WWE releases six

[geemoney]

http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/releases

 

The released: Gangrel, Mark Jindrak, Maven, Shannon Moore, Akio, Billy Kidman

 

Gangrel was just signed a few months ago, and was getting back in ring shape in OVW.

 

I thought the Mexicools were brought in to shore up the cruiserweight division. Which makes the latest round of release tougher to swallow.

 

Jindrak had the look, but he never connected with the crowd and didn't have it all together in the ring.

 

I'm sure Maven lasted this long because of his Tough Enough I connections. He never offended me in the ring as much as he has others. He even started to show some personality late in his run. I'm gonna miss his music though.

 

They CLEARLY had no idea what to do with Shannon Moore, as evidenced by his latest new "look." He was probably the most expendable cruiserweight.

 

The Akio release disappoints me. It seems like every week on Velocity, he wrestled a great match against Paul London. Probably one of their best cruiserweight wrestlers. But no mic skills, so he's gone.

 

I really liked Kidman in WCW, and even in WWE for a while, but his look and ring presence has just seemed uninspired for quite a while now. Plus, one could argue that he's injury prone.

[Bradcore]

It's a real shame that the WWE has absolutely no idea on how to handle the cruiserweight division.

[Rune]

I'm really happy about them finally cutting Jindrak and Maven. Those guy's brought absolutely nothing to the table other than being generic hosses who stunk up the ring.

 

I'm suprised with The Billy Kidman cut given that Torrie's his wife.

 

I'm suprised Garrison Cade didn't get the cut, the guy brings nothing on the mic and is a below average worker.

[Rune]

It's a real shame that the WWE has absolutely no idea on how to handle the cruiserweight division.

841230[/snapback]

But when ever has a major product successfully utilized CW's? You can use WCW and yes they were a major part of the product in the 96 and 97. However, I still contend at that time that due to the fact that the WCW was so hot and it's upper card was doing so well. It truly allowed The CW division to flourish as it didn't put much weight on it to draw buyrates as the top card already did that. Can you honestly remember storylines for The CW division. Outside of The Malenko/Jericho feud. I can't. Most feuds just took place over the fact that they were two competitors much like The WWE does now. The CW division was merely there to entertain the crowd before the main event which most of the time featured bad workers who were hot storyline wise.

 

Take for example, back in the early 90's when WCW was really at a low point. They had no one bankable at the top other than Flair, Vader, and Sting. So people looked down on WCW as they do Smackdown know. It didn't matter that at the time Pillman and Liger were locked in the greatest cw feud America had ever seen or has seen to this point.

 

What I'm getting at is, CW's can not be expected to carry a product like WWE expected out of them. Their main purpose is to entertain the crowd in preparation for the main event. When the main event is lowsy most people fault the crusier's and stuff like this happens. So if you want to blame anyone don't blame The WWE for not utilizing them right, blame them for having such a crappy main event picture on Smackdown.

[geemoney]

It's a real shame that the WWE has absolutely no idea on how to handle the cruiserweight division.

841230[/snapback]

But when ever has a major product successfully utilized CW's? You can use WCW and yes they were a major part of the product in the 96 and 97. However, I still contend at that time that due to the fact that the WCW was so hot and it's upper card was doing so well. It truly allowed The CW division to flourish as it didn't put much weight on it to draw buyrates as the top card already did that. Can you honestly remember storylines for The CW division. Outside of The Malenko/Jericho feud. I can't. Most feuds just took place over the fact that they were two competitors much like The WWE does now. The CW division was merely there to entertain the crowd before the main event which most of the time featured bad workers who were hot storyline wise.

841260[/snapback]

WWE has been hot like WCW was and still never utilized cruiserweights. You say that we can't remember WCW cruiserweight feuds, and that most were just thrown in there to wrestle- hell, I'd be totally happpy for WWE to put on a 15-minute match every Smackdown with no storyline. Fact is, they just don't give the CW matches time to develop- with TV, every match is 3-4 minutes. They don't need major feuds to get over, just put'em in the ring to wrestle.

[Rune]

WWE has been hot like WCW was and still never utilized cruiserweights. You say that we can't remember WCW cruiserweight feuds, and that most were just thrown in there to wrestle- hell, I'd be totally happpy for WWE to put on a 15-minute match every Smackdown with no storyline. Fact is, they just don't give the CW matches time to develop- with TV, every match is 3-4 minutes. They don't need major feuds to get over, just put'em in the ring to wrestle.

841270[/snapback]

The Lightheavy division was utilized while they were being buried by WCW in the hope to capture some of WCW's magic. Didn't work and Taka dropped the belt, it was juggled around and the time WWE really caught fire it was on the hands of Gillberg effectivly killing the belt and any credibility it had. When The Crusierweight belt was brought into the mix the ratings decline had already started.

 

You say let them wrestle 15 minutes with no storylines. Well that might entertain Smarks, we only make up a small portion of the viewing audience and most marks will not tune in simply to see crusierweights. They want good storylines to add to a stellar main event card.

[Bradcore]

WWE has been hot like WCW was and still never utilized cruiserweights. You say that we can't remember WCW cruiserweight feuds, and that most were just thrown in there to wrestle- hell, I'd be totally happpy for WWE to put on a 15-minute match every Smackdown with no storyline. Fact is, they just don't give the CW matches time to develop- with TV, every match is 3-4 minutes. They don't need major feuds to get over, just put'em in the ring to wrestle.

841270[/snapback]

 

I totally agree. They don't give their cruiserweights a chance. The way the treat it, they might as well not even have a cruiserweight division. Back when WCW was around, the main reason I watched them was for the Cruiserweight match. Rey Mysterio and Kidman would tear it up like nobodies business. Shannon Moore and Sugar Shane Helm doing the same thing, putting on damn good matches. I'm just glad TNA know how to use their cruiserweights. They put on some amazing matches.

[geemoney]

WWE has been hot like WCW was and still never utilized cruiserweights.? You say that we can't remember WCW cruiserweight feuds, and that most were just thrown in there to wrestle- hell, I'd be totally happpy for WWE to put on a 15-minute match every Smackdown with no storyline.?? Fact is, they just don't give the CW matches time to develop- with TV, every match is 3-4 minutes.? They don't need major feuds to get over, just put'em in the ring to wrestle.

841270[/snapback]

The Lightheavy division was utilized while they were being buried by WCW in the hope to capture some of WCW's magic. Didn't work and Taka dropped the belt, it was juggled around and the time WWE really caught fire it was on the hands of Gillberg effectivly killing the belt and any credibility it had. When The Crusierweight belt was brought into the mix the ratings decline had already started.

 

You say let them wrestle 15 minutes with no storylines. Well that might entertain Smarks, we only make up a small portion of the viewing audience and most marks will not tune in simply to see crusierweights. They want good storylines to add to a stellar main event card. They're not even trying.

841290[/snapback]

So how hard is it to come up with a storyline for these guys? It could be simply Wrestler A beats wrestler B, wrestler B goes crazy and attacks wrestler A. Wrestler A then interferes in Wrestler B's next match. This isn't rocket science.

[Rune]

WWE has been hot like WCW was and still never utilized cruiserweights.? You say that we can't remember WCW cruiserweight feuds, and that most were just thrown in there to wrestle- hell, I'd be totally happpy for WWE to put on a 15-minute match every Smackdown with no storyline.?? Fact is, they just don't give the CW matches time to develop- with TV, every match is 3-4 minutes.? They don't need major feuds to get over, just put'em in the ring to wrestle.

841270[/snapback]

The Lightheavy division was utilized while they were being buried by WCW in the hope to capture some of WCW's magic. Didn't work and Taka dropped the belt, it was juggled around and the time WWE really caught fire it was on the hands of Gillberg effectivly killing the belt and any credibility it had. When The Crusierweight belt was brought into the mix the ratings decline had already started.

 

You say let them wrestle 15 minutes with no storylines. Well that might entertain Smarks, we only make up a small portion of the viewing audience and most marks will not tune in simply to see crusierweights. They want good storylines to add to a stellar main event card. They're not even trying.

841290[/snapback]

So how hard is it to come up with a storyline for these guys? It could be simply Wrestler A beats wrestler B, wrestler B goes crazy and attacks wrestler A. Wrestler A then interferes in Wrestler B's next match. This isn't rocket science.

841320[/snapback]

 

Again just let them wrestle their matches but don't expect them to draw a significant part of the ratings. As I've already said, The CW division is able to achieve success is allowed to succeed when the main event picture is drawing fans in for the main event and The CW's simply keep them for the show leading up the upper card. WCW used it great because the first hour and a half of their three hour show was used by The CW's to get the crowd going and then the nwo and wcw uppercard took the rest from there. Remember WCW had another hour to fit wrestling in, a luxury WWE does not.

[geemoney]

WWE has been hot like WCW was and still never utilized cruiserweights.? You say that we can't remember WCW cruiserweight feuds, and that most were just thrown in there to wrestle- hell, I'd be totally happpy for WWE to put on a 15-minute match every Smackdown with no storyline.?? Fact is, they just don't give the CW matches time to develop- with TV, every match is 3-4 minutes.? They don't need major feuds to get over, just put'em in the ring to wrestle.

841270[/snapback]

The Lightheavy division was utilized while they were being buried by WCW in the hope to capture some of WCW's magic. Didn't work and Taka dropped the belt, it was juggled around and the time WWE really caught fire it was on the hands of Gillberg effectivly killing the belt and any credibility it had. When The Crusierweight belt was brought into the mix the ratings decline had already started.

 

You say let them wrestle 15 minutes with no storylines. Well that might entertain Smarks, we only make up a small portion of the viewing audience and most marks will not tune in simply to see crusierweights. They want good storylines to add to a stellar main event card. They're not even trying.

841290[/snapback]

So how hard is it to come up with a storyline for these guys? It could be simply Wrestler A beats wrestler B, wrestler B goes crazy and attacks wrestler A. Wrestler A then interferes in Wrestler B's next match. This isn't rocket science.

841320[/snapback]

 

Again just let them wrestle their matches but don't expect them to draw a significant part of the ratings. As I've already said, The CW division is able to achieve success is allowed to succeed when the main event picture is drawing fans in for the main event and The CW's simply keep them for the show leading up the upper card. WCW used it great because the first hour and a half of their three hour show was used by The CW's to get the crowd going and then the nwo and wcw uppercard took the rest from there. Remember WCW had another hour to fit wrestling in, a luxury WWE does not.

841331[/snapback]

I don't know how you can say not to expect them to draw ratings- they've never been put in a position by WWE to draw ratings. They've never even had the chance to fail.

 

Another thing I forgot to mention is not just respecting the dvision by putting them in good matches, but they don't even respect it when it comes to the overall picture. When someone has to job to a new guy, who has to? A cruiserweight. Who's matches have been consitently interrupted (by Eddy or the Mexicools)? The cruiserweights. They're treated like jobbers when put up against "Main Event" type wrestlers.

[Bradcore]

I remember WrestleMania XIX. Matt Hardy VS Rey Mysterio. I was thinking I was in for an incredible match.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three minutes. That's it. Three minutes.