Bleacher Report - Articles by Brotha Numpsey

Key Ideas I Would Love To See WWE Incorporate (Opinionated)

Brotha Numpsey — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:36:52 -0400

Ok, I have been an avid fan of WWE for years. Yes...Yes...Yes...from way back in the days when Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant had their epic match..blah blah blah. This is really not meant to be a nostalgic article so let me bypass all of that.

No, this article is just about what the title suggests. The recent shows for the past couple of years have really dropped in intensity when it comes to the writing and decision making they have produced.

Some of these shows have caused us fans to scratch our head and throw tantrums saying "This is not the WWE we remember!" (yeah, kind of nostalgic in statement, but still...).

A lot of these points will actually bring up points from other articles but they are still necessary to be reiterated.

1. CREATIVE TEAM, COULD YOU PLEASE GET CREATIVE.....PLEASE?

The writing has GOT To be better on all aspects, not just the major titles. We need your creative team to show more interest in other story lines besides just the two major titles.

You have the talent to pull off some very thrilling story lines. We just need for you to divest more time in thinking of something.

For example...there should be more exploitation for the U.S. belt. You have two outstanding wrestlers in Benjamin and MVP but the storyline (if you really want to call it that) has been lackluster. You have the makings of an epic U.S. Championship match but you do nothing really to exploit it.

Also there is absolutely no story line for the Inter-Continental championship. That belt has just been thrown in the hands of several champions and then nothing done really with it.

William Regal only defended 3 times the whole time he had it and that was to the same person during the last 3 weeks of his title reign. Until then, William Regal didn't even wrestle. Kind of dumb don't you think?

Was the greatest thing you could come up with was the IC tournament with nothing to happen afterwards? That seems a bit short sited to me. So now Punk has it and what you say...no storyline...no defending....Punk goes to MitB and the IC Belt sits stagnant.

Isn't there some rule about if a Belt is not defended within 30 days....? Which moves me on to the next point..

2. More I.C. and U.S. Championship Belt Defense

This was mentioned in another article and I must reiterate that point. The article was how often the IC belt had been defended at a pay per view in 2008. Since when did the IC Belt become just a prop?

I thought the IC belt was a stepping stone to being a major champion. It seems to me you are throwing away history behind these belts...The Rock, Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Bret Hart, etc all made the IC belt great.

To just leave the belt stagnant and collecting waist dust is pretty disrespectful.

3. Incorporate More Groups/Factions

I know, I already created a article on this, but this is STILL a major issue to me. Lets look back through history and check out how exciting the programming was when there were groups and factions running rampant through your shows. (Didn't I say this wasn't going to be a nostalgic article....oh well huh?).

We had groups like Degeneration X, The Nation of Domination, Legion of Doom, Los Boricuas, Disciples of Apocalypse, nWo, and the crowd went crazy.

Granted, we do have Priceless on Raw. The issue I am seeing is that there is nobody really going against them. Where is their nemesis faction? How come their is nobody jumping in to have a big group war?

Remember how DX and NoD tore up the place weekly? Now I am not suggesting that you resort back to a big gang/race war like back then, but a war for dominance over the WWE.

I liked the story line you were trying to run before Batista was injured. I think if you make him the leader of a faction (say for instance Batista with Cryme Time) against Randy Orton and Priceless, you could bring Raw up to a heavy weight level.

If you want to throw a belt in their besides a major belt....the tag team belts are looking like a pretty nice edition...however the Miz/Morrison vs. The Colons is getting pretty good...at least to me. Which takes me to...

4. Better Tag Team Challenges

Now like I said, the Miz/Morrison vs The Colons story is developing pretty good. I wouldn't mind seeing them go on. The idea of a possible belt unification is a pretty nice idea. I think a team holding both belts and tag teams from all the brands hunting them down makes for exciting times and really shows who can job in the WWE.

We already know that Miz and Morrison are doing a great job bouncing around between brands. I think the Colons would also. They are young and energetic to follow suit. Priceless and Cryme Time as well. That would give them all a lot of exposure. Throw in a couple of other tag teams and the tag team division would be revitalized again.

5. Heel/Face Turns

Now this is going back to No. 3. With more factions comes more Heel/Face turns. Remember when Ahmed Johnson turned his back on LOD and joined NoD? Remember when the Rock turned on NOD? Remember when Chyna and Triple H turned on DX to join the Corporation?

How shocked were we? How good was that? We didn't know who was actually with who? But we do know there were wars EVERYWHERE! That made for awesome programming. (DANG IT NOSTALGIA!!!)

6. Bring Back The King of The Ring Pay Per View

This is another topic i have stressed in comments on other articles. I am sorry, but the Great American Bash sucks. Really. It does. Having the King of the Ring subjected to one brand really sucks.

Really. It does.

Honestly, who REALLY believed William Regal was worthy of King of the Ring. Who REALLY believes he is worthy of sitting up there with the likes of SCSA, HHH, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, and Randy Savage? Yeah, not too many of us.

The KotR, was a stepping stone to greatness. To me, that is more important than MitB. The group they usually put in the MitB are more worthy of challenging for the IC or US belts. Get rid of the Great American Bash, bring back the KotR.

So...there it is so far. I think these points would be a good start in boosting back up programming. I think there is more that could be done but I am not going to waste my time because I know this world is rated PG now and Vince is so scared to go against the grain now a days it is sickening.

Though if he or anybody inside his circle of trust are reading, bring back the First Blood batches. What do my fellow Bleacher Reporters think?

Hey Vince McMahon, Do You Care About Your Product?

Brotha Numpsey — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:47:33 -0500

Dear Vincent K. McMahon,

First let me start of by saying that I have been a fan since...BLAH BLAH BLAH! One thing I will not do is give you the satisfaction of making me the next inductee to the Vince McMahon KMA club. I will, however, ask you this: How much do you believe in your own product? I mean, how much do you actually care about the quality of the shows you put out there?

Yes, yes, Vince, I know you are running supposed a "multi-billionaire" company, and yes I know you are eagle eyeing all day to day operations, as well as the show operations, as well as media affairs, as well as overseas-affairs, as well as maintaining the "Health and Wellness Program". Dang Vince, how do you do all of that and then keep up with all three shows as being "Top Notched"?

Please note that the question is being asked with serious sarcasm. The problem is Vince, that a lot of us feel the shows have been suffering some major flaws. Yes, I know, Vince, everybody is a "damn critic" these days, but a serious question is how much of a critic are you being? Do you even watch your own shows, Vince? Are you happy with the writing? Are you happy with the acting? Are you happy with the wrestling?

I am not thoroughly happy nor am I entirely entertained with the shows Vince. I know I know I am not a deciding factor but, there are a lot more of me Vince. More than you can imagine, Vince. I watch the show now because it has become a part of my weekly routine. However TV is changing Vince.

Television shows are becoming a WHOLE helluva lot more interesting these days and they are attacking your time slots, Vince. With that being said, let me tell you this Vince, come 01-12-09, Jack Bauer (TV Show "24") is back on the Monday Night slot, be afraid...be very very afraid! I still have DVR tho.

Anywho, your product needs help. As a fan I am here to make some suggestions on how you can turn it around for at least me:

1. ECW needs to be moved to a two hour show. One hour is never enough time even with the 18 or so stars you have.

2. The unbalanced rosters needs a huge fix. You need to balance it out a whole lot better. Put more mid level card talent on there. We (other fan writers and I) all agree that ECW is the Mid Card Talent show. I like the idea of Matt Hardy, Mark Henry, and Finlay being on this show because they all have talent.

I personally think mark Henry had been widely under used until he got on ECW. Stars like Jamie Noble, Charlie Haas, Val Venus, Manu, Jimmy Wang Yang, and Funaki would fit well in there and brighten their stars up a bit.

2a. I think those superstars who complain about not being on one Raw or SD and who refuse to go to ECW should be thrown out. The company is only as strong as your weakest talent and if they are there to just see themselves shine and not there to contribute as a whole then they are not useful to the company period.

3. STORY LINES!! STORY LINES!! STORY LINES!! Each show needs a dedicated writing crew. Not the same ones for all three brands because then they will only focus on the top belts. The Rock and SCSA started their epic rivalry long before the WWE Title. They had a great rivalry for the Intercontinental Belt. At the same time Bret Hart and the Hart Foundation and Shawn Michaels and DX (the original) had a great story line going for the WWE title.

4. In my opinion SD is better than Raw because of the involvement of a General Manager (however, the show was a lot better when Teddy Long was the GM). Raw has a bunch of people running rampant. Yes they have Stephanie McMahon (your daughter) but I do not see her as dedicated to that show. She is shown only once to really cater to Chris Jericho. If she is going to be too involved with corporate affairs then she doesn't really need to be on the show. Get a dedicated GM for Raw.

5. The surprise factor. I remember one show that came to Sacramento where nobody knew Mick Foley was gonna show up. But when he did, the pop for that show was loud! This is something desperately needed. Stop announcing when superstars are making their return or debuting or special guest starring. That makes your storyline predictable and stales it up a bit when I know who is coming and for what purpose.

6. Make the King of the Ring a major PPV again with all three brands participating. It being exclusive on one brand is pretty much lame (replace lame with sufficient expletive). KoTR helped notice stars like SCSA, Triple H, and Edge as great singles wrestlers. That needs to replace the Great American Bash.

Now Vince, those are some of my top suggestions. I am sure many other fans may agree or disagree with what I am suggesting. As others will have more of what they would like to add. But I think many of your viewers will agree that your shows are falling off big time. I am making a plea to do something about it.

Your fan...BLAH BLAH BLAH,

Brotha Numpsey

Can We Get More Faction Rivalries from WWE?

Brotha Numpsey — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:43:55 -0500

Lets take a journey back into the years of 1996-1999. Yes....what many of us wrestling fans consider the "good days of wrestling". And why was that? Well a lot of things happened to coincide with our lives.

What is more apparent now (or maybe APPEARS) that a lot more of the superstars were willing to work together and help develop talents and not let a superstar rise to the top with the same five-move set.

My concern for this random babbling of my thoughts is the lack of a good faction (or rather team) rivalry. In the current decade, we have had one really good team....Evolution.

Some may call WCW/ECW vs WWE as a team rivalry, so some may add it some may not. But when I say team, I mean a small amount of individuals looking out for themselves with no "job" being on the line.

My personal favorite rivalry is Nation of Domination (NOD) vs Degeration X (DX). Before I go on with this, I wish HHH and Michaels would give it a rest. A two-man DX team is not the same. No Chyna...No DX.

Anywho, the DX I am referring to is the post-Michaels DX, when HHH and Chyna recruited Road Dogg Jesse James, Bad Ass Billy Gunn, and X-Pac.

Then add in the faction of The Rock, Faarooq, Kama Mustafa, D'Lo Brown, Mark Henry (who replaced Farooq) and later Owen Hart (RIP). These two teams had wars....which were believable wars. There was none of this "one team is always on top."

And in the midst of this, two mega superstars were born...The Rock and HHH. Who can remember the infamous night DX came to the ring as a member of NOD?

You remember? HHH as The Crock, Jesse James as the head shaking B'Lo, X-Pac as Mizark Henry, Bad Ass Billy Gunn as The Godfather and the little guy (Jason Sensation) playing Owen Hart. That was one of the funniest segments I have ever seen.

Also look at the other team groups that formed out of former NOD members; Savio Vega formed Los Boricuas and Crush formed the Disciples of Apocalypse (DOA).

Yes they formed a sort of "racist" gang groups, however, the shows were entertaining to say the least.

How come WWE doesn't form a couple of team groups?

Yes, recently they have been making a new group as of late with Randy Orton and other second- and third-generation superstars, but the way they are going, "Legacy" is the only group out there.