, let alone enough teams to have two sets of titles), an IC, an U.S., a World, and an ECW Champion. Yes, I'm suggesting to unify the World Heavyweight and WWE Championships together and keep ECW to the side as a different product. No fan wants to go through the trouble of nami an entire list of champions - who half the time they can't even keep up - to a non-fan and a non-fan won't bother learning.
*Backstage politics. I've always hated this. Just look at Batista and Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy, despite being immensely better than Batista in every way, was released due to being injury prone despite not even having to miss ring-time after tweaking a wrist. Batista comes back, given the belt, goes out and re-injures himself, has to go to surgery, and miss another 6 months. Yet, Batista - despite having more injuries on his list - is still given the belt every time he blinks his eyes. Backstage politics like this just irritate me like no other.
*Lack of consistency. Heels shouldn't team up with heels just for the sake of being heels. Faces shouldn't team up with faces just for the sake of being faces. Especially when one of those faces/heels were feuding with the other just weeks earlier. Case in point, any Triple H/Cena program, HBK/Batista, MVP/CM Punk, etc.
*Interferences. There are way too many of them.
*Heels being squashed. I call this the Batista Syndrome. Basically, taking a competent heel who was huge in terms of building heat and could be a big star and having them get squashed by the biggest star on the roster. Batista effectively ended La Resistance's careers. William Regal is constantly on the verge of having credibility taken from him. Thank God he's just that good enough to win it back.
*Unreasoned face turns. When a heel turns face, it should be a big deal. There should be a defining moment when the people realize "hey, I'm being cheered." Cheap pops and suddenly wrestling against heels doesn't come off as a genuine face turn for me. Give me a reason to give a damn about them.
*No reason squashing. This usually happens to younger guy that the office decides to screw his career over because Vince has it in the for them. It's when you take this young talent and have him go up against someone and just get completely squashed for no reason at all. I call this the Triple H Syndrome. The Batista Syndrome requires it to be a match while the Triple H Syndrome could be anything. The best example is when Triple H pedigreed Paul London.... just because.
*Moronic gimmicks. ANYTHING that reminds me of mid-90s WWE where every character on TV had a day job just screams "screw your intelligence!" A good example is the whole "moving company" gimmick that Jesse and Festus did for a while.
*Personal grudge booking. Vince McMahon Syndrome here. Basically, booking someone - a celebrity, a team, anyone - to look like a fool on your show just because they have a different opinion. Vince has done this with Rosie, Trump, Obama, Hillary, and the Nuggets. Basically, just think of your average youtube ranter who's complaining about another youtube ranter and making fun of them with their webcams, just on a world-wide scale. Yeah, this is as fun as watching two people with no lives banter on their webcams.
*Ignoring the past. Seriously, stop ignoring previous moments. Stop trying to write out of history. From Chris Benoit to Triple H and his hog pen match. From Christian being in TNA to Matt Hardy's real life beef with Edge - that was somehow ignored when it was decided to have Matt cost Jeff the title. Ignoring the past only makes sure that writers create the same, stupid mistakes.
*Constant talking. I understand a story needs to be told, but if you have two hours to do a show and barely 30 minutes of it is used to wrestle, then you need to re-focus a little more.
*Smark references. Either acknowledge them or avoid them. Stop dropping references that only smart marks would about. (Example: Triple H constantly eyeing Stephanie and talking about "some husband.")
*LISTEN TO THE FANS. Seriously, we're your biggest asset. Listen to us. If we cheer for someone... PUSH THEM. Don't fucking squash them and bury them out of the way just because he/she's more popular than Batista, Cena, or anyone else.
