Credit to our resident Joker for suggesting this topic. When the term “creative” is used, it’s usually in a positive light. Whether you’re appreciating a piece of art, listening to a memorable song, or your son/daughter made you a picture only he/she could make, when you witness something creative, it’s appreciated. You don’t sit there and nitpick how it could be: “You know, they could have used less blue” .. “Perhaps the drum beat’s too slow” .. “No. Go do the picture again, it does not look like a flower.” See how unreasonable it is to criticize when you could have praised the good? On the other hand, sometimes you see something so bad you feel compelled to criticize, and that’s where the wrestling business comes in.
I only want to talk about WWE today. Over the years I’ve seen tons of criticism over the faceless creative team. It seems when an angle doesn’t make sense, or when a story comes across as cheesy and “done before”, the creative team gets it in the neck. They are referred to as “Yes” men, because all they do is write material for Vince to accept. They are criticized because WWE hires television writers, instead of having knowledgeable writers who know the business and how it works. I’ve seen many memes across the internet with the sole purpose of blasting the WWE creative team.
There’s a major problem with the way wrestling fans criticize the creative team. The thing is, even if an angle absolutely sucks, that doesn’t mean the creative is to blame. Firstly, one member of the creative team may have an angle envisioned. They may have seen the angle play out in their head and suggested it to Vince, but he felt it needed something else so he forwarded it to the other writers, who then added their own ideas in to it. What the angle ends up as is something similar, but different, and then the original creator of the angle has to watch it play out differently.
And then it’s not over, the angle has to be delivered by the wrestlers, commentators, production staff, and the crowd in attendance. If the wrestlers screw it up, or simply don’t care, the angle isn’t going to play out as intended, the commentary team won’t get behind it, the crowd won’t get behind it, and then suddenly the fans on the internet blame the creative team.
There’s so many variables for a successful angle or feud. The creative team simply sets it in motion, Vince has to agree, and then its down to the wrestlers, who won’t always deliver it as intended on paper. You know what I would hate? If I was sat here writing, and I had someone sat next to me, telling me what I could and couldn’t write. Maybe I wouldn’t be allowed the Spongebob meme. Perhaps I wouldn’t be allowed to choose my own topics.
How bad would it be if I was told to write about something I didn’t want to write about? It’s the same with the creative team. With so many ingredients in the cauldron, you’re never going to get direction befitting of the creative team because Vince will always change his mind and backtrack when it suits. The creative team can do nothing but adapt to the winds of change, and perhaps they should be given some credit for putting up with it.
Have you noticed how .. when an angle or feud is successful, no one praises the creative team? Instead, they praise the wrestlers. When an angle goes wrong, and the fans are unaware of the backstage process, the wrestlers are shown sympathy for having to work through it, and the creative team and/or Vince gets the blame. It’s so easy to care about the guy/girls we see every week, so when something goes wrong, we don’t want to blame them; we’d rather blame someone we can’t see. So I’m going to do something, and it’s going to be interesting because I want to see how you react to this. I’m going to put faces to the creative team.
Dave Kapoor – Head Writer
Ed Koskey – Lead Writer (Raw)
Steven Guerrieri – Lead Writer (Smackdown)
Ryan Ward – Lead Writer (NXT & Total Divas)
NXT’s seen a lot of praise lately, and it’s because there’s only one creative writer; Ryan Ward. He’s also responsible for Total Divas, which appears to be popular with non-wrestling fans. It shows his range, as he can write a wrestling show and a TV show for different audiences each week. While I have to admit I hate Total Divas with a passion, it’s not because of the writing, it’s because of the Bellas; I simply can’t stand to listen to Nikki groan on at Cena about stupid crap.
So now you know. The writers have experience writing other shows, and no, they are not former wrestlers, or bookers, but they’re hired to do a job, and they do the job. Shouldn’t Vince be blamed for structuring creative this way? Shouldn’t he blamed for toning the product down and placing creative restrictions on wrestlers?
Just last week, Stone Cold Steve Austin said: “I was just at the pay-per-view Hell in a Cell and prior to that I was in Dallas at a Monday Night Raw and, man, the system is very constricted right now. I feel for the guys in the system. I had a lot more creative freedom back in the day. These days, it’s a very rigid system and it’s very political. Because of the system that I was in, I could never comply to the current system. I ain’t knocking it. I’m just saying I couldn’t fly in that system with so many restrictions
on me.”
It appears to be a creative process which has gradually changed since the Attitude Era, with Vince putting more restrictions on talent being creative. Only a handful of wrestlers have become assets Vince won’t fire, so it’s only those individuals who can disagree on the way an angle is done, or the angle itself. At the end of the day, the wrestlers are supposed to do what they are paid to do, they ain’t allowed to be creative, they ain’t allowed to take risks, and if anyone tries to defy the system and get themselves over, they will be punished.
Have you noticed wrestlers pitching matches over Twitter? Daniel Bryan did it. Goldust did it. Sometimes the only way for a wrestler to have their ideas heard is to share it publicly. But nothing comes to fruition, Goldust wanted to wrestle Cody at Wrestlemania years ago, but it was denied. When they finally had a match on a lesser PPV, the crowd reaction was so dismal they cut the feud short. Daniel Bryan’s pitched ideas on Twitter before and they never see the light of day.
Austin is right, the wrestlers have it tough because they can’t express themselves and pitch ideas which would suit their character and the angle they are working. Austin would never be the legend he is if he wasn’t allowed to express himself creatively. We heard on the Stone Cold Podcast that Austin could be hard to work with from a creative standpoint; because if he didn’t like it, he wasn’t going to do it. You just have to look at ECW, you had Paul Heyman working with the talent, and encouraging them to be creative, he didn’t dictate to them, he told them to do what feels right for their character.
There’s another double standard when it pertains to wrestling fans criticizing creative. While many older fans want to see the Attitude Era make a glorious comeback, and while older fans HATE Vince Russo for “what he did in WCW”, they fail to realize that the Attitude Era was Vince Russo, Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson. They were the brains behind it (although, if Heyman wasn’t being so creatively amazing in ECW, they would have had no one to copy from), they would sit around a pool and talk about the show, make some notes, go to the show and pitch the ideas to the wrestlers, and it would go from there. It was a simple process, one that didn’t need politicking, all it needed was Vince and Vince chilling out together at Patterson’s house.
How cool is that? They sat in the background crafting the Atttitude Era. But does anyone ever give Vince Russo credit for his work in the Attitude Era? Without his “Crash TV”. do you really think Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson would have turned it around? I highly doubt it. It was Russo’s philosophy, it was Russo who encouraged McMahon to go in his direction. McMahon served as a filter, he told Russo when something was wrong, and when something was right. Or Russo would pitch an idea, and McMahon would add something, and it would be even better. You take that to a show and give it to Stone Cold Steve Austin, and he’s bound to make it work because he’s a legend. If there was no Stone Cold to deliver the epic segment, the brilliant angle conjured up by Vince & Vince would’ve flopped.
Vince Russo was a heat magnet in WCW. The problem was, he was in charge of creative and put his face out there as the heel authority. He made it ‘real’, which told fans that’s how he is in real-life (when he’s not, although he can lie, and is known for ranting, he’s not the devil). Aside from old school guys like Jim Cornette and Roddy Piper, no one had a problem with Russo. In fact, I only see praise from wrestlers who worked in WWF and TNA (he worked in TNA for many years in the 2000’s) with him.
While the wrestlers appreciate Russo for his creative work, and while fans LOVED the Attitude Era, the fans hate Russo because he happened to be there near the end of WCW’s demise, as a heel. He made mistakes with creative, but who’s fault was that? Why didn’t WCW have a filter for Russo? He’s clearly a creative writer who takes risk, and when you’re creatively risky, you need someone to tell you when to stop.
The good thing about Russo’s work? Character development. He ensured all the wrestlers had time to develop their characters so the fans would care. He doesn’t see wrestling as wrestling, he’s a sports-entertainment guy. He sees wrestling as a TV show like any other TV show. While wrestling purists hate Vince for his hatred of wrestling (and any wrestlers not of American descent), he has a point.
You put two random indy guys in a ring and tell them to work a match, no one cares. Build two wrestlers up as television characters, with segments designed to grab and keep the attention of fans, they stay tuned and end up watching the match even it ends up sucking compared to the 5-star match delivered by the indy guys. It’s always said that the build to a match is far more important than the match itself. If the hype was great enough, the match doesn’t need to be 5-star to be remembered as a classic.
And that’s what WWE is missing lately. WWE is missing character development. Too many wrestlers have played the same (often one-dimensional) character for years, and you would assume they would evolve and become something more than they are, but they don’t, they are told to work a match, do what they do, and that’s it. The one name which sprung to mind as I was writing the last sentence was Dolph Ziggler. Sure, he can work a good match. Sure, he has a decent look and gets nice fan reaction. But who the hell is Dolph Ziggler? What does he like? What’s his favourite colour? Why does he show off all the time? Has he really slept with every diva in the back? Why did he change his hair colour that one time? Which wrestler does he hate the most?
There’s so many unanswered questions for many of today’s crop of talent, I would like to know who Ziggler is. I would like to know if he’ll change and do something new, something unexpected, something we know is unexpected because we know who he is. And we shouldn’t have to tune in to Total Divas to know who he is, we didn’t need Total Divas to know Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock.
I’m going to work through the WWE roster now .. and list every wrestler who’s played the same character (or don’t have one) for years with little development: Alberto Del Rio, Big Show, Cesaro, Dolph Ziggler, Fandango, John Cena, Mark Henry, The Miz, Randy Orton, and almost all the Divas. There’s probably more, I mean you have guys like Curtis Axel and Damien Sandow who changed gimmicks a bunch of times, and now they’re sitting in creative limbo because of Hulk Hogan.
Sandow’s intellectual savior to the masses gimmick had so much potential, but they never allowed him to deviate from the norm. Imaginary Producer: “Just do what’s in the script Sandow .. say the same thing every week and it will get over.” And it wasn’t til Sandow changed his gimmick and introduced a new one every week that people realized the guy had potential; because he could adapt to whatever WWE threw his way.
I’m like you, I want the storylines, feuds and characters to be more interesting. I’m tired of seeing the same old angles, the same old lines, the same old everything. I want a revolution, something to rival other television programs. Just look at the Walking Dead as an example, (sorry if you don’t watch the show and can’t understand this), you have normal people thrown in to an insane situation where they have to survive a world littered with millions of zombies. Along the way, they have to do things which normal people would never consider a possibility. It messes with their heads, and before you know it, they lose their minds and need help from others to bring them back to reality.
The “good” guys are no longer good, because they’re damaged, traumatized, they have to do bad things because it’s that mindset which has kept them alive for so long. You don’t like what they are doing, but you sympathize because you would probably do the same thing in their situation. Giving different levels of character development is the key to keeping an audience, and with so little development in wrestling today (only main event talent get time) it’s understandable that people grow tired of it and label it as predictable; because characters are as wooden as they were in the 70’s, there’s no evolution.
Storytelling in WWE, and every other wrestling company around the world, lack complex characters and stories. They don’t want to take risks, because (WWE especially) they don’t want the fans to think. They don’t want to alienate the audience by having them think too much. They assume by keeping it simple, they will keep the majority and it will make producing the show easier. But it isn’t, because we see the same thing from the same people every week, so there’s nothing to shock us anymore.
WWE caters to children, so the storytelling has to be scaled down so the 7-year old in the front row can understand. They scale it down so the guy with learning disabilities can understand. They scale it down so those in the middle-east who have never experienced wrestling can watch the program and understand who to cheer for. WWE does everything to cater to everyone, and by doing that, it confuses viewers, because you have one segment for the kids, and suddenly, in the next segment .. Braun Strowman shows up and scares them.
There’s no telling what’s going to happen, because WWE tries to cater to everyone in some way, but in doing so they end up alienating fans with less favorable segments. You’ll probably find one match, or one segment which you really enjoyed, then the rest of it is filler, or not worth your time. The Attitude Era catered to adult male wrestling fans, they made it cool for adult males, and it suited wrestling better than any other era .. and you know what? It didn’t stop the girls watching, it didn’t stop the kids from watching either. I know because my friend’s sister remains the biggest wrestling fan ever, and she was the one who got my friend and I watching. We were only young teens, and the adult content wouldn’t fly today, but damn .. we enjoyed the hell out of it.
While I know why WWE can’t revert (and shouldn’t) to how it was in the 90’s, creative freedom that was allowed then should be allowed today. The wrestlers would be much happier if they were allowed to be heard, if they were allowed to be creative. Not every wrestler will come forward with ideas, some will just work with what they’re given, but for those wrestlers who want to try something different, the wrestlers who have the passion to be the best, future Hall Of Famers are those who’re always pitching ideas, and it would benefit the product if the wrestlers could be part of the creative process.
I may have gone too long with this. There’s so much to say, so much to discuss, everyone want’s to say something about creative. We want to blame creative because our favorite wrestler isn’t getting the time, we want to blame creative because the Summer Rae/Ziggler angle sucked balls, we want to blame creative for everything because someone has to take the blame right? No, there’s more to it, it’s a joint venture, if an angle flops, you blame everyone involved. You blame Vince, you blame creative, you blame the wrestlers, you blame WWE.
Blaming the creative team is a scapegoat we need to stop using entirely, because they’re just writers doing a job. I’m sure they had “big plans” when they were hired, and then found themselves working with restrictions. When you restrict someone creatively they will never reach their full potential, and when there’s too many creative minds in one place working on the same thing, it’s never going to end well. And that’s why I’m happy writing here. I have no limits, I can write what I want, when I want, how I want, and I can be as funny or unfunny as I like. I can include pictures, videos, even a joke or two. I can think about a topic for several days before I sit down to write it.
You know what would kill my head? If I was forced to write a show every week, and I wasn’t allowed to be organic and do it my way. Doing a weekly show without limitations is hard enough, you can’t always have the material, you run in to last-minute snags, the show you originally wrote ends up a shadow of what you envisaged; it’s a tough job. Would you try writing a show every week with limits, talent, production staff, other writers, Vince, board of directors, sponsors, and the media (waiting for ammo)? And would you do that job every week, knowing if you fail you’ll be replaced?
Yeah, no thanks. That’s not a job I could do, I would do a few months then tell Vince to shove it. I would see all the negativity from fans as they criticize the show I tried to write, it would eat away at me. I wouldn’t be able to do it with the limitations, I wouldn’t want to be taking the blame for something which is out of my control. So while wrestling fans refer to the WWE creative team as a bunch of monkeys, just remember that they have to work with limits, and they should be appreciated for trying to write a good show. When you have a WWE writer without limits, you have NXT. When you have a show with limits, you have Raw & Smackdown. That’s the difference, that’s why NXT appears superior, because of creative freedom.
So I’ll wrap this thing up by saying I used to blame the creative team. Like other fans, I wanted someone to blame when something sucked. In future, I’m just going to do what I should have done; blame Vince. If you don’t like something WWE does, blame Vince, he’s the man in charge, and as long as he’s in charge, the shows will be written how he likes, and we just have to live with it. Thanks for reading, and I appreciate your creative feedback. Let’s ensure “creative” is something we can enjoy in the future. Good night.
