I don’t know if I’m alone in thinking this, but WWE’s overall television production seems very half hearted right now.
Let me kick this off with the absolutely cringey, embarrassing and ridiculous words they seem to put on the screen during superstar promos. First off, I’m not a fan of the hand held cameras to cut promos backstage, it feels very false and it spoils certain characters. I don’t want to see Braun Strowman taking a selfie video, I want him in a darkened locker room or backstage area facing the camera straight on telling the opponent how he’s going to destroy him. Create an atmosphere, it’s almost like they don’t care about promos any more.
It sounds silly, but I like to imagine the Strowman character is so ruthless and dominating he doesn’t even use a phone, he doesn’t care about technology, he just wants to hurt people.
See, the selfie thing works with say Dolph Ziggler, who’s character is very full of himself/vain, where as it isn’t effective with someone you’re supposed to be getting over as an indestructible monster.
Also, when a superstar backstage says they are going to bring the pain or dominate, I don’t need the words ‘BRING
THE PAIN’ in capitals, I heard him/her, don’t patronise me.
Remember a while back when The Uso’s cut that really good promo about The Uso Penitentiary on Smackdown Live? I was actually caught in the moment and really believed in the words they were saying, then all of a sudden a locked cell appeared on screen, getting us all back to reality and fully aware that we were watching a scripted show.
The words on the screen are so cheesy and make me more aware of the fact WWE are targeting children with their product, and makes me feel a little embarrassing to be watching.
Sometimes you have to wonder if you’re watching WWE or an advert on Nickelodeon.
I fully understand why they took away the use of pyro’s, it’s a money saving thing, nothing to devalue the talent or their entrances. It’s just when you see them paying SO much to Brock Lesnar, for so little work, you kind of wish they would use pyro’s instead of Lesnar’s 6 dates a year.
Despite that I think they should still use pyro’s, at PPV’s, give them a real big event feel. You need something to differ the entrance from a house show or television taping to a pay per view event.
Cesaro & Sheamus deserve a big explosion upon entrance for it to really reach it’s full effect, and don’t even get me started on the fact they’ve replaced Kane’s iconic pyro entrance with just a sound of an explosion.
What happens if Batista returns and he makes his entrance pose to, no pyro, it’d just look odd. Same as the famous Edge arms in the air pose which has become symbolic with his character.
Post match interviews, I’m not a fan of them. Why does Renee Young or someone need to get into the ring and ask a superstar “What’s next?” or “how are you feeling after that win/loss”? We just saw the match, let that settle, we’ll tune into the next Raw or Smackdown Live to find out.
It’s like they don’t bother to create any sort of angle for that superstars character, so suddenly they have a match and a promo all at once.
Let’s take Seth Rollins for example, I’d much rather see him cut a backstage promo before the match to hype up himself winning, it makes me look forward to it and gets fans excited for his match. If he loses the match or a title, I don’t want to hear his thoughts straight away after the match in the ring, I will tune into Raw, anticipating his reaction. WWE give it all away in one quick flash without any sort of build which hurts matches and superstars from building any momentum.
Finally, here is the one that probably doesn’t matter to most people but to me it’s the most important. Titantron videos.
Yes, those superstar videos in the background as they make their way down to the ring, for some reason they’ve been banished and replaced with just..the superstars name.
I understand they have a whole stage graphic which all links together, and that looks great, but in my opinion, ave that kind of thing for the PPV, again, give it that big event feel.
The Titantron Video is so important because it completes the entrance, it adds so much personality and charisma to a superstar before they’ve even gotten into the ring or said a word.
When a superstar enters, their background video can already tell you what you need to know about that superstar, especially to a new viewer. For example; The Miz’s you see he’s a cocky, arrogant and he fancies himself as a bit of a Hollywood superstar. I know that from being a big fan of his, but even to a first time viewer you would get that impression.
Remember Stone Cold’s? That entrance video was excellent, it had clips of him mouthing off to opponents, attacking authority figures and of course hitting stunners on various people. That really made Austin’s entrance that much better, and the overall impact much more effective.
Not all superstars would have to have clips of them, and there would be exceptions of course such as Bray Wyatt and Undertaker, but do you not think that would help make Wyatt’s entrance that much more unique?
Again, the full set graphics are cool, but they should have them at PPV events, don’t give the special entrances for each television show because guess what? They become not that special anymore.
I don’t know if WWE are just lazy, or whether they people behind the production are just really out of touch or have the wrong idea of what makes a good, credible television product, but they need to step up their game.
They have such simple little touches they could add to make the viewers experience that much better, but don’t seem to bother, or go in completely the wrong direction.
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