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Thread: How would you rank the weekly wrestling shows you watch?

  1. #1
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    How would you rank the weekly wrestling shows you watch?

    Since Smackdown moved to FOX and AEW debuted on TV.

    1 - Dynamite - I'll give AEW the slight edge over NXT. It's not quite the industry changer I thought it could be, but it's still a great show.

    2 - NXT - You could easily make the case for #1. There's a large gap after this.

    3 - RAW - There's been a lot of good stuff on RAW, but with 3 hours to fill, there's also a lot of filler.

    4 - Smackdown - This should be #1. They're on FOX and have my 2 favorite wrestlers (Daniel Bryan and The Fiend), but SD feels like the least important show. I miss a week here and there and feel like I haven't missed anything.

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    1. NXT

    2. Impact

    3. Raw

    4. Dynamite

    5. Smackdown

    I only enjoy two throughout. I don't watch Raw and Smackdown every week and if I do it'll also be when I'm ironing.

  3. #3
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    1. NXT - It doesn't matter who comes in and who leaves. They always seem most important when they are here. Almost every story feels earned. Every championship means something. I never ask myself "why?" when I watch NXT.

    2. Dynamite - While I think Raw has been better the last month or so, Dynamite still gets this spot since their debut. To me, it feels like the attitude era, not in the star power or the overall quality, but in the fact that the highs are so high that they cover up a lot of the swing and a miss moments that happen more often than people want to remember.

    3. Raw - Agree with OP on the drop off and the difficulty of filling 3 hours consistently. Its been better since Heyman took over, but their are still things that irritate me to no end, i.e. the Lana Lashley wedding, or advertising Samoa Joe to return 5 minutes before Rollins asks KO who he even has left to help him.

    4. Smackdown - Ever since the move to Fox, Smackdown has been borderline unwatchable. They have a roster any company would kill for, yet I have to watch live satellite feeds 4 life brother, and watch them try to serve way to many masters (fox executives, shareholders, vince, Alpo dog food, etc)

  4. #4
    1. NXT - Whenever I watch NXT, I enjoy myself thoroughly. It's obvious that the powers that be in NXT pay attention to what the fans are into and who they're into which, and this should come as no surprise to anyone, strikes me as a key element to making a successful pro wrestling show and product. There's no filler for air time, anything that we see on our screens each week has a reason for taking place. The championships are made to feel like they matter because, again, this should come as no surprise to anyone, the championships are supposed to be the goals the wrestlers are going after. They set up championship feuds by building them up over a course of time and by keeping both the challengers and champions strong rather than jobbing out the champion to a challenger to set up a title match. It's okay to have a champ lose a non-title match to set up a title match at a later date every once in a while, and I mean maybe once or twice a year rather than Raw or SmackDown doing it a few times a month at any given time. Wrestlers are actually allowed to get over and make connections with fans through organic ways, something we only rarely see happen anymore with Raw or SmackDown. When wrestlers cut promos, they're using their own words, they're letting their own personalities shine through and they're ultimately using their own abilities to forge a connection with the audience instead of it feeling forced. There's no goofy soap opera drama, no cheesy dance off segments, no pointless feuds and storylines are actually given some time to be fleshed out. NXT also pays great attention to continuity; if someone wins a match on NXT one week or is embarking on some sort of definitive push, they don't turn around and do something to sabotage the wrestler the next week. I could keep on going but, to me, this is how pro wrestling should be set up.

    2. AEW Dynamite - I think Dynamie has come a long way in a short period of time. There's a legit hunger there to prove themselves and continue to grow as an alternative to WWE. In my eyes, most of what they put out is very good because a lot of AEW's format consists of lots of little things that add up to big things, which is what NXT has already been doing for the better part of a decade now. In terms of general star power, AEW may have the advantage because of Jericho, the Bucks, Omega, Cody and Moxley but, at the same time, nothing on Dynamite feels as remotely important as anything involving those guys. Without those six talents, I think Dyanamite would easily lose half its aucience, if not more, so I believe they have some work to do on building up their roster. Dynamite features quality wrestling action and it also helps that promos have a much more natural and organic method about them. Not everyone sets the world on fire with the mic and they don't have to, same with NXT. You don't have to be the second coming of the Rock in order to put out quality wrestling promos that help sell feuds and matches while building a rapport between the fans and the wrestlers, which is what a promo segment is supposed to do. I do think AEW is sorely lacking in terms of its mid-card scene because there's nothing there for the guys to fight over; AEW needs a mid-card championship and certainly needs it more than a Trios title IMO, which is a rumor that I think Kenny Omega started not too long ago. They've got the talent, they just need a focal point.

    3. SmackDown - Most of the time, SmackDown is a lot easier to watch than Raw because there are times in which those 3 hours of Raw feel like they last forever. At any given time, Raw and SmackDown could change places on this list but I generally enjoy SmackDown more. WWE's problems are still evident on the show: there's still too much silly "sports entertainment" stuff going on, most wrestlers have little to no creative input and, therefore, are doing the same old scripted promo stuff that doesn't allow them to make remotely the sort of connection they potentially could, most feuds don't reach anything close to their full potential due to heavy creative restrictions, some feuds go on longer than necessary, letting champions and championships waste away in limbo and there are still instances of putting too much focus on the wrong talent. WWE has shown that they can deliver much better programming: look at the episode of SmackDown a few months back where much of the talent was still stranded in Saudi Arabia. It was a helluva good show, NXT invaded the blue brand, the NXT Championship was defended for the first time outside of an NXT show in a great match between Adam Cole and Daniel Bryan, the live crowd was eating up everything that was going on. In terms of main roster programming, it was easily the best two hours I've seen out of WWE in a few years.

    4. Raw - You can take most of what I said about SmackDown and put it here. Some weeks, Raw is better and osme weeks SD is better, it's all just a roll of the dice just like almost everything else involving Raw or SmackDown when it comes to quality. I do like that Raw has put more emphasis lately on guys like AOP, Murphy, Garza, Carrillo, Andrade, Black, McIntyre, etc.. but, again, you can sense the same problems lurking beneath the surface that plague SmackDown.
    "What Do I Know Of Cultured Ways, The Gilt, The Craft And The Lie?
    I, Who Was Born In A Naked Land And Bred In The Open Sky.
    The Subtle Tongue, The Sophist Guile, They Fail When The Broadswords Sing.
    Rush In And Die Dogs - I Was A Man Before I Was King."


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