Should pro-wrestling have weight classes?
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jono
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Alot of people like the idea of a Cruiserweight or some lighter weight division in wrestling to have some spotlight on the smaller guys.
I believe it can only work if the small guys are given equal billing as the bigger guys from time to time, otherwise it will seem like a permanent midcard position and folks won't care.
It works in boxing and MMA because the smaller guys headline cards occasionally, so a smaller guy can have a higher profile than a bigger one and a lighter weight title is considered somewhat equal to the higher weight one.
Also factor in that smaller guys are often fed to bigger guys as jobbers. Case in point Rey Mysterio vs Kevin Nash in WCW was a squash match, Nash had a 200lb weight advantage and dispute the fact that WCW had billed Rey has a talented small competitor full of heart he was crushed easier than Nash would have beaten the Disco Inferno. For a lot of people this is "realistic" and should always happen when big faces small but that of course wastes talent and takes away some of the excitement. Not to mention wrestling is rare because you can believably book smaller guys to go over bigger ones in certain situations.
It's pretty obvious WWE won't ever do something like that but TNA could pull it off, for awhile they did.
It would have to be a hard barrier banning the two divisions from mixing (to prevent issues like a Rey vs Nash), and they would occasionally have to be given equal billing on cards and not just used as bathroom breaks in order for it to work properly.
I believe it can only work if the small guys are given equal billing as the bigger guys from time to time, otherwise it will seem like a permanent midcard position and folks won't care.
It works in boxing and MMA because the smaller guys headline cards occasionally, so a smaller guy can have a higher profile than a bigger one and a lighter weight title is considered somewhat equal to the higher weight one.
Also factor in that smaller guys are often fed to bigger guys as jobbers. Case in point Rey Mysterio vs Kevin Nash in WCW was a squash match, Nash had a 200lb weight advantage and dispute the fact that WCW had billed Rey has a talented small competitor full of heart he was crushed easier than Nash would have beaten the Disco Inferno. For a lot of people this is "realistic" and should always happen when big faces small but that of course wastes talent and takes away some of the excitement. Not to mention wrestling is rare because you can believably book smaller guys to go over bigger ones in certain situations.
It's pretty obvious WWE won't ever do something like that but TNA could pull it off, for awhile they did.
It would have to be a hard barrier banning the two divisions from mixing (to prevent issues like a Rey vs Nash), and they would occasionally have to be given equal billing on cards and not just used as bathroom breaks in order for it to work properly.
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No. US fans stop caring.WWE got rid of it for a reason. WWE fans want to be entertained. If they want to watch smaller guys they will watch luchadorres, puro,TNA, and or ROH, if they even care about that kinda stuff.
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nah, ion wanna see anymore weight or style "restrictions" in wrestling, i like that rey came to wwe and didnt just have to stay in the cruiserweight division, he had title matches with batista and what not, or when samoa joe came and did his thing in the x division, if they just focused on guys who can go in the ring period, it wouldnt even matter
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Rey Mysterio is one of my favorite wrestlers. I spent a ton of time defending a guy his size going over bigger people, it really irritates folks but it doesn't bother me if it's properly done.
It seems to be something unique to WWE fans though...well I thought it was until Chris Sabin won the TNA title and then it began again. -
I think they should absolutely have classes.
They've unified the WHC and WWE title, this is something I've been waiting for. But they shouldn't call it the WWE World Heavyweight title, world is redundant.
This is how it should look.
WWE Heavyweight title
Light heavyweight title
IC title
Cruiserweight title
Tag Titles
Women's title
It opens the door for guys that wouldn't and couldn't otherwise compete for the main title.
It would give better matches AND matchups.
The entertainment factor would be greater.
Allows for more talent
Stops the whole "big men" ? as an excuse
Gives a chance for fans to root for their fav guys
It's better overall -
I like the idea of having weight classes but it doesn't seem feasible realistically because it's a lot to maintain.
WCW would have Cruiserweight matches, non title, but a lot of times they would be bathroom breaks or the fans just wouldn't care. I know this is partially due to WCW not really fleshing out the division and not really giving a lot of guys individual attention but that would be the issue again to be honest.
A company like WWE would have to restructure in order to make it work. They would need to replenish their heavyweight division because few guys meet any "heavyweight" limit.
Most importantly they would have to shift their mindset of focusing almost totally on bigger guys.
They have a wealth of smaller talent right now, and that's good because they are more entertaining and have better matches on average but they just don't seem to be interested in doing anything with most of them. They waste a ton of talent already. -
Yeah, their structure would need to be completely changed.
The reason the E needs this is because they have such a big roster but it's limited to a handful of guys who main event and are able to have the wwe title.
Opening up the roster would be awesome. Restructuring their roster to make classes would be perfect. It would also sell more merch.
The guys who run it will never go this route.
It's dead and boring, giving is classes would make it interesting again.
This isn't to say a heavyweight can't fight a cruiserweight, they can, but the classes would be put into place to even out the playing field for that spotlight. -
Vibe's post had me sold. I like the idea bcuz its different. I think it'll make the competition a lot better. Gives a lot more folks opportunities to shine.
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darkone360 wrote: »Vibe's post had me sold. I like the idea bcuz its different. I think it'll make the competition a lot better. Gives a lot more folks opportunities to shine.
The problem is WWE has NO comp. There is no incentive for them to do any of this. They dont care. WWE is a 1000% business. How can they make more money? Hmm network ... Weight classes? Hah. Sounds like some wrestling purist ? .
I like the idea of everything being more mid to late 90s but if its not gonna give WWE more money they wont do it. Why you think they stopped doing two ppvs a month for separate brands?poor Buyrates.
Why you think Cena is almost always in the picture n wont turn heel?
Money.
Miz aint champ cuz they decided he cant draw.
Its money money money n more money. -
yea if the title is called the WWE World Heavyweight title i dnt want no damn 150 Rey Mysterio holdin it get a Lightweight/Cruiseweight belt
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That one one of my pet peeves seeing crusierweights roiding up to become heavyweight champs.
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darkone360 wrote: »Vibe's post had me sold. I like the idea bcuz its different. I think it'll make the competition a lot better. Gives a lot more folks opportunities to shine.
The problem is WWE has NO comp. There is no incentive for them to do any of this. They dont care. WWE is a 1000% business. How can they make more money? Hmm network ... Weight classes? Hah. Sounds like some wrestling purist ? .
I like the idea of everything being more mid to late 90s but if its not gonna give WWE more money they wont do it. Why you think they stopped doing two ppvs a month for separate brands?poor Buyrates.
Why you think Cena is almost always in the picture n wont turn heel?
Money.
Miz aint champ cuz they decided he cant draw.
Its money money money n more money.
You truly don't think weight classes would make more money?
How so?
You can market more champions.
You can market more of the roster to cater to fan favorites.
You can sell all those replica/toy belts.
I see money.
Yeah, the network but that ? wasn't even a factor to talk about 2 years ago.
Plus, it hasn't been put out yet to even see if it will work. (but I'm more than positive it will be the biggest thing they've done, it will be successful)
Remember all of Vince's other projects? -
it could market more champions..
it could also lead to a guy like seth rollins promoted as a guy who'll never see the main event part of the card cuz he's restricted in a lightweight weight class(this could happen anyway but still, it wouldnt be like their just telling us "NO, he has no chance" lol)
the cruiserweight division was awesome back in the day, but they never really got the respect they deserved, guys like eddie, jericho, and dean were held back, thats why it was great to see billy kidman get that fake push vs hogan that time lol -
darkone360 wrote: »Vibe's post had me sold. I like the idea bcuz its different. I think it'll make the competition a lot better. Gives a lot more folks opportunities to shine.
The problem is WWE has NO comp. There is no incentive for them to do any of this. They dont care. WWE is a 1000% business. How can they make more money? Hmm network ... Weight classes? Hah. Sounds like some wrestling purist ? .
I like the idea of everything being more mid to late 90s but if its not gonna give WWE more money they wont do it. Why you think they stopped doing two ppvs a month for separate brands?poor Buyrates.
Why you think Cena is almost always in the picture n wont turn heel?
Money.
Miz aint champ cuz they decided he cant draw.
Its money money money n more money.
This country doesn't help either to be honest. WWE can get away with having token Luchas like Rey and Sin Cara because Lucha Libre just doesn't pop in this country. AAA has been cancelled on TV at least a half dozen times and currently even Spanish language channels don't carry it, so when WWE talks about appeasing their "Latino audiences" they just push one of their tokens, it's not their fault lucha doesn't do well here.
However, I foresee another problem. If Lucha did go over well then there wouldn't be any guarantee WWE would do it and it would then come down to how they choose to present certain characters. If you have 15 guys in masks then the novelty of the masked wrestler is gone and you have to focus on making each character an individual and not just a faceless entity doing somersaults. It works for Sin Cara and Rey because they are pretty much the only masked guys on the main roster but a division full of those types would take that away.
So you are partially right. They see dollar signs in bigger guys so they push bigger guys but if they are shown that smaller guys can draw and make money then they will buy into that idea. That's why HHH hired Mistico, it's why they stole the Cruiserweight division initially in the first place, with that said I put the onus on TNA because they have nothing to lose and it would truly make them different if they created a weight class system. By doing it and being successful then the 'E will follow suit. -
WWE doesnt care about making TNA better tho. At all. Thats my point.
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Heavyweight, lightweight, IC, ? , Tag team, Women's but no cruiserweight, ? them luchadors. I'd also like to see a lightweight like DB take out a heavyweight and get both titles.
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Let a luchador do tornado ddts on chairs and get the ? title
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Also put ladders, tables, chairs matches in regular shows and stop saving that ? for ppv
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Yes it should. It'd stop the stupidity of people like Rey mysterio and Daniel Bryan fighting people like Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. It'd keep competition looking...fair and more realistic and would even create more stars (since more World Champions and all) and generate more money. People could move up and down 1 or so weight classes just like in UFC/Boxing so matchups could be fresh, and you could even do a whole "who's the real world champion" storyline between a Cruiserweight like say Daniel Bryan or Jericho and a WWE Heavyweight champion like Randy Orton or Roman Reigns. No matter who wins, the Cruiserweight gains respect from a close match and it's an interesting storyline to watch.
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Why not bring back the ? 24/7 rule and add a superheavy weight class while youre at it.
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The WWE should never name any of their belts "WORLD" because they don't defend them against all competition from around the world. They are only defended against contract talent. The NWA and from time to time, the WCW Championships were the only legit World titles because those promotions/federations worked with other promotions/federations from around the world promoting one another's talent, putting them over or at least making them look good. You never see the WWE Champion face a top contender from Australia, Japan, Europe, etc, unless they were signed to an exclusive contract and billed from a foreign land; which has never been the case.
As for the classes in the WWE, if you want to do it by weight, it should be:
"Company" Champion
250 lbs + up
Intercontinental/US Champion
250 lbs + up
- lead-in title to "Company" Champion status
Tag Team Champions
Any weight range
Women's/Diva's Champion
Any weight range
If they were functional titles,
Cruiser/Lightweight Champion
225 lbs and below
TV Champion
226 lbs + up to 249 lbs
- often defended on various shows
- lead-in title to Intercontinental/US title
With the amount of signed talent in the WWE, they can get away with this many titles, given the proper build/booking and time through all the hours of TV they have.
They can always say they are looking to build a certain division but they are just too lazy or too clumsy to make it happen, legit. -
I don't want to see weight classes. This is a work not real fighting. It's strictly entertainment. You can't have larger than life entertainment with weight classes.
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I think this everytime I watch wrestling how it would look better with divisions, organic rivalries that drove matches and ppv instead of convoluted storylines. DB vs Rollins is a better match up than DB vs Roman just an example.
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No weight classes and bring back the GOAT belt, the ? title. ? Foley, Al Snow, Steve Blackmon, them dudes were the ? with it. I'd like to see DB do the yes chant and connect a kick with a chair placed over Ortons face followed by a huge crowd reaction. Bray Wyatt connect his finisher planting someone's face into a chair. This would give lightweights the opportunity to beat the ? out of heavyweights with weapons. Imagine Brock getting chair shots from Daniel Bryan followed by a Yes kick.
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like back in the days If you aint 225/230ish and up u aint no damn Heavyweight champ
